Eastern Jin Dynasty (318-420 AD): The Eastern Jin Dynasty was a regime that favored the Jiangnan region, and in the early days of its establishment, due to its loss of control over the northern region and the Western Shu region, its territory was roughly similar to that of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period, and the capital was established in the old capital of Eastern Wu, Jianye, and renamed Jiankang. Due to the low prestige of the royal Sima family, the main feature of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was that the gate valve took turns to rule, so its history was roughly divided into four stages: the co-rule of the king and the horse, the rule of the powerful courtiers, the rebellion of the gate valve and the hegemony of Liu Yu.
1. Rule
(1) Yiguan Nandu (307-318)
In 307 AD, after the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, the northern region fell into long-term chaos, and Sima Rui (Sima Yi's great-grandson) the king of Langya in Shandong moved to Jiankang with the support of the Langya royal clan, after which a large number of northern Shi tribes went south to escape the war, after which Sima Rui was autonomous under the support of the southern Shi tribe, and in 317 AD, due to the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, Sima Rui took the throne as emperor and was the "Jin Yuan Emperor".
Emperor Yuan of Jin, Sima Rui
(2) Wang Dun, Wang Dao (318-329)
Because of the support of the Wang clan, Sima Rui established the state, so he worshipped Wang as the prime minister, and Wang Dun dictated the military, and was called "Wang and Ma share the world". Later, Sima Rui suppressed the Wang clan, Wang Dun was dissatisfied, and in 322 he began to attack Health, Sima Rui died of anger, and his son Sima Shao ascended the throne as Emperor Ming of Jin. Wang Dun wanted to usurp the throne, but two years later he became critically ill, and Emperor Ming of Jin took the opportunity to quell the chaos and succeeded. Because Wang Dao did not rebel, he was still used by the Jin court, and successively assisted the five emperors Yuan, Ming, Cheng, Kang, and Mudi, and died in 339.
Wang Dun and Wang Dao
2. Ministers of power are in charge
(1) Battle of Wang Yu (329-347)
When Jin became emperor, Yu Liang (brother of Emperor Ming) came to power. Yu Liang wanted to cheer up the imperial family, reject Wang Dao, and arbitrarily kill ministers, causing Su Jun's rebellion. After the rebellion was quelled, Wang Dao returned to power, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty was restored to peace. The Yu forces were not allowed to dictate imperial politics, and moved to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, claiming that they were responsible for the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains in an attempt to establish their own foundation. The Yu Liang and Yu Yi brothers successively guarded Wuchang (present-day Wuhan) and controlled the Jingzhou region, occupying half of the important territory of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In 345, Yu Yi was dying and asked for his son to succeed him, but the Eastern Jin court refused to allow it, so he asked Huan Wen to take over as Jingzhou.
(2) Huan Wen in power (347-373)
Huan Wen (Emperor Ming's son-in-law) participated in Yu Yi's Northern Expedition in his early years, and was later promoted to Jingzhou Assassin, and in 347, Huan Wen destroyed the Han Dynasty, recovered Shu Land, and gained great prestige, and then gradually controlled the imperial government. In 354, Huan Wen began the Northern Expedition against Former Qin, but was defeated by Former Qin emperor Fu Jian; In 356 AD, Huan Wen again carried out the Northern Expedition, breaking Yao Xiang and recovering most of the Central Plains such as Luoyang, but after the army returned to the division, most of the land soon fell again; In 369, Huan Wen attacked Former Yan and was defeated by the Yan general Murong Chui. In his later years, Huan Wen deposed Emperor Sima Yi and installed Sima Yu (Emperor Ming) as emperor, and then attempted to usurp the throne, but due to the failure of the Northern Expedition, his strength and prestige were damaged, and under the resistance of Wang Xie, his ambitions were not realized, and Huan Wen died in 373.
Huan Wen
(3) Xie An reigned (373-385)
After Huan Wen's death, Xie An took office. The younger brother Chong made the history of Jingzhou, and the two jointly assisted the government, and the imperial court appeared Qingming. In 383, Xie An broke through the 800,000-strong army led by the former Qin emperor in the Feishui region, known as the "Battle of Shuishui", and then pursued it with victory, and the following year, recaptured the six prefectures of Xu, Yan, Qing, Si, Yu, and Liang. However, due to Xie An's great achievements, it led to the suspicion of Emperor Xiaowu of Jin. He reused his half-brother Sima Daozi. Sima Daozi used a group of adulterers as minions to jointly repel Xie An, and in 385, Xie An died.
