During the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, the Northern Wei dynasty 北魏 (386–535CE) competed with a series of ruling houses in southern China, including the Liu Song 劉宋 (420–79), the Southern Qi 南齊 (479–502), and the Liang 梁 (502–87), in a struggle to be perceived as the legitimate rulers of China. The Northern Wei legitimacy dispute came to the fore when scholars in history debated which side should be considered legitimate. Having adopted the term zhengtong 正統, which is similar in meaning to political legitimacy, a great number of scholars in the Song dynasty宋朝 (960–1276) participated in the dispute. In this article, two groups of scholars who posited innovative and influential arguments with respect to this discussion are examined. Zhang Fangping張方平 (1007–91) and Chen Shidao 陳師道 (1053–1102) firmly supported the Northern Wei’s legitimacy, while Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修 (1007–72), Sima Guang 司馬光 (1019–86), and Zheng Sixiao 鄭思肖 (1241–1318) resolutely rejected the legitimate status of the dynasty.