The Sixteen Kingdoms period of
Chinese history (304-439 CE). It was a chaotic period in Chinese history, when the political order of northern China fractured into a series of short-lived dynastic states, most of which were founded by the "
Five Barbarians," non-
Han peoples who had settled in northern and western China during the preceding centuries and
participated in the overthrow of the
Western Jin dynasty in the early 4th century. The dynastic states founded by ethnic
Xiongnu,
Xianbei,
Di,
Jie,
Qiang, as well as Han and other ethnicities, took on Han-style dynastic names, and fought against each other and the
Eastern Jin dynasty, which succeeded the Western Jin and ruled southern China. The period ended with the unification of northern China in the early 5th century by the
Northern Wei, a dynasty established by the Xianbei
Tuoba clan, and the history of China entered the
Northern and Southern dynasties period.
Subcategories
This category has the following 26 subcategories, out of 26 total.