Six Dynasties

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Six Dynasties (Chinese: 六朝; Pinyin: Liù Cháo) is a collective noun for six Chinese dynasties during the periods of the Three Kingdoms (220–280 AD), Jin Dynasty (265–420), and Southern and Northern Dynasties (420–589).

This period immediately followed the fall of the Han Dynasty in 220 AD, and was a period of disunity, instability and warfare. The period ended when Emperor Wen of Sui reunified Southern and Northern China and the Sui Dynasty began.

The term generally refers to two groupings of dynasties during that period:

Six dynasties with capitals in Jiankang (the modern day Nanjing), and
Six dynasties with legitimate lineage.

[edit] Six Dynasties with capitals in Jiankang

The six dynasties were:

Eastern Wu (222–280)
Eastern Jin Dynasty (265–420)
Song Dynasty (420–479)
Qi Dynasty (479–502)
Liang Dynasty (502–557)
Chen Dynasty (557–589)

This listing is based on the states that were founded south of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), with national capitals all located at Jiankang. Xu Song (许嵩, Xǔ Sōng) in Tang Dynasty wrote a book, Jiankang Shilu (建康实录, Jiànkāng Shílù), that provides a historical account of Jiankang, which gave rise to this scheme of naming.

[edit] Six Dynasties with legitimate lineage

These six dynasties were:

Cao Wei (220–265)
Jin (265–420)
Song Dynasty (420–479)
Qi Dynasty (479–502)
Liang Dynasty (502–557)
Chen Dynasty (557–589)

Sima Guang, in his book Zizhi Tongjian, used the era names of these six dynasties as the timeline to describe this period of history. Later Chinese called this period the Six Dynasties period, or Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties (魏晋南北朝, Wèi Jìn NánběiCháo).