East Asia · Confederacies, Han and the steppe
Western Jin
266–420
The Western Jin (266–316), founded by Sima Yan (Emperor Wu) after usurping Cao Wei, reunified China by conquering Eastern Wu in 280. This unity was brief: the ruinous War of the Eight Princes (291–306) among Sima kinsmen devastated the state, and the Uprising of the Five Barbarians led to the sack of Luoyang (311) and Chang'an (316) by Xiongnu forces.
- Existed
- 266–420
- Shown on the map
- AD 265–425
- Peak area
- 4.4M km²
- Region
- East Asia
Overview
The Western Jin (266–316), founded by Sima Yan (Emperor Wu) after usurping Cao Wei, reunified China by conquering Eastern Wu in 280. This unity was brief: the ruinous War of the Eight Princes (291–306) among Sima kinsmen devastated the state, and the Uprising of the Five Barbarians led to the sack of Luoyang (311) and Chang'an (316) by Xiongnu forces. The court fled south to reconstitute as the Eastern Jin (317–420) at Jiankang, beginning the north–south division.
Common questions
- What was Western Jin?
- The Western Jin (266–316), founded by Sima Yan (Emperor Wu) after usurping Cao Wei, reunified China by conquering Eastern Wu in 280. This unity was brief: the ruinous War of the Eight Princes (291–306) among Sima kinsmen devastated the state, and the Uprising of the Five Barbarians led to the sack of Luoyang (311) and Chang'an (316) by Xiongnu forces.
- When did Western Jin exist?
- Western Jin existed 266–420. On this map it is drawn AD 265–425.
- How large was Western Jin?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Western Jin covered about 4.4 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 — Jin dynasty (266–420) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin_dynasty_(266%E2%80%93420)
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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