Northern and Southern Dynasties: Map & History

The Jin dynasty had developed an alliance with the Tuoba against the Xiongnu state Han-Zhao. In 315, the Tuoba chief, Tuoba Yilu was granted the title of Prince of Dai. After his death, however, the Dai state stagnated, and with the Jin ejected from northern China, the Dai largely remained a partial ally and a partial tributary state to Later Zhao and Former Yan, finally falling to Former Qin in 376.

From Wikipedia: Northern Wei · Founding and unification of Northern China: Background (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Local society in northern China was not governed by civil bureaucrats but by military clientage during the reign of the Northern Wei Xianbei emperors, with the local Han Chinese aristocratic families jointly ruling and controlling power with them. The Han Chinese aristocrat families ruled over their private fiefs (home jurisdictions) with large military authority and civil authority as entrusted to them by the Xianbei emperor. The Xianbei emperor also turned their own Xianbei nomad warriors into a hereditary military caste and extinguish their tribal loyalties. To the consternation of the Xianbei nobles, Han Chinese aristocrats started to be appointed to government positions by the Northern Wei emperors when the Central Plains population regrew in the middle of the 5th century.

From Wikipedia: Northern Wei · Policies: Governance (CC BY-SA 4.0)

In 502, the Southern Qi general Xiao Yan toppled the emperor Xiao Baojuan after waging a three-year civil war against him. Xiao Yan enthroned in Jiankang to become Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty.

From Wikipedia: Northern Wei · Wars with the Southern dynasties: War with Liang (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Neither Eastern Wei nor Western Wei was long-lived. In 550, Gao Huan's son Gao Yang forced Emperor Xiaojing of Eastern Wei to yield the throne to him, ending Eastern Wei and establishing the Northern Qi. Similarly, in 557, Yuwen Tai's nephew Yuwen Hu forced Emperor Gong of Western Wei to yield the throne to Yuwen Tai's son Yuwen Jue, ending the Western Wei and establishing the Northern Zhou. In 581, the Northern Zhou official Yang Jian had the emperor to yield the throne to him, establishing the Sui dynasty.

From Wikipedia: Northern Wei · Disunity and breakup: Fall (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Northern Wei dynasty was the most long-lived and most powerful of the northern dynasties prior to the reunification of China by the Sui dynasty. Its most important legacy was the sweeping reforms introduced under Empress Dowager Feng and continued under her successors. While the dynasty officially ended in 557, these reforms, especially the equal-field landholding system, lasted until the mid-eight century CE. The reforms completely reshaped China's political development as they reverted the trends associated with feudalism in earlier times (c. second to fifth centuries CE) such as the devolution of power to local strongmen and political fragmentation. Historians generally credit the Northern Wei dynasty for laying the foundation for China's eventual reunification under the Sui dynasty.

From Wikipedia: Northern Wei · Legacy and culture (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Liu Yu was born in poverty. He joined the army at a young age, quickly distinguished himself in the army. In 399, he joined a campaign against a Five Pecks of Rice rebellion led by Sun Tai (孫泰) and Sun En (孫恩). In 404, Liu Yu was instrumental in fighting an usurpation by the general Huan Xuan. After Huan Xuan's fall, Liu Yu was quickly promoted to the command of an army, the Beifu corps. He then led the Jin army during the conquests of Southern Yan and Later Qin.

From Wikipedia: Liu Song dynasty · History: Rise of Liu Yu (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Regarded as one of the best generals of the Northern and Southern dynasties, Liu Yu started off by reclaiming much of the territory the Chinese had lost during the Sixteen Kingdoms era. He started off his career by campaigning against Southern Yan, which bordered Jin to the north and had adopted a policy of aggression and kidnapping citizens from the Jin. By spring of 410, he had captured the southern Yan capital at Guanggu, ending Southern Yan.

From Wikipedia: Liu Song dynasty · History: Campaigns of Liu Yu (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Despite, and certainly to some extent because of, the chaotic warfare between the Northern and Southern dynasties, the Liu Song produced much poetry (shi 詩) notably the rhapsody, fu 賦. The imperial house sponsored many literary works, and many wrote themselves. The court of Emperor Wen was especially active in literary circles, with Liu supporting the compilation of a large collection of short prose anecdotes, A New Account of the Tales of the World (Shishuo Xinyu). The "Three Giants of Yuanjia," Bao Zhao (鮑照) (d. 466), Xie Lingyun (謝霊運) (385–433 CE), and Yan Yanzhi (顏延之) (384–456 CE) are among the best known poets of the Song, each of them being credited as the originators of the three major literary trends to follow.

From Wikipedia: Liu Song dynasty · Literature and culture (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The successor to the emperor Ming, emperor Houfei, was resentful of the control Xiao Daocheng had over him and announced openly several times he would kill him. Fearful of his demise, Xiao had him assassinated and placed Emperor Shun on his throne. In 479, Xiao took the throne himself and declared himself Emperor of Qi, ending Liu Song. The ex-emperor Shun and his clan were soon put to the sword.

