WI: Liu Song unifies China?

Dorozhand

Banned
What if the Former Song Dynasty (420-479 CE) managed to take control over all of China after the fall of Eastern Jin? This would nip in the bud the long period of disunity which lasted IOTL until Sui. What consequences might this have on subsequent Chinese history?
 
I fear that would end up:
"We gave those barbarians lands to live yet they stabbed us in the back!"
"Chain them!"
"Round 'em up!"
"Remove kebab from the premises!"
If one of the southern dynasties unified China.

A major reason why Sui and Tang were so tolerant is that they were already noble families under the "barbarians" and intermarried frequently. In fact, the founders of Tang and the second emperor of Sui were first cousins through a "barbarian" emperor, their backgrounds stopped them from going racist after they took over while nothing could stop the southern dynasties from seeking "revenge".
 
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I think this would be very difficult: the longer North China is lost, the harder the reconquest is. Liu Yu's accession as Emperor helped the wind out of the Eastern Jin's reunification sail, and his dynasty had a considerably unstable government. Unification is possible, because the Liu Song did possess large parts of Northern China.

I think your best hope would be to have the Liu Song state prevent the Northern Wei from taking all of Northern China, and then creating a completely ATL figure, born after the establishment of the Liu Song. This is because the figures around at the establishment of the dynasty are decently capable but not enough to handle a task as momentous as reunifying China.
 
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