Six Dynasties (Chinese: 六朝; Pinyin: Liù Cháo; 220 or 222 - 589) is a collective noun for six Chinese dynasties during the periods of the Three Kingdoms (220–280 AD), Jin Dynasty (265–420), and Southern and Northern Dynasties (420–589).
This period immediately followed the fall of the Han Dynasty in 220 AD, and was a period of disunity, instability and warfare. The period ended when Emperor Wen of Sui reunified Southern and Northern China and the Sui Dynasty began.
The term generally refers to two groupings of dynasties during that period:
- Six dynasties with capitals in Jiankang (the modern day Nanjing), and
- Six dynasties with legitimate lineage.
Read more about Six Dynasties: Six Dynasties With Capitals in Jiankang, Six Dynasties With Legitimate Lineage, Poetry in The Six Dynasties, Legacy
Famous quotes containing the word dynasties:
“When the finishing stroke was put to his work, it suddenly expanded before the eyes of the astonished artist into the fairest of all the creations of Brahma. He had made a new system in making a staff, a world with full and fair proportions; in which, though the old cities and dynasties had passed away, fairer and more glorious ones had taken their places.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)