Chinese Dynasties: Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui (265 - 618)

Jin Dynasty -晋朝 (265 and 420), divided in Western Jin (265–316) and Eastern Jin (317–420). Western Jin was founded by Sima Yan, with its capital at Luoyang, while Eastern Jin was begun by Sima Rui, with its capital at Jiankang, modern Nanjing. The shift of the capital reflects a process that destroyed the whole political, social and economic system of north China. Inner wars and the uprising of Non-Chinese chieftains contributed to the downfall of the Sima family. Together with the imperial clan, a great part of the northern aristocracy fled to the south where they had to arrange their rule with the powerful local magnates of the lower Yangtse area. The Eastern Jin was the first of a couple of dynasties (Southern Dynasties 南朝) that developed a culture different from that of northern China. As an economical center of whole China, the south should be of great importance for the whole of China until today.

Southern and Northern Dynasties - 南北朝 (420-589)Though an age of civil war and political chaos, it was also a time of flourishing arts and culture, advancement in technology, and the spreading of Mahayana Buddhism and Daoism. The period saw the first recorded large-scale migration of Han Chinese people to the lands south of the Yangtze River.

The Sui Dynasty (581-618) was founded by Emperor Wen of Sui, the Sui Dynasty capital was at Luoyang. His reign saw the reunification of Southern and Northern China and the construction of the Grand Canal. Emperors Wen and Yang undertook various reforms to reduce the rich-poor social gap that resulted in enhanced agricultural productivity, centralization of government power. The Three Departments and Six Ministries system was officially instituted, coinage was standardized and re-unified, defense was improved and the Great Wall expanded. Buddhism was also spread and encouraged throughout the empire, uniting the varied people and cultures of China.

This dynasty has often been compared to the earlier Qin Dynasty in tenor and in the ruthlessness of its accomplishments. The Sui dynasty's early demise was attributed to the government's tyrannical demands on the people, who bore the crushing burden of taxes and compulsory labor. These resources were overstrained by the completion of the Grand Canal—and other construction projects, including the reconstruction of the Great Wall. Weakened by costly and disastrous military campaigns against Goguryeo in the Korean Peninsula, which ended with the defeat of Sui in the early seventh century, the dynasty disintegrated through a combination of popular revolts, disloyalty, and assassination. Sui, however, had set up the conditions for the following great Tang dynasty.