Xin Dynasty: Encyclopedia - Xin Dynasty

Xin Dynasty

• Timeline of Chinese history
• Dynasties in Chinese history
• Military history of China

The Xin Dynasty (新朝, meaning New Dynasty) (8-23) was a "dynasty" (even though, contrary to the usual meaning of a dynasty, it had but one emperor) in Chinese history. It followed the Western Han Dynasty and preceded the Eastern Han Dynasty.

The Xin Dynasty's sole emperor, Wang Mang(王莽), was the nephew of Grand Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun, and he became powerful after the death of her step-grandson, Emperor Ai in 1 BC. After several years of cultivating a personality cult, he finally took over as emperor in 8 AD. However, while he was a creative scholar and politician, he was an incompetent ruler, and his capital Chang'an was sieged in 23 AD by agrarian rebels. He died in the siege.

See Wang Mang for more information.

Shijianguo (始建國 shi3 jian4 guo1, "Start to establish a nation") 9- 13
Tianfeng (天鳳 tian1 feng1, "Heavenly Feng") 14-19
Dihuang (地皇 di4 huang2, "Earthly Emperor") 20-23

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Xin Dynasty", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki