The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms was a great division in China's history from 907 to 979. This title comes from the History of the New Five Dynasties and is a general term for the Five Dynasties and Ten Countries. The so-called Five Dynasties are the five regimes that established their capitals in the Central Plains after the demise of the Tang Dynasty, namely Hou Liang, Later Tang Dynasty, Later Jin Dynasty, Later Han Dynasty and Later Zhou Dynasty.
When the Tang Dynasty perished in 907 AD, Zhu Wen, King of Liang, forced Tang Aidi to meditate, and established Hou Liang in the Central Plains, with Kaifeng Prefecture as its capital. In 923 AD, Li, the son of Li Keyong, the king of Jin who occupied Taiyuan, destroyed the back beams and established the later Tang Dynasty. Later, due to the civil strife in the late Tang Dynasty, Shi Jingtang led the Qidan army to attack and destroy, and Shi Jingtang began to establish the late Jin Dynasty; Soon after, the relationship between Khitan and Houjin deteriorated, and the Khitan army went south to destroy Houjin and establish the Liao Dynasty. After Liu Zhiyuan knew it, he established the later Han Dynasty in Taiyuan and began to recover the Central Plains. Guo Wei usurped the post-Han Dynasty, established the post-Han Dynasty, painstakingly managed the post-Zhou Dynasty, and had the hope of unifying the whole country. Unfortunately, the later Zhou Dynasty was usurped by Zhao Kuangyin, and the Northern Song Dynasty was established, which marked the official end of the Five Dynasties.
Ten countries refer to more than ten countries established outside the Central Plains during that period. Ouyang Xiu once mentioned the Ten Kingdoms in his History of the New Five Dynasties. The ten countries in the book are Qianshu, Houshu, Nanwu, Nantang, wuyue, Fujian, Chu, Nanhan, Jingnan and Beihan.
In the early days of Jiangnan, Wu was the strongest, and later Li Jue usurped the throne and established the Southern Tang Dynasty, followed by Wu Yueguo and Min Guo. Huguang is mainly occupied by Jingnan, Chu, Wuping and Nanhan. Among them, the Southern Tang Dynasty had the strongest national strength, and successively attacked and destroyed Fujian and Chu. Because of belligerence, the national strength declined and was finally destroyed by the later Zhou Dynasty. Both the former Shu State and the later Shu State in Sichuan were rich, but they were content with the status quo and finally died in the Central Plains. Northern Han Dynasty is the only one of the ten northern countries founded by Liu Chong, the younger brother of the late Han Emperor Liu Zhiyuan. The Song Dynasty was founded in Zhao Kuangyin, and after the Northern Han Dynasty was conquered, the whole country was unified and the Ten Kingdoms basically ended.