In the year 549 CE, the general Hou Jing (侯景, d.552) leads a rebellion and lays siege to Jiankang 建康, that is Jianye/ Jinling/ Nanking. The emperor Wu of Liang starves to death in the Terrace Citadel 臺城. The city is pillaged, palaces are razed and up to half of the population is put to the sword

Sui dynasty (隋, 581-618)

In the year 589 CE, Sui forces seize the last ruler of the state of Chen, Chen Shubao (陳叔寶, 553-604) and occupy the capital. The Sui ruler orders that Jiankang ‘be flattened and turned into agricultural land’ 平蕩耕墾, obliterating all traces of the city’s celebrated glory and bringing to ending its 269-year history as a ‘place of imperial majesty’ 帝王之宅

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