The Migration Period affects China as well.

Wu Hu (literally "Five Hu") is a collective term for various non-Chinese steppe tribes during the period from the Han Dynasty to the Northern Dynasties.

Their origin lies outside China proper, but they have gradually migrated into Chinese areas during the years of turmoil between the Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms.

The Wu Hu, whom the Han had fought to a standstill, have seized the opportunity afforded by the weakness of the central government to extend their settlement of pastoral lands into the fertile North China Plain.

A military campaign launched by the Jin Dynasty against the state of Eastern Wu in 280, towards the very end of the Three Kingdoms period, concludes with the fall of Wu and the reunification of China under the Jin Dynasty.

A civil war for power among princes and dukes of the Chinese Jin Dynasty from 291 to 306 is called the War of the Eight Princes, the term stemming from biographies of eight princes collected in chapter fifty-nine of the "History of Jin Dynasty" (Jinshu).

While initial conflicts are relatively minor and confined to the imperial capital of Luoyang and its surroundings, the scope of the war will expand with each new prince that enters the struggle.