Former Qin and Related Topics

Taiyuan

Capital and largest city of Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China.

A sitting bodhisattva statue originally from Tianlongshan Grottoes, currently in Museum Rietberg, Zürich

Main battles involved for the establishment of Tang Dynasty originated from Taiyuan.

The hall of the holy mother in Jinci, constructed from 1023 to 1032 during the Song dynasty

Taiyuan Cathedral, photographed by Edouard Chavannes in 1907

Chinese soldiers and civilians celebrating the victory at Pingxingguan in 1937

Map of the region including Taiyuan (labeled as TʻAI-YÜAN (YANGKÜ) 太原) (AMS, 1956)

Changfeng (长风) footbridge on Fen River and Shanxi Theater

Shanxi Folklore Museum courtyard with old Confucian temple

The twin towers inside the Yongzuo Temple.

Taiyuan is an ancient city with more than 2500 years of urban history, dating back from 497 BC. It was the capital or secondary capital of Zhao, Former Qin, Eastern Wei, Northern Qi, Northern Jin, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, Northern Han.

East Asian Dragons are legendary creatures in East-Asian mythology and culture.

Fu Jian (337–385)

Fu Jian (337–385), courtesy name Yonggu (永固) or Wenyu (文玉), formally Emperor Xuanzhao of (Former) Qin ((前)秦宣昭帝), was an emperor (who, however, used the title "Heavenly King" (Tian Wang) during his reign) of the Di-led Chinese Former Qin dynasty, under whose rule (assisted by his able prime minister Wang Meng) the Former Qin state reached its greatest glory—destroying Former Yan, Former Liang, and Dai and seizing Jin's Yi Province (modern Sichuan and Chongqing), posturing to destroy Jin as well to unite China, until he was repelled at the Battle of Fei River in 383.

Territory of the Former Qin kingdom and the Jin dynasty in 376.

Sixteen Kingdoms

Chaotic period in Chinese history from AD 304 to 439 when the political order of northern China fractured into a series of short-lived dynastic states.

Ruins of Tongwancheng, the capital of the Xia kingdom built in the early 5th century by Xiongnu chieftain Helian Bobo in modern-day Jingbian, in northern Shaanxi province, near the border with Inner Mongolia. Tongwancheng was captured by the Xianbei-led Northern Wei in 427.

A mural painting showing a leisurely life scene 384-441 A.D., from the Dingjiazha Tomb No. 5 in Chiu-ch'üan, Later Liang – Northern Liang.

The White Horse Pagoda, Dunhuang, commemorating Kumarajiva's white horse which carried the scriptures to China, c. 384.

The term "Sixteen Kingdoms" was first used by the 6th-century historian Cui Hong in the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms and refers to the five Liangs (Former, Later, Northern, Southern and Western), four Yans (Former, Later, Northern, and Southern), three Qins (Former, Later and Western), two Zhaos (Former and Later), Cheng Han and Xia.

Major Han-period dialect groups inferred from the Fangyan

Di (Five Barbarians)

Ancient ethnic group that lived in western China, and are best known as one of the non-Han Chinese peoples known as the Five Barbarians that overran northern China during the Jin dynasty (266–420) and the Sixteen Kingdoms period.

During this era, the Di ruled the states of Cheng Han (304–347), Former Qin (351–394) and Later Liang (386–403).

Later Qin

State ruled by the Qiang ethnicity of the Sixteen Kingdoms during the Jin dynasty (266–420) in China.

The Later Qin is entirely distinct from the Qin dynasty, the Former Qin and the Western Qin.

Xianbei

Today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China.

Figure of a Xianbei warrior from the Northern Dynasties (286–581 AD) era. The figure wear a covered "wind hat", trousers, short upper tunic and a cape tied around the neck, designed to protect against the wind and dust.

Xianbei musician, tomb of Sima Jinlong, 484 CE.

Painting of the Tuoba-Xianbei Northern Zhou general Li Xian (504-569 CE).

The Xianbei were at one point all defeated and conquered by the Di-led Former Qin dynasty before it fell apart not long after its defeat in the Battle of Fei River by the Eastern Jin.

The Jin dynasty (yellow) at its greatest extent, c. 280, during the Western Jin dynasty

Jin dynasty (266–420)

Imperial dynasty of China that existed from 266 to 420.

Molded-brick mural, identified as the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove and Rong Qiqi", one of two walls a part of the coffin found in a tomb of the capital region of the Southern dynasties (5th–6th. c.), second half of the fifth century, at Xishanqiao, near Nanjing. 88 x 240 cm. Nanjing Museum. This part of the murals may reflect a composition of the famous Lu Tanwei, considered as the single greatest painter of all times by the Chinese critic Xi He (act. 500–536) : ref. from China : Dawn of a Golden Age, 200–750 AD, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Press 2004. We can recognize Ji Kang (223–262), on the left, under a gingko tree.

Hunping jar of the Western Jin, with Buddhist figures.

Menfa Politics: Administrative divisions of Eastern Jin dynasty, as of 382 AD

Lacquer screen, from the tomb of Sima Jinlong, 484 CE. Untypical of Northern Wei styles, it was probably brought from the court of the Jin dynasty by Sima Jinlong's father. Alternatively, it could be a Northern Wei work strongly influenced by Jin artistic styles, such as the work of Gu Kaizhi.

Yue ware with motif, 3rd century CE, Western Jin, Zhejiang.

Scene of the Admonitions Scroll, traditionally considered as a Jin court painting by Gu Kaizhi (ca. 345–406)

Celadon lion-shaped bixie, Western Jin, 265–317 CE.

Celadon lian bowl with Buddhist figures, Western Jin, 265–317 CE.

Celadon jar with brown spots, Eastern Jin, 317-420 CE.

Ornamental plaque, Eastern Jin dynasty, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Notably, in 383, the Eastern Jin inflicted a devastating defeat on the Former Qin, a Di-ruled state that had briefly unified northern China.

The situation during Battle of Fei River

During the invasion of northern nomads in the Sixteen Kingdoms period (304–439), several regimes including the Later Zhao, Former Yan, Former Qin, and Later Yan continuously controlled Shanxi.