The Xiongnu conquer the North and the Jin Dynasty moves South
Shortly after the passing of Alexander the Great, India's first great empire arose, ruled by Chandragupta Maurya (340-298 BCE). According to legend, Chandragupta Maurya was the son of a herdsman, and when he was a young man he met Alexander the Great. Days later, the story goes, he was awakened by a lion gently licking his body – an omen that he would become royalty.
Chandragupta's counselor and advisor was his adoptive father, Chanakya, who is said to have been learned in medicine, Hellenism and Zoroastrianism. He is said to have kept Chandragupta's youthful impulses in check and to have guided him in his kingdom's war that began in 323 and ended around 321 with Chandragupta overthrowing the Nanda dynasty that had been ruling the state of Magadha and dominating the Ganges plain.
he government at Jiankang did not interfere with commerce, and in the south an unprecedented prosperity arose. For wealthy aristocrats an easy life emerged. Gentlemen remained elegantly inactive and are said to have grown weak in their limbs unlike the warrior aristocrats of former times. An advanced period of culture began – in art, literature, philosophy and religion. With Confucianism having been discredited, some of elegantly inactive acquired an interest in the philosopher Mozi of the 400s BCE. Some were interested in Legalist ideas, with its belief in tough policies for establishing law and order. And some among them became interested in the legendary founders of Taoism: Laozi and Zhuangzi.
The so-called barbarian rulers in the north were destined to adopt civilized ways. Some Xiongnu chieftains had realized that it was more profitable to tax farmers than to kill them. Lacking tradition in governing agricultural regions, they needed advice and help from their Chinese subjects. They were suspicious of those Confucianist scholars who had remained in the north, seeing them as likely supporters of previous Chinese rulers. They found what they considered more trustworthy men among Buddhist and Taoist intellectuals. Buddhist monks were trusted because they were unmarried, without loyalty to a family or clan and, therefore, more dependent upon the chieftain for favors. Buddhism became the favored religion among the chieftains, and its popularity among the masses there increased.
he dominant Xiongnu chieftain in northern China, Liu Cong, died in the year 318, and his family was overthrown by one of his former lieutenants, Shi Liu Shi – who was illiterate but enjoyed having Chinese classics explained to him. Shi Liu Shi was succeeded by a nephew, Shi Hu, called Shi the Tiger, who ruled from 334 to 349. Shi Hu was unrestrained by scruples and delighted in what he could acquire. He drafted 260,000 farmers to build a palace for himself, and he is reported to have had a harem of around 50,000 women. According to legend he served beautiful women for cannibalistic dinners. His son tried to assassinate him, and he had his son executed. Then, like some others who filled themselves with licentiousness, Shi Hu had a religious conversion: a Buddhist saint is said to have reformed him. But Shi Hu was remembered with revulsion. When he died, one of his generals ordered all gates of the royal city closed, and he had all those related to Shi Hu slaughtered.
After Shi Hu came Xiongnu rulers such as Fu Jian, a pious Buddhist and humane administrator, who ruled the entire north from 357 to 385. The good works of Fu Jian were undone as parts of the north were overrun by other tribes. In the first hundred years of non-Chinese rule in northern China, five tribes established sixteen different kingdoms, with conquering chieftains killing and burning, sometimes for the fun of it. Chieftains established their own feudal estates, and whole tribes of non-Chinese were installed in areas that had been depopulated.
