Editing Northern Wei (section)

== Disunity and breakup ==
[[File:Uprisings of Northern Wei.jpg|thumb|300px|Uprisings of late Northern Wei which would eventually cause the collapse of Northern Wei]]
The fall of Northern Wei began with rebellions staged by Six Garrison populations. This rebellion was rooted in the internal struggle within the Six Garrisons between upper-class military elites and lower-class soldiers and ethnic settlers. Six Garrisons were established to protect the Northern Wei regime from the invasion of Rouran and consisted of numerous ethnic groups, such as Xianbei, Gaoche, and Xiongnu as well as Han Chinese. Tribes were the basic social units, although grouped into militarized garrisons. The upper-class military elites who occupied governing offices mainly included the middle-to-low aristocrats of the Xianbei, other tribe chiefs, and Han strongmen. The internal conflict between upper-class military elites and lower-class soldiers and ethnic settlers was on the basis of the vulnerable economic base (heavily relied on livestock production and the support from the central government) and harsh environmental conditions in Six Garrison areas. The struggle for survival drove military officers of Six Garrisons to implement unfair policies biased to their own ethnic groups at the cost of others.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Xue |first1=Haibo |title=5-6 Shiji Beibian Liuzhen Haoqiang Qiushuai Shehui Diwei Yanbian Yanjiu (A Study of the Evolution of the Social Status of Magnates and Marshals in the Six Northern Towns) |date=2020 |publisher=Zhonghua Shuju. |isbn=9787101143775}}</ref> The cause of these wars was the growing rift between the governing aristocracy which was increasingly adopting Han-style sedentary policies and lifestyles and their nomadic tribal armies who continued to preserve the old steppe way of life.<ref name=ger>{{cite book |last1=Jacques Gernet |title=A History of Chinese Civilization |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern |url-access=registration |date=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0521497817 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern/page/192 192]–193 |edition=illustrated, reprint, revised}}</ref>

=== Six Frontier Towns rebellions ===
{{multiple image|perrow=3|total_width=480|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| image1   = Sculpture and mural from cave 254. Pillar and north wall. Northern Wei. Mogao.jpg
| image2   = Mogao Cave 254, Shibi Jataka, Northern Wei period.jpg
| image3   = Mogao Cave 254, Shibi Jataka, Northern Wei period (detail of a Central Asian merchant).jpg
| footer=Sculpture and murals from [[Mogao Caves|Mogao cave]] nb. 254, built during the Northern Wei period between 475
 and 490 CE, after their conquest of the area from the [[Northern Liang]].<ref name="SA">{{cite journal |last1=Abe |first1=Stanleyk |title=Art and Practice in a Fifth-Century Chinese Buddhist Cave Temple |journal=Ars Orientalis |date=1990 |volume=20 |pages=1–31 |jstor=4629399 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4629399 |issn=0571-1371}}</ref> It is one of the earliest caves in [[Dunhuang]], and displayed Western Indic features and Western influences, transmitted through the [[Kizil Caves]] (detail of a [[Sogdia|Central Asian]] trader).<ref>{{cite web |title=Mogao Cave 254 莫高第254号窟 · A. Stories Behind The Dunhuang Caves 敦煌石窟背后的故事 · UW Dunhuang Project: Exhibitions |url=https://dunhuang.ds.lib.uw.edu/Dunhuang-Exhibitions/exhibits/show/history-and-stories-behind/254intro |website=dunhuang.ds.lib.uw.edu |publisher=University of Washington}}</ref><ref name="SA"/> The panel represents the ''[[Jataka|Shibi Jataka]]''.
}}
Rebellions broke out on [[Six Frontier Towns|six major garrison-towns]] on the northern border and spread like wildfire throughout the north. These rebellions lasted for a decade.

In 523, nomadic Rouran tribes suffered a major famine due to successive years of drought. In April, the Rouran Khan sent troops to raid the Wei territory. People of the town rose up and killed the town's commander. Rebellion soon broke out against across the region. In Woye, Poliuhan Baling (破六韓拔陵) became a rebel leader. His army quickly took Woye and laid siege to Wuchuan and Huaishuo.

Elsewhere in Qinzhou (Gansu), Qiang ethnic leaders such as Mozhe Dati (莫折大提) also rose up against the government. In Gaoping (present-day Guyuan), Hu Chen (胡琛) and the [[Tiele people|Chile]] rebelled and titled himself the King of Gaoping. In Hebei, [[Ge Rong]] rebelled, proclaiming himself the Emperor of Qi.

The Poliuhan Baling rebellion was defeated in 525. Similar rebellions had spread to other regions such as Hebei and Guanzhong and were pacified by 530.

