Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Western Liang was a state of the Sixteen Kingdoms in China. It was founded by the Li family of the Han Chinese. The founder of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan (Emperor Gaozu), traced his ancestry to the Western Liang rulers. All rulers of the Western Liang proclaimed themselves "wang". The Sixteen Kingdoms, or less commonly the Sixteen States, were a collection of numerous short-lived sovereign states in China proper and its neighboring areas from 304 to 439 AD after the retreat of the Jin Dynasty (265-420) to South China and before the establishment of the Northern Dynasties. Almost all rulers of the kingdoms were part of the Wu Hu ethnicity and claimed to be the emperors and wangs (kings). The Han Chinese founded the four states: Northern Yan, Western Liang, Former Liang and the state of Wei. Six Chinese rulers of the Former Liang remained titularly under the government of the Jin Dynasty. The Northern Wei Dynasty is not counted as one of the Sixteen Kingdoms even though it was founded during the Period.