A lineage beyond the river

Many may regard this dynasty as having endured one of the darkest periods in ancient Chinese history. Yet civilization also reveals its resilience in times of upheaval.

In 311, Luoyang, in today's Henan province and then the capital city of the Jin Dynasty (265-420), fell in war. By then, princes' rebellions and nomads' turmoil had raged for about 20 years, tearing northern China apart. It had been only 30-some years since the Jin had reunified a fragmented China, and unity was breaking apart again.

Jin loyalists had to look beyond the Yangtze River, which was then less developed than their Central Plains homelands. Gentry, nobles and civilians from North China, along with their documents, rituals, techniques, and hope, began a massive southward migration. Historians estimate that the exodus involved at least 900,000 people.

After the teenage Jin emperor surrendered the besieged Chang'an (today's Xi'an, Shaanxi province) in 316, marking the end of the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316), the displaced northerners soon established a new court in Jiankang, present-day Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province. Thus began the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420), which ruled the southern half of China.

At Nanjing Municipal Museum, an ongoing exhibition, The Great Southern Migration: From the Western Jin to the Eastern Jin, invites visitors to look at the era from fresh perspectives — a turbulent period, perhaps, but also a crucial chapter in north-south exchange.

Bringing over 200 exhibits from 13 museums nationwide and running through Jan 4, the exhibition is the largest thematic exhibition in China to date devoted to the Jin Dynasty.

"This migration greatly contributed to the development of regions along the Yangtze River," says Zhu Yifei, the exhibition curator from Nanjing Municipal Museum. "It carried forward a lineage of Chinese civilization and contributed to the formation of a unified nation with multiple ethnic groups."

The exhibition features representative cultural relics, including ceramics, gold artifacts, figurines and stone rubbings of inscriptions. Many come from major archaeological discoveries, offering a panoramic view of Jin society, economic development and everyday life.