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| 420–479 |
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| Liu-Song dynasty. | 1 |
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| 479–502 |
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| Southern Qi dynasty. | 2 |
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| 502–557 |
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| Liang dynasty. | 3 |
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| 557–589 |
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| Chen dynasty. During these years of Chinese dynasties who had been forced south by invasions from the north, much of south China became Sinified, as the northerners brought with them their institutions and religious practices. | 4 |
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| 301–439 |
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| The Sixteen kingdoms were a succession of states in the north established by three Chinese and 13 leaders of other northern peoples: four Xiongnu, five Xianbi (a proto-Mongolian tribe), and four from two other related groups. They all sought to use Chinese governing principles to set up regimes of their own. | 5 |
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| 383 |
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| Fu Jian was overthrown by a general who founded the Later Qin. | 6 |
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| 386–534 |
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| The Northern Wei dynasty, founded at Datong by the Tuoba, a Turkic people, unified the north. They moved their capital to Luoyang in 495, and they were followed by a string of stable regimes in the north, all of non-Chinese extraction but all much Sinified. | 7 |
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| 534–550 |
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| Eastern Wei dynasty. | 8 |
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| 534–557 |
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| Western Wei dynasty. | 9 |
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| 550–577 |
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| Northern Qi dynasty. | 10 |
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| 557–581 |
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| Northern Zhou dynasty. Many Chinese elites remained in the north and were employed by the invaders in their efforts to build cultivated, sedentary, Chinese-style regimes. Buddhism became very popular among the elite and commoners in both north and south China. | 11 |
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| 551 |
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| The Ruanruan regime, having founded an empire in Mongolia in the early 5th century, was toppled, and its rulers escaped to the west where they became the Avars. They were succeeded in Mongolia by the Tujüe, a Turkish people, who soon (572) divided into eastern and western branches. | 12 |
| During this long period of political division, there was great mixing among peoples and cultures. Chinese cultural forms spread to the south, while northern people of non-Chinese stock flowed into north China. Regimes in the north became highly Sinified, which in turn led to conflicts with advocates of the older ways among the non-Chinese. Some of these regimes eventually retreated back to the north, and some adapted better to Chinese sedentary lifestyles (e.g., the Northern Wei) and even contributed to future “Chinese” civilization. | 13 |
| BUDDHISM was flourishing in China by the end of the Later Han. It preached redemption from this world of pain and suffering for the common man. The most famous translator of Buddhist sutras was Kumarajiva (344–413), son of an Indian and a princess of Kucha, who began translation work in Chang'an in 401. The Bodhidarma (said to have died in 528) arrived in China in the early 6th century; he stressed concentration and meditation, becoming the founder of the Chan (Zen in Japanese) sect. The desire for direct knowledge of the original texts led at least 82 Chinese pilgrims to travel to India during the period 200–600 (61 in the 5th century alone). Faxian traveled (399–413) through countless holy sites of Buddhism in India, Ceylon, and Java; he was the first Chinese pilgrim to go to India and return (by sea), bringing back numerous texts. | 14 |
| Chinese Buddhists increasingly neglected the intangible goals of Indian theology and stressed more practical objectives: immediate response to prayer by the protective bodhisattva Guanyin (Avaloki-tesvara), direct rebirth in the Western Paradise (Sukhavati) of Amituofuo (Amitabha), and salvation by Miluofuo, the Buddha of the future (Maitreya). Daoist thought was reflected in the increasingly influential Chan sect, which taught that the Buddha-nature was in everyone and that enlightenment was to be sought solely through meditation (to the exclusion of prayer), asceticism, and good works. Confucian reaction was evident in the emphasis of the Tiantai sect, founded (575) in the mountains of Zhejiang province by Zhiyi (531–597), upon education as necessary to the realization of the Buddha-nature. | 15 |
