Western Jin dynasty: A Visual History

The Western Jin dynasty was founded in 266 when Sima Yan forced the last Cao Wei emperor to abdicate. In 280 it conquered Eastern Wu and reunified China for the first time since 184. But Sima Yan's feeble-minded heir Emperor Hui triggered the War of the Eight Princes (291-306), which devastated the north and drew in the Xiongnu and Xianbei tribes settled inside the frontier. Xiongnu forces sacked Luoyang in 311 and Chang'an in 316, capturing two emperors; a Jin prince re-established the dynasty at Nanjing as the Eastern Jin.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Western Jin dynasty. 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.

Registered population

Registration collapsed with the state; the real population fall was smaller but still severe.

Timeline of the Western Jin dynasty

1. 249
   Sima Yi's coupThe Sima control Wei.
2. 263
   Shu Han conquered
3. 266
   Jin foundedSima Yan takes the throne.
4. 280
   Wu conqueredChina reunified.
5. 291
   War of the Eight Princes begins
6. 304
   Liu Yuan founds Han ZhaoThe Sixteen Kingdoms begin.
7. 311
   Luoyang sackedEmperor Huai captured.
8. 316
   Chang'an fallsEmperor Min captured; Western Jin ends.

The Sima usurpation

Sima Yi, Cao Wei's leading general, seized control of the Wei court in 249; his sons Sima Shi and Sima Zhao ruled through puppet emperors and conquered Shu Han in 263. Sima Yan took the throne himself in 266 and in 280 sent armies down the Yangtze to crush Wu, reuniting China. He then demobilised the provincial armies and gave his many relatives princedoms with their own troops.

The Eight Princes

Sima Yan's successor Emperor Hui was mentally disabled; his empress Jia Nanfeng ruled through him until a coup in 300. For the next six years Sima princes fought each other for control of the emperor across the north, murdering each other in turn and hiring Xiongnu and Xianbei auxiliaries. Famine, plague and locusts followed the armies.

Yongjia disaster

Liu Yuan, a Sinicised Xiongnu chief, proclaimed his own Han (later Zhao) state in 304. His son Liu Cong's forces destroyed the last Jin field army and in 311 sacked Luoyang, killing 30,000 and capturing Emperor Huai; Emperor Min was captured at Chang'an in 316. Both were humiliated as servants and executed. Sima Rui, governor of the south, was proclaimed emperor at Jiankang (Nanjing) in 317, beginning 270 years of north-south division.

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

• Cao Wei (220 to 266)
• Shu Han (221 to 263)
• Eastern Wu (222 to 280)
• Eastern Jin dynasty (317 to 420)
• Former Zhao (Han Zhao) (304 to 329)
• Later Zhao (319 to 351)
• Xianbei state (93 to 234)

Wars of the same era and region

• Three Kingdoms period (184 to 280)

8 surprising things about the Western Jin dynasty

1. Sima Yan reportedly rode a goat cart around his palace and slept wherever it stopped, since he had thousands of concubines.
2. Emperor Hui, told his people were starving for lack of rice, is said to have asked why they did not eat meat porridge.
3. The Jin captured emperors were made to serve wine at Xiongnu banquets before being killed.
4. The Xiongnu rulers who destroyed the Jin claimed to be heirs of the Han through the Han princesses married to their ancestors.
5. The mass migration of northern aristocrats south after 311 shaped southern Chinese dialects and culture.
6. The Jin dynasty's founding involved forcing an abdication in exactly the way its Wei predecessor had forced one from the Han.
7. The War of the Eight Princes actually involved more than eight princes; the name comes from a later chapter heading.
8. The Jin was the last dynasty to rule a united China until the Sui in 589.

Sources

• Jin dynasty (266-420) Wikipedia
• Jin dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• War of the Eight Princes Wikipedia
• Mark Edward Lewis, China Between Empires: The Northern and Southern Dynasties (2009) Harvard University Press

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