Wuhu and Sixteen Kingdoms are so complicated! Can you tell us about it plainly?

When it comes to the history of the Wuhu and Sixteen Kingdoms, many people will feel a sense of mist because it involves too many countries and characters, and these countries are all short-lived, and their history adds up to only more than a hundred years, so it makes people very confused to read.

But in fact, the history of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms just looks messy, it is actually very simple.

The so-called Wuhu refers to the five ethnic minorities (Xiongnu, Xiongnu, Xianbei, Di, and Qiang) taking turns to dominate the north; The so-called sixteen countries are the sixteen influential countries established in the north.

Next, let's talk about Wuhu in detail:

As we all know, in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Rebellion of the Eight Kings led to the exhaustion of the national strength of the Western Jin Empire, so those ethnic minorities living in the Central Plains began to move, among which the Huns Liu Yuan took the lead in leading the five Xiongnu to rebel.

This Liu Yuan, his ancestor is the famous Xiongnu Mao Dunshan Yu in history. After the siege of Baideng, the Han Dynasty was forced to make peace with the Xiongnu, and Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, married a daughter of the clan to Mao Dunshan Yu. Since then, the descendants and descendants born to Mao Dunshan Yu and this Han princess have all taken the Liu family as their surname, and Liu Yuan is the descendant of this line.

At that time, Liu Yuan thought that the Han Dynasty had ruled the world for more than 400 years and had already won the hearts of the people, and he himself was the nephew of the Han Dynasty, so he named himself the king of Han and played the banner of restoring the Han family.

After four years of southern conquest and northern war, Liu Yuan successfully occupied the land of Shanxi and Hebei, so he officially called the emperor, and named the country "Han", known as the Xiongnu Han State in history.

Later, after Liu Yuan's death, his son Liu Cong destroyed the successful Western Jin Empire and initially unified the north. Unfortunately, after Liu Cong's death, his relatives and subordinates began to fight for the throne, and finally the Xiongnu Han Kingdom was divided into two, of which Liu Cong's younger brother Liu Yao occupied the land of Guanzhong; Liu Cong's subordinate Shi Le occupied the land of Kanto, and neither side was subjugated to the other.

Later, Liu Yao ascended the throne in Chang'an and proclaimed himself emperor, and changed the name of the country from "Han" to "Zhao", and was known as "Former Zhao" in history, so the Xiongnu Han Kingdom was also called the "Former Zhao Empire". As for Shi Le, after he ascended the throne in Xingtai, Hebei, he also positioned the country name as "Zhao", so his country was called "Later Zhao".

To put it simply, it is more than a dozen countries established by the five Hu people, some of which exist at the same time, and some of which are replaced.

You can simply think that it is actually a hodgepodge of the Northeast, because at that time, all parties were evenly matched, and everyone wanted to be the emperor, so they continued to usurp the throne and seize power.

They refer to Qianliang, Houliang, Nanliang, Xiliang, Beiliang, Qianzhao, Houzhao, Qianqin, Houqin, Xiqin, Qianyan, Houyan, Nanyan, Beiyan, Xia and Chenghan.

The Sixteen Kingdoms refer to Western Liang, Former Qin, Later Qin, Former Liang, Later Liang, Southern Liang, Western Qin, Former Yan, Later Yan, Southern Yan, Northern Liang, Former Zhao, Later Zhao, Northern Yan, Xia, and Cheng Han.

Qianliang, Nanliang, Houliang, Xiliang, Qianzhao, Beiliang, Houzhao, Houqin, Qianqin, Xiqin, Houyan, Qianyan, Nanyan, Xia, Beiyan, Chenghan.