Wu-ti
Pinyin Wudi (posthumous name, or shih), personal name (hsing-ming) Ssu-ma Yen , temple name (miao-hao) (hsi-chin) Shih-tsu founder and first emperor of the Western Chin dynasty (265–316/317), which briefly reunited China during the turbulent period following the dissolution of the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220).
Ssu-ma Yen was the scion of the great Ssu-ma clan to which the famous Han historian Ssu-ma Ch'ien belonged. He became the most powerful general of the Wei dynasty (220–265/266), the northernmost of the Three Kingdoms into which China had divided at the end of the Han. In 263/264 the Wei kingdom absorbed the second of the Three Kingdoms, the Shu Han. In 265 Ssu-ma usurped the Wei throne, proclaiming the Chin dynasty. In 280 he conquered Wu, the third of the Three Kingdoms, thus reuniting China.
Ssu-ma attempted to reform the government, disbanding his armies to reduce expenses. He tried to regain control of taxation and to reduce the usurious rent that powerful landowners were extracting from the people. He never really broke the power of the great local families, however, and his reduction of the army left China prey to invasion from foreign tribes. Moreover, he divided his domains into principalities for each of his 25 sons. The son who succeeded him was unable to control his brothers, and Ssu-ma Yen's dynasty came apart in a civil war known as the Revolt of the Eight Kings. Ssu-ma Yen himself was given the posthumous title of Wu-ti (“Martial Emperor”).