China, The Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms

The period of political disunity between the T'ang and the Sung lasted little more than half a century, from 907 to 960. During this brief era, when China was truly a multistate system, five short-lived regimes succeeded one another in control of the old Imperial heartland in northern China, hence the name Wu-tai (Five Dynasties). During these same years, 10 relatively stable regimes