From Wikipedia: Liu Song dynasty · Fall of Liu Song (CC BY-SA 4.0)

In 479, after Xiao Daocheng usurped the throne of Liu Song, the Northern Wei emperor prepared to invade under the pretext of installing Liu Chang, son of Emperor Wen of Liu Song who had been in exile in Wei since 465 AD.

From Wikipedia: Southern Qi · War with Northern Wei (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Liang is the best represented of the Northern and Southern Dynasties in terms of surviving written material. It was a period of brilliant literary accomplishments and produced important texts like the official histories of the Liu Song and Southern Qi dynasties, the literary anthology Wenxuan, the poetry anthology Yutai xinyong, the literary criticism works Wenxin diaolong and Shi pin, and Huang Kan's commentary on the Lunyu.

From Wikipedia: Liang dynasty · Literature (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Tombs of a number of members of the ruling Xiao family, with their sculptural ensembles, in various states of preservation, are located near Nanjing.

From Wikipedia: Liang dynasty · Artistic heritage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Buddhist art of the Eastern Wei displays a combination of Greco-Buddhist influences from Gandhara and Central Asia (representations of flying figures holding wreaths, Greek-style folds of the drapery), together with Chinese artistic influences.

From Wikipedia: Eastern Wei · Art (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Northern Qi ceramics mark a revival of Chinese ceramic art, following the disastrous invasions and the social chaos of the 4th century. Northern Qi tombs have revealed some beautiful artifacts, such as porcelain with splashed green designs, previously thought to have been developed under the Tang dynasty.

From Wikipedia: Northern Qi · Arts (CC BY-SA 4.0)

At the time of his accession, Xiao Yi had sought aid from Western Wei, to attack rival claimant Xiao Ji's home base of Chengdu from the rear, and most of Xiao Ji's domain of Sichuan fell into Western Wei hands. In 554, Western Wei launched a major attack on Jiangling, and Emperor Yuan summoned Wang to come to his aid, putting Chen in charge of Jiankang. Before Wang could reach Jiangling, however, Western Wei had already captured Jiangling, killing Emperor Yuan and declaring his nephew Xiao Cha emperor instead (as Emperor Xuan). Wang and Chen refused to recognize Emperor Xuan; instead, in spring 555, they welcomed Emperor Yuan's 11-year-old son Xiao Fangzhi the Prince of Jin'an—Emperor Yuan's only surviving son—to Jiankang, preparing to make him emperor and first having him take the title Prince of Liang.

From Wikipedia: Chen dynasty · History: Rise (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Jiankang, the capital, was an important cultural, political and religious center, attracting businessmen and Buddhist monks from Southeast Asia and India. The culture of the Southern dynasties reached their apex during the Chen dynasty. In literature, Xu Ling (徐陵) was an influential writer during the Chen dynasty, with his literary collection "New Songs of Yutai" being passed down for generations. One of the most famous chapters from New Songs of Yutai is "Peacock Flying Southeast" (《孔雀东南飞》). In art, Yao Zui's (姚最) "Continued Paintings" has the greatest influence.

From Wikipedia: Chen dynasty · Culture (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Northern Zhou's basis of power was established by Yuwen Tai, who was paramount general of Western Wei, following the split of Northern Wei into Western Wei and Eastern Wei in 535. After Yuwen Tai's death in 556, Yuwen Tai's nephew Yuwen Hu forced Emperor Gong of Western Wei to yield the throne to Yuwen Tai's son Yuwen Jue (Emperor Xiaomin), establishing Northern Zhou. The reigns of the first three emperors (Yuwen Tai's sons) – Emperor Xiaomin, Emperor Ming, and Emperor Wu were dominated by Yuwen Hu, until Emperor Wu ambushed and killed Yuwen Hu in 572 and assumed power personally.

From Wikipedia: Northern Zhou · History: Establishment (CC BY-SA 4.0)

In the economic sphere, Yuwen Tai, in accordance with the traditional Confucian notion of "first enrich, then educate," actively encouraged and promoted agriculture and sericulture, rewarded farming and planting, and correspondingly formulated and adopted a number of measures. The first was to restore the Equal-field system, which had fallen into disrepair, so as to reunite with the land those farmers who had lost their land through land annexation, warfare, and natural disasters and had drifted to other regions—thereby providing the conditions for the farmers' productive activity.

From Wikipedia: Northern Zhou · Society: Economy (CC BY-SA 4.0)

In the realm of thought and culture, Yuwen Tai was fond of Confucian learning and used Confucian doctrine as an ideological weapon to remove certain backward customs of the Xianbei people and to discard the decadent practices then in vogue in the intellectual sphere—such as the empty discussion of metaphysical mysteries and the veneration of Buddhism and Daoism. In the capital, Chang'an, he established the Imperial Academy (Guozixue) and appointed the great Confucian scholar Lu Dan as its Libationer (Jijiu, Chancellor). Through school education, he cultivated a large number of persons imbued with Confucian ideas to serve as pillars of the regime.

From Wikipedia: Northern Zhou · Culture: Confucianism (CC BY-SA 4.0)