Han Zhao

The Han Zhao ( ; ; ; 304-329) was a state of the Sixteen Kingdoms during the Chinese Jin Dynasty (265-420). It represented two state titles, the Han state (漢, pinyin Hàn) proclaimed in 304 by Liu Yuan and the Former Zhao state (前趙, pinyin Qiánzhào) in 319 by Liu Yao. (The reason it was referred to as Former Zhao was that when its powerful general Shi Le broke away and formed his own state in 319, he named it Zhao as well, and so Shi Le's state was referred to as Later Zhao.) Since they were both ruled by the partially sinicized Xiongnu Liu family, scholars with Chinese backgrounds often combined them into a single Han Zhao state. Numerous western texts referred to the two states separately; others referred to the Han state as the Northern Han (北漢), a nomenclature in diminishing use as the term now referring to the Northern Han in the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. However, the reference to them as separate should be considered clearly erroneous, given that when Liu Yao changed the name of the state from Han to Zhao in 319, he treated the state as having been continuous from the time that Liu Yuan founded it in 304; instead, he was discontinuing the connection to Han Dynasty and reclaiming ancestry from the great Xiongnu chanyu Maodun.
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