After the demise of the Tang Dynasty, there appeared more than a dozen regimes in five dynasties in the Central Plains, which were separated from Xishu, Jiangnan, Lingnan and Hedong, collectively known as the Five Dynasties and Ten States.
In ancient China, the orthodox view of history was dominant. Because the Five Dynasties were established in the Central Plains, occupying the central area of the former capital of the Tang Dynasty and taking orthodoxy as their own, later historians wrote the history of the Five Dynasties. These ten countries and their remaining regimes are called separatist forces.
Kaifeng was the capital of Hou Liang and Houjin, and Luoyang was the capital of the later Tang Dynasty. Fifty-four years in the Five Dynasties, eight surnames proclaimed themselves emperors and fourteen emperors.
The monarchs of Hou Liang and Houzhou were Han Chinese, and the monarchs of Houtang, Houjin and Houhan were Shatuo people. They were all established in North China, with the smallest territory in the later Liang Dynasty and the largest in the later Tang Dynasty. Except for the Northern Han Dynasty, which was founded in Shanxi today, the other nine countries are all in the south.
Five Dynasties coexisted with ten countries, but different countries existed for different lengths of time. For example, wuyue was divided before the Tang Dynasty and was destroyed by the Northern Song Dynasty after the Five Dynasties. Nanping is the smallest and Nantang is the largest.
In 960, Zhao Kuangyin launched a mutiny in Chen Qiao in the later Zhou Dynasty. After usurping the throne in the latter Zhou Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty was established, and the Five Dynasties ended. Later, the Northern Song Dynasty unified the remaining regimes of Jingnan, Wuping, Houshu, Nanhan, Nantang, wuyue and Beihan successively, and basically achieved national reunification.
Extended data:
After the Huang Chao Uprising at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the separatist regime of the buffer regions generally appeared, and some powerful buffer regions successively became kings, which was actually a highly autonomous kingdom.
After the demise of the Tang Dynasty, various regions became independent. Among them, the powerful regime in North China controlled the Central Plains and formed five dynasties, some of which were established by the Shatuo people.
Although these five successive central plains regimes were powerful, they were unable to control the whole country, and they were just a court of buffer region type. Some of the other vassal states of the separatist regime were independent emperors, and some were regarded as kings and vassals in the Five Dynasties (except Jin, Qi and Wu in the Later Liang Dynasty). Among them, ten regimes, which lasted for a long time and were called kings or emperors, were collectively called ten countries by the historians of the New Five Dynasties and later generations.
During this period, the local power factions often rebelled and seized positions, which made the war endless and the rulers emphasized military power. The civil strife in China also gave the Khitan the opportunity to invade the south, and the Liao Dynasty was established.
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms is an important period in the history of China. During this period, the Southern Army (later Xixia) gradually became independent, while the Jingshui Division (Jiaodi, later Vietnam) was separated from the central rule.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Five Dynasties and Ten Countries