 The following major period is known as the Three Kingdoms era, due to the three kingdoms which succeeded the Han Dynasty, and proceeded to vie with one another for succession to the Han empire.These 3 successor states are Wei (also known as Cao Wei, 220–266), Shu, (also known as Shu Han, 221–263) and Wu (also known as Eastern Wu or Sun Wu, 229–280).The jian'an poetry merges with early the early Six Dynasty poetry of the early Three Kingdoms, both in terms of style and in some cases the actual poets, although the plague epidemic of 217–218 killed 4 of the 7 Masters of Jian'an, and mortality rates were high otherwise, in some cases risk being associated with what someone wrote.