It was an exceptionally chaotic era, known as the Three Kingdoms, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties.
In 220 AD, Cao Pi, the son of Cao Cao, forced Emperor Xian of Han to abdicate and established the State of Wei, ushering in the Three Kingdoms period. Later, Sima Yan usurped the throne and established the Jin Dynasty, unifying China. This Jin Dynasty came to be known as the Western Jin.
The Western Jin erupted into the War of the Eight Princes, and foreign peoples began invading, plunging the land into chaos. This period is also known as the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Five Barbarians. It ended only when Northern Wei, which had nothing to do with Cao Cao’s Wei, unified the north. From then on, the north came to be known as the Northern Dynasties.
When the chaos of the Five Barbarians’ invasion began, the Western Jin fell. Members of the Jin imperial clan established the Eastern Jin in Jiankang, present-day Nanjing, and occupied the southern territories of China. This became known as the Southern Dynasties.
The Southern and Northern Dynasties existed in opposition for a long time, each trying to devour the other, hence the name Northern and Southern Dynasties.
After the Eastern Jin fell, the Southern Dynasties successively saw the Song (not the later Song Dynasty founded by Zhao Kuangyin), Qi, Liang, and Chen.
The Northern Wei of the Northern Dynasties was later split “down the middle, like a worm cut in two,” into Western Wei and Eastern Wei. They each transformed in turn: the former eventually became Northern Zhou, while the latter eventually became Northern Qi, the setting of this novel.
After Northern Zhou conquered Northern Qi, Yang Jian usurped the throne and brought an end to Northern Zhou, renaming it Sui. He then marched south and conquered the Southern Dynasty’s Chen, finally reunifying China.
It was a tragic song of a troubled age, and what a mess it was.
