Han Zhao

The Han-Zhao was a dynastic state founded in 304 by Liu Yuan, a leader of the Southern Xiongnu, during the collapse of the Western Jin. Liu Yuan took the title of emperor at Lishi in Shanxi and claimed descent from the Han imperial house, giving his state the name Han. Its armies helped bring about the Disaster of Yongjia in 311 and the fall of the Western Jin in 317. The court moved several times within Shanxi before settling at Pingyang, near modern Linfen. In 319 Liu Yao renamed the state Zhao and moved the capital west to Chang'an, retaining Shaanxi and eastern Gansu while the eastern provinces passed to the rival Later Zhao of Shi Le. Historians call the whole regime Han-Zhao, or Former Zhao, to distinguish it from Later Zhao, although contemporaries treated the Han and Zhao phases as one continuous state. It was conquered by Later Zhao in 329, ending twenty-five years of Xiongnu rule in north China.