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

Northern Zhou

557–581

The Northern Zhou (557–581), founded by the Yuwen clan from Western Wei, conquered Northern Qi in 577 to reunify the north. Emperor Wu (r. 560–578) was an able ruler who curbed Buddhism and strengthened the state.

Existed
557–581
Shown on the map
AD 561–586
Peak area
1.7M km²
Region
East Asia

Overview

The Northern Zhou (557–581), founded by the Yuwen clan from Western Wei, conquered Northern Qi in 577 to reunify the north. Emperor Wu (r. 560–578) was an able ruler who curbed Buddhism and strengthened the state. After his death, the regent Yang Jian seized power, deposed the child emperor, and founded the Sui in 581.

Common questions

What was Northern Zhou?
The Northern Zhou (557–581), founded by the Yuwen clan from Western Wei, conquered Northern Qi in 577 to reunify the north. Emperor Wu (r. 560–578) was an able ruler who curbed Buddhism and strengthened the state.
When did Northern Zhou exist?
Northern Zhou existed 557–581. On this map it is drawn AD 561–586.
How large was Northern Zhou?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Northern Zhou covered about 1.7 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:

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).

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