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An Age of Division
南北朝【NánBěiCháo】 the Northern
and Southern Dynasties (420-589 AD)
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Southern Dynasties
Significance of the Battle of
River Fei (383)
(381) (Compare the Battle of
Red Cliff (208/9 AD)
the Southern Dynasties
(420-589), namely, the Song
Dynasty (宋, 420-479), the
Qi Dynasty (齐, 479-502),
the Liang Dynasty (粱, 502557) and the Chen dynasty (
陈, 557-589).
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Northern Dynasties
Northern Wei 386–534
AD
Eastern Wei 534–550
AD
Western Wei 535–557
AD
Northern Qi 550–577
AD
Northern Zhou 557 to
581 AD
Map of the Division
The Battle of River Fei
肥水之战
Teamwork between Uncle & Nephew
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As the Battle at Red Cliff that redrew the boundary of China, the
Battle of River Fei defined the division of China between the
Northern Dynasties and Southern Dynasties;
General Xie of the Eastern Jin Dynasty 东晋谢安 and his
nephew Xie Xuan 谢玄 vs. General Fu Jian of the previous Qin
前秦：苻坚; It is an example of defeating many with a few;
Later Xie Xuan’s grandson Xie Lingyun 谢灵运 became a
famous poet who pioneered poetry of mountains and streams
山水诗; his masterpiece being “Fu on Dwelling in the
Mountains”山居赋 best translated by Professor David R.
Knechtges.
The Former Qin (351-394)
Non-Chinese Ethnic Group
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The Former Qin (351-394) was a state of the
Sixteen Kingdoms in China. Founded by the Fu
family of the Di ethnicity, it completed the unification
of North China in 376. Its capital had been Xi'an up
to the death of the ruler Fu Jiān. Despite its name,
the Former Qin was much later and less powerful
than the Qin Dynasty which ruled all of China during
the 3rd century BCE. The adjective "former" is used
to distinguish it from the "Later Qin" state (384-417).
The Northern Wei
(386-557)
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Chinese in full (Pinyin) Bei Wei, or (Wade-Giles
romanization) Pei Wei, English Northern Wei, also called
Tabgatch, or (Pinyin) Tuoba 拓拔 (386–557), the longest
lived and most powerful of the northern Chinese dynasties
that existed before the reunification of China under the Sui
and Tang dynasties.
The Wei dynasty was founded by Tabgatch (Tuoba)
tribesmen who, like many of the ‘nomads inhabiting the
frontiers of northern China, were of uncertain origin.
Their language was basically Turkish, and scholars
presume that their ancestry can be traced to proto-Turkish,
proto-Mongol…
Northern Wei
Emperor Xiaowen: Yuanhong
北魏孝文帝元宏 r. 471-499
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A program of Sinification 汉
化 (64-66)
Banned Xianbei clothes at
court/Adopted Chinese
language at court;
Intermarriage;
The equal-field system
Male (15 yrs above) 40亩
【mǔ】 a unit of area (40 X
0.0667 hectares). (Millet);
20 yr. for females, 20亩
Mulberry/ hemp
Luoyang as its capital
What pattern can we infer?
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In Race and Culture: A World View, Thomas
Sowell states that “Nor have the conquerors
always had a more advanced culture, ...
eventually absorbed by the English and as
various conquerors were absorbed by the
Chinese...”
Thomas Sowell. Race and Culture A World
View. (New York: Basic Books, A Division
of HarperCollins Publisher, 1994), 70. Print.
Why could non-Chinese ethnic
Groups Rule China?
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Technology: the invention of stirrups 马镫
(Ebrey 63-64) that enable the riders to fight
much better on horseback;
At the time, many non-Chinese had already
settled in China: Cao Cao moved many
soldiers to China after he defeated the
Wuhuan in 207; later rules followed similar
policies;
Yue-fu of the Northern Dynasties
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In the fourth to sixth centuries, the long anonymous
yue-fu narrative ballads of the Eastern Han were no
longer written in the Southern Dynasties, but they did
survive in the North.
The most famous is the “Ballad of Mulan.”木兰辞
Note the ruler is not only referred to by the Chinese
title of Emperor, but by the non-Chinese title of Khan.
https://catalyst.uw.edu/gopost/area/weigao/114894
Khan
http://dictionary.reference.com/b
rowse/khan?s=t
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noun
1. (in the Altaic group of languages) a title
held by hereditary rulers or tribal chiefs.
2. the supreme ruler of the Tatar tribes, as
well as emperor of China, during the Middle
Ages: a descendant of Genghis Khan.
3. a title of respect used in Iran, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, India, and other countries of Asia.