Hunnic Han & Zhao Dynasty (AD 304-329)

Hunnic Han & Zhao Dynasty (AD 304-329) 
 
When Western Jinn Dynasty (AD 265-316) reunited China, Hunnic King Zuoxianwang sent his son Liu Yüan to Jinn Dynasty to be a hostage, which was a norm laid out by Ts'ao in late Han period. Liu Yüan spent most of his time in Chinese court and was a very ambitious man suspected by one Chinese minister as well as protected by another minister. When Liu Yüan's father died, he was allowed to go back to the Hun tribes for the funeral in AD 304. Then, he returned to the court to fulfill his mission as a hostage. When a Jin Dynasty border general (Wang Jun) invited the Xianbei and Wuhuan nomads (proto-Tunguz people) in attacking Jinn Chinese capital, Liu Yüan requested with Jinn emperor to go back to the Hun tribes for organizing counter-Xianbei forces. Liu Yüan returned to the Huns in AD 308, and helped Jinn fight the Xianbei and the Jinn rebel Wang Jun. Thereafter, Liu Yüan returned to Jinn court and was appointed Dadudu (i.e., "grand marshal") of the five Hunnic Tribal Groups. In AD 311, Hunnic King Youxianwang Liu Xuan proposed that Liu Yüan proclaim to be the great Hunnic emperor. Liu Yüan, who, like all other Hunnic kings, had adopted the family name "Liu" of Han emperors, agreed to the proposal and proclaimed the founding of the dynasty of Hunnic Han, meaning a posterior dynasty of Han against Jinn (AD 265-316) and Wei (AD 220-265) which usurped Han, in the sense of succession. Liu stated, "The great Chinese saint, Lord Yü, was originally a Xirong (western Rong) nomad and the Zhou kings (1122? BC - 221 B.C.) were from the Dongyi (eastern Yi) barbarians, where is the logic that the emperors must be of the same ethnical origin?" After Liu Yüan's death, the Huns under Liu Yüan's son, Liu Cong took over Jinn capital Luoyang in AD 311; the Western Jinn selected a new emperor one year later and re-established its capital in Chang'an (today's Xi'an, Shaanxi province), only to be sacked again in AD 316. Hence began the historical time period called "Five Nomads Ravaging China", with the five nomads being Huns, Jiehu, Xianbei (including Wuhuan & Toba), Qiang, & Di. 
 
The Hun's Han Dynasty did not last long. The same palace power struggles between queens and princes, which plagued the Western Jinn dynasty just years earlier, would reemerge. The father-in-law of Liu Can, the new Hunnic Han emperor, would kill Liu Can and dug up the tombs of Liu Yüan and Liu Cong. Prime Minister Liu Zhuo (cousin of the Hunnic Han emperor) and General Shi Le (a Jie or Jiehu nomad, from one of the five nomad groups) led the troops to crack down on the palace rebellion. Later, Liu Zhuo would change the dynasty name to Zhao from Han in AD 319. General Shi Le's ambition led to the delaration of a separate Zhao Dynasty (AD 319-352), called Posterior Zhao Dynasty in contrast with Liu Zhuo's Zhao Dynasty. By AD 326, Shi Le's Posterior Zhao destroyed Liu Zhuo's Zhao, ending the small Hunnic empire established in China's central plains spanning Henan and Shanxi-Shaanxi provinces.

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