Sima Rui founds the Eastern Jin at Jiankang
After Han-Zhao troops captured the last emperor of the Western Jin, Sima Rui, Prince of Langya, who governed the lower Yangtze from Jiankang (modern Nanjing), took the title King of Jin on 6 April 317 and on 26 April 318 proclaimed himself emperor. The restored dynasty, the Eastern Jin, ruled southern China until 420, while the north was divided among the Sixteen Kingdoms.
- Date
- 6 April 317 – 26 April 318exact date · duration: ≈ 13 monthsDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Jiankangtoday: Nanjing, Jiangsu, China · East Asia
- Participants
- Sima Rui, Jin dynasty (266–420)
- Threads
- East Asia in the 1st–5th centuries
- Also known as
- Founding of the Eastern Jin; Emperor Yuan of Jin; Основание Восточной Цзинь; Юань-ди; 東晉
Sima Rui (276–323), a great-grandson of Sima Yi, was sent by the regent Sima Yue in 307 to command the region south of the Yangtze from Jianye. Guided by his adviser Wang Dao and supported by Wang Dao’s cousin, the general Wang Dun, he won over the southern gentry, He Xun and Gu Rong among them, and after the fall of Luoyang in 311 took in the northern émigré families. In 313 Jianye was renamed Jiankang to avoid the personal name of the new emperor, Sima Ye (Emperor Min). When Chang’an fell and Emperor Min surrendered to the Han-Zhao in December 316, Sima Rui’s officials urged him to take the throne. He refused and, following the precedent of the Wei and the Jin, accepted only the title King of Jin on the xinmao day of the third month of the first year of Jianwu — 6 April 317; he proclaimed an amnesty, changed the era name, appointed more than a hundred aides, whom contemporaries nicknamed “the hundred and six aides”, and established the ancestral temple and state altars at Jiankang.
Emperor Min was put to death at Pingyang on Liu Cong’s orders on 7 February 318; the news reached Jiankang on 23 April, and three days later, on 26 April 318, Sima Rui ascended the throne. Known as Emperor Yuan, he ruled roughly the lands south of the Yellow River and east of the Three Gorges, but depended on the great émigré clans: people said that the Wang and the Sima shared the realm, and his conflict with Wang Dun ended in rebellion in 322. Historians date the Eastern Jin from 317. It lasted until 420, and Jiankang remained the capital of the southern dynasties that followed — Liu Song, Southern Qi, Liang and Chen — until 589.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Disaster of Yongjia: Han-Zhao troops sack Luoyang13 July 311 · East AsiaThe fall of Luoyang drove northern families south and made Sima Rui the leader of the Jin loyalists
Related events
- Sima Yan founds the Jin dynasty8 February 266 · East AsiaThe dynasty founded by Sima Yan in 266 continued in the south
- Ge Hong completes the Baopuzibetween 317 and 318 · East AsiaGe Hong finished the book in Sima Rui’s first era, Jianwu, and served on his staff
- Fan Wen of Linyi seizes Rinan from the Jin347–349 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaLinyi took Rinan, the southernmost commandery of the Eastern Jin
- The Orchid Pavilion Gathering: Wang Xizhi writes the Lanting Preface22 April 353 · East AsiaWang Xizhi’s clan, the Wang of Langya, helped Sima Rui found the Eastern Jin
- Zhu Zhantan, the ‘Indian’ king of Funan, offers tamed elephants to the Jin court357 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniathe embassy came to the Eastern Jin court at Jiankang
- Battle of Fei Riverbetween 30 November 383 and 9 January 384 · East AsiaThe victory saved the Eastern Jin, the southern successor state founded in 317
Same participants
- The Sogdian “Ancient Letters”between 312 and 314 · Central and Northern Asiavia Jin dynasty (266–420)
Same place
- Conquest of Wu by Jinbetween 21 December 279 and 18 January 280 – 1 May 280 · East Asia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Eastern Europe
- Chernyakhov culturebetween 200 and 250 – between 400 and 430
- Kyiv culturec. 200 – between 400 and 430
Middle East and Egypt
- Pachomius founds the first cenobitic monastery at Tabennisibetween 318 and 323
- Reign of Shapur II309–379
Africa
- Donatist schismbetween 311 and 312 – 411
Central and Northern Asia
- The Kushano-Sasanian kingdom in Bactriabetween 230 and 262 – between 350 and 370
South Asia
- Chandragupta I, ‘great king of kings’, and the beginning of the Gupta erabetween 318 and 320
- The Buddha’s tooth relic is brought to Sri Lankabetween 309 and 371
- Vijayapuri of the Ikshvakus: the monasteries of Nagarjunakondabetween 210 and 250 – between 300 and 350
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
- Gold pendant copying a coin of Antoninus Pius at Óc Eobetween 152 and 600
North America
- Late Basketmaker II erac. 50 – c. 500
- Hopewell traditionbetween 200 and 100 BC – c. 500
Latin America
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
- Teotihuacan at its height: the largest city of the Americasc. 250 – c. 550
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Emperor Yuan of Jin
- Wikipedia (English): Jin dynasty (266–420)
- Wikipedia (English): Jiankang
- Wikipedia (Russian): Юань-ди (Восточная Цзинь)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Цзинь (265—420)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Цзянькан
- Цзинь шу, гл. 6: анналы Юань-ди (кит. текст, Викитека)
- Dien A. E., Knapp K. N. (eds.) The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 2: The Six Dynasties, 220–589. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
- История Китая с древнейших времён до начала XXI века: в 10 т. Т. III: Троецарствие, Цзинь, Южные и Северные династии, Суй, Тан (220–907) / отв. ред. И. Ф. Попова, М. Е. Кравцова. — М.: Наука — Восточная литература, 2014.