Antiquity · 184–280

Three Kingdoms of China

From 184 to 280, China was torn apart by wars between three rival kingdoms: Wei in the north, Shu in the southwest and Wu in the southeast. After the collapse of Han power, Cao Cao, then his son Cao Pi, dominated Wei, while Liu Bei and Sun Quan founded the kingdoms of Shu and Wu. The conquest of Shu by Wei in 263, then that of Wu by the Jin in 280, led to the reunification of China. Luo Guanzhong's novel gave this period a legendary image, but it should not be taken for history.

Reading time: about 4 min

Period: 184–280
Type of conflict: Civil war
Countries involved (today): China
Sides: The Wei, a northern kingdom ruled by the Cao family, first by Cao Cao and then by Cao PiversusThe Shu of Liu Bei and the Wu of Sun Quan, in the south, at times united against Wei
Outcome: Reunification of China under the Jin in 280, after the conquest of Shu by Wei in 263 and of Wu by the Jin.

The causes

For more than four centuries, the Han dynasty governed China, but in the 2nd century its power weakened. Palace eunuchs and great families vied for influence at court, and rivalries between clans ruined the administration. In the countryside, peasants struggled with taxes, famines and epidemics. Provincial governors raised their own armies and became warlords, sometimes more powerful than the emperor himself. The central government no longer had the means to control them.

In 184, the Yellow Turban Rebellion, a religious movement inspired by Taoism and led by Zhang Jue, broke out in several provinces at once. The court crushed the uprising with the help of generals and local lords, to whom it entrusted vast military powers that they kept afterwards. In 189, General Dong Zhuo seized the capital Luoyang and the young emperor, opening a period of coalitions and betrayals. Rivalries among lords, without any real central authority, turned China into a battlefield. It was the Yellow Turban Rebellion, in 184, that triggered the war.

The course of the war

In 190, a coalition of warlords formed against Dong Zhuo, but it split at once, each seeking to expand on its own account. Cao Cao, who had taken control of the emperor and installed the court at Xu in 196, became the most powerful of these leaders. He thus had the authority of the sovereign to conduct his campaigns. In 200, at the Battle of Guandu, he defeated Yuan Shao, the most formidable of his northern rivals. This victory allowed him to conquer northern China.

In 208, Cao Cao became chancellor of the court and launched a campaign to the south, where he seized the kingdom of Jing. Sun Quan, master of Jiangdong, and Liu Bei, who had taken refuge after his defeat at Changban, then united to face him. Their combined forces, whose naval army was commanded by Zhou Yu, set fire to Cao Cao's fleet on the Yangzi. This Battle of the Red Cliffs stopped Wei's advance to the south. Jing was then divided between Liu Bei and Sun Quan, paving the way for the division into three kingdoms.

In 214, Liu Bei seized Yi province, present-day Sichuan, where he established his power. In 220, on Cao Cao's death, his son Cao Pi forced the last Han emperor to abdicate and founded the kingdom of Wei. Liu Bei proclaimed himself emperor in turn in 221 and founded Shu, with Zhuge Liang as his adviser. Sun Quan took the title of emperor of Wu in 229 and established his capital at Jianye, present-day Nanjing. Each of the three kingdoms now claimed the legitimacy of imperial power.

In 234, Zhuge Liang died during an expedition against Wei, at the end of several campaigns in the north. Deprived of its strategist, Shu weakened, while Wei strengthened its army and administration. Wu, in the southeast, remained independent during these years. In 263, Wei sent two armies into the mountains of Sichuan, and the ruler of Shu, Liu Shan, surrendered. Wei thus conquered the kingdom of Shu, whose capital Chengdu fell. Only two rival states then remained, Wei and Wu.

In 265, Sima Yan obtained the abdication of the last Wei emperor and founded the Jin dynasty. In 280, his armies attacked Wu along the Yangzi River and by land, then took the capital Jianye. Sun Hao, the last ruler of Wu, surrendered. China was thus reunified after nearly a century of wars and divisions. The Jin then ruled the entire country. The kingdom of Wu, the last of the three to survive, thus disappeared, ending the division of the empire.

The consequences

The reunification was short-lived. As early as 291, the War of the Eight Princes pitted members of the imperial Sima family against one another and devastated the country. Taking advantage of this weakness, peoples from the north, already settled on the frontiers of the empire, seized entire regions. In 316, Chang'an, where the last emperor of the dynasty resided, fell into their hands, and the Western Jin disappeared. A branch of the Jin then settled south of the Yangzi, dividing the country once again.

In Chinese memory, the period is one of the most famous in history. The historian Chen Shou, author of the main history of the period, treats Wei as the legitimate dynasty, whereas scholars of the Song era defended Shu instead. The novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", attributed to Luo Guanzhong in the 14th century, made Cao Cao the symbol of cunning and Liu Bei that of loyalty. Historians therefore distinguish history from the novelistic narrative, which strongly shaped popular culture.

Timeline

184Yellow Turban Rebellion, which weakens the Han dynasty
200Cao Cao defeats Yuan Shao at the Battle of Guandu
208Battle of the Red Cliffs: Sun Quan and Liu Bei halt Cao Cao's advance to the south
220Cao Pi ends the Han dynasty and founds the kingdom of Wei
263Wei conquers the kingdom of Shu
280The Jin dynasty conquers the kingdom of Wu and reunifies China

Key figures

Cao Cao, chancellor of the Han court, whose son founded the kingdom of Wei
Liu Bei, founder of the kingdom of Shu, proclaimed emperor in 221
Sun Quan, ruler of the kingdom of Wu, emperor from 229
Zhuge Liang, strategist of Shu, died in 234 during a campaign against Wei

Test yourself with 3 questions

Question 1 of 3

Which battle of 208 stopped Cao Cao's advance to the south?

Frequently asked questions

Should this period be confused with the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in the British Isles?

No, these are two distinct conflicts. The Wars of the Three Kingdoms refer to the 17th-century civil wars between England, Scotland and Ireland, whereas the Three Kingdoms of China refer to the states of Wei, Shu and Wu, between 184 and 280.

Is the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" a reliable source?

It is useful for understanding how the period is remembered, but it mixes historical facts with invented episodes. Historians rely first on Chen Shou's history, written at the end of the 3rd century, then on later commentaries that supplement it.