sent by Carus; this was the last Sino-Roman contact recorded by the Chinese. Jin dynasty The Jin dynasty was established in 265 (after conquering Shu Han) by the noble Sima family that had once served the state of Cao Wei, and conquered the state of Eastern Wu in 280, thus ending the Three Kingdoms era. However, the state was weakened and left vulnerable with the War of the Eight Princes from 291 to 306. This allowed for sinicized Xiongnu nomads to capture both of China's historical capitals at Luoyang and Chang'an, forcing the remnants of the Jin court to flee south to Jiankang (present-day Nanjing). The Xiongnu then established rule in the north under the Han Zhao kingdom. The Jin dynasty period saw a continuing flourishing of Buddhism and Buddhist travel. Southern and Northern dynasties The Southern and Northern dynasties (420-589) period was a period consumed by warfare like the Three Kingdoms period before it, yet this period saw the flourishing of Buddhist sites along the Silk Road like never before. This includes Buddhist sites such as the Yungang Grottoes, the Longmen Grottoes, and the Mogao Caves. Sui dynasty Yang Jian (Emperor Wen) ruled in northern China from 581, and conquered the Chen dynasty in the south by 589, hence reunifying China under the Sui dynasty (581–618). He and his successor Emperor Yang initiated several military campaigns. Northern Vietnam was retaken by conquest, while there was a temporary occupation of the Champa kingdom in southern Vietnam. They launched unsuccessful campaigns against the northern Korean kingdom Goguryeo during the Three Kingdoms of Korea, depleting not only troops but ultimately much of the government's revenue. The Grand Canal was completed during the Sui dynasty, enhancing indigenous trade between northern and southern China by canal and river traffic. One of the diplomatic highlights of this short-lived dynastic period was Prince Shōtoku's Japanese embassy to China led by Ono no Imoko in AD 607. Prince Shōtoku made his queen Suiko call herself Empress, and claimed an equal footing with the Chinese Emperor who regarded himself as the only Emperor in the world at that time. Thus Shōtoku broke with Chinese principle that a non-Chinese sovereign was only allowed to call himself king but not emperor. Emperor Yang thought of this Japanese behavior as 'insolent', because it opposed his Sinocentric worldview, but finally, he had to accept it and send an embassy to Japan in