Northern Liang

The Northern Liang (Chinese: 北凉; pinyin: Bĕi Liáng; 397-439) was a state of the Sixteen Kingdoms in China. It was founded by the Xiongnu Juqu family, although they initially supported the Han official Duan Ye as prince, they overthrew him in 401 and took over the state for themselves.

All rulers of the Northern Liang proclaimed themselves "wang" (translatable as "prince" or "king").

Most Chinese historians view the Northern Liang as having ended in 439, when its capital Guzang (姑臧, in modern Wuwei, Gansu) fell to Northern Wei forces and its prince Juqu Mujian was captured. However, some view his cousins Juqu Wuhui and Juqu Anzhou, who subsequently settled with Northern Liang remnants in Gaochang (高昌, in modern Turpan Prefecture, Xinjiang), as a continuation of the Northern Liang, and thus view the Northern Liang as having ended in 460 when Gaochang fell to Rouran and was made a vassal.

It was during the Northern Liang that the first Buddhist cave shrine sites appear in Gansu Province. The two most famous sites are Tiandishan ("Celestial Ladder Mountain"), which was south of the Northern Liang capital at Yongcheng, and Wenshushan ("Manjusri's Mountain"), halfway between Yongcheng and Dunhuang. Maijishan lies more or less on a main route connecting China and Central Asia (approximately 150 miles (240 km) west of modern Xi'an), just south of the Weihe (Wei River). It had the additional advantage of lying not too distant from a main route that also ran N-S to Chengdu and the Indian peninsula.

In 439, remnants of the Northern Liang royal family fled to Gaochang to found a new kingdom, led by Juqu Wuhui and Juqu Anzhou where they would hold onto power until 460 when they were conquered by the Rouran (Avars). The remnants of the Juqu family were slaughtered.