The collapse of the Han dynasty was
followed by nearly four centuries of rule by warlords.
The age of civil wars and disunity began with the era of
the Three Kingdoms (Wei, Shu, and Wu, which had
overlapping reigns during the period A.D. 220-80). In
later times, fiction and drama greatly romanticized the
reputed chivalry of this period. Unity was restored
briefly in the early years of the Jin dynasty (A.D.
265-420), but the Jin could not long contain the invasions
of the nomadic peoples. In A.D. 317 the Jin court was
forced to flee from Luoyang and reestablished itself at
Nanjing to the south. The transfer of the capital
coincided with China's political fragmentation into a
succession of dynasties that was to last from A.D. 304 to
589.
