The territory of the Western Jin Dynasty (Xijin 西晉) was almost as large as that of the Han empire 漢, and the administration structure with regions (zhou 州) and subordinated commanderies (jun 郡) and princedoms (wangguo 王國) was also inherited from the Han local administration. Scattered among the state-owned commanderies we find - like during the Han period - independent princedoms (in violet), especially in the eastern regions, corresponding to modern Hebei, Shandong and Jiangsu provinces. The names of the territories of the eight rebelling princes are underlined yellow. From the begin of the 4rd century CE numerous rebellions spread disturbances within the Jin empire. The leaders of these rebellions (large yellow dots) were partially Chinese peasants or soldiers like Qi Wannian 齊萬年, Wang Ru 王如, Zhang Chang 張昌, Hao San 郝散, Wang Mi 王彌 and Du Tao 杜弢, partly Non-Chinese chieftains like Tufa Shujineng 禿髮樹機能 in modern Gansu and Li Te 李特 in Sichuan. At the same time, Non-Chinese tribes that had immigrated into Chinese territories several decades before fought against the local governors and founded their own states that should become known as the Sixteen Barbarian States (Wuhu shiliuguo 五胡十六國). The internal disturbances did not allow wide prospects for the Jin government to engage in international trade with the Korean (Samhan/Sanhan 三韓 "Three Han": Mahan 馬韓, Chinhan/Chenhan 辰韓, Pyŏnhan/Bianhan 弁韓; Koguryŏ/Gaogouli 高句麗, Fuyu/Puyŏ 夫余, Okchŏ/Woju 沃沮 and Yemaek/Huimo 濊貊) or Japanese kingdoms (Wa/Wo 倭). In 317 AD the Jin government shifted their capital from Luoyang 洛陽/modern Henan to Jiankang 建康 (modern Nanjing 南京/Jiangsu) in the lower Yangtse 長江 region. For the next century the border between south and north was a permanently changing frontier. The years in the map give the approximate date of the most important border changes. Until 420 the Eastern Jin (Dongjin 東晉) government was able to regain a substantial part of territory south of the Yellow River 黃河. After the escape to the south, a part of the local administration structure of the north was simply moved to the south, and areas and commanderies from the north were installed as a temporary southern mirror for their original place. Therefore we can find regional designations in the area of modern Jiangsu province that are normally located in Shandong, Henan or even Hebei, like Qingzhou 青州, Yanzhou 兖州 and Youzhou 幽州. Likewise, vitual commanderies were installed in the hope to return the to the north once later, like Qi 齊 or Nan-Qiao 南譙. During the last decades of the Eastern Jin period several rebellions, uprisings and civil wars substantially weakened the central government. The most important activities were the rebellion of Sun En 孫恩 in 399-402 and that of Xu Daofu 徐道覆 from 402 to 411.

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