Five Nomad Groups
Ravaging China
The impact of the nomads
on northern China had been compared to that felt by Rome. We could
probably sense the influx of the nomads by calculating a rough
figure for the Huns. When General Ts'ao Ts'ao re-organized thirty
thousand Hun tribes into today's Shanxi-Shaanxi provinces during the
2nd century AD, we could estimate the Huns to be having 50-100
persons per tribe, to yield about 1.5-3 million. As to the Chinese
population, it had been in a state of fluctuating to a peak of 50
million every dynastic cycle, with every dynastic change costing a
loss of half the population. I will do a calculation of minor
nomadic tribe population on another occasion. Two very good examples
remain to achive a more accurate estimation of the figures. One
example would be Emperor Fu Juan's order to disseminate his Di
nomads among posts in northern China, and another example would be
the extermination of Jiehu nomads. Emperor Fu Juan, after a revolt
of his kinsmen, decided to disperse his tribesmen across various
military posts, and altogether 15000 households were driven out of
the capital. As to the Jiehu, Shi Ming, an adopted son of Jiehu's
Posterior Zhao, had at one time killed about 200,000 Jiehu nomads.
By AD 317, all of China north of the Yangtze River/Huai River had
been overrun by nomadic peoples: the Xianbei from the north; some
remnants of the Xiongnu from the northwest; and the Qiang people of
Gansu and Tibet from the west and the southwest. Chaos prevailed as
these groups warred with each other. The Chinese south of the
Yangtze had failed to reconquer the northern region. General Zu Di
crossed the Yangtze River but failed to hold on to the gain. The
notable thing about this time period is that there were still
several Chinese strongholds in today's Hebei/Shandong provinces and
in the western Silk Road corridor, that were cut off from the court
in southern China.
Shi Le's son, Shi Hu, would be killed by his own general, Ran Min (a
Chinese), and Jiehu nomad's Posterior Zhao
(AD 319-352) was destroyed in AD 352. Ran
Min's Ran Wei Dynasty (short-lived to be on the list of 16 Nations)
would be destroyed by Xianbei nomad's Anterior Yan (AD 337-370)
Dynasty. Di nomad's Anterior Qin (AD 351-394)
would destroy Xianbei's Anterior Yan in AD 370. Di nomad's Qin would
try to attack the Eastern Jinn Dynasty (AD
317-420) south of the Huai River. After
losing the battle to the Jinn Chinese under general Xie Xuan and Xie
An in AD 384, two Qin generals (of the Qiang and the Xianbei
origins, respectively) overthrew the Di nomad's Qin (AD 351-394) and
set up separate Posterior Qin Dynasty (AD
384-417) and Posterior Yan Dynasty
(AD 384-410). Eastern Jinn
Dynasty's army, under general Liu Yü, would renew northern
expeditions and finally destroyed the Posterior Qin Dynasty of the
Qiangs (AD 384-417) and Posterior Yan Dynasty of Xianbei
(AD 384-409) south of the
Yellow River and today's Xi'an area.
Southern China
In AD 420, General Liu Yü (who claimed Han heritage) of Eastern Jinn
Chinese would usurp the power by proclaimg the Southern Song Dyasty
(AD 420-479) in place
of Eastern Jinn Dynasty. There would appear three more Han Chinese
dynasties, namely Southern Qi (AD 479-502),
Southern Liang (AD 502-557),
and Southern Chen (AD 557-589).
The last one, Chen, would be swallowed by the Sui Dynasty
(AD 581-618) which had
replaced the nomadic dynasties in Northern China.
Next
Toba's Wei Dynasty, Ruruans, & Hunnic Decline
