Northern Wei Dynasty

Northern Wei
北魏
Empire
386–535
Asia in 500 AD, showing Northern Wei territories and their neighbors
Capital		Shengle (386–398, capital of former Dai, near modern Huhhot) Pingcheng (398–493) Luoyang (493–534) Chang'an (534-535)
Government		Monarchy
Emperor
•	386–409	Emperor Daowu
•	424–452	Emperor Taiwu
•	452-465	Emperor Wencheng
•	471–499	Emperor Xiaowen
•	499–515	Emperor Xuanwu
•	528–530	Emperor Xiaozhuang
•	532–535	Emperor Xiaowu
History
•	Established	20 February 386
•	Emperor Daowu's claim of imperial title	24 January 399
•	Unification of northern China	439
•	Movement of capital to Luoyang	25 October 493
•	Erzhu Rong's massacre of ruling class	17 May 528
•	Establishment of Eastern Wei, marking division	8 November 535
•	Emperor Xiaowu's death	3 February 535
Area
•	450	2,000,000 km² (772,204 sq mi)
Preceded by Succeeded by Former Qin Later Yan Xia (Sixteen Kingdoms) Northern Yan Northern Liang Eastern Wei Western Wei

The Northern Wei (Chinese: 北魏; pinyin: Běi Wèi; Wade–Giles: Pei³ Wei⁴), also known as the Tuoba Wei (拓跋魏), Later Wei (後魏), or Yuan Wei (元魏), was a dynasty founded by the Tuoba clan of the Xianbei, which ruled northern China from 386 to 534 (de jure until 535), during the period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Described as "part of an era of political turbulence and intense social and cultural change", the Northern Wei Dynasty is particularly noted for unifying northern China in 439: this was also a period of introduced foreign ideas; such as Buddhism, which became firmly established.

During the Taihe period (477-499) of Emperor Xiaowen, court advisers instituted sweeping reforms and introduced changes that eventually led to the dynasty moving its capital from Datong to Luoyang, in 494. The Tuoba renamed themselves the Yuan as a part of systematic Sinicization. Towards the end of the dynasty there was significant internal dissension resulting in a split into Eastern Wei and Western Wei.

Many antiques and art works, both Daoist and Buddhist, from this period have survived. It was the time of the construction of the Yungang Grottoes near Datong during the mid-to-late 5th century, and towards the latter part of the dynasty, the Longmen Caves outside the later capital city of Luoyang, in which more than 30,000 Buddhist images from the time of this dynasty have been found.