The Fall of Luoyang (311)

In 304 Liu Yuan, a descendant of the Hun chanyus, had founded the state of Han in northern China. The Western Jin dynasty had been weakened by the War of the Eight Princes, and famine and revolt spread across the land. From 308 the Huns attacked Luoyang several times without taking it.

After Liu Yuan's son Liu Cong became emperor, generals such as Liu Yao, Wang Mi and Shi Le defeated the Jin armies one after another. In July 311 Luoyang fell and Emperor Huai was captured. According to the sources, the city was sacked, the palaces burned and tens of thousands of people died.

The event was remembered as one of the worst disasters in Chinese history: for the first time a state founded by steppe peoples had taken the capital of China. Chang'an fell in 316, and the Jin dynasty withdrew south of the Yangtze. In northern China the age of the Sixteen Kingdoms began.