| Unfavorable Confucian reaction to Indian asceticism, parasitic practices (celibacy, monasticism, and mendicancy) and an unrestrained imaginative metaphysical literature, together with the hostility of the competing Daoist priesthood, led to brief persecutions by the Northern Wei (446–452) under Emperor Wu who much favored Daoism over Buddhism and by the Northern Zhou (574–578) which sought to revive the classical Chinese tradition and outlawed both Buddhism and Daoism. Buddhism continued to flourish, nonetheless. Huiyuan (334–416) of the Eastern Jin defended monastic life in the face of the criticism that Buddhists failed to honor the emperor. The most famous ruler to patronize Buddhism was Emperor Wu of the Liang (b. 464, r. 502–549), who reviled Daoism and donated heavily to Buddhist monasteries. | 16 |
| The first Tripitaka (Three Baskets), the collected writings of Buddhism in China, were compiled in 581. The first Buddhist hagiography, Gaoseng zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Monks) by Huijiao (497–544) of the Liang, was completed in the 6th century. | 17 |
| Neo-Daoism continued from the late Han into the Six Dynasties era. Wang Bi (226–249) wrote commentaries on the Yijing and Laozi, while Guo Xiang (d. 312) wrote a commentary on the Zhuangzi. Both men praised Confucius as well in an eclectic and metaphysical spirit. The most famous eccentrics of the age were the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, led by Qi Kang (223–262). They sought to escape all social trappings as a means of preserving true ethical integrity; they engaged in “pure conversation” following an apolitical, unregulated style, and they drank a great deal. | 18 |
| Religious Daoism was a combination of Daoism with many strains of folk religion. Some sought elixirs or magical paradises. Many alchemical texts can be dated to the 3rd century. This trend led to early experimentation in various sciences and to the production of dyes, alloys, even gunpowder. Sexual and exercise regimens were also practiced. The first Daoist hagiography, Liexian zhuan (Biographies of Various Immortals), appeared in the 3rd century. Baopuzi (Master of Preserving Simplicity), a Daoist encyclopedia by Ge Hong (283–c. 343), was completed in the 4th century. | 19 |
| The Han administration and recommendation system were both adopted by Cao Cao with emendations when he established the Nine Ranks System by which local capable men (senior rectifiers) graded potential candidates for bureaucratic appointment. This system was adopted by virtually all of the regimes in the Six Dynasties era. Senior rectifiers hailed from local great families and strengthened the authority of the latter. | 20 |
| The militia system, newly created by the Western Wei in the mid-6th century, followed their traditional Xianbi tribal organization. Families with over two sons had to send one to serve in one of the many garrisons. This led to those garrisons becoming self-sufficient, run by farmer-soldiers, and the system was later adopted by the Sui and Tang dynasties. | 21 |
| The turmoil at the end of the Han caused a population drop. In 280, the unified Jin registered a population of 16,163,863. | 22 |
| The rise of great families from the late Han into the period of division brought into existence immense landed estates. The feudal society of the northern and southern dynasties formed around these families; it was effectively the way society girded itself to cope with tremendous turbulence caused by mass migrations and continual incursions. Later northern dynasties, though, also wanted to recentralize authority, leading ultimately to a curtailment of this “feudalism.” The Tuoba Wei created land registers to increase the amount of land under cultivation (and raise grain production) and to get a handle on the estates of the great families. In the 480s, they developed the equal field system whereby the state “owned” all lands and parceled it out to the populace for their lifetime only, at which time it would then return to the state; they ended the land tax and abolished corvée. The poorest were often resettled in both the north and the south on lands to be reclaimed. | 23 |
| Many new developments transpired in literature. The Shishuo xinyu (New Specimens of Social Talk) by Liu Yiqing (403–444) was an anthology of Daoist-inspired stories; the most famous tale from it was “Peach Blossom Spring” by Tao Yuanming (Tao Qian, 365–426), a story about travels to a hidden utopia. Poetry witnessed the rise of parallel prose; lüshi (regulated verse) became very popular in the south. Major works of literary criticism also appeared: Wen fu (Prose Poems on Literature) by Lu Ji (261–303), Wenxin diaolong (The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons) by Liu Xie (465–531?), and Wenxuan (Anthology of Literature), edited by Xiao Tong (501–531), emperor of the Liang. | 24 |
| In sculpture, the Northern Wei began to cut cave temples at the Yungang grottoes in northern Shanxi near Datong; after Luoyang became the Northern Wei capital in 495, new caves were cut at nearby Longmen as well. The various Buddhas, bodhisattvas, arhats, and militant guardians of the law reflect Indian iconography given form by Greek artisans in Gandhara, as well as Iranian influence. The great calligrapher Wang Xizhi (321–379) was a master of the grass script. In painting, Gu Kaizhi (c. 344–c. 406), China's first great painter and a Daoist recluse, perfected the technical refinement of episodic figure painting. Xie He of the early 6th century became a critic of painting styles. | 25 |
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