In 3 16 AD, Sima Ye, the last emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty, was captured, which declared the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty. However, some old ministers of the Jin Dynasty are not reconciled to the fate of national subjugation, and are still active all over the country, ready to restore the rule of the Jin Dynasty. 13 17, Si Marui, the king of Langya, became emperor in Jiankang with the support of clans in the Central Plains and Nandu in the south of the Yangtze River. His country name is still Jin, and he is the emperor of Jinyuan. Because he settled in Jiangnan after the Western Jin Dynasty, historians call it the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Because most of the ruling classes in the Eastern Jin Dynasty were composed of prominent families in the Central Plains and indigenous clans in the south of the Yangtze River who took refuge across the river, there were differences in region and culture, and they always crowded out each other. During the more than one hundred years in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the clans in the Central Plains occupied the dominant position, while the clans in the South were always excluded. During the Yuan Di period, Beiyang Minister Wang Dao hoped to change this situation. He ran between the northern and southern clans, trying to persuade all ethnic groups to repair, but with little effect. Later, the clans in the south of the Yangtze River rebelled against the rule of the Eastern Jin Dynasty many times, which greatly shook the rule of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
From the first year of Emperor Jin Yuan (3 17) to the third year of Emperor Jin An's Long 'an (399), the development of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was relatively stable. Although there were some rebellions during this period, they were all suppressed. In the last years of Yuan Di, Wang Dao's brother Wang Dun rose up against Jin, but was resisted by his brother Wang Dao and courtiers and failed. Later, Huan Wen once coveted the throne and was resisted by two families in Xie Wang. In 385 AD, Xie An, an important official in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, died of illness. Emperor Xiaowu of Jin Dynasty handed over power to his younger brother Sima Daozi, and he and his son Sima Yuan Xian were in charge of state affairs. Their tyrannical incompetence and wanton exploitation of the people gave the royal family an opportunity. In 398 AD, the allied forces of Wang Gong, Yin Zhongkan, Wakai and others, with Huan Xuan as the leader, occupied the counties west of Jiankang, which limited the rule of the imperial court to eight counties in the east and began to decline.
The third year of Andi Longan (AD 399). Sun En, who believed in Pentecostalism, took advantage of people's uneasiness to launch an uprising in the East. They grew to hundreds of thousands in just ten days, were defeated by the generals of the Jin army and fled to the island. They were completely wiped out in 402 AD. The uprising greatly weakened the power of the rulers, so Huan Xuan took this opportunity to send troops to capture Jiankang, abolish Emperor Jin 'an and become emperor on his own. At this time, Xie, Wang and Fan, the four families in the Jin Dynasty, had declined one after another. The only powerful faction that has the strength to fight against Huan Xuan is Emperor Wu of Song, who only developed when fighting against the Sun En Uprising. So, Emperor Wu of Song led the people to defeat Huan Xuan, pushed Emperor Gong Sima to the throne, and nominally restored the rule of the rulers, but the real power was completely in the hands of Emperor Wu of Song himself. In 420 AD, Emperor Wu of Song abolished Gong Jin, established the Song State, and ended the rule of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Among them, during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Northern Expedition with Wang, Xie, Huan and Yu as the main forces was carried out many times, among which there were many famous soldiers. In 3 13 AD, General Zu Ti sent troops and recovered Hebei around 32 1 year AD, but he died of depression because of the refusal of the court, and finally failed to complete the great cause of reunification. In 383 AD, after Xie An defeated Fu Jian in the Battle of Feishui, he immediately sent his brother to the north to recover the six countries of Xu, Yan, Qing, Si, Yu and Liang, and achieved the first major victory in the history of the Eastern Jin Dynasty's Northern Expedition. As the Eastern Jin Dynasty settled in the south of the Yangtze River, the celebrities in the south of the Yangtze River had more opportunities to communicate with the people from the Central Plains who crossed the river, which promoted the development of social culture. The integration of northern handicraft technology and southern technology has greatly improved the handicraft level in the Eastern Jin Dynasty compared with that in the Western Jin Dynasty. In addition, since Cao Wei, China's literary development has been in a period of great strides, among which the Eastern Jin literati are the most famous. Xie Lingyun, a landscape poet, and Tao Yuanming, an idyllic poet, appeared in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. They reformed the old-style poetry, which created a prerequisite for the prosperity of poetry in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
When the Eastern Jin Dynasty was established in the south of the Yangtze River, the northern part of China was controlled by Xianbei, Qiang and other ethnic minorities, which was called "Five Lakes and Sixteen Countries" in history. As ethnic minorities entered the Central Plains, they were more exposed to Chinese culture, which gradually developed into a nation with the same living habits as the Han nationality, and was later integrated by the Han nationality. Since Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the population structure in the northern part of the Central Plains, in which Han people predominate and other ethnic minorities live together, has made China a multi-ethnic country with similar living habits.
The Eastern Jin Dynasty lasted 103 from the establishment of Emperor Si Marui in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties. During this period, China has been in a state of division, but after the demise of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, this state has not been changed, followed by another period of division-the Southern and Northern Dynasties.