Sixteen Kingdoms | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

The Sixteen Kingdoms is the name given to the period of Chinese history (304–440) when different tribes of non-Han Chinese, including some of nomadic origin, alternated with each other in establishing short-lived kingdoms in northern China. (See Table 1.) Chinese historians list them as the sixteen nations of the five "barbarian" tribes. The period is often called Wuhu Shiliu Guo, meaning "Period of Five Barbarian Tribes and Sixteen Nations." The peoples were the Di, Hun, Jiehu, Xianbei, and Qiang, originating from Tibetans, Tangut, Proto-Turkic, Mongol, and Tungus tribes. Eventually the Xianbei people reunified northern China in 440.

TABLE 1
The Sixteen Nations

	Name of the nation	Period	Location in present-day China	Ethnicity
1	Cheng Han	301–347	Sichuan	Di
2	Han (Anterior Zhao)	304–329	Shanxi, and Shaanxi	Hun
3	Anterior Liang	317–376	Gansu	Han
4	Posterior Zhao	319–351	Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi, and Shaanxi	Jiehu
5	Anterior Qin	351–394	Liaoning, Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi, Gansu, Sichuan, and Shaanxi	Di
6	Anterior Yan	337–370	Liaoning, Shandong, Hebei, and Shanxi	Xianbei
7	Posterior Yan	384–409	Liaoning, Shandong, Hebei, and Shanxi	Xianbei
8	Posterior Qin	384–417	Shaanxi	Qiang
9	Western Qin	385–431	Shaanxi	Xianbei
10	Posterior Liang	386–403	Gansu	Di
11	Southern Liang	397–414	Gansu	Xianbei
12	Northern Liang	397–439	Gansu	Hun
13	Southern Yan	398–410	Shandong	Xianbei
14	Western Liang	400–421	Gansu	Han
15	Xia	407–431	Shaanxi	Hun
16	Northern Yan	409–436	Liaoning	Han

During this period, the entire Huang River Valley became a vast battlefield for tribal kingdoms and some remnant Chinese military chieftains. The various nations fought among themselves and blood flowed freely. Although this period is often considered China's Dark Age, due to the chaos and foreign occupation of its territories, the epoch was also a time of great change, as China was transformed by the Indian religion of Buddhism.

Fairbank, John King, and Merle Goldman. (1998) China: A New History. Enlarged ed. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.

Fairbank, John King, Edwin O. Reischauer, and Albert M. Craig. (1989) East Asia: Tradition and Transformation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

This is the complete article, containing 249 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).