The Jin dynasty or the Jin Empire, sometimes distinguished as the Sima Jin (司馬晉) or the Two Jins (兩晉), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed from 266 to 420. It was founded by Sima Yan, eldest son of Sima Zhao, who had previously been declared the King of Jin. The Jin dynasty was preceded by the Three Kingdoms period, and was succeeded by the Sixteen Kingdoms in northern China and the Liu Song dynasty in southern China.
The Xianbei were an ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. The Xianbei were strongly suggested to be a multi-ethnic confederation with Mongolic, Tungusic and Turkic peoples. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into the Wuhuan and Xianbei when they were defeated by the Xiongnu at the end of the third century BC. The Xianbei were largely subordinate to larger nomadic powers and the Han dynasty until they gained prominence in 87 AD by killing the Xiongnu chanyu Youliu. However unlike the Xiongnu, the Xianbei political structure lacked the organization to pose a concerted challenge to the Chinese for most of their time as a nomadic people.
Emperor Yuan of Jin, personal name Sima Rui (司馬睿), courtesy name Jingwen (景文), was an emperor of the Jin dynasty and the first emperor of the Eastern Jin. His reign saw the steady gradual loss of Jin territory in the north, but entrenchment of Jin authority south of the Huai River and east of the Three Gorges. For generations, Jin was not seriously threatened by the Wu Hu kingdoms to the north.
The military history of the Three Kingdoms period encompasses roughly a century's worth of prolonged warfare and disorder in Chinese history. After the assassination of General-in-chief He Jin in September 189, the administrative structures of the Han government became increasingly irrelevant. By the time of death of Cao Cao, the most successful warlord of North China, in 220, the Han empire was divided between the three rival states of Cao Wei, Shu Han and Eastern Wu. Due to the ensuing turmoil, the competing powers of the Three Kingdoms era found no shortage of willing recruits for their armies, although press-ganging as well as forcible enlistment of prisoners from defeated armies still occurred. Following four centuries of rule under the Han dynasty, the Three Kingdoms brought about a new era of conflict in China that shifted institutions in favor of a more permanent and selective system of military recruitment. This ultimately included the creation of a hereditary military class as well as increasing reliance on non-Chinese cavalry forces and the end of universal conscription.
Zhangjiakou, also known as Kalgan and by several other names, is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hebei province in Northern China, bordering Beijing to the southeast, Inner Mongolia to the north and west, and Shanxi to the southwest. By 2019, its population was 4,650,000 inhabitants on 36,861.56 square kilometres (14,232.33 sq mi), divided into 17 Counties and Districts. The built-up area made of Qiaoxi, Qiaodong, Chongli, Xuanhua, Xiahuayuan Districts largely being conurbated had 1,500,000 inhabitants in 2019 on 1,412.7 km2 (545.4 sq mi).
Liu Yuan (劉淵) (died 19 August 310), courtesy name Yuanhai (元海), formally Emperor Guangwen of Han (Zhao) (漢(趙)光文帝) was the founding emperor of the Xiongnu-led Han-Zhao dynasty during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of China. Due to Tang dynasty naming taboo, he is referred to as Liu Yuanhai (劉元海) in the Book of Jin.
Shi Le, courtesy name Shilong, formally Emperor Ming of (Later) Zhao, was the founding emperor of the Jie-led Later Zhao dynasty of China. He was initially sold as a slave by Jin officials, but after attaining freedom, he helped start a rebellion and eventually became a powerful general for the Xiongnu-led Han-Zhao dynasty, conquering most of northern China in Han-Zhao's name but holding the territory under his own control. In 319, after a dispute with the Han-Zhao emperor Liu Yao, he broke away from Han-Zhao and formed his own state, Later Zhao, and in 329 he captured Liu Yao and conquered Han-Zhao, adding western China to his empire as well. For the next 21 years, the Later Zhao would dominate northern China.
