General Wang Dun and His Rebellion Against the Eastern Jin Dynasty

Abstract

The article provides brief information about the rebellious aristocratic general Wang Dong against the ruling clan of Sima in the person of Sima Rui (years of life 276–323 AD, years of rule 318–323 AD), the first emperor of Eastern Jin, as well as factors and the consequences of his defeat for the rebellious Wang clan and the ruling Sima. The relevance of the stated theme is due to the fact that the historical and biographical analysis of the event canvas of the rebellion and related historical personalities would help to reconstruct the concrete historical background of the events. The goal is to identify the causes and consequences of the rebellion, as well as the reconstruction of little-known concrete historical facts by translating and analyzing the primary sources. In the analysis of military operations, the author relied on historical-biographical and historical-geographical methods. It is shown that the reason for the Wang Dong rebellion was that the ruling house of Sima began to raise dignitaries named Liu Kui, Diao Xie, Dai Yuan, etc. as a counterweight to the powerful Wang clan. The son of Sima Rui (Sima Shao), who became the second emperor, was able to collect all the clans hostile to the Wang clan and suppressed the rebellion. The rude military and political miscalculations of Wang Dong himself and his advisers also played a role in his defeat. The rebellion became a way of resolving the sharp contradictions between the higher court clans in the struggle for higher power and key posts in the Eastern Jin empire. The biographies of supporters and opponents of the military rebellion of General Wang Dun are analyzed.

Keywords

• south china
• wang dun
• rebellion
• jin yuan-di
• jin ming-di
• eastern jin (317–420)