China

The Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms

China: Hou Liang periodChina during the period of the Hou (Later) Liang dynasty (907–923).Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

China: Hou Tang periodChina during the period of the Hou (Later) Tang dynasty (923–936/937).Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

China: Hou Jin and Hou Han periodsChina during the period of the Hou (Later) Jin and Hou Han dynasties (936–946/947 and 947–950/951, respectively).Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

China: Hou Zhou periodChina during the period of the Hou (Later) Zhou dynasty (951–960).Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.The period of political disunity between the Tang and the Song lasted little more than half a century, from 907 to 960. During that brief era, when China was truly a multistate system, five short-lived regimes succeeded one another in control of the old imperial heartland in northern China, hence the name Wudai (Five Dynasties). During those same years, 10 relatively stable regimes occupied sections of southern and western China, so the period is also referred to as that of the Shiguo (Ten Kingdoms).

Most of the major developments of that period were extensions of changes already under way during the late Tang, and many were not completed until after the founding of the Song dynasty. For example, the process of political disintegration had begun long before Zhu Wen brought the Tang dynasty to a formal end in 907. The developments that eventually led to reunification, the rapid economic and commercial growth of the period, and the decline of the aristocratic clans had also begun long before the first Song ruler, Taizu, reconquered most of the empire, and they continued during the reigns of his successors on the Song throne.