Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms: China Divided (907-979)

The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period was the era of division in China between the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907 and the reunification of the country by the Song, completed in 979. In the north, five short-lived dynasties replaced each other in rapid succession, while about ten regional kingdoms ruled the south and west. Often remembered as an age of violence, it was also a time of economic growth and cultural creativity that shaped Song China.

Background: the end of the Tang

The Tang dynasty’s power had been draining away since the An Lushan Rebellion of 755–763, which left military governors in control of many provinces. The Huang Chao Rebellion of 875–884 finished the job, devastating the capital Chang’an and leaving the court dependent on warlords.

The most powerful of them was Zhu Wen, a former rebel who had changed sides. In 904 he forced the emperor to move to Luoyang and had Chang’an dismantled. In 907 he deposed the last Tang emperor, Ai, and declared himself emperor of the Later Liang, with his capital at Kaifeng.

Not every governor accepted him. Rivals in the north and the rulers of the south either declared their own states or simply ignored the new court, and China broke apart.

The Five Dynasties in the north

Five regimes ruled the north China plain in just 53 years. They were dominated by soldiers, and changes of ruler often came through mutiny or murder.

• Later Liang (907–923): founded by Zhu Wen, who was murdered by his own son in 912. It was destroyed by its long-standing enemy, the Shatuo Turks of Shanxi.
• Later Tang (923–936): founded by Li Cunxu, son of the Shatuo general Li Keyong, who claimed to restore the Tang and ruled from Luoyang. He was killed in a mutiny in 926.
• Later Jin (936–947): founded by Shi Jingtang with help from the Khitan Liao state, to which he ceded the Sixteen Prefectures around modern Beijing. When his successor defied the Khitans, they invaded and captured Kaifeng in 947.
• Later Han (947–951): founded by the general Liu Zhiyuan after the Khitans withdrew. It lasted only four years.
• Later Zhou (951–960): founded by Guo Wei and strengthened by his adopted son Chai Rong (Emperor Shizong), the ablest ruler of the period.

The Ten Kingdoms of the south

The south was more stable. Its kingdoms were ruled by former Tang governors and their descendants, and several lasted for decades.

The largest was Wu, based in Yangzhou, which in 937 was taken over by its chief minister and became the Southern Tang, with its capital at Jinling (modern Nanjing). Wuyue, centred on Hangzhou, controlled a wealthy coastal region and kept peace through careful diplomacy for over seventy years. In Sichuan, the Former Shu and Later Shu ruled a rich and isolated basin.

Other states included Min in Fujian, Chu in Hunan, Southern Han in Guangdong, and the small Jingnan (also called Nanping) on the middle Yangtze. Northern Han, a remnant of the Later Han based at Taiyuan, survived in the north as an ally of the Khitans.

These kingdoms built irrigation works, encouraged trade and minted their own coins. Many former Tang officials and scholars fled south, bringing administrative skill and learning.

The Khitans and the Sixteen Prefectures

The most important outside power was the Khitan people of the north-east. Their leader Abaoji declared himself emperor in 916, founding the state later known as the Liao dynasty.

Shi Jingtang’s cession of the Sixteen Prefectures in 938 gave the Khitans territory south of the Great Wall line, including the area of modern Beijing. This removed north China’s natural defensive barrier. Recovering these lands became a goal that the later Song dynasty never achieved.

Culture in an age of division

Despite the warfare, the period was culturally rich. Between 932 and 953 a series of northern governments, guided by the long-serving minister Feng Dao, sponsored the printing of the Confucian classics from woodblocks, a milestone in the spread of printed books.

Landscape painting reached new heights in the work of Jing Hao and Guan Tong in the north and Dong Yuan and Juran in the south. At the Southern Tang court, figure painting flourished; the famous handscroll Night Revels of Han Xizai, attributed to Gu Hongzhong and known from a later Song copy, depicts the entertainments of a Southern Tang official.

The last ruler of the Southern Tang, Li Yu (r. 961–975), became one of China’s most admired poets. His ci, lyric poems set to musical tunes, express loss and longing, especially those written after he became a captive of the Song.

Key people

• Zhu Wen (852–912): former rebel under Huang Chao who ended the Tang and founded the Later Liang.
• Li Cunxu (885–926): Shatuo commander who destroyed the Later Liang and founded the Later Tang, but lost his throne to a mutiny after three years.
• Shi Jingtang (892–942): founder of the Later Jin, remembered for ceding the Sixteen Prefectures to the Khitans and calling himself the Khitan emperor’s “son”.
• Feng Dao (882–954): minister who served several dynasties and sponsored the state printing of the Confucian classics; later historians criticised his shifting loyalties.
• Chai Rong (921–959): Later Zhou emperor whose reforms laid the groundwork for Song reunification.
• Li Yu (937–978): last ruler of the Southern Tang and one of China’s great lyric poets.

Life and the economy

For ordinary people in the north, the period brought repeated wars, heavy taxes and forced recruitment. Armies grew large and soldiers were sometimes tattooed to prevent desertion. Yet the bureaucracy kept functioning, and many officials served one dynasty after another.

The south fared better. Rice farming expanded in the lower Yangtze and in Fujian, tea and silk production grew, and ports such as Quanzhou and Guangzhou traded overseas. By the time of reunification, the south held a growing share of China’s population and wealth, a shift that continued under the Song.

Reunification under the Song

Chai Rong of the Later Zhou began to reverse the decline. He reformed the army, took territory from the Southern Tang north of the Yangtze, and in 955 closed thousands of Buddhist monasteries to raise revenue and metal for coins. He died in 959, leaving a child heir.

In 960 his commander Zhao Kuangyin seized power in a bloodless coup and founded the Song dynasty. The Song conquered Jingnan and Hunan, the successor territory of Chu, in 963, Later Shu in 965, Southern Han in 971 and Southern Tang in 975. Wuyue submitted peacefully in 978, and Northern Han fell in 979, completing reunification of the Chinese heartland, although the Sixteen Prefectures stayed in Khitan hands.

Timeline

• 907: Zhu Wen deposes the last Tang emperor and founds the Later Liang.
• 916: Abaoji proclaims himself emperor of the Khitans.
• 923: The Later Tang destroys the Later Liang.
• 936–938: Shi Jingtang founds the Later Jin and cedes the Sixteen Prefectures to the Khitans.
• 947: The Khitans capture Kaifeng; the Later Han is founded.
• 951: Guo Wei founds the Later Zhou.
• 960: Zhao Kuangyin founds the Song dynasty.
• 975: The Song conquers the Southern Tang.
• 979: Northern Han falls, completing Song reunification.

Why it matters

The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period was the bridge between Tang and Song China. It ended the dominance of the old aristocracy, shifted China’s economic centre further south, and taught the Song founders to keep generals firmly under civilian control, lessons that shaped Chinese government for centuries.