Previous Qin

Former Qin (前秦) was a Chinese state during the Sixteen Kingdoms . It was proclaimed by Fu Hong (苻 洪) in 350 . 376 his grandson Fu Jian was able to unite the entire northern part of China. In 383 his army was defeated by the army of the Eastern Jin at the Battle of Feishui , whereupon his empire fell apart after his death. His successors were repeatedly defeated by the subsequent states of Later Yan , Later Qin, and Western Qin . In 394 the last emperor of the Former Qin Fu Deng (苻 登) was captured and killed by the Later Qin after a battle, with which the Former Qin perished.

The former Qin had a total of 1 king and 5 emperors from its founding in 350 until its fall. Their capital was Xi'an . It was able to unite northern China for the first time after the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty .

The state name Qin (秦) comes from the first Chinese dynasty: the Qin dynasty . The heartland of the dynasty was in today's Shaanxi province , which is why the name is also used as a place name for the area around Xi'an. The former Qin was first proclaimed in this area as well, which is why she used this name as the state name.

Founding of the state

The Imperial House of the Former Qin came from a chief family who immigrated to China from the west. The father of the first emperor rose to be the leader of the local security army, succeeded by Fu Hong . After the establishment of Han-Zhao , Fu Hong swore allegiance to the new dynasty. After the Later Zhao destroyed Han-Zhao, he became the General of the Later Zhao. The Zhao Emperor later suspected Fu Hong's loyalty and dismissed him from the army, causing Fu Hong to secretly sell his service to Jin Emperors . After the collapse of the Later Zhao, Fu Hong was able to assemble part of the disoriented Zhao army and thus came to a force of over a hundred thousand men. Fu Hong believed he was strong enough and was proclaimed king. But one of his general sought his position and poisoned him at a banquet.

After Fu Hong's death, his son Fu Jian (符 健) was able to quickly kill the killer and keep the situation under his control. (It should be noted here that the second emperor and the fourth emperor of the earlier Qin are spelled the same way in German transcription, but they are two different people, their first names have different Chinese characters and they are also pronounced differently. The second emperor has that Character 健 and is pronounced in the fourth tone, while the fourth emperor has the character 坚 and is pronounced in the first tone.) Fu Jian was able to take the former Jin capital Xi'an and from then on officially called himself emperor. In the next few years, Fu Jian was able to consolidate and expand his rule around Xi'an. On the one hand he was able to successfully repel the punitive expeditions of the Western Jin, on the other hand he was able to win over the people by lowering taxes and other measures and at the same time to some extent revive the economy, which had been destroyed by years of unrest and tyranny. All in all, Fu Jian was a rather thrifty and mild ruler who had laid a good basis for the later strength of Former Qin. He died of an illness 6 years after his father.

After Fu Jian's death, his son and designated successor, Fu Sheng (符 生), became Emperor of the Former Qin. Fu Sheng was a very stubborn child from an early age. As a child, his grandfather was so annoyed with him that he advised his father to kill the child early before he became a nuisance. Even so, Fu Sheng became the third emperor of the Former Qin. In contrast to his father, Fu Sheng was a very cruel ruler who was also addicted to alcohol. Official historiography, The Book of Jin , (晋书) reported that he would often meet his ministers with a bow and knife, and if someone said something he did not like, he would immediately shoot the unfortunate person with a bow. He also forced his ministers to drink with him until everyone was completely drunk.

By threatening violence he was able to get the rulers of the Former Liang to serve him at least nominally as a vassal. In the battle between the Former Yan and Western Jin, Fu Sheng sided with the Yan. He helped Yan repel Jin invasions several times.