Eastern Wei

The Eastern Wei was one of the Northern Dynasties of China, formed in 534 when the Northern Wei dynasty split into eastern and western halves. The eastern state was controlled by the warlord Gao Huan, who installed Yuan Shanjian, a member of the former imperial family, as a puppet ruler. Real power remained with Gao Huan and, after his death in 547, with his sons Gao Cheng and Gao Yang. The Eastern Wei ruled the eastern part of northern China from its capital at Ye, in present-day Hebei, while the Western Wei held the west from Chang'an. The two states fought repeatedly in an effort to reunify the north, but the Eastern Wei campaigns, including the Battle of Shayuan in 537, failed to destroy its rival. Gao Yang deposed Yuan Shanjian in 550 and founded the Northern Qi dynasty, ending the Eastern Wei after only sixteen years. Despite its short life, the period saw a distinctive development in Buddhist sculpture, in which Greco-Buddhist influences from Gandhara and Central Asia were combined with Chinese artistic traditions. The Eastern Wei thus forms a brief but important link between the Northern Wei and Northern Qi.