The Southern Dynasties (A.D. 420 - A.D. 589)
The Southern Dynasties is the general names of four dynasties of the south in China. The Southern Dynasties inherited the territory of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Its range is in the south of China. Since the Eastern Jin Dynasty becoming extinct, appear four countries successively in the south of China, they are the Song, Qi, Liang and Chen Dynasty. But the time that they exist is very short. The longest one was 95 years; the shortest one was 23 years. The Southern Dynasties was a period that the dynasty replaced very fast in China’s history. At this moment, China in the period that north and south were divided, The Southern Dynasties with Northern Wei Dynasty, Northern Qi Dynasty, Northern Zhou Dynasty, etc. become known as “The Northern and Southern Dynasties”.
The Southern Dynasties is the Dynasties that the Han nationality set up, though their existence is only several tens of years, but as the Han nationality’s governance, make the culture of the Han nationality be kept and be developed. If without its existence, the Han nationality may be eliminated by other minority nationality, thus lead to the Chinese civilization is over. So, the Southern Dynasties occupy the extremely important status in China’s history and make indelible contributions for the development of Chinese civilization.
