Chapter 15 Chapter 4 Long-term division and short-term unification: Three Kingdoms to the Northern and Southern Dynasties

As soon as the Yellow Turban Uprising was suppressed, the competition within the ruling group of the Eastern Han Dynasty reached a fever pitch.In the sixth year of Zhongping (AD 189), after the death of Emperor Ling, Dong Zhuo led his troops into Luoyang, made Liu Xie (Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty) the emperor, and took over the power of the court.The Guandong prefecture launched a crusade, and Dong Zhuo forced Emperor Xian to move the capital to Chang'an. Luoyang and the surrounding 200 li were completely destroyed.In the third year of Chuping (192 A.D.), Wang Yun killed Dong Zhuo, but soon Dong Zhuo's generals invaded Chang'an and killed Wang Yun.In the second year of Xingping (195 A.D.), Dong Zhuo's troops would clash with each other, and the city of Chang'an became a battlefield. Coupled with famine, the people in Guanzhong died or fled, and no one was seen within two or three years.Emperor Xian finally escaped from Chang'an, but Luoyang was in ruins and could not settle down.In the first year of Jian'an (AD 196), Cao Cao sent troops to welcome Emperor Xian to Xu County (to the east of Xuchang County, Henan today), and Xu County (renamed Xuchang in 221 AD) became the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty for the last 20 years.However, the power of the imperial court was already in the hands of Cao Cao. Since the tenth year of Jian'an (205 A.D.), Cao Cao took Ye (southwest of Linzhang County, Hebei today) as his base, was named the queen of Wei, and took Ye as his capital. de facto political center.After years of fierce fighting, the situation of the three regimes headed by Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan gradually became clear.

In the first year of Emperor Xiankang (AD 220), Cao Cao died of illness, and his son Cao Pi abolished Han Xiandi.In the second year, Liu Bei took the throne in Chengdu, and continued to call it the Han Dynasty, and later generations called it Shuhan or Shu.Sun Quan accepted Wei's title as King of Wu, and took Wuchang (now Ezhou City, Hubei Province) as his capital. In fact, he was not under the control of Wei. In 229 AD, he became emperor and moved his capital to Jianye (now Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province).Although wars broke out between the Three Kingdoms from time to time, the territory is generally stable: the boundary between Wei, Wu, and Shu is between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, the present-day Dabie Mountains, the line from Hanchuan to Xingshan in Hubei, Daba Mountains, and Qinling Mountains, and between Wu and Shu It is bounded by the western boundary of present-day Hubei, the line from Wuchuan to Taijiang in Guizhou, the western boundary of Guangxi and the Sino-Vietnamese border.After Cao Cao pacified Wuhuan, the territory of the Northeast had basically recovered to the range of the middle Eastern Han Dynasty, but the Xianbei people had entered the fringe areas in large numbers, and the actual control area of ​​the Wei State had shrunk.

In 263 A.D. (the fourth year of Wei Jingyuan and the first year of Shu Yanxing), Wei destroyed Shu. Two years later, Sima Yan replaced Wei and established the Jin Dynasty, known as the Western Jin Dynasty in history.In the first year of Taikang (280 A.D.), Jin destroyed Wu, temporarily ending the split.