In the fourth century AD, the Western Jin dynasty collapsed amid the Rebellion of the Eight Princes. The Xiongnu, Jie, Xianbei, and other northern peoples poured into the Central Plains like a flood. Historical records say, "The northern lands were bleak; the aristocracy moved south; northern tribes were everywhere, and the sons of Han nearly faced total slaughter."
It is no exaggeration to say that this was the darkest era in the history of Chinese civilization, bar none!
Then Ran Min, a Han Chinese youth raised by a northern tribesman, stepped forward. His four "Kill the Hu" edicts stopped the Central Plains from becoming a vast pasture for horsemen and prevented the Han people from being wiped out!
