The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907-979) was a transitional age between the Tang and Song dynasties. After the Tang collapsed, political authority fractured. In North China, power shifted rapidly among five short-lived regimes based in the Central Plain: Later Liang, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Zhou. These dynasties relied on military governors, court factions, and shifting alliances with steppe powers, so coups and succession crises were common.

Meanwhile, the south and parts of the west were ruled by a patchwork of states often grouped as the “Ten Kingdoms,” including Wu, Wuyue, Min, Chu, Southern Han, Former Shu, Later Shu, Jingnan, Southern Tang, and Northern Han. Although warfare did not disappear, many southern kingdoms enjoyed relative stability, expanding commerce, irrigation, and urban life. Culture and printing continued to develop, and regional courts became patrons of art and scholarship.

Reunification began in 960 when the Song dynasty was founded. Over the next two decades, Song armies and diplomacy gradually absorbed the remaining kingdoms, completing unification by 979 and setting the stage for a more centralized bureaucracy and sustained economic growth.