Era Information 

Time: 220A.D.-589A.D. 

Location of Capital: China was divded by three Regional states 

Emperors: 

Replaced by: Southern and Northern Dynasties

Introduction

The Jin Dynasty was founded in what would become northern Manchuria by the Jurchen tribal chieftan Wányán Āgǔdǎ (完顏阿骨打) in 1115. In 1125, it successfully annihilated the Liao Dynasty which had held sway over northern China, including Manchuria and part of the Mongol region for several centuries. Also at this time, the Jin made overtures to the Korean kingdom of Goryeo, which Emperor Yejong refused.

On January 9, 1127, Jin forces ransacked Kaifeng, capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, capturing both Emperor Qinzong, and his father, Emperor Huizong, who had abdicated in panic in the face of Jin forces. Following the fall of Kaifeng, Song forces under the leadership of the succeeding Southern Song Dynasty continued to fight for over a decade with Jin forces, eventually signing the Treaty of Shaoxing in 1141, calling for the cessation of all Song land north of the Huai River to the Jin and the execution of Song General Yue Fei in return for peace. [edit] The migration south Jade ornament with flower design, Jin Dynasty, Shanghai Museum. After taking over Northern China, the Jin Dynasty became increasingly Sinicized. About three million people, half of them Jurchens, migrated south into northern China over two decades, and this minority governed about thirty million people.

The Jurchens were given land grants and organized society into 1,000 households (猛安 - meng'an) and 100 households (謀克 - mouke). Many married Hans, although the ban on Jurchen nobles marrying Hans was not lifted until 1191. After Jin Emperor Tàizōng (太宗) died in 1135, the next three Jin emperors were grandsons of Wányán Āgǔdǎ by three different princes. Young Jin Emperor Xīzōng (熙宗) (r. 1135-1149) studied the classics and wrote Chinese poetry. He adopted Han cultural traditions, but the Jurchen nobles had the top positions. Later in life, Emperor Xīzōng became an alcoholic and executed many officials for criticizing him. He also had Jurchen leaders who opposed him murdered, even those in his own Wanyan family clan. In 1149 he was murdered by a cabal of relatives and nobles, who made his cousin Wányán Liàng (完顏亮) the next Jin emperor. Because of the brutality of both his domestic and foreign policy, Wanyan Liang was posthumously demoted from the position of emperor. Consequently, historians have commonly referred to him by the posthumous name of Prince Hǎilíng (海陵王).

Rebellions in the north A marble statue of a Buddhist monk, 1180 AD, Jin Dynasty. Having usurped the throne, Wanyan Liang embarked on the program of legitimizing his rule as an emperor of China. In 1153, he moved the empire's main capital from Huining Fu in northern Manchuria (south of present-day Harbin) to the former Liao capital, Yanjing (now Beijing).[4][5] Four years later, in 1157, to emphasize the permanence of the move, he razed the nobles’ residences in Huining.[4][5] Hǎilíng also reconstructed the former Song capital, Bianjing (now Kaifeng), which had been sacked in 1127, making it the Jin's southern capital.

The flourish of Buddhism 

Since its incoming, Buddhism flourished in the period of Wei, Jin and Nan Bei Dynasties. There are several reasons for the phenomenon. First, The situation of the time leads to the hard life of people which make them believe the Buddhism can give them happiness after they died. In the three hundred of years of ruling, the regime changed often. Corruption was prevailed in government from high to low. Besides these, the interlude of the foreign groups worse the life of people. The common people can not find hope in the real life, which make them put their hope in the religion. To comfort people’s worsening life, Buddhism abstinence people’s appetency.

Buddhism was developed in the situation. The Buddhism religion can be flourished for its doxy was needed at the time. In the early time, Buddhism’s doxy was mainly said that spirit can not be disappeared after one died. Second, one will be punished by the nature when he does wrong. Third, the life of people can be recycled. This doxy meets the need of the wrenched and the ruined for the hope of good life.

Western Jin 

The first of the two periods, the Western Jìn Dynasty (ch: 西晉, 265–316), was founded by Emperor Wu, better known as Sima Yan. Although providing a brief period of unity after conquering the state of Eastern Wu in 280, the Jìn could not contain the invasion and uprising of nomadic peoples after the devastating War of the Eight Princes. The capital was Luoyang until 311 when Emperor Huai was captured by the forces of Han Zhao. The successive reign of Emperor Min lasted four years in Chang'an until its conquest by Han Zhao in 316.

