The period in China between the end of the Tang Dynasty and the beginning of the Song Dynasty is called by many historians the Period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The Five Dynasties ruled in the north; the Ten Kingdoms held sway in the south.

The warlord Wu Zhen overthrew the Tang and declared his own dynasty, the Northern Liang, in 907. During the next 53 years, he and four subsequent rulers had varying levels of success in maintaining order in an era of increasing upheaval. His successors were these:

• Later Tang: Li Cunxu (923–936)
• Later Jin: Shi Jingtang (936–946)
• Later Han: Liu Zhiyuan (947–950)
• Later Zhou: Guo Wei (951–960).

In the south, rule was more localized, in the form of 10 kingdoms. In order of establishment, the 10 Kingdoms were these:

• Yang Wu
• Wuyue
• Min
• Ma Chu
• Southern Han
• Former Shu
• Later Shu
• Jingnan
• Southern Tang
• Northern Han.

Warfare was not uncommon in the south, and not all of those kingdoms existed for the entirety of the transition from Tang to Song. Some kingdoms fell at the hands of leaders of other kingdoms. For example, the Later Tang took over the Former Shu in 925; the Southern Tang took control of the Yang Wu in 937, the Min in 945, and the Ma Chu in 951; and the Later Zhou seized the Northern Han in 951.

Emperor Taizu in 960 defeated the Later Zhou and declared the Song Dynasty, ending the Five Dynasties period. Having seized the north, he turned his eyes south. By that time, six of the 10 Kingdoms remained:

• The Jingnan, a small kingdom that maintained good relations with neighbors, fell to Song armies in 963.
• The Later Shu, which arose out of the ashes of the Former Shu when its conquerors, the Later Tang, weakened, found defeat at the hands of the Song in 965.
• The Southern Han, after a defeat of their vaunted elephant corps in 971, threw in their lot with the Song.
• Song armies subsumed the Southern Tang in 975, after more than a decade of regency.
• The Wuyue (907–978) was the longest-lasting of the 10 Kingdoms. It existed for 18 years before surrendering to Song forces.
• The last were the Northern Han, who signaled defeat in 979.

Despite the turmoil, large parts of China saw cultural growth. Painting during this period was Gu Hongzhong, whose well-known work Han Xizai Gives a Night Banquet (above left) is considered by many to be one of the most famous in Chinese history. The practice of printing with wood blocks became widespread, resulting in the first printing of a complete collection of the Confucian Classics. Folktales and poetry gained in prominence. A form of poetry developed in Tang times known as the ci (above right) became very popular. The Song conquerors were very careful to maintain these traditions and to also maintain impressive libraries that some rulers had built up.

Also counterintuitively, this period was one of economic growth. Accompanying the natural increase in demand for war materials was an overall rise in commerce, as coinage changed in metals from copper and iron and more and more merchants accepted paper-based transactions such as certificates of deposit.

At the same time, stories of barbaric treatment of captives and suspects abounded.