Jiankang
Jiankang, or Jianye, as it was originally called, was the capital city of the Eastern Wu, the Eastern Jin dynasty and the Southern Dynasties, including the Chen dynasty. Its walls are extant as ruins in the modern municipal region of Nanjing. Jiankang was an important city of the Song dynasty. Its name was changed to Nanjing during the Ming dynasty.
History
Before the Eastern Jin the city was known as Jianye, and it was the capital of the kingdom of Wu during the Three Kingdoms period. It was renamed Jiankang during the Jin dynasty, in order to observe the naming taboo for Emperor Min of Jin.Renamed Jiankang in 313 CE, it served as the capital of the Eastern Jin, following the retreat from the north due to Xiongnu raids. Jiankang remained the capital of the Southern Dynasties: Liu Song, Southern Qi, Liang and Chen. It rivaled Luoyang in population and commercial activity, and at its height, in the sixth century, it was home to around one million people. In 549 CE, during the rebellion of Hou Jing, Jiankang was captured after a year-long siege that devastated the city: most of the population were killed or starved to death. During the reunification under the Sui dynasty it was almost completely destroyed, and was renamed Jiangzhou and then Danyang Commandery. Under the Tang dynasty, the city regained its prosperity and the name became Jinling. Jinling was the capital of the Southern Tang from 937 to 975.
By the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period it was called Jiangning ; during the Southern Song dynasty the name of Jiankang was revived.
When Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, founded the Ming dynasty in 1368, he made Jiankang the capital of China, renaming it Nanjing, "Southern Capital".
Six Dynasties
The Tang historian Xu Song, in his work Jiankang Shilu, coined the term "Six Dynasties" for the various regimes that had centred their power on the site:- Eastern Wu
- Eastern Jin
- Liu Song dynasty
- Southern Qi
- Liang
- Chen