Han-Zhao

The Han-Zhao (; 304–329 AD), or Former Zhao (), was a dynastic state of China ruled by the Liu (Luandi/Chuge) clan of Xiongnu ethnicity during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of Chinese history. In Chinese historiography, it was given two conditional state titles, the Northern Han (; ) for the state proclaimed in 304 by Liu Yuan, and the Former Zhao (; ) for the state proclaimed in 319 by Liu Yao. The reference to them as separate states should be considered misleading, given that when Liu Yao changed the name of the state from “Han” to “Zhao” in 319, he treated the state as having been continuous from the time that Liu Yuan founded it in 304; instead, he de-established his imperial lineage from the Han dynasty and claimed ancestry directly from Modu Chanyu.

The reason it is also referred to as "Former Zhao" in historiography is to distinguish it from the similarly-named dynasty founded by Shi Le in 319, which was also known officially as "Zhao" (labeled "Later Zhao" in Chinese historiography). Since both the Former Zhao and Northern Han were ruled by the same family, the Chinese scholars often conditionally combined them into a single Han-Zhao regime. Numerous Western texts refer to the two states separately; others referred to the Han state as the “Northern Han”, a confusing nomenclature given that the term also refers to the Northern Han state of the later Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

During the Han period, the capital was frequently shifted around Shanxi before finally settling in Pingyang. The Han was a driving force during the upheaval of the Five Barbarians, as they brought the Disaster of Yongjia and demise of the Western Jin dynasty by 317. At the height of its power, the Han ruled Shanxi, Shaanxi, eastern Gansu, and large parts of Shandong, Hebei, and Henan. After Jin Zhun's coup in 318, the empire, which renamed itself to (Former) Zhao in 319, was split into two between Liu Yao and the warlord, Shi Le. Liu Yao moved the capital to the west in Chang'an, retaining Shaanxi and eastern Gansu, while the eastern portion of the empire fell to Shi Le's Later Zhao dynasty. Provided by Wikipedia