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East Asia · The Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern dynasties

Xia

407–431

The Xia (407–431), also called Hu Xia, was founded by the Xiongnu (Tiefu) leader Helian Bobo, capital at the specially built Tongwancheng (a famously strong rammed-earth fortress in the Ordos). Ferociously militaristic, it briefly seized Chang'an (418).

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Existed
407–431
Shown on the map
AD 410–438
Peak area
230k km²
Region
East Asia

Overview

The Xia (407–431), also called Hu Xia, was founded by the Xiongnu (Tiefu) leader Helian Bobo, capital at the specially built Tongwancheng (a famously strong rammed-earth fortress in the Ordos). Ferociously militaristic, it briefly seized Chang'an (418). It was crushed by the Northern Wei and Tuyuhun; Helian Ding was captured in 431.

Common questions

What was Xia?
The Xia (407–431), also called Hu Xia, was founded by the Xiongnu (Tiefu) leader Helian Bobo, capital at the specially built Tongwancheng (a famously strong rammed-earth fortress in the Ordos). Ferociously militaristic, it briefly seized Chang'an (418).
When did Xia exist?
Xia existed 407–431. On this map it is drawn AD 410–438.
How large was Xia?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Xia covered about 230,000 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).

Around the same time

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