Editing Northern and Southern dynasties (section)

===Liu Song (420–479)===
{{Main|Liu Song dynasty}}
[[File:Emperor Wu of Song.jpg|thumb|Liu Yu, [[Emperor Wu of Song|Emperor Wu of Liu Song]]]]
Liu Song founder [[Emperor Wu of Liu Song|Liu Yu]] was originally a leader of the [[Army of the Northern Garrison]] ({{zh|t=北府軍}}) that notably won the [[Battle of Fei River]] in 383. In 404, he helped suppress [[Huan Xuan]]'s rebellion, leading to his dominance over the Eastern Jin court. In order to gain popularity to take the throne he led [[Liu Yu's expeditions|expeditions]] against the Sixteen Kingdoms, capturing [[Shandong]], [[Henan]] and, briefly, [[Guanzhong]] by 416. He gave up Guanzhong to try to take the throne. Because he believed in a [[Emperor An of Jin#Emperor An's death|prophecy]] saying there would be one more emperor after [[Emperor An of Jin|Emperor An]], he deposed him and, soon afterwards, his replacement, [[Emperor Gong of Jin|Emperor Gong]], in 420, ending the Eastern Jin dynasty.

Even after crowning himself Emperor Wu, Liu Yu remained frugal. However, he did not care for education and trusted unsavory people. He felt that the nobility had too much power, so he tended to appoint the lower classes to government positions and gave military power to imperial kinsmen. Ironically, because the imperial kinsmen stabilized their military power and wished to gain political power, Emperor Wu was afraid they would have thoughts of usurping the throne. Thus, he also frequently killed his kinsmen.

After the death of Emperor Wu, his son [[Emperor Shao of Liu Song|Emperor Shao]] ruled briefly before being judged incompetent and killed by government officials led by [[Xu Xianzhi]], replacing him with [[Emperor Wen of Liu Song|Emperor Wen]], a different son, who soon killed the officials who supported him. Emperor Wen's reign was a period of relative political stability because of his frugality and good government; this period was called the [[Reign of Yuanjia]] ({{zh|c=元嘉之治}}).

In 430, Emperor Wen started a number of northern expeditions against Northern Wei. These were ineffective because of insufficient preparations and excessive micromanagement of his generals, increasingly weakening the dynasty. Because of his jealousy of [[Tan Daoji]], a noted leader of the Army of the Northern Garrison, he deprived himself of a formidable general to the great delight of the Northern Wei. Thus, they were unable to capitalize when Northern Wei suffered the [[Wuqi Incident]]. Starting in 445, Northern Wei, taking advantage of Liu Song's weakness, made major incursions in the lands between the Yangtze and the Huai (modern Shandong, Hebei, and Henan) and devastating six provinces. Emperor Wen lamented that if Tan were still alive, he would have prevented Northern Wei advances. From then on, Liu Song was in a weakened state.

Emperor Wen was assassinated by Crown Prince Shao and Second Prince Jun in 453 after planning to punish them for witchcraft. However, they were both defeated by Third Prince Jun, who become [[Emperor Xiaowu of Liu Song|Emperor Xiaowu]]. He proved to be licentious and cruel, supposedly committing incest with the daughters of an uncle who had helped him gain the throne; his rivals also claimed he had incest with his mother. This led to two rebellions by the imperial clan, one of which saw him slaughter the inhabitants of [[Yangzhou|Guangling]]. The following ballad gives an idea of those times:
: {{lang|zh-Hant|遙望建康城，}} ''Looking toward Jiankang city''
: {{lang|zh-Hant|小江逆流縈，}} ''the little river flows against the current''
: {{lang|zh-Hant|前見子殺父，}} ''in front, one sees sons killing fathers''
: {{lang|zh-Hant|後見弟殺兄。}} ''and behind, one sees younger brothers killing older brothers'' <!--my translation-->{{NoteTag|The ballad rhymes in the original [[Middle Chinese]]. Note the antithesis between fathers and sons on the one hand, and younger brothers and older brothers on the other, both of which crimes are considered acts of great impiety according to the Confucian tenet known as the [[Confucianism#Themes in Confucian thought|Five Bonds]].}}

Emperor Xiaowu died naturally in 464 and was succeeded by his son, who became [[Former Deposed Emperor of Liu Song|Emperor Qianfei]]. Emperor Qianfei proved to be similar to his father, engaging in both kin-slaughter and incest. In a scandalous move, because his sister complained about how it was unfair that men were allowed 10,000 concubines, he gave her 30 handsome young men as lovers. His uncle Liu Yu, the Prince of Xiangdong, whom he called the "Prince of Pigs" for his obesity, eventually assassinated him and became [[Emperor Ming of Liu Song|Emperor Ming]].

Emperor Ming began his reign by killing all of the descendants of Emperor Xiaowu, and his suspicious nature resulted in the loss of the provinces north of the Huai River, which were only briefly regained in the other Southern dynasties. Emperor Ming's young son became [[Latter Deposed Emperor of Liu Song|Emperor Houfei]]. The political situation was volatile. General Xiao Daocheng slowly gained power and eventually deposed Emperor Houfei in favor of his brother, who became [[Emperor Shun of Liu Song|Emperor Shun]]. After defeating the rival general [[Shen Youzhi]], Xiao forced Emperor Shun to yield the throne and crowned himself [[Emperor Gao of Southern Qi]], thus ending the Liu Song dynasty.