The Northern Wei Dynasty (北魏 386-534) is most noted for the unification of northern China in 440, it was also heavily involved in funding the arts and many antiques and art works from this period have survived.
In 493 AD the dynasty moved its capital from Datong to Luoyang and started the construction of the artificial Longmen Caves. More than 30,000 Buddhist images from the time of this dynasty have been found in the caves.
It is thought the dynasty originated from the Tuoba clan of the non-HanXianbei tribe. The Tuobas renamed themselves the Yuans as a part of systematic Sinicization.
The official state religion was Taoism as a result of the influence of K'ou Ch'ien-chih
Towards the end of the dynasty there was signicant internal dissidence resulting in a split into Eastern and Western Wei.
