Launch app →

East Asia · The Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern dynasties

Northern Qi

550–577

The Northern Qi (550–577), founded by Gao Yang (Emperor Wenxuan) from Eastern Wei, was militarily strong and wealthy (capital Ye) but notorious for a succession of cruel, unstable emperors. It was conquered by its western rival Northern Zhou in 577.

Existed
550–577
Shown on the map
AD 555–576
Peak area
833k km²
Region
East Asia

Overview

The Northern Qi (550–577), founded by Gao Yang (Emperor Wenxuan) from Eastern Wei, was militarily strong and wealthy (capital Ye) but notorious for a succession of cruel, unstable emperors. It was conquered by its western rival Northern Zhou in 577.

Common questions

What was Northern Qi?
The Northern Qi (550–577), founded by Gao Yang (Emperor Wenxuan) from Eastern Wei, was militarily strong and wealthy (capital Ye) but notorious for a succession of cruel, unstable emperors. It was conquered by its western rival Northern Zhou in 577.
When did Northern Qi exist?
Northern Qi existed 550–577. On this map it is drawn AD 555–576.
How large was Northern Qi?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Northern Qi covered about 833,000 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:

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 Northern Qi in its world

Open the atlas at AD 566 and every neighbour, rival and successor is on screen with it — then drag the slider and watch what happens next.

Open the map at AD 566 →