Five Dynasties and Ten States (907–960 AD) was an era of political upheaval in China, between the fall of the Tang Dynasty and the establishment of the Song Dynasty. During this period, five dynasties quickly succeeded one another in the north, which were Later Liang, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han and Later Zhou. Comparatively, in the south China, nine other smaller separate regimes coexisted, which were Wu, Southern Tang, Wuyue, Chu, Former Shu, Later Shu, Southern Han, Jingnan and Min. Including the Northern Han in the east, they were together called Five Dynasties and Ten States.

After the Anshi Rebellion, which broke out towards the end of the Tang Dynasty, uprisings erupted all over the country. Towards the end of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial government granted increased powers to the jiedushi, the regional military governors. The Huang Chao Rebellion weakened the imperial government's authority. By the early 10th century the “Jie Du Shi”, who was actually independence, were not subject to the authority of the imperial government.

Finally in 907, a leader of the peasant uprising, Zhu Wen set up a new regime - Later Liang (907-923) which indicated the beginning of the next half-century's political fragmentation. Thus, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms ensued.

During the Tang Dynasty, the warlord Zhu Wen held the most power in northern China. Although he was originally a member of Huang Chao's rebel army, he took on a crucial role in suppressing the Huang Chao Rebellion. For this function, he was awarded the Xuanwu Jiedushi title.
Within a few years, he had consolidated his power by destroying neighbors and forcing the move of the imperial capital to Luoyang (in today’s Henan Province), which was within his region of influence. In 904, he executed Emperor Zhaozong and made his 13-year-old son a subordinate ruler. Three years later, he induced the boy emperor to abdicate in his favor. He then proclaimed himself emperor, thus beginning the Later Liang Dynasty.

During Tang Dynasty, rival warlords declared independence in their governing provinces — not all of whom recognized the emperor's authority. Li Cunxu and Liu Shouguang fought fiercely to conquer northern China. Li Cunxu succeeded and defeated Liu Shouguang (who had proclaimed a Yan Empire in 911) in 915, and declared himself emperor in 923. Within a few months, he brought down the Later Liang regime, thus began the Later Tang Dynasty. After reuniting much of northern China, Li Cunxu conquered Former Shu in 925, a regime that had been set up in Sichuan.

The Later Tang Dynasty had a few years of relative calm, followed by unrest. In 934, Sichuan again asserted independence. In 936, Shi Jingtang, a Shatuo Turk jiedushi from Taiyuan, was aided by the Manchurian Khitan Empire in a rebellion against the dynasty. In return for their aid, Shi Jingtang promised annual tribute and 16 prefectures in the Yanyun area (modern northern Hebei Province and Beijing) to the Khitans. The rebellion succeeded and Shi Jingtang became emperor in this same year.
Not long after the Jin Dynasty's founding, the Khitans regarded the emperor as a proxy ruler for China proper. In 943, they declared war on this kingdom, and within three years seized the capital, Kaifeng—thus marking the end of Later Jin Dynasty. But, although they had conquered vast regions of China, they were unable or unwilling to control those regions and retreated from them early in the next year.

To fill the power vacuum, the “Jie Du Shi” Liu Zhiyuan entered the imperial capital in 947, and proclaimed the advent of the Later Han Dynasty, establishing a third successive Shatuo Turk dynasty. This was the shortest of the five dynasties. Following a coup in 951, General Guo Wei, a Han Chinese, was enthroned, thus beginning the Later Zhou Dynasty. However, Liu Chong, a member of the Later Han imperial family, established a rival Northern Han regime in Taiyuan, and requested Khitan aid to defeat Later Han.

After the death of Guo Wei in 951, his adopted son Chai Rong succeeded the throne and began a policy of expansion and reunification. In 954, his army defeated combined Khitan and Northern Han forces, ending their ambition of toppling the Later Zhou dynasty. Between 956 and 958, forces of Later Zhou conquered much of Southern Tang, the most powerful regime in southern China, which ceded all the territory north of the Yangtze River in defeat. In 959, Chai Rong attacked the Khitan Empire in an attempt to recover territories ceded during the Later Jin Dynasty. After many victories, he succumbed to illness.
In 960, the general Zhao Kuangyin staged a coup and took the throne for himself, founding the Northern Song Dynasty. This is the official end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. During the next two decades, Zhao Kuangyin and his successor Zhao Kuangyi defeated the other remaining regimes in China proper, conquering Northern Han in 979, and reunifying China completely in 982.

Though considered one of the ten kingdoms, the Northern Han was based in the traditional Shatuo Turk stronghold of Shanxi. It was created after the last of three dynasties created by Shatuo Turks fell to the Han-governed Later Zhou Dynasty in 951. With the protection of the powerful Khitan Liao Empire, the Northern Han maintained nominal independence until the Song Dynasty wrested it from the Khitan in 979.

Unlike the dynasties of northern China, which succeeded one other in rapid succession, the regimes of southern China were generally concurrent, each controlling a specific geographical area. These were known as "The Ten States".