Sheaan
Battle of Fat Water
III. Gate valve disorder (385-404)
After Sima Daozi took power, he appointed his son Sima Yuanxian to rule. The brothers of Emperor Xiaowu of Jin and Sima Daozi competed for power between the imperial family, and Sima Daozi Sima Yuanxian's father and son competed for power, and at the same time, the imperial family and the great clan also launched a power struggle, and the Eastern Jin dynasty was in a black miasma. In 397 AD, Wang Gong of Yanqing Prefecture raised troops against Sima Daozi, and later Yin Zhongkan and Huan Xuan raised troops accordingly, and soon Wang Gong was killed due to the rebellion of his subordinate Liu Jiao, Huan Xuan and others were pacified by the imperial court, and the Jingzhou region under their control was in an independent state, but at this time, due to the reduction of the jurisdiction controlled by the Eastern Jin court, resulting in an increase in taxes in the area under its control, so in 399 AD, the Sun En and Lu Xun rebellion broke out in the Yangzhou region, the rebel army captured Huiji County, marched into Jiankang from the east, and the Eastern Jin court sent a large army to suppress the rebel army. Taking advantage of the fact that the imperial army had no time to go west, Huan Xuan took advantage of the situation to occupy most of the western part of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, accounting for two-thirds of the total area of the Western Jin Dynasty, and in 402, Sima Yuanxian sent troops to attack Huan Xuan, but Huan Xuan's army went down the river, attacked Jiankang, killed Sima Daozi Sima Yuanxian, and all power returned to Huan Xuan. In 404, Huan Xuan deposed Emperor An of Jin and proclaimed himself emperor, with the state name Chu.
4. Liu Yu's hegemony (404-420)
(1) Defeat Huan Xuan
Liu Yu (363-422), a descendant of Liu Jiao, the fourth brother of the Han emperor Liu Bang, was a general of Liu Jiao in his early years, and had great merit in suppressing the Sunlu uprising, and after Huan Xuan conquered Jiankang, Liu Jiaozhi was relieved of the position of commander of the Beifu Army (the main military force of the Eastern Jin Dynasty), Liu Yu had no choice but to commit to Huan Xuan, after which Liu Yu gradually became the commander of the Beifu Army. Liu Yu defeated Lu Xun in 403, and Lu Xun fled across the sea. Huan Wen claimed that the empress was jealous of Liu Yu's Beifu army and wanted to disintegrate the Beifu army and vigorously kill the old generals of the Beifu army. Liu Yu gathered the remnants of the Beifu army to revolt at Jingkou, Huan Xuan sent troops to suppress it but was defeated by Liu Yu, after which Liu Yu captured Jiankang and Huan Xuan abandoned the city and fled west. After Huan Xuan returned to his Jingzhou base, he re-recruited sergeants, took Emperor An of Jin to fight and was defeated by Liu Yu, and fled back to Jiangling. Attempting to flee west into Shu, he was beheaded by Feng Qian, the governor of Yizhou.
(2) The Southern Conquest and the Northern War
In 405, Liu Yu was restored to the throne by Emperor An, and seized the power of imperial and military government, and began the southern conquest and northern war, in the south, Liu Yu successively divided and resisted forces such as Western Shu and Lu Xun, Liu Yi, and Sima Xiuzhi to maintain the unity and stability of the south. In terms of the Northern Expedition, he successively destroyed the Southern Yan and Later Qin states, submitted to Qiu Chi, and then broke the Northern Wei Iron Horse with the Moon Array, recovered Huaibei, Shandong, Henan, and Guan, and reconquered Luoyang and Chang'an. Although the Chang'an region of Guanzhong was regained and lost, by this time the territory of the Eastern Jin Dynasty had advanced from the Yangtze River basin to the Yellow River, greatly increasing the scope of the country, and Liu Yu also gained great prestige. In 420, Liu Yu declared himself emperor of the Jin dynasty, and the state was called Song, and the Eastern Jin dynasty perished.
Emperor Wudi of Song Liu Yu
In the century-old history of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, many heroes such as Zu Yi, Yu Liang, Yin Hao, Huan Wen, Xie An, and Liu Yu emerged in the middle. And there are also many literary masters like Tao Yuanming, Wang Xizhi and Gu Kaizhi, although it is a partial An dynasty, but it is also an era of great cultural development.
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