Meanwhile remnants of the Jìn court fled from the north to the south and reestablished the Jìn court at Jiankang, south-east of Luoyang and Chang'an and near modern-day Nanjing, under the Prince of Langye. Prominent local families of Zhu, Gan, Lu, Gu and Zhou supported the proclamation of Prince of Langye as Emperor Yuan of the Eastern Jìn Dynasty (ch: 東晉 317–420) when the news of the fall of Chang'an reached the south. (Because the emperors of the Eastern Jìn Dynasty came from the Langye line, the rival Wu Hu states which did not recognize its legitimacy would at times refer to Jìn as "Langye.") 

Eastern Jin 

Meanwhile remnants of the Jìn court fled from the north to the south and reestablished the Jìn court at Jiankang, south-east of Luoyang and Chang'an and near modern-day Nanjing, under the Prince of Langye. Prominent local families of Zhu, Gan, Lu, Gu and Zhou supported the proclamation of Prince of Langye as Emperor Yuan of the Eastern Jìn Dynasty (ch: 東晉 317–420) when the news of the fall of Chang'an reached the south. (Because the emperors of the Eastern Jìn Dynasty came from the Langye line, the rival Wu Hu states which did not recognize its legitimacy would at times refer to Jìn as "Langye.")

Militaristic authorities and crises plagued the Eastern Jìn court throughout its 104 years of existence. It survived the rebellions of Wang Dun and Su Jun. Huan Wen died in 373 before he could usurp the throne (which he had intended to do). Battle of Fei turned out to be a victory of Jìn under a short-lived cooperation of Huan Chong, brother of Huan Wen and the Prime Minister (or Imperial Secretariat) Xie An. Huan Xuan, son of Huan Wen, usurped and changed the name of the dynasty to Chu. He was toppled by Liu Yu, who ordered the strangulation of the reinstated but retarded Emperor An. The last emperor and brother of Emperor An, Emperor Gong, was installed in 419. The abdication of Emperor Gong in 420 in favor of Liu Yu, ushered in the Liu Song Dynasty and a series of dynasties in the south, collectively known as the Southern Dynasties. The Jin Dynasty thus came to an end. Meanwhile North China was ruled by the Sixteen Kingdoms, many of which were founded by the Wu Hu, the non-Han Chinese ethnicities. The conquest of the Northern Liang by the Northern Wei Dynasty in 439 ushered in the Northern Dynasties. 

Tao Yuan Ming

Tao Qian (simplified Chinese: 陶潜; traditional Chinese: 陶潛; pinyin: Táo Qián; Wade-Giles: T'ao Ch'ien, 365–427), better known as Tao Yuanming (陶淵明), was a Chinese poet. Born in modern Jiujiang, Jiangxi, he was one of the most influential pre-Tang Dynasty (618-907) Chinese poets. He came from a notable family which had descended into poverty; when young, he was torn between ambition and a desire to retreat into solitude. His great-grandfather was the famous Eastern Jin general and governor, Tao Kan. He served in a series of minor posts, but his sister's death, as well as disgust at the corruption and infighting of the Jin Court prompted his resignation, convincing him that life was too short to compromise on his principles; as he put it himself, he would not "bow like a servant in return for five bushels of grain" ("為五斗米折腰" has entered common usage to mean "swallowing one's pride in exchange for a meager existence". 'Five bushels of grain' refers to the salary of a low-ranking official). He lived in retirement for his last 22 years. Approximately 130 of his works survive. Most of them were poems or essays, which depict an idyllic pastoral life of farming and drinking; because of this he would later be termed the "Poet of the Fields". While his poems were not influential in his time, they would later be a major influence on the poetry of the Tang and Song Dynasties. Du Fu, his great admirer, wrote in his poem Oh, Such a Shame which describes his own life in the countryside: Only by wine one's heart is lit, / only a poem calms a soul that's torn. / You'd understand me, Tao Qian. / I wish a little sooner I was born! Apart from his poems, Tao is perhaps best known today for his short but intriguing depiction (in prose) of a land hidden from the outside world called "Peach Blossom Spring" (桃花源記). The name Peach Blossom Spring (桃花源 Tao Hua Yuan) has since become the standard Chinese term for 'utopia'.