Murong Jun, courtesy name Xuanying (宣英), formally Emperor Jingzhao of (Former) Yan ( 燕景昭帝), was an emperor of the Former Yan. He was the dynasty's second ruler, but after first using the Jin dynasty-created title of Prince of Yan, was the first to use imperial title, as during his reign the state expanded from possessing merely modern Liaoning and parts of Hebei to nearly all of the territory north of the Yellow River and some substantial holdings south of the Yellow River. In the Book of Jin, Murong Jun was described as about two metres tall and having an imposing look.
Murong De, name changed in 400 to Murong Beide (慕容備德), courtesy name Xuanming (玄明), formally Emperor Xianwu of (Southern) Yan ( 燕獻武帝), was the founding emperor of the Xianbei-led Southern Yan dynasty of China. He was the son of Former Yan's founding prince Murong Huang and younger brother to both Former Yan emperor Murong Jun and Later Yan emperor Murong Chui, and therefore was an imperial prince and general during the times of both states. After Murong Chui's son Murong Bao lost most of Later Yan's territory to Northern Wei, Murong De took troops under his own command south and established Southern Yan, which secured modern Shandong, but failed to expand further, and was destroyed by Jin Dynasty (266–420) after Murong De's death and succession by his nephew Murong Chao. Book of Jin (晉書) described Murong De as having a stalwart and extraordinary appearance and was about two metres tall.
The city of Beijing has a long and rich history that dates back over 3,000 years. Prior to the unification of China by the First Emperor in 221 BC, Beijing had been for centuries the capital of the ancient states of Ji and Yan. It was a provincial center in the earliest unified empires of China, Qin and Han. The northern border of ancient China ran close to the present city of Beijing, and northern nomadic tribes frequently broke in from across the border. Thus, the area that was to become Beijing emerged as an important strategic and a local political centre. During the first millennia of imperial rule, Beijing was a provincial city in northern China. Its stature grew in the 10th to the 13th centuries when the nomadic Khitan and forest-dwelling Jurchen peoples from beyond the Great Wall expanded southward and made the city a capital of their dynasties, the Liao and Jin. When Kublai Khan made Dadu the capital of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), all of China was ruled from Beijing for the first time. From 1279 onward, with the exception of two interludes from 1368 to 1420 and 1928 to 1949, Beijing would remain as China's capital, serving as the seat of power for the Ming dynasty (1421–1644), the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1644–1912), the early Republic of China (1912–1928) and now the People's Republic of China (1949–present).
The Xianbei state or Xianbei confederation was a nomadic empire which existed in modern-day Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, northern Xinjiang, Northeast China, Gansu, Buryatia, Zabaykalsky Krai, Irkutsk Oblast, Tuva, Altai Republic and eastern Kazakhstan from c. 93 to 234. Like most ancient peoples known through Chinese historiography, the ethnic makeup of the Xianbei is unclear, though they are believed to have been a Proto-Mongolic people. There are also other strong suggestions that they were a multi-ethnic confederation with Mongolic and Turkic influences. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into the Wuhuan and Xianbei when they were defeated by the Xiongnu at the end of the third century BC. The Xianbei were largely subordinate to larger nomadic powers and the Han dynasty until they gained prominence in 87 AD by killing the Xiongnu chanyu Youliu. However unlike the Xiongnu, the Xianbei political structure lacked the organization to pose a concerted challenge to the Chinese for most of their time as a nomadic people.
The Upheaval of the Five Barbarians also translated as the Uprising, Rebellion or the Revolt of the Five Barbarians is a Chinese expression used to refer to a chaotic period of warfare during the Jin dynasty (266–420) roughly between 304 and 316 which heavily involved non-Han peoples living in China, commonly called the Five Barbarians. Coinciding with the War of the Eight Princes that greatly weakened the empire, these conflicts eventually drove the Jin imperial court out of northern and southwestern China.
