Sixteen Kingdoms
Fall of the Western Jin to the Han-Zhao

Jin princes and military governors often recruited non-Chinese tribes into their armies in their suppression of rebellions and wars with each other. Also in 304, Liu Yuan, a Xiongnu chieftain, who had been fighting in the Jin civil war on the side of Prince Sima Ying, returned home to Shanxi where he reorganized the five tribes of the Xiongnu and declared independence as the successor to the Han dynasty. His regime, later renamed Zhao, is designated by historians as the Han-Zhao.

After Liu Yuan died in 310, his son Liu Cong killed older brother Liu He and claimed the throne. Liu Cong captured the Jin capital Luoyang and Emperor Huai in 311. In 316, Liu Cong's cousin Liu Yao seized Chang'an (modern day Xi'an) and Emperor Min, ending the Western Jin dynasty. Sima Rui, a Jin prince who had moved to the South, continued the dynasty as the Eastern Jin from Jiankang (modern day Nanjing). The collapse of Jin authority in the North led other leaders to declare independence. In 315, Tuoba Yilu, a Xianbei chieftain, founded the Dai in modern-day Inner Mongolia. In 318, Zhang Shi, the ethnic Chinese governor of Liangzhou founded the Former Liang in modern-day Gansu.
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