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They established their capital at Datong in [[Shanxi province]] in [[398]], organizing it according to Chinese traditional layouts, employing 100,000 craftsmen to construct it, and forcefully relocating 360,000 people to settle in the area. The Northern Wei Court, despite being ruled by a non-[[Han people]], was filled with Chinese ceremonial and ritual forms, and Chinese music. A Chinese-style bureaucracy enforced a Chinese-style legal code, and was organized according to the [[court ranks|nine-rank]] system, a choice which benefited well-established Han Chinese families, and brought the dynasty the support of their political power and wealth, as well as additional prestige.
They established their capital at Datong in [[Shanxi province]] in [[398]], organizing it according to Chinese traditional layouts, employing 100,000 craftsmen to construct it, and forcefully relocating 360,000 people to settle in the area. The Northern Wei Court, despite being ruled by a non-[[Han people]], was filled with Chinese ceremonial and ritual forms, and Chinese music. A Chinese-style bureaucracy enforced a Chinese-style legal code, and was organized according to the [[court ranks|nine-rank]] system, a choice which benefited well-established Han Chinese families, and brought the dynasty the support of their political power and wealth, as well as additional prestige.
[[Emperor Xiaowen]] (r. [[471]]-[[499]]) made efforts to discourage the use of elements of "barbarian" language, and to enforce a more widespread use of a standard [[Chinese language]].<ref>Chia-Ying Yeh, "The Revival and Restoration of Ryukyuan Court Music, Uzagaku: Classification and Performance Techniques, Language Usage, and Transmission," PhD thesis, University of Sheffield (2018), 124.</ref>
The Northern Wei successfully implemented the well-field system beginning in [[485]], where several centuries earlier the [[Han Dynasty]] usurper [[Wang Mang]] had failed. They redistributed agricultural land equally among the people, reassigning each plot of land when its owner died. Exceptions were made for land used for certain kinds of purposes that would need to be tended from one generation to the next, e.g. [[sericulture]], thus strengthening the system. Though it had failed under Wang Mang, it succeeded under the Northern Wei, surviving for centuries and being transmitted to Japan as well.
The Northern Wei successfully implemented the well-field system beginning in [[485]], where several centuries earlier the [[Han Dynasty]] usurper [[Wang Mang]] had failed. They redistributed agricultural land equally among the people, reassigning each plot of land when its owner died. Exceptions were made for land used for certain kinds of purposes that would need to be tended from one generation to the next, e.g. [[sericulture]], thus strengthening the system. Though it had failed under Wang Mang, it succeeded under the Northern Wei, surviving for centuries and being transmitted to Japan as well.