The Sixteen Kingdoms, less commonly the Sixteen States, was a chaotic period in Chinese history from AD 304 to 439 when northern China fragmented into a series of short-lived dynastic states. The majority of these states were founded by the "Five Barbarians", non-Han peoples who had settled in northern and western China during the preceding centuries, and had launched a series of rebellions against the Western Jin dynasty in the early 4th century. However, several of the states were founded by the Han people, and all of the states—whether ruled by Xiongnu, Xianbei, Di, Jie, Qiang, Han, or others—took on Han-style dynastic names. The states frequently fought against both one another and the Eastern Jin dynasty, which succeeded the Western Jin in 317 and ruled southern China. The period ended with the unification of northern China in 439 by the Northern Wei, a dynasty established by the Xianbei Tuoba clan. This occurred 19 years after the Eastern Jin collapsed in 420, and was replaced by the Liu Song dynasty. Following the unification of the north by Northern Wei, the Northern and Southern dynasties era of Chinese history began.
Prince or King of Yan was a Chinese feudal title referring to the ancient Chinese State of Yan and to its fiefs including the capital Yanjing.
"Beijing" is from pinyin Běijīng, which is romanized from 北京, the Chinese name for this city. The pinyin system of transliteration was approved by the Chinese government in 1958, but little used until 1979. It was gradually adopted by various news organizations, governments, and international agencies over the next decade.
Ji or Jicheng was an ancient city in northern China, which has become the longest continuously inhabited section of modern Beijing. Historical mention of Ji dates to the founding of the Zhou dynasty in about 1045 BC. Archaeological finds in southwestern Beijing where Ji was believed to be located date to the Spring and Autumn period. The city of Ji served as the capital of the ancient states of Ji and Yan until the unification of China by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Thereafter, the city was a prefectural capital for Youzhou through the Han dynasty, Three Kingdoms, Western Jin dynasty, Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern Dynasties, and Sui dynasty. With the creation of a Jizhou (蓟州) during the Tang dynasty in what is now Tianjin Municipality, the city of Ji took on the name Youzhou. Youzhou was one of the Sixteen Prefectures ceded to the Khitans during the Five Dynasties. The city then became the southern capital of the Liao dynasty and then main capital of the Jin dynasty (1115–1234). In the 13th century, Kublai Khan built a new capital city for the Yuan dynasty adjacent to Ji to the north. The old city of Ji became a suburb to Dadu. In the Ming dynasty, the old and new cities were merged by Beijing's Ming-era city wall.
Dai Commandery was a commandery (jùn) of the state of Zhao established c. 300 BC and of northern imperial Chinese dynasties until the time of the Emperor Wen of the Sui dynasty. It occupied lands in what is now Hebei, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia. Its seat was usually at Dai or Daixian, although it was moved to Gaoliu during the Eastern Han.
The military history of the Jin dynasty and the Sixteen Kingdoms encompasses the period of Chinese military activities from 266 AD to 420 AD. The Jin dynasty is usually divided into the Western Jin and Eastern Jin in Chinese historiography. Western Jin lasted from its usurpation of Cao Wei in 266 to 316 when the Uprising of the Five Barbarians split the empire and created a number of barbarian states in the north. The Jin court relocated to Jiankang, starting the era of Eastern Jin, which ended in 420 when it was usurped by Liu Yu, who founded the Liu Song dynasty.
Wang Jun, courtesy name Pengzu, was a military general and warlord who lived during the Western Jin dynasty of China. By the time of Sima Lun's usurpation of the Jin throne he was established as a military commander in You Province. Although he became a target of Sima Ying as the War of the Eight Princes unfolded, he survived the chaos, ultimately supporting Sima Yue's faction. At the time of the Disaster of Yongjia which saw the collapse of Jin control in northern China, he was one of Jin's few remaining provincial powers in the north. However among claims of imperial ambitions and corruption, he clashed not only with northern tribal powers but also his Jin Dynasty rival Liu Kun the Inspector of Bingzhou, before his final defeat and death at the hands of Shi Le, who had previously won Wang Jun's trust.
Qi Hong was a military general of the Jin dynasty (266–420). He served under the Inspector of Youzhou, Wang Jun, and during the War of the Eight Princes, he was instrumental in the defeat of the Prince of Chengdu, Sima Ying and the Prince of Hejian, Sima Yong. He also defeated the Han-Zhao general and future founder of the Later Zhao, Shi Le on one occasion, but was killed in their second encounter.
