Plausibility Check: HRE-Style China

[yourworstnightmare]

I have not much knowledge of Chinese history, but if a Chinese HRE basically means a feudal China, with strong dynasties ruling parts of China but still owing fielty to a Emperor (whether the Emperor is a weak or strong institutuion) wouldn't China from the late Tang all the way to the Song be that.

 

[Sharunaku]

Don´t Shatuo Turks count?

Later Tang managed to conquer Shu. Something which neither Liao nor Jin ever accomplished.

If you compare OTL Five Dynasties China, 907 to 960, with the previous half-century, later Tang from about 850 to 907, which of these was less stable and more vulnerable to external invasions?

Five dynasties. Later Jin was a Khitan puppet state, which was easily squashed when it's new ruler tried to act tough against the Khitans. But they failed to establish a new state, instead let the nomad soldiers running unchecked, grazing farmland and appropriating properties instead of collecting taxes and tributes, the resistance was so harsh that within a year the Khitans retreated due to "soldiers unable to withstand the climate of the Central Plain" before the army of the contending Later Han even engaged them. But because constant purges, Later Han crashed the third year after Khitan departure. Had the Khitan Khan not been dead by the time of Later Han's collapse, it would have been a perfect second chance, as the local garrisons were severely weakened due to the purges.

I have not much knowledge of Chinese history, but if a Chinese HRE basically means a feudal China, with strong dynasties ruling parts of China but still owing fielty to a Emperor (whether the Emperor is a weak or strong institutuion) wouldn't China from the late Tang all the way to the Song be that.

Hmm, you have a point, Beside Later Liang, all other four of the Five Dynasties were accepted by everyone but Wu and its successor Southern Tang, even Later Jin received tribute from the southern states. But once a strong state like Song assumed power, it turbo-annexed the southern statelets by force.

Maybe a Khitan Liao dynasty in control of the Central Plain who is busy with its own Central Asian steppe Empire and content with southern Chinese statelets being loyal, like how the Habsburgs were busy with mating and the Ottomans and content with the HRE as it is?

 

[chornedsnorkack]

The choice of 10 Kingdoms is pretty arbitrary. The official list is for some reasons:
Wu
Wuyue
Min
Chu
Southern Han
Former Shu
Later Shu
Jiangnan
Southern Tang
Northern Han

This list omits states like Yan, Qi, Zhao, Yin, Ganzhou, Shazhou, Liangzhou, Yiwu, Dingnan, Wuping, Qingyuan... and also Vietnam. Which still is independent, so Wudai period has not ended.
The regimes of the official 10:
Wu and Southern Tang were same state so 2 dynasties (Yang and "Li") ruled 892-975
Wuyue - same Qian family from about 887 to 978
Min - Wang family from 893 to Southern Tang conquest in 945
Chu - Ma family from 896 to Southern Tang conquest in 951
Southern Han - Liu family from about 901 to 971
Shu: Former Shu of Wang family 891 to 925, then Later Tang conquest 925-934, then Later Shu of Meng family 934-965
Jiangnan - Gao family 905 to 963
Northern Han - actually a Northern kingdom, Liu family 951-979, but also count Later Han since 947.

By and large, it looks like South China was more stable than North China - no part of South went through 5 dynasties in 53 years like North did.

 

[RousseauX]

Why is this?

Because China proper is basically just 2 wide plains separated by two rivers. And the agricultural heartland is centered on those two rivers what you are going to have are at most 2 powers.