Six Dynasties


Six Dynasties is a collective term for six Han-ruled regimes in China during the periods of the later phase of Three Kingdoms era, the Jin dynasty, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It also coincides with the era of the Sixteen Kingdoms, a chaotic warring period in northern China after the collapse of the Western Jin dynasty.

Six Dynasties with capitals in Jiankang

The six dynasties were:
  1. Eastern Wu
  2. Eastern Jin dynasty
  3. Liu Song dynasty
  4. Southern Qi dynasty
  5. Liang dynasty
  6. Chen dynasty
This listing is based on the states that maintained national capitals at Jiankang near the Yangzi River. Xu Song in Tang Dynasty wrote a book, Jiankang Shilu, that provides a historical account of Jiankang, which gave rise to this scheme of this name.

Six Dynasties with legitimate lineage

These six dynasties were:
  1. Cao Wei
  2. Jin dynasty
  3. Liu Song dynasty
  4. Southern Qi dynasty
  5. Liang dynasty
  6. Chen dynasty
Sima Guang, in his book Zizhi Tongjian, used the era names of these six dynasties as the timeline to describe this period of history. Later Chinese called this period the Six Dynasties period, or Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Poetry in the Six Dynasties

The Six Dynasties was an important era in the history of Chinese poetry, especially remarkable for its frank descriptions of love and beauty. Especially important, and frequently translated into English, is the anthology New Songs from the Jade Terrace, compiled by Xu Ling, under the patronage of Crown Prince Xiao Gang of the Liang Dynasty. Also significant, is the Zi Ye, or "Lady Midnight" style, supposedly originating with an eponymously named fourth-century professional singer of the Jin dynasty.

Legacy

As the first time in history that political center of China was located in the south, with surge in population and continual development of economy and culture, this transformed southern China from being remote territories to the economic center that can rival the north from Tang Dynasty onward.
Buddhism, which first reached China during the Eastern Han Dynasty, flourished in the Six Dynasties and has been a major religion in China ever since.
The Japanese scholar Tanigawa Michio analyzed the Six Dynasty period to test general theories of China's historical development. Some thinkers, Tanigawa writes, argue that China followed the set European pattern which Marxists and liberal thinkers thought to be universal, that is, from ancient slavery to medieval feudalism to modern capitalism, while others argue that "Chinese society was extraordinarily saturated with stagnancy, as compared to the West, and they assume that it existed in a qualitatively different historical world from Western society." That is, there an argument between those who see "unilinear, monistic world history" and those who conceive of a "two-tracked or multitracked world history." Tanigawa's conclusion is that China did not have "feudalism" in the sense that Marxists use, but that the military governments did not develop a military aristocracy of the sort that developed in Europe. The period established social and political patterns which shaped China's history from that point on.

Citations