ABSTRACT
The overthrow of the “Western” Jin regime based at Luoyang by Xiongnu under the leadership of the Liu family left China divided into two major segments, north and south, roughly along the line of the Huai River and the Qinling and Dabie mountains. In many ways this split recalled that of the Three Kingdoms period, and reflected the enduring geographical and cultural differences between the dry, temperate north and the warm and watery south, between the land of wheat and millet and the zone of wet-rice cultivation. Over the ensuing four centuries of division, these two vast regions would experience very different histories and develop in different directions. From their new capital at Jiankang (today’s Nanjing) on the lower reaches of the Yangzi, the heirs of the Jin ruling class exerted their authority over the south, asserted their legitimacy and cultural superiority in the face of the barbarian usurpers in the north, and dreamed of a return to the ancient homeland of Chinese civilization. In the north, meanwhile, the violent and disorderly rule of the earliest non-Chinese conquerors gave way very gradually to a new Sinobarbarian synthesis, new political and military institutions, and a vigorous new ruling class that would succeed in reuniting the empire near the end of the sixth century. This chapter will deal with developments in North China up until about the middle of the fifth century.
