Northern Dynasties: Northern Wei 北魏 (386-534) Western Wei 西魏 (535-556) and Eastern Wei 東魏 (534-550) Northern Zhou 北周 (557-581) and Northern Qi 北齊 (550-577) Southern and Northern Dynasties overview After hundred and thirty years of foreign rule by various tribes over northern China, the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms 十六國, the chieftains of the Tuoba 拓跋 clan of the Xianbei 鮮卑 ethnicity were able to unite the northern part of China. The begin of their rule seemed to be the same than that of the previous only semi-civilized chieftains that called themselves emperor, made sporadic use of Chinese administration units and agencies, and brutally resettled the peasant population around their capitals to survive economically and fiscally. The Tuoba rulers had better Chinese advisers than their forerunners. They forced their own people to speak Chinese, to adopt Chinese names and culture, and challenged the own aristocracy by depriving them of their powerful offices, thereby strenghtened the position of the central government and contributed to the sinification of the foreign tribes. Furthermore, the Tuoba rulers (now called Yuan 元) developed a new system of equal land distribution (juntianfa 均田法) that should be adopted by the following Sui 隋 and Tang Dynasties 唐. A powerful instrument for the Northern Wei (Beiwei 北魏) rulers - as they were called later - was Buddhism, as the emperor was seen as a living incarnation of the ruling Buddha. Internal struggles made an end to the power of the central government. The north was divided into two short-lived empires, Eastern 東魏 and Western Wei 西魏, that were toppled and followed by two others, Northern Zhou 北周 and Northern Qi 北齊. The result of this almost two hundred year long period was the gradual reconstruction of the northern economy and the homogenization of the Chinese with the Non-Chinese population.

Map and Geography Event History Emperors and Rulers (Jin) Government and Administration (Jin) Literature and Philosophy Religion (Jin) Technology and Inventions Economy (Jin) Arts