by the five barbarians took place before such as in Shanxi and Shaanxi. In 270, the Xianbei chieftain, Tufa Shujineng, started a decade long rebellion against Jin in Liang and Qin provinces. It coincided with Liu Meng's (劉猛) Xiongnu revolt in Bing province between 271 and 272. After Shujineng's defeat in 279, peace between Jin and the tribes would last until 294, when the Xiongnu, He San (郝散) revolted. In 296, his brother, He Duyuan (郝度元), aligned himself with the Qiang and Di people and also revolted. This revolt culminated in Qi Wannian's rebellion, which lasted between 296 and 299, and devasted Qin and Yong provinces. Rise of Han Zhao The War of the Eight Princes lasted for more than a decade. Between 291 and 300, Empress Jia and her family controlled the Jin government. Corruption was rampant, and poor governance led to Qi Wannian's rebellion under her regime. After she was overthrown in 300, a series of civil wars between the Sima princes that lasted until 306 would severely weaken Jin's economy and military capacity. At the same time, the nomads were also being enlisted by the princes as military forces; one such force of Xianbei, under the command of Sima Yue, captured Chang'an in 306. Taking advantage of this period of weakness, different tribal people, as well as the Han Chinese themselves, began to openly revolt. The Jie chief Shi Le was sold as a slave by Western Jin officials. After gaining his freedom, he followed his friend, the Han shepherd, Ji Sang and raised a rebel army under the guise of supporting and later avenging the Prince of Chengdu, Sima Ying. The Ba-Di chief Li Xiong captured Chengdu in 304, proclaiming the kingdom of Cheng Han. The most serious initial revolt, however, was Xiongnu chieftain Liu Yuan, who proclaimed the kingdom of Han Zhao in 304 as well, in the northern heartland of the Jin dynasty. The over-reliance of the Jin princes on Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Wuhuan mercenaries exposed the weakness of the Jin dynasty to the nomadic tribes, the nomads also combined forces with internal peasant revolts in north China. Liu Yuan's, Han Chinese friend Wang Mi led such a peasant rebellion in Shandong, Hebei and Henan, and later joined forces with Han Zhao in 308. In 307, Ji Sang and Shi Le led a Han-nomad mixed revolt in Shandong and Henan. Although they sacked the