Five Dynasties Period - (AD 907 to 960 - 53 Years) - Page 2
Ten Kingdoms Period - (AD 907 to 979 - 62 Years)
Liao Dynasty (AD 907 to 1125 - 218 Tears)

Tang power ebbed by the center of the eighth century A.D. Domestic economic instability and military defeat in 751 by Arabs at Talas, in Central Asia, marked the beginning of five centuries of steady military decline for the Chinese empire. Misrule, court intrigues, economic exploitation, and popular rebellions weakened the empire, making it possible for northern invaders to terminate the dynasty in 907. The next half-century saw the fragmentation of China into five northern dynasties and ten southern kingdoms. The dispersal of political and economic power that marked the collapse of the Tang dynasty resulted in a brief period of disunion known as the Five Dynasties period (AD 907-960). Not only did five short-lived dynasties follow one another in the Huang He (yellow River), valley of North China, but ten independent states were established (AD 906-979), most of them in South China. Although foreign invaders did not overrun China during this period, the Liao dynasty (AD 916-1125) of the Khitan Mongols, based in Manchuria and Mongolia, was able to extend its influence over parts of northern Hebei and Shanxi provinces. Beijing became the southern capital of their joint Sino-Khitan Empire.