The Five Dynasties: A Decade for Every Throne

The Five Dynasties (五代, 907–960 CE) period is the crucible in which China's medieval order was broken and a new early modern order forged. After the Tang collapse, northern China was ruled by five short-lived military regimes — Later Liang, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Zhou — none lasting more than sixteen years. These were military dictatorships founded by frontier generals of mixed Chinese and Shatuo Turk ancestry. The period is often dismissed as chaotic and culturally barren, but it was during these decades that the political and military structures of the Song Dynasty were assembled. The Five Dynasties are the bridge between the aristocratic medieval world of the Tang and the bureaucratic early modern world of the Song.

The Shatuo Turk Dynasties

The Five Dynasties were not all Chinese. Three of the five — Later Tang, Later Jin, and Later Han — were founded by the Shatuo Turks (沙陀), a branch of the Western Turks who had been settled on the Tang frontier. These Shatuo generals had served the late Tang as military governors and simply seized power when the Tang collapsed.

The first of the Five Dynasties, the Later Liang (后梁, 907–923 CE), was founded by Zhu Wen, a Chinese rebel general. It fell to the Shatuo Later Tang (后唐, 923–936 CE), who defeated the Later Liang at a great battle at Yangliu. The Later Tang court at Luoyang was bilingual — the Shatuo aristocracy spoke Turkish among themselves while using Chinese for administration.

The Later Jin (后晋, 936–947 CE) was established by Shi Jingtang, a Shatuo general who ceded the Sixteen Prefectures of the Youyun region to the Khitan Liao Dynasty in exchange for military support. This territorial cession became a strategic disaster: the loss of the Great Wall passes left northern China defenseless against the Liao. The Sixteen Prefectures remained under non-Chinese control for over 400 years.

Military Culture and the Rise of the Professional Army

The Five Dynasties were dominated by professional soldiers. The old aristocratic armies of the Tang, with their Xianbei and Shatuo officer corps, were replaced by standing armies of long-service infantry. The 'army of the palace' (禁军) became the kingmaker — whichever general commanded the palace troops could seize the throne.

The military ethos of the Five Dynasties was brutal and pragmatic. Generals who lost battles were executed. Emperors who lost the support of their troops were murdered. The career of the Later Han (后汉, 947–950 CE) was typical: founded by a Shatuo general, it lasted only four years before its ruler was killed by his own general.

This period also saw the development of gunpowder as a weapon. The earliest Chinese references to gunpowder weapons — 'fire lances' and incendiary grenades — date from the late Five Dynasties period. The Song would develop these into the first true firearms.

The Khitan Threat and Liao Dynasty

The Khitan people (契丹) of Manchuria established the Liao Dynasty (辽朝) in 907 CE, the same year the Tang fell. Under the brilliant King Abaoji (耶律阿保机), the Khitan created a dual-administration state — one system for the nomadic Khitan and another for the sedentary Chinese population in the Sixteen Prefectures.

The Liao was a constant threat to the Five Dynasties. The Later Jin, in particular, was a Liao client state: Shi Jingtang had bought Liao support by ceding territory and acknowledging Liao suzerainty. When the Later Jin tried to assert independence, the Liao invaded and destroyed it in 947 CE.

The Liao emperor declared himself emperor of China and entered Kaifeng (the Later Jin capital), but found the task of ruling China directly beyond the Khitan capacity. They withdrew north, leaving a power vacuum filled by the Later Han. The Liao problem would haunt the Song Dynasty for its entire history.

The Later Zhou and the Foundation of the Song

The last of the Five Dynasties, the Later Zhou (后周, 951–960 CE), was founded by Guo Wei, a Chinese general. Under his adopted son Chai Rong (Emperor Shizong, r. 954–959 CE), the Later Zhou embarked on a program of military, economic, and administrative reform that directly prefigured the Song.

Emperor Shizong was one of the most capable rulers of the period. He reorganized the army, eliminating hereditary military households and creating a professional force directly loyal to the emperor. He reformed taxes, encouraged agriculture, and conquered territory from the Southern Tang. He even began planning the reconquest of the Sixteen Prefectures from the Liao.

Shizong died suddenly in 959 CE at age 38. His son was a child. In 960 CE, the general Zhao Kuangyin (赵匡胤) staged a coup — the Chenqiao Mutiny (陈桥兵变) — and declared the Song Dynasty. The Five Dynasties were over. The Song founder inherited Shizong's army, his bureaucracy, and his reform program. In a real sense, the Song was the Later Zhou continued under a different name.

Legacy

The Five Dynasties period was short but transformative. The old Tang aristocracy, already weakened by the Huang Chao Rebellion, was destroyed. The Shatuo military elite was absorbed into the Chinese officer class. The professional army and the centralized bureaucracy that would characterize the Song were created during these decades.

The Five Dynasties also saw important cultural developments. The printing of the Confucian classics using woodblocks was completed during the Later Tang. Several important painters and poets worked in the short-lived courts. The ceramic industries of north China continued to develop.

The period's greatest legacy was negative: it demonstrated what happened when central authority collapsed. The violence and instability of the Five Dynasties created a longing for order that the Song would satisfy. The Song founders were determined not to repeat the mistakes of the Five Dynasties — hence their emphasis on civilian control of the military.

The Ten Kingdoms of the South

While five regimes fought over the north, the south and west fractured into the Ten Kingdoms, regional states such as the Southern Tang, Wu-Yue, and Former Shu. These were often more stable and prosperous than the northern dynasties, because their rulers focused on trade, agriculture, and culture rather than constant war. Wu-Yue, around Hangzhou, built harbors and waterways; the Southern Tang patronized poets and painters; Shu in Sichuan guarded its fertile red basin. Many of the era's finest poems, lyrics, and illuminated texts came from these courts. Though the Song eventually absorbed them all, the Ten Kingdoms preserved wealth and learning through the chaos and supplied the new dynasty with seasoned administrators and a flourishing cultural scene.

Art, Poetry, and the Spread of Printing

The Five Dynasties, for all their violence, advanced culture in quiet ways. Woodblock printing moved from Buddhist charms to the Confucian classics, and the Later Tang completed an imperial edition of the canonical texts. Court painters in the short-lived regimes specialized in birds-and-flowers and landscapes that fed directly into Song academic art. Lyric poetry in the southern kingdoms refined the ci form that the Song would perfect. Ceramic kilns in the north kept the trade alive through war. Because so many states competed for talent, artisans and writers found patrons from the frontier to the Sichuan basin, and the printed word began to reach a broader public than ever before, seeding the literary explosion of the Song.

Why the Military Held the Throne

The defining fact of the Five Dynasties was that the palace army chose the emperor. Whoever commanded the elite guard could be proclaimed sovereign by his own troops, and several thrones changed hands in coups rather than battles. This made rulers hostage to their generals and bred a brutal logic: emperors murdered commanders who seemed too strong, while commanders plotted first. The Later Han fell in four years to its own general, and the Later Zhou rose from the same pattern. The chaos taught a lasting lesson that the Song founders took to heart: tie the army to the throne through civilian control, rotate commanders, and never let one warlord hold too much. The cure for the age's disorder became the Song constitution.