East Asia · The Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern dynasties
Former Qin
351–394
Former Qin (351–394), founded by the Di ruler Fu Jiàn and brought to its zenith by Fu Jiān (r. 357–385), briefly unified all of northern China (by 376), conquering Former Yan, Former Liang, and Dai. Its bid to conquer the south ended in catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Fei River (383) against the Eastern Jin, after which the empire disintegrated into successor states (Later Yan, Western Yan, Later Qin).
- Existed
- 351–394
- Shown on the map
- AD 353–393
- Peak area
- 1.8M km²
- Region
- East Asia
Overview
Former Qin (351–394), founded by the Di ruler Fu Jiàn and brought to its zenith by Fu Jiān (r. 357–385), briefly unified all of northern China (by 376), conquering Former Yan, Former Liang, and Dai. Its bid to conquer the south ended in catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Fei River (383) against the Eastern Jin, after which the empire disintegrated into successor states (Later Yan, Western Yan, Later Qin). Fu Jiān was killed by Yao Chang in 385.
Common questions
- What was Former Qin?
- Former Qin (351–394), founded by the Di ruler Fu Jiàn and brought to its zenith by Fu Jiān (r. 357–385), briefly unified all of northern China (by 376), conquering Former Yan, Former Liang, and Dai. Its bid to conquer the south ended in catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Fei River (383) against the Eastern Jin, after which the empire disintegrated into successor states (Later Yan, Western Yan, Later Qin).
- When did Former Qin exist?
- Former Qin existed 351–394. On this map it is drawn AD 353–393.
- How large was Former Qin?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Former Qin covered about 1.8 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Former Qin en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Former_Qin
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
See Former Qin in its world
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