Liu Yuan (Han-Zhao) in the context of "Han-Zhao"

The Han-Zhao (simplified Chinese: 汉赵; traditional Chinese: 漢趙; pinyin: Hàn Zhào; 304–329 AD), or Former Zhao (simplified Chinese: 前赵; traditional Chinese: 前趙; pinyin: Qián Zhào), was a dynastic state of China ruled by the Liu (Luandi) clan of Chuge-Xiongnu ethnicity during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of Chinese history. In Chinese historiography, it was given two conditional state titles, the Northern Han (北漢; Běi Hàn) for the state proclaimed in 304 by Liu Yuan, and the Former Zhao (前趙; Qián Zhào) for the state proclaimed in 319 by Liu Yao. The reference to them as separate states can be misleading, given that when Liu Yao changed the name of the state from "Han" to "Zhao" in 319, he treated the state as having been continuous from when Liu Yuan founded it in 304; instead, he de-established his imperial lineage from the Han dynasty and claimed ancestry directly from Modu Chanyu.

The reason it is also referred to as "Former Zhao" in historiography is to distinguish it from the Later Zhao founded by Shi Le in 319, which was also known officially as "Zhao". Since both the Former Zhao and Northern Han were ruled by the same family, Chinese scholars often conditionally combined them into a single Han-Zhao regime. Numerous Western texts refer to the two states separately; others referred to the Han state as the "Northern Han" (not to be confused with Northern Han of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period).