War of The Eight Princes - Conclusion

Conclusion

While other princes still existed, the position of Sima Yue, the Prince of Donghai, was uncontestable. However, his victory was short-lived. Already by 308 the barbarian state of Han Zhao was able to conquer Xuchang in central Henan; by 309 Sima Yue was already fighting a civil war against another minister, Gou Xi; and by 311 Sima Yue would die amidst an empire-wide campaign, led by Emperor Huai, to exterminate him.

In an eerily analogous manner to the fall of the Roman Empire on the other side of Eurasia, barbarian tribes, taking advantage of the turmoil within the Western Jin and aided by the liberal use of mercenaries by the various Princes, began establishing self-governing kingdoms within China proper. By 311 the largest barbarian state, Han Zhao, would conquer the Jin capital at Luoyang; and by 316, would capture the co-capital of Chang'an as well, thus ending the Western Jin and ushering in a two-centuries-long division of China.

The War of the Eight Princes severely damaged the traditional Chinese economic heartlands in the lower Yellow River. Coupled up with the subsequent barbarian invasions, this led to large-scale population and economic shifts from the North China Plain to the lower Yangtze and Sichuan Basin. It was also a major contributing factor in the Sinicization of southern China. For example, the modern inhabitants of Fujian are largely descendants of Jin refugees from Northern China; this is reflected in the similarities that Min languages have with Old Chinese.