Factions

The Eastern Han (25–220 CE) was the later phase of the Han dynasty, with its capital at Luoyang. Its collapse led to the warlord era and the Three Kingdoms period.

The southern kingdom (222–280) held by the Sun family; it outlasted both Wei and Shu and fell only to the Jin invasion of 280.

The Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) was the imperial dynasty that preceded the Three Kingdoms period. Its collapse after the Yellow Turban Rebellion led to the warlord era and the eventual tripartite division.

The dynasty founded by Sima Yan in 266 after the abdication of the last Wei emperor. Jin reunited China by conquering Wu in 280 and ended the Three Kingdoms period.

Liu Biao’s Jing Province regime (c. 190–208 CE) was a powerful warlord state centred on Xiangyang that sheltered scholars and controlled the middle Yangtze until overrun by Cao Cao.

The western kingdom (221–263) founded by Liu Bei, claiming legitimacy from the Han imperial line; it was the first of the three kingdoms to fall.

The Western Jin (266–316) was the first phase of the Jin dynasty, founded by Sima Yan. It reunified China in 280 and fell when the north was overrun by non-Han forces.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion (184–c. 205 CE) was a vast popular uprising led by Zhang Jue’s Taoist movement that shattered the Eastern Han and opened the road to the Three Kingdoms.