Jin dynasty

Jin dynasty

 or Chin dynasty

Period of Chinese history (AD 265–420) following the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo) and preceding the Southern Dynasties (Nanchao) periods. It is the first of two major Chinese dynastic periods to bear that name, the other Jin (or Juchen) dynasty ruling in 1115–1234. The dynasty had two distinct phases: the Western (Xi) Jin (265–317) and the Eastern (Dong) Jin (317–420). The latter is considered one of the Six Dynasties that ruled China between the fall of the Han (220) and the establishment of the Sui (581). China was reunited under Sima Yan (Ssu-ma Yen), first of the Jin emperors, but after his death the empire rapidly crumbled. The Xiongnu nomads of the north overran the Jin capital of Luoyang and later defeated the Jin again at Chang'an. For the next two centuries China was divided into two societies, northern (plagued by barbarian invasions) and southern. The Eastern Jin, founded by another Sima prince at Nanjing, suffered revolts, court intrigues, and frontier wars but also saw the flourishing of Buddhism in China and the birth of China's first great painter, Gu Kaizhi (344–406?).

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Jin dynasty

 or Juchen dynasty

(1115–1234) Dynasty that ruled an empire formed by the Tungus Juchen tribes of Manchuria. It covered much of Inner Asia and all of northern China. Like the Liao, an earlier Inner Asian dynasty, the Juchen maintained a Chinese-style bureaucracy to rule over the southern part of their conquests and a tribal state to rule in Inner Asia. Conscious of preserving their ethnic identity, they maintained their language, developed their own script, and banned Chinese clothes and customs from their army.