Political Order of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Timeline

1. c. 880–907Chang'an–Bianliang area · ChinaAfter the Huang Chao uprising, central authority collapsed; military commissioners held independent forces and passed power by heredity, laying the foundation for militarist seizure of power and local division during the Five Dynasties.
2. c. 907–960Kaifeng (Bianliang) · HenanLater Liang, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Zhou succeeded one another, all relying on the imperial guard and military cliques of the Privy Council; most regimes lasted under twenty years, and politics in the Central Plains were highly militarized.
3. c. 902–979Jianghuai, Bashu, Lingnan, and Jingchu · ChinaThe southern kingdoms were relatively stable; Wuyue, Southern Tang, and others developed agriculture, waterworks, and maritime trade, forming regional governance models distinct from the northern militarist regimes and building momentum for the southward shift of the economic center in the Song.
4. c. 960–979Kaifeng · HenanAfter Zhao Kuangyin founded the Northern Song, he gradually abolished the regional military regimes and campaigned north and south, first securing the Central Plains and then annexing the ten kingdoms, replacing the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms division with a more civilian-oriented centralized system.