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East Asia · Fragmentation, Song and the conquest dynasties

Later Han

947–951

The Later Han (947–951), fourth and shortest of the Five Dynasties, was founded by the Shatuo Turk Liu Zhiyuan (Emperor Gaozu) after the Liao withdrawal, capital Kaifeng. Marked by harsh rule, it was overthrown in 951 by the general Guo Wei, who founded the Later Zhou; a remnant became the Northern Han.

Existed
947–951
Shown on the map
AD 947–959
Peak area
788k km²
Region
East Asia

Overview

The Later Han (947–951), fourth and shortest of the Five Dynasties, was founded by the Shatuo Turk Liu Zhiyuan (Emperor Gaozu) after the Liao withdrawal, capital Kaifeng. Marked by harsh rule, it was overthrown in 951 by the general Guo Wei, who founded the Later Zhou; a remnant became the Northern Han.

Common questions

What was Later Han?
The Later Han (947–951), fourth and shortest of the Five Dynasties, was founded by the Shatuo Turk Liu Zhiyuan (Emperor Gaozu) after the Liao withdrawal, capital Kaifeng. Marked by harsh rule, it was overthrown in 951 by the general Guo Wei, who founded the Later Zhou; a remnant became the Northern Han.
When did Later Han exist?
Later Han existed 947–951. On this map it is drawn AD 947–959.
How large was Later Han?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Later Han covered about 788,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:

This entry was last updated .

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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