Northern Qi

Northern Qi was a dynasty that ruled the eastern half of northern China from 550 to 577, one of the Northern Dynasties of the period of division between the Northern and Southern dynasties. It was founded by Gao Yang, a son of the powerful Eastern Wei minister Gao Huan, who forced the last Eastern Wei ruler to abdicate and took the throne as Emperor Wenxuan. The state inherited the Eastern Wei heartland in Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and Henan, with its capital at Ye and a secondary seat at Jinyang; at its height it was the richest of the three rival powers, alongside Northern Zhou and the Chen dynasty. Its early rulers expanded westward and southward and promoted Buddhism, but the later courts were notorious for violent and capricious emperors, factional purges and the execution of capable generals. Northern Zhou exploited this weakness, captured Ye in 577 and annexed the state, briefly unifying the north before the Sui dynasty completed the conquest of the south in 589.