Yáo Cháng founds Later Qin, a state of Qiang ethnicity of the Sixteen Kingdoms Era, entirely distinct from the ancient Qin Dynasty, the Former Qin, and the Western Qin, in 384.

All rulers of the Later Qin will declare themselves "emperors."

Qifu Guoren establishes Western Qin, a state of Xianbei ethnicity entirely distinct from the ancient Qin Dynasty, the Former Qin, and the Later Qin, in 385.

All rulers of the Western Qin will declare themselves "wang,” translatable as either "king" or "prince."

The Former Qin state had begun to break apart following the disastrous Battle of Fei River in Fu Jian’s failed bid to unify China.

Fu Jian himself is killed in 385 by his former subordinate, Yao Chang, the founding emperor of Later Qin.

The defeat of the Former Qin in the Battle of Fei and the subsequent uprisings split its territory into two noncontiguous pieces after the death of Fu Jian: one located at present day Taiyuan, Shanxi, is soon overwhelmed in 386 by the Xianbei under the Later Yan and the Gaoche, or Dingling.

The other portion, occupying greatly reduced territories around the border of present day Shaanxi and Gansu, struggles for survival.

The Three Kingdoms period in China’s history, part of an era of disunity called the Six Dynasties immediately following the loss of de facto power of the Han dynasty emperors, refers in a strict academic sense to the period between the foundation of the Wu in 222 and the conquest of the Shu by the Kingdom of Wei in 263.

Although the three kingdoms had been reunited temporarily in 278 by the Jin Dynasty founded in 265 by the Sima family, the contemporary non-Han Chinese Wu Hu ethnic groups had controlled much of the country in the early fourth century and provoked large-scale Han Chinese migrations to south of the Chang Jiang.

The Di people had rebelled in 303 and later captured Chengdu, establishing the state of Cheng Han.

Under Liu Yuan, the Xiongnu had rebelled near today's Linfen County and established the state of Han Zhao.

His successor Liu Cong had captured and executed the last two Western Jin emperors.

The Sixteen Kingdoms, or less commonly the Sixteen States, are a collection of numerous short-lived sovereign states that have coalesced in China proper and its neighboring areas from 304 after the retreat of the Jin Dynasty to South China in 317.

Almost all rulers of the kingdoms are part of the Wu Hu ethnicity and claim to be the emperors and wangs (kings).

Many nomadic ethnic groups are involved, including ancestors of the Turks, Mongolians, and Tibetans, most of which peoples had to some extent been "Sinicized" long before their ascent to power.

Some of them, notably the Qiang and the Xiongnu, had already been allowed to live in the frontier regions within the Great Wall since late Han times.

The Han Chinese have founded Former Liang and the state of Wei.

Six Chinese rulers of the Former Liang remained titularly under the government of the Jin Dynasty, whose emperors, who are of Chinese stock, now rule southern China from Nanjing.

The Tuoba seizure of China’s northern border areas in 386 has little affected the Chinese heartland, which boasts a large population and a well-integrated social and economic system organized along Confucianist and Buddhist principles.

By the close of the fourth century, a series of sixteen nomadic kingdoms have ruled North China since the erection of the first Xiongnu kingdom in the century’s first decade.

Emperors of Chinese stock rule southern China from Nanjing.

Prominent figure painter Gu Kaizhi, who flourishes in the latter half of the fourth century, is the putative creator of a hand scroll (the earliest surviving example) entitled Admonitions of the Instructress of the Ladies of the Palace.

Such scrolls typically portray human figures as edifying exemplars of good character.

The creator of Admonitions, employing a needle-fine brush point, brings a keen psychological sense to the delineation of his subjects, embodying them by their clothes, rather than by their flesh.

The Admonition Scroll, dated between the sixth and eighth century CE—probably an early Tang dynasty copy —illustrates nine stories from a political satire about Empress Jia Nanfeng written by Zhang Hua, who lived from about 232 to 302.

Beginning in the eighth century, many collectors and emperors left seals, poems, and comments on the scroll.

The Admonition Scroll will be stored in the emperor's treasure until it is looted by the British army in the Boxer Uprising in 1900.

It is today in the British Museum collection, missing the first three scenes.

There is another surviving copy of this painting, made during the Song Dynasty and is now held in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

The Song version is complete in twelve scenes.

Yao Chang had been had been a powerful general and Qiang chieftain under the Later Zhao emperor Shi Hu, but after Later Zhao's collapse after Shi Hu's death, Yao Chang's older brother Yao Xiang had attempted to start an independent state but was defeated and killed by Former Qin forces.

Yao Chang became a Former Qin general, but after an incident in 384 after the Former Qin emperor Fu Jiān's defeat at the Battle of Fei River, Yao Chang feared that Fu Jiān would kill him and therefore rebelled.

