The Fall of Lo-Yang

In a.d. 311 Lo-yang, the capital of China and the greatest city of the whole eastern world, was captured and sacked by the Huns. For several centuries northern China was under foreign rule, and when at the end of the sixth century the north passed once more into Chinese hands the, culture of the great native dynasties that ruled a powerful and united China (such, for example, as that of the T’ang) was in many ways a synthesis of nomad Turkic and traditional Chinese elements. The year 311, then (like the year 410, when the Goths sacked Rome), marks a turning-point in history. Gibbon, before describing the sack of Rome, pauses to give a general account of the city and the people who lived in it. We may well follow his example. What, then, materially and spiritually, was Lo-yang at the beginning of the fourth century? The name is familiar to modern readers, for it figured fairly constantly in war-news at the time of the Japanese invasion. It lies in the north-west corner of the province of Honan, some twenty miles south of the Yellow River. The population at the beginning of the fourth century was about 600,000.