An Age of Division 南北朝【 NánBěiCháo 】 the Northern and

Southern Dynasties (420-589 AD)

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 , 502-557) and the Chen dynasty (陈 , 557-589).

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

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

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)

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 WeiEmperor Xiaowen: Yuanhong

北魏孝文帝元宏 r. 471-499

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?

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?

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

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

Khanhttp://dictionary.reference.com/

browse/khan?s=t

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.