Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period

A period of political fragmentation in China from 907 to 979, marked by five successive dynasties in the north and several independent kingdoms in the south.

Jiedushi: A military governor in imperial China who commanded regional forces and often exercised civil authority. Their regional armies and autonomy helped turn the Tang collapse into competing regimes.
Tang dynasty: A Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 618 to 907 and oversaw a powerful, cosmopolitan empire. Its fall in 907 opened the succession struggle that defines this period.
Wuyue: A southeastern Chinese kingdom that existed from 907 to 978, centered on present-day Zhejiang. Its rulers preserved regional stability and ultimately submitted to the Song.
Song dynasty: A Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 960 to 1279 and reunified much of China after the fragmentation of the tenth century. Its founders began the campaigns that brought the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period to a close.
Liao dynasty: A Khitan-led dynasty that ruled parts of northern China and Inner Asia from 916 to 1125. Its power beyond the northern frontier shaped Five Dynasties diplomacy and warfare.
Later Liang: The first of the Five Dynasties, ruling northern China from 907 to 923. Its founding by Zhu Wen marks the conventional start of the period.
Huang Chao Rebellion: A major late-Tang uprising that devastated the empire from 874 to 884. It weakened central authority and helped elevate regional military commanders.
Southern Tang: A kingdom in the lower Yangtze region that ruled from 937 to 975. Its wealth and cultural influence made it one of the period’s strongest southern states.
Emperor Taizu of Song: The founding emperor of the Song dynasty, who ruled from 960 to 976. His military and political campaigns established Song control over much of the divided realm.
Khitan people: A historically nomadic people of northeastern Asia who founded the Liao dynasty. Khitan intervention helped determine the fate of the Later Jin and northern Chinese states.

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