History Tunnel

Three Kingdoms (AD 220-280):  Late in the Han Dynasty, an ambitious general, Dong Zhuo, deposed the emperor and installed his own protégé?  Thousands of warlords across the country were angry about his action and rebelled, eventually killed him.  Tsao Tsao, a very distinguished but unscrupulous general of the emperor, was one of the rebels.  After Dong Zhuo was killed, General Tsao Tsao took the control of the emperor and defeated all other warlords in the northeastern part of China. Years later, General Tsao Tsao died. His son, Tsao Pei dethroned the Emperor and in AD 220, set up Wei Kingdom, unifying the northern territory of China.  At the same time, in the southwest General Liu Bei, who was a Han prince, formed Shu Kingdom ( also called Shu Han Kingdom) and General Sun Quan created Wu Kingdom in the southeast.  These are the famous Three Kingdoms ( Wei, Shu and Wu) in Chinese history.  The tangled wars among these three kingdoms never ceased.  Some historians call this Three Kingdom period " Dark Age".

Many exciting plays and stories are written about the Three Kingdoms.  These stories have a profound influence on Chinese culture and life.  A quite few of Chinese popular slang originated from these stories.  For example, people say,  "when I’m talking about Tsao Tsao, Tsao Tsao is here”, that means “ the person whom I am talking about has just arrived”.  If you want to compliment somebody’s wisdom, you can say “ you are as smart as Zhuge liang ( who was the brilliant strategist of General Liu Bei in Shu Kingdom).  I bet a popular dish---General Tsao Chicken, offered in Chinese restaurants in the US was named after General Tsao Tsao (but I have no idea whether General Tsao Tsao liked chicken or not).    The best-known stories about this period is the novel “ The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. 

The Western and Eastern Jin (AD265-316):  The fire among the Three kingdoms burnt fiercely.  In AD 263, the last Wei emperor conquered Shu Han Kingdom.  But two years later, this emperor was deposed by one of his generals--- Sima Yan, who established a new dynasty, the Western Jin.  In AD 280, Sima Yan defeated the remaining Kingdom Wu and China was finally unified.   But the union didn't last long.  In the northern frontier, the Xiongnu of Central Asia , like a crouching tiger, was eager to invade China.  In AD 316, the Xiongnu surrounded the capital Chang'an (modern Xi'an, in northwest China) and killed the last emperor of the Western Jin.  The northern part of China fell under the control of the Xiongnu, as the decedents of the Western Jin royal families fled to the south.   In AD 317, they set up a exile government---the Eastern Jin (AD 317-420).  The Eastern Jin never stopped their endeavors to unify China, but they were not successful.

The Northern and Southern Dynasties ( AD 420-589): In AD 420, one bold warlord named Liu Yu usurped the power of the emperor of Eastern Jin.  After the reign of the Eastern Jin was over, four other dynasties followed in the south----the Song, Qi, Liang and then Chen.  They were collectively called the Southern Dynasties (AD 420-589).   Meanwhile, three dynasties governed in the north, controlled by non-Chinese rulers.   These three dynasties, Northern Wei, Northern Qi and Northern Zhou, were called the Northern Dynasties (AD 386-581).