Sixteen Kingdoms

As the Western Jin collapsed, the Xiongnu, Jie, Xianbei, Di, and Qiang peoples founded regime after regime across the north and in Sichuan — more than twenty in all; sixteen of them were later counted together as the Sixteen Kingdoms.

These were restless years: regimes changed like lantern slides, and common people fled their homes in great numbers. They were also years of blending: peoples lived and intermarried side by side, folding stools and foreign foods entered the Central Plains, and Chinese ways reached the peoples of the steppe.

In 439 the Northern Wei united the north, the Sixteen Kingdoms closed, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties began.