He subsequently captured and killed Fu Jiān, who had saved his life when Yao Xiang was defeated, causing many historians to view him as a traitor and murderer.

Western Yan forces, under its emperor Murong Chong, had then occupied Chang'an, and Western Yan and Later Qin had battled on-and-off.

However, the Western Yan people were unhappy that Murong Chong was not leading them back to their homeland in the east, and, in 386, Murong Chong had been assassinated in a coup and replaced with Deng Sui, who was then assassinated and replaced with Murong Yi, under whom the Western Yan people abandoned Chang'an and headed east.

Briefly, Chang'an was held by the Xiongnu chief Hao Nu, but Yao Chang then advanced on Chang'an, and Hao surrendered.

Yao Chang had made Chang'an his capital and claimed the title of emperor of Later Qin.

He had created his wife Lady She as empress and his son Yao Xing as crown prince.

For the next few years, Yao Chang has not been able to attain complete control over the region, as many Di, Qiang, Xiongnu, and Han generals remain semi-independent throughout the region.

Further, in 386, a distant member of Former Qin's imperial Fu clan, Fu Deng, had risen in modern eastern Gansu to oppose him, and after the death of Fu Jiān's son Fu Pi that year, had claimed imperial title and became the main adversary for Yao Chang.

Fu Deng has used Yao Chang's killing of Fu Jiān to good propaganda effect, and for several years has been quite successful in battles against Yao Chang, although the battles have generally been inconclusive in their impact, with neither Fu Deng nor Yao Chang being able to decisively defeat the other.

However, Yao Chang has been able to gradually subdue the other Former Qin generals of the region, taking advantage of Fu Deng's cautiousness.

In 387, for example, after the Former Qin general Fu Zuan had been killed by his brother Fu Shinu, Yao Chang had taken the opportunity to quickly advance against Fu Shinu and defeat him, seizing his troops.

He also, at the same time, seized the remaining cities held by Western Yan west of the Yellow River.

In 389, after losing several battles to Former Qin, Yao Chang becomes apprehensive and thinks that it is Fu Jiān's spirit aiding Former Qin, so he, following Fu Deng's lead, makes an image of Fu Jiān and worships it, claiming to it that he had killed Fu Jiān only to avenge Yao Xiang and asking for forgiveness.

The image does not help Yao Chang, and he eventually cuts off its head and sends it to Fu Deng.

Later that year, as Fu Deng is pressuring Yao Chang, however, Yao Chang makes a surprise attack at night, around Fu Deng's army, against Fu Deng’s logistics base.

Dajie (in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi), capturing it and Fu Deng's wife Empress Mao and killing his sons Fu Bian and Fu Shang.

He initially wants to make Empress Mao his concubine, but after she curses him, he executes her.

While Former Qin and Later Qin will continue to stalemate for the next few years, Fu Deng will be unable to again threaten Later Qin's existence from this point on.

Yao Chang, during his fight with Former Qin and Western Yan for the past several years, has often entrusted his son Yao Xing with guarding the base of operations (initially Beidi, in modern Tongchuan, Shaanxi, later Chang'an after Western Yan captured and then abandoned it), while his father engaged in campaigns.

Considered to be firm and gracious, he has spent much time studying literature despite the work necessary in maintaining a home base.

In 392, while Yao Chang is away on a campaign, Yao Xing, at the suggestion of the general Yao Fangcheng, executes a number of Former Qin generals whom Yao Chang had taken captive earlier.

While Yao Chang is angry on the surface, he appears to be secretly happy that Yao Xing had realized the danger that these generals posed.

Yao Chang falls seriously ill around the new year of 393, and on his death bed tells Yao Xing to trust the several officials with whom he has entrusted his administration: Yin, Yao Huang, Yao Damu, and Di Bozhi.

When Yao Huang asks Yao Chang for strategies to defeat the Former Qin emperor Fu Deng, Yao Chang refuses to answer, merely stating that he trusts that Yao Xing will be able to accomplish it.

When Fu Deng, having heard of Yao Chang’s illness, attacks the Later Qin vassal Dou Chong at Anding (in modern Pingliang, Gansu), Yao Chang, at the suggestion of the prime minister Yin Wei, sends Yao Xing against Fu Deng in order to establish Yao Xing's authority over the troops.

Yao Xing is able to stop Fu Deng's attack on Dou with relative ease.

Yao Chang soon dies, and Yao Xing succeeds him, although not initially, as he keeps his father's death a secret and entrusts the troops to his uncles Yao Xu and Yao Shuode and his brother Yao Chóng, while preparing a campaign against Former Qin.

Yao Xing had hoped to keep his father's death a secret, but Fu Deng receives news of it anyway and immediately prepares a major attack against Later Qin.

Fu Deng has his brother Fu Guang defend the base of Yongcheng (in modern Baoji, Shaanxi) and …