Northern Wei: A Visual History

The Northern Wei was founded in 386 by Tuoba Gui, chief of a Xianbei clan, and under Emperor Taiwu unified all of north China by 439, ending the Sixteen Kingdoms. It fought the Rouran on the steppe, built the six frontier garrisons and, in 494, Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang and ordered his people to adopt Chinese names, dress and language. State Buddhism produced the cave temples of Yungang and Longmen. Garrison revolts and the massacre of the court at Heyin in 528 split the state into Eastern and Western Wei in 534-535.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Northern Wei. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Northern Wei territory

Timeline of the Northern Wei

1. 386
   Tuoba Gui founds Wei
2. 429
   Rouran routed
3. 439
   North China unified
4. 446
   Persecution of Buddhism
5. 460
   Yungang caves begun
6. 485
   Equal-field system
7. 494
   Capital moved to LuoyangSinicisation decrees.
8. 523
   Six Garrisons revolt
9. 528
   Heyin massacre
10. 535
    Split into Eastern and Western Wei

Unifying the north

Tuoba Gui refounded the Xianbei state of Dai as Wei in 386 and defeated the Later Yan. Emperor Taiwu (423-452) destroyed Xia, Northern Yan and Northern Liang, completing the conquest of the north in 439, smashed the Rouran in 429 and drove to the Yangtze in 450. Zealous for Taoism, he launched a savage persecution of Buddhism in 446.

Sinicisation

Empress Dowager Feng, regent for two emperors, introduced the equal-field system that gave every family land, and a village-based tax and control system later adopted by the Sui and Tang. Her grandson Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang, banned Xianbei dress and language at court, changed the royal surname to Yuan and encouraged intermarriage. Buddhism, restored after Taiwu, became the state religion, and enormous cave sculptures were carved at Yungang and then Longmen.

Split

The northern garrison soldiers, left behind as a despised frontier caste, revolted in 523. The general Erzhu Rong marched on Luoyang in 528, drowned the empress dowager and slaughtered some 2,000 officials at Heyin. His subordinates Gao Huan and Yuwen Tai then set up rival puppet emperors in Ye and Chang'an: Eastern Wei (534) and Western Wei (535), which became Northern Qi and Northern Zhou.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Xianbei state (93 to 234)
• Former Qin (351 to 394)
• Rouran Khaganate (330 to 555)
• Liu Song dynasty (420 to 479)
• Liang dynasty (502 to 557)
• Northern Qi (550 to 577)
• Northern Zhou (557 to 581)
• Sui dynasty (581 to 618)
• Eastern Jin dynasty (317 to 420)

8 surprising things about the Northern Wei

1. The Ballad of Mulan is set under the Northern Wei, and its ruler is called 'khan' and 'Son of Heaven' interchangeably.
2. The Yungang caves contain over 51,000 Buddhist statues, some over 17 metres tall.
3. Xiaowen changed his own surname from Tuoba to the Chinese Yuan and had his son executed for resisting Sinicisation.
4. The Wei custom of killing an heir's mother when he was named crown prince was meant to prevent empress dowagers seizing power; it did not work.
5. The equal-field land system devised under the Wei lasted until the eighth century.
6. The rebuilt Luoyang of the Wei had over 1,000 Buddhist monasteries by the 520s.
7. The Wei sent the monk Song Yun to India in 518 to fetch scriptures.
8. The Tang imperial family descended from the Northern Wei frontier military aristocracy that the Sinicisation policy had alienated.

Sources

• Northern Wei Wikipedia
• Wei dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Northern Wei Dynasty World History Encyclopedia
• Mark Edward Lewis, China Between Empires (2009) Harvard University Press

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