38 China in World History
the stirrup, laid waste to the Jin capital, Luoyang, in 311. For more than
a century thereafter, north China was torn by incessant warfare among
competing groups, including many non-Chinese nomadic tribesmen who
originally came from areas north and west of China proper.
The earlier distinction between Han Chinese and non-Han “bar-
barians” broke down entirely during this period of rapid change. Some
nomadic groups had lived within the Great Wall for decades, and the roles
they played, whether as allies or opponents of the Han dynasty, were of
ever-increasing importance in the political control and organization of the
Yellow River valley. Many of these groups learned the Chinese language,
intermarried with Chinese, and adopted Chinese modes of dress and diet,
while remaining self-consciously loyal to some of their own tribal ways.
The very defi nition of “Chinese” greatly expanded during this era to
incorporate many non-Han peoples as well as their material cultures and
social customs. In the process, many Han Chinese also embraced in vary-
ing degrees formerly “barbarian” ways, including their tastes in food,
fashions, music, and art. Far from differentiating Han from non-Han cul-
tures, the term “barbarian” came to be applied by many different groups
to their rivals. North and south evolved in different ways, but both could
now claim to be “civilized Chinese,” and both could aspire to recapture
the old Han ideal of one all-encompassing centralized empire.
To fl ee the bloodshed and chaos in north China following the Han
dynasty collapse, more than two million people, including many of the
north’s wealthiest families, fl ed to the Yangzi River valley, where they
attempted, with little success, to set up an effective central government
with a military strong enough to reunify the country. In both the north
and the south, society became increasingly stratifi ed as wealthy families
organized their own private armies for protection, and landless peasants
fl ed to these wealthy estates to work as serfs and indentured servants in
return for food and protection against marauding armies. A succession
of weak dynasties were established at Jiankang (what is today Nanjing)
on the Yangzi River, but no political ruler was able to establish a secure
tax base with a stable and strong central government.
During the Han period, perhaps only 10 percent of the popula-
tion lived as far south as the Yangzi River valley. After the Han, large-
scale migration to the south would transform the Yangzi valley into
China’s most prosperous region. The wealthy families who fl ed south-
ward beginning around 200 took with them thousands of farm laborers
and mobilized them to drain swamps and build level paddy fi elds sur-
rounded by earthen dikes. This made possible the fl ooding and drain-
ing of rice fi elds with precision, which allowed the south, with more