Jin Dynasty: Western Jin 西晉 (265-316) Eastern Jin 東晉 (317-420) The Jin Dynasty - founded by Sima Yan 司馬炎 and named after an old state of the Warring States Period 戰國 - is divided into two parts called Western Jin (Xijin 西晉) and Eastern Jin (Dongjin 東晉), names that follow the traditional division of Han in Western 西漢 and Eastern Han 東漢. But unlike the Han Dynasty that was simply continued after a short interlude of the usurper Wang Mang 王莽, the shift of the capital from Luoyang to Jiankang 建康 (modern Nanjing 南京/Jiangsu) 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 長江 area. While the Western Jin Dynasty had unified China after the Three Kingdoms Period 三國 and therefore stood in the tradition of the great Han Empire, the Eastern Jin only ruled over a part of China that had been still in development until then because it was remote from the antique centers in the Yellow River 黃河 plain. 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.

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