Why was Former Qin not included in the Northern and Southern Dynasties?
Just as the Northern and Southern Dynasties did not include the Old Qin Dynasty, the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was in the same period as the Old Qin Dynasty, was not included in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. In fact, historians divide the history from the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty to the establishment of the Sui Dynasty into two periods: the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The author believes that there are two main reasons why Gu Qin was not included in the Northern and Southern Dynasties:
Shorten the time it takes to merge in the northern region.
In 316 AD, the Western Jin Dynasty fell, the Wuhu Rebellion began, and the contradictions between ** and the state intensified, leading to a protracted war in the north.
When Fu Jian established the old Qin state, the north was still in the midst of war. 369 In 1969, Murong Chui defected from the Old Yan State to the Old Qin State, and Fu Jian took the opportunity to send Wang Mang and Murong Chui to lead an army to break through the Old Yan State, and the following year he captured Murong Wei, thus conquering the Kwantung region. In 371, Qiu Jidiao and the Yan Kingdom were destroyed; In 373, the southwestern Yiqiong, Sikong, and Yelang returned to the Qin state; In 376, Qianliang was destroyed; In the same year, the former Qin invaded the Dai Kingdom and destroyed the Dai Kingdom. In the same year, the former Qin attacked the dynasty and destroyed the dynasty. At this point, the former Qin unified the north.
However, in 383, a war broke out between the two countries, and Lao Qin was defeated and suffered heavy losses. After the war, the tribes loyal to Lao Qin re-emerged, and the north fell into chaos again.
According to accurate calculations, it took only five years for the ancient Qin to unify the north.
The real conflict is not between the North and the South.
During this period, chaos abounded in the north, and the main contradictions occurred between the northern countries, which either attacked each other or fought among themselves. On the other hand, the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the south was in a period of weak monarchy and strong ministers for a long time, and internal contradictions were frequent, and the main contradiction was the contradiction between monarchs and ministers.
During this period, neither the North nor the South were stable enough to form a real antagonism; The North is too busy attacking each other to attack the South, and the South is too busy with internal integration to attack the North. The largest war between the North and the South was the Interstate War of 383, which led directly to the North again**.
In fact, there were fewer Civil Wars during this period. It was not until Liu Yu replaced the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Northern Wei Dynasty unified the north that a real north-south conflict occurred.
Since the period before the Jin Dynasty was a brief period of unification based on the Northern Partition War, and the North and the South did not form a real antagonism, this period is often referred to as the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and is not included in the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties.