The Migration Period affects China as well.

Wu Hu (literally "Five Hu") is a collective term for various non-Chinese steppe tribes during the period from the Han Dynasty to the Northern Dynasties.

Their origin lies outside China proper, but they have gradually migrated into Chinese areas during the years of turmoil between the Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms.

The Wu Hu, whom the Han had fought to a standstill, have seized the opportunity afforded by the weakness of the central government to extend their settlement of pastoral lands into the fertile North China Plain.

The War of the Eight Princes, at its conclusion in 306, devastates the Jin heartland in northern China, and is a major cause of the Wu Hu ravaging that brings the Western Jin to an end.

Technically, the term "War of the Eight Princes" is somewhat of a misnomer: rather than one continuous conflict, the War of the Eight Princes sees intervals of peace interposed with short and intense periods of internecine conflict.

At no point in the whole conflict are all of the eight princes on one side of the fighting (as opposed to, for example, the Rebellion of the Seven States).

The literal Chinese translation, “Disorder of the Eight Princes”, may be more appropriate in this regard.

A series of uprisings, occurring between 304 and 316, is carried out by five non-Chinese tribes or tribal confederacies against the Western Jin Dynasty.

The five tribes, namely the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Qiang and Di, successfully capture the Western Jin capital of Luoyang as well as Emperor Huai of Jin, destroying the Western Jin regime, after which a large series of regional states and regimes are set up, the most prominent of which are known as the Sixteen Kingdoms ('sixteen kingdoms of the five barbarians').

Many ethnic groups are involved, including ancestors of the Turks, Mongols, and Tibetans.

Most of these nomadic peoples had, to some extent, been sinicized long before their ascent to power.

Some of them, notably the Qiang and the Xiongnu, had already been allowed to live in the frontier regions within the Great Wall since late Han times.

Sima Ai makes peace overtures to Sima Ying, but after negotiations, those efforts fail.

Sima Yong's forces are about to withdraw in spring 304 when Sima Yue the Prince of Donghai, the grandson of a great-granduncle of Emperor Hui, believing that Sima Ai cannot win this war, arrests him and delivers him to Sima Yong's general Zhang Fang, who executes Sima Ai cruelly by burning him to death.

Sima Yue's troops by this time have strongly incorporated Wuhuan and Xianbei troops as cavalry.

The Xiongnu in Ye had been partitioned into five local tribes after the death of their leader Hucuquan.

The complicated ethnic situation of the mixed frontier settlements instituted during the Eastern Han had grave consequences, not fully apprehended by the Chinese government until the end of the third century.

By 260, Liú Qùbēi had organized the Tiefu confederacy in the North East, and by 290 was leading a splinter group in the southwest.

By this time, non-Chinese unrest has reached alarming proportions along the whole of the Western Jin frontier.

In 304, the sinicized Liu Yuan, a grandson of Yufuluo Chizhisizhu, stirs up descendants of the southern Xiongnu in rebellion in Shanxi, taking advantage of the War of the Eight Princes now raging around the Western Jin capital Luoyang.

Under Liu Yuan's leadership, they are joined by a large number of frontier Chinese and become known as Bei Han.

Liu Yuan uses 'Han' as the name of his state, hoping to tap into the lingering nostalgia for the glory of the Han dynasty, and establishes his capital in Pingyang.

The Xiongnu’s use of large numbers of heavy cavalry with iron armor for both rider and horse gives them a decisive advantage over Jin armies already weakened and demoralized by three years of civil war.

The young general Li Xiong captures Chengdu, the capital of Yi Province, in early 304, forcing Luo Shang to flee.

He then offers the throne to the hermit Fan Changsheng, who is respected by the refugees as a godlike figure and who had supplied his army with food.

Fan refuses, and the generals then request that Li declare himself emperor.

In winter 304, Li declares himself the Prince of Chengdu, effectively declaring independence from Jin.

He makes Fan and elders of the Li clan his senior advisors.

Historians will come to regard Li’s declaration as the start of the Sixteen Kingdoms era.

Xiongnu nobles, tired of Jin misrule and secretly plotting independence from Jin, send a messenger in 304 to secretly offer Liu Yuan, the commander of the North Tribe of the Xiongnu, the title of Grand Chanyu.

Liu Yuan then tells Sima Ying, who is concerned about an attack from Wang Jun, whose troops are reinforced with Xianbei and Wuhuan soldiers, that he would be willing to mobilize Xiongnu soldiers to support Sima Ying's cause.

Sima Ying agrees and allows Liu Yuan to return to the Xiongnu tribes.

Once Liu Yuan returns to his people, he gathers fifty thousand men quickly and is readying himself to rush to Sima Ying's aid, but he also publicly accepts the title of Grand Chanyu.

(Previously, Sima Ying had bestowed the title of North Chanyu on him.)

However, he then hears that Sima Ying's forces have collapsed in fear of Wang's troops and that Sima Ying had, against his prior advice, fled to Luoyang.

He now declares his people independent from Jin and further declares that, as a Han descendant, he will succeed to the Han throne legitimately, and therefore claims the title of the Prince of Han—deliberately choosing a title that had been previously held by Han Dynasty's founder, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao).

He reestablishes the worship of eight Han emperors—Emperor Gao, Emperor Wen, Emperor Wu, Emperor Xuan, Emperor Guangwu, Emperor Ming, Emperor Zhang, and Liu Bei (Emperor Zhaolie)—and creates his wife Lady Huyan (likely a relative of his mother) princess.

(The name of Liu's state was therefore "Han," but is often referred to as "Han Zhao" or "Former Zhao" because his nephew Liu Yao, who will take the throne in 318, will change the name of the state to Zhao in 319.)

He spends great energy on trying to restore the Han system of government, but he himself is unable to quickly expand his sphere of influence.

He establishes his capital at Lishi (in modern Lüliang, Shanxi), but his control of territory becomes limited to this local region.

His forces are often able to achieve victories over Jin forces but unable to hold cities.

Liu Yuan relocates after a famine in 305 to Liting (in modern Changzhi, Shanxi).

Emperor Hui is poisoned in 307, and his brother, Emperor Huai, ascends the throne.

Sima Ying and Sima Yong are eventually captured and killed; Sima Yong dies on February 7, 307, which marks the official end of the struggle.

The resultant winner is the last surviving major prince, Sima Yue.

The struggle, which has depopulated northern China and greatly weakened the strength of the Jin Dynasty, has also triggered a large-scale uprising of the Wu Hu, a collective term for various non-Chinese steppe tribes, which had begun in 304.

Wang Jun's troops advance on the Jin capital Luoyang in 308, but are repelled.

This year, after capturing additional territory, Liu Yuan moves his capital to Puzi (in modern Linfen, Shanxi) and declares himself emperor, signifying an even more complete break from Jin.

Wang Jun moves the capital once more to Pingyang (also in modern Linfen) in 309.

By this time, Liu Cong and Wang had eventually been able to control all of southern Shanxi for Han Zhao, and they again attack Luoyang, but are again repelled.