The Kingdom of Wu was established in modern-day Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangxi Provinces. It was founded by Yang Xingmi, who became a Tang Dynasty military governor in 892. The capital was initially at Guangling (today’s Yangzhou) and later moved to Jinling (today’s Nanjing). The kingdom fell in 937 when it was taken from within by the founder of the Southern Tang.

The State of Wuyue was the longest-lived and among the most powerful of the southern states. Wuyue was known for its cultural prosperity. It was founded by Qian Liu, who set up his capital at Xifu (today’s Hangzhou). It was based mostly in modern Zhejiang province but also held parts of southern Jiangsu. Qian Liu was named the Prince of Yue by the Tang emperor in 902. The Prince of Wu was added in 904. After the fall of the Tang Dynasty in 907, he declared himself king of Wuyue. Wuyue survived until the eighteenth year of the Song Dynasty, when Qian Shu surrendered to the expanding dynasty.

The Kingdom of Min was founded by Wang Shenzhi, who named himself the Prince of Min with its capital at Changle (present-day Fuzhou). One of Shenzhi’s sons proclaimed the independent state of Yin in the northeast of Min territory. The Southern Tang took that territory after the Min asked for help. Despite declaring loyalty to the neighboring Wuyue, the Southern Tang finished its conquest of Min in 945.

The Southern Hanwas founded in Guangzhou (also known as Canton) by Liu Yan. His brother, Liu Yin, was named regional governor by the Tang court. The kingdom included Guangdong and most of Guangxi.

The Chu was founded by Ma Yin with the capital at Changsha. The kingdom held Hunan and northeastern Guangxi. Ma was named regional military governor by the Tang court in 896, and named himself the Prince of Chu with the fall of the Tang Dynasty in 907. This status as the Prince of Chu was confirmed by the Later Tang Dynasty in 927. The Southern Tang absorbed the state in 951 and moved the royal family to its capital in Nanjing, although Southern Tang rule of the region was temporary, as the next year former Chu military officers under the leadership of Liu Yan seized the territory. In the waning years of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the region was ruled by Zhou Xingfeng.

The smallest of the southern states, Jingnan, was founded by Gao Jichang. It was based in Jiangling and held two other districts southwest of present-day Wuhan in Hubei. Gao was in the service of the Later Liang Dynasty (the successor of the Tang Dynasty in northern China). Gao’s successors claimed the title of King of Nanping after the fall of the Later Liang in 924. It was a small and weak kingdom, and thus tried to maintain good relations with each of the Five Dynasties. The kingdom fell to advancing armies of the Song Dynasty in 963.

The Kingdom of Shuwas founded after the fall of the Tang Dynasty by Wang Jian, who held his court in Chengdu. The kingdom held most of present-day Sichuan, western Hubei, and parts of southern Gansu and Shaanxi. Wang was named military governor of western Sichuan by the Tang court in 891. The kingdom eventually fell in 925.

The Southern Tang was the successor state of Wu as Li Bian (Emperor Liezu) took the state over from within in 937. Expanding from the original domains of Wu, it eventually took over Yin, Min, and Chu, holding present-day southern Anhui, southern Jiangsu, much of Jiangxi, Hunan, and eastern Hubei at its height. The kingdom became nominally subordinate to the expanding Song Dynasty in 961 and was invaded outright in 975, when it was formally absorbed into the Song Dynasty.

Economy

During this rough-and-tumble era, constant warfare ensued, however, there was still some visible economic progress. The people in the north fled to the south to get away from the chaos. Therefore, the economic situation of the south progressed better and faster than the north.
Hangzhou and Yangzhou became prosperous commercial cities. The income of the trade became the pocketbook of the Chu regime. In order to prevent the Qiantang River flooding, Wuyue constructed a water conservancy scheme. The silk industry made new progress. Shu's embroidery and Wu's damask silk were well-known across the country. Tea industry, paper-making and printing also improved. Chengdu, Jinling (the present Nanjing) became the two biggest centres of the printing industry.
During the reign of the Later Zhou, Chairong, the Emperor of Shizong a man with great foresight practiced many reforms. He set about improving conditions for exiled peasants. He curtailed the activities of corrupt officials, reformed the tax system and put in place a reconstruction of the irrigation systems. His activities did much to reduce the tensions between the various ruling parties within the former empire.

In the south, the tea trade became increasingly important. There were attempts to introduce state monopolization of the trade in order to control the revenue it produced. The production and trading in salt was monopolized and a salt tax became the prime source of government revenue.

A great innovation was the introduction of paper money in the northern area due to the fact that the existing copper coinage was heavy to transport and the scarcity of metal in China. Certain provinces also placed an embargo on the transfer of copper coins beyond their territory. Merchants began to use a system of deposit certificates. Copper coins would be deposited with the government which then issued the certificates. This developed into a banking system that benefited the expansion of trade.

The native-born Taoism still prevailed and was utilized by the rulers of the Five Dynasties and Ten States as a means to strengthen mental control over the people. The Taoism's school of immortality was appealing to the ruling classes and the wealthy aristocrats.