=== Rise of Erzhu Rong and Heyin Massacre ===
Exacerbating the situation, [[Empress Dowager Hu (Northern Wei)|Empress Dowager Hu]] poisoned her own son [[Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei|Emperor Xiaoming]] in 528 after Emperor Xiaoming showed disapproval of her handling of the affairs as he started coming of age and got ready to reclaim the power that had been held by the empress in his name when he inherited the throne as an infant, giving the Empress Dowager rule of the country for more than a decade. Upon hearing the news of the 18-year-old emperor's death, the general [[Erzhu Rong]], who had already mobilised on secret orders of the emperor to support him in his struggle with the Empress Dowager Hu, turned toward Luoyang. Announcing that he was installing a new emperor chosen by an ancient Xianbei method of casting bronze figures, [[Erzhu Rong]] summoned the officials of the city to meet their new emperor. However, on their arrival, he told them they were to be punished for their misgovernment and butchered them, throwing the Empress Hu and her candidate (another puppet child emperor [[Yuan Zhao]]) into the [[Yellow River]]. Reports estimate 2,000 [[courtiers]] were killed in this Heyin massacre on the 13th day of the second month of 528.{{efn|1,300 or 2000 according to different versions of the ''[[Book of Wei]]''<ref>{{citation |first=W.J.F. |last=Jenner |title=Memories of Loyang: Yang Hsuan-chih and the Lost Capital (493–534) |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |date=1981 |page=90 }}.</ref>}} Erzhu Rong claimed [[Yuan Ziyou]] grandson of Emperor Xianwen the new emperor as [[Emperor Xiaozhuang of Northern Wei]].

In 529, Liang general [[Chen Qingzhi]] sacked Luoyang, forced Emperor Xiaozhuang to flee and claimed [[Yuan Hao]] another grandson of Emperor Xianwen emperor, before his final defeat by Erzhu Rong.

=== Civil war and the two generals ===
[[File:Northern Wei pedestal.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Tiger-shaped stone bed. Northern Wei. Shenzhen Museum.]]
[[File:Stone funerary bed (tomb of Sima Jinlong), detail.jpg|thumb|250px|Stone funerary bed of General [[Sima Jinlong]], 484 CE.]]
The Erzhu clan dominated the imperial court thereafter, the emperor held power in name only and most decisions actually went through the Erzhus. The emperor did stop most of the rebellions, largely reunifying the Northern Wei state. However, [[Emperor Xiaozhuang of Northern Wei|Emperor Xiaozhuang]], not wishing to remain a puppet emperor and highly wary of the Erzhu clan's widespread power and questionable loyalty and intentions towards the throne (after all, this man had ordered a massacre of the court and put to death a previous emperor and empress before), killed Erzhu Rong in 530 in an ambush at the palace, which led to a resumption of civil war, initially between Erzhu's clan and Emperor Xiaozhuang, and then, after their victory over Emperor Xiaozhuang in 531, between the Erzhu clan and those who resisted their rule. In the aftermath of these wars, two generals set in motion the actions that would result in the splitting of the Northern Wei into the Eastern and Western Wei.

General [[Gao Huan]] was originally from the northern frontier, one of many soldiers who had surrendered to Erzhu, who eventually became one of the Erzhu clan's top lieutenants. But later, Gao Huan gathered his own men from both Han and non-Han troops, to turn against the Erzhu clan, entering and taking the capital Luoyang in 532. Confident in his success, he deposed [[Emperor Jiemin of Northern Wei]], the emperor supported by the Erzhu clan, as well as [[Yuan Lang]] the emperor previously supported by Gao himself, and set up a new emperor [[Emperor Xiaowu of Northern Wei]] on the Luoyang throne and continued his campaigns abroad. The emperor, however, together with the military head of Luoyang, [[Husi Chun]], began to plot against [[Gao Huan]]. Gao Huan succeeded, however, in keeping control of Luoyang, and the emperor and a handful of followers fled west, to the region ruled by the powerful warlord [[Yuwen Tai]]. Gao Huan then announced his decision to move the Luoyang court to his capital city of [[Ye (ancient China)|Ye]]. "Within three days of the decree, 400,000 families—perhaps 2,000,000 people—had to leave their homes in and around the capital to move to Yeh as autumn turned to winter."<ref>Jenner, ''Memories of Loyang'', p. 101.</ref> There now existed two rival claimants to the Northern Wei throne, leading to the state's division in 534–535 into the [[Eastern Wei]] and [[Western Wei]]. The Eastern Wei were initially significantly stronger and looked likely to end Western Wei quickly, but were defeated at the [[Battle of Shayuan]] in 537, confirming the split of the Northern Wei

=== Fall ===
Neither Eastern Wei nor Western Wei was long-lived.<ref>Charles Holcombe, A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century, p 68 Cambridge University Press, 2011</ref> In 550, Gao Huan's son [[Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi|Gao Yang]] forced [[Emperor Xiaojing of Eastern Wei]] to yield the throne to him, ending Eastern Wei and establishing the [[Northern Qi]]. Similarly, in 557, Yuwen Tai's nephew [[Yuwen Hu]] forced [[Emperor Gong of Western Wei]] to yield the throne to Yuwen Tai's son [[Emperor Xiaomin of Northern Zhou|Yuwen Jue]], ending the Western Wei and establishing the [[Northern Zhou]]. In 581, the Northern Zhou official [[Emperor Wen of Sui|Yang Jian]] had the emperor to yield the throne to him, establishing the [[Sui dynasty]].