Northern Qi Dynasty

The Northern Qi Dynasty was one of the Northern dynasties of Chinese history and ruled northern China from 550 to 577. It was the successor state of the Xianbei state of Eastern Wei, as Eastern Wei's paramount general Gao Huan was succeeded by his sons Gao Cheng and Gao Yang, who took the throne from Emperor Xiaojing of Eastern Wei in 550 and established Northern Qi as its Emperor Wenxuan. As Northern Qi was plagued by violent and/or incompetent emperors (Emperor Wenxuan, Emperor Wucheng, and Gao Wei), corrupt officials, and deteriorating armies. Although it was the strongest state of the three main Chinese states (along with Northern Zhou and Chen Dynasty) when it was established, it gradually declined and was destroyed by Northern Zhou in 577. (Emperor Wenxuan's son Gao Shaoyi the Prince of Fanyang, under protection by Tujue, later declared himself the emperor of Northern Qi in exile, but in 580 was turned over by Tujue to Northern Zhou and exiled to modern Sichuan. It is a matter of controversy whether Gao Shaoyi should properly be considered a Northern Qi emperor, but in any case the 577 date is generally used by historians as the ending date for Northern Qi.)