Jin Dynasty (1115–1234)

金 Jin ←   ← 1115–1234 → Location of Jin Capital Huining (1122-1153) Zhongdu (1153-1214) Kaifeng (1214-1233) Religion Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Chinese folk religion Government Monarchy Emperor  - 1115-1123 Emperor Taizu  - 1234 Emperor Modi History  - Established 1115 1115  - Ended Liao's rule 1125  - Captured Bianliang January 9, 1127  - Fall of Caizhou February 9, 1234 1234 Currency Chinese coin, Chinese cash

History of China
ANCIENT
3 Sovereigns and 5 Emperors
Xia Dynasty 2100–1600 BCE
Shang Dynasty 1600–1046 BCE
Zhou Dynasty 1045–256 BCE
Western Zhou
Eastern Zhou
Spring and Autumn Period
Warring States Period
IMPERIAL
Qin Dynasty 221 BCE–206 BCE
Han Dynasty 206 BCE–220 CE
Western Han
Xin Dynasty
Eastern Han
Three Kingdoms 220–280
Wei, Shu & Wu
Jin Dynasty 265–420
Western Jin	16 Kingdoms 304–439
Eastern Jin
Southern & Northern Dynasties 420–589
Sui Dynasty 581–618
Tang Dynasty 618–907
( Second Zhou 690–705 )
5 Dynasties & 10 Kingdoms 907–960	Liao Dynasty 907–1125
Song Dynasty 960–1279
Northern Song		W. Xia
Southern Song	Jin
Yuan Dynasty 1271–1368
Ming Dynasty 1368–1644
Qing Dynasty 1644–1911
MODERN
Republic of China 1912–1949
People's Republic of China 1949–present	Republic of China (Taiwan) 1945–present
Related articles  Chinese historiography Timeline of Chinese history Dynasties in Chinese history Linguistic history Art history Economic history Education history Science and technology history Legal history Media history Military history Naval history

The Jīn Dynasty (Jurchen: Anchu, Aisin Gurun; Chinese: 金朝; pinyin: Jīn Cháo; Wade–Giles: Chin Dynasty, IPA: [tɕîn tʂʰɑ̌ʊ̯]); Khitan language: Nik, Niku;^[1][2] Mongolian: Altan Ulus; 1115–1234), also known as the Jurchen Dynasty, was founded by the Wanyan (完顏 Wányán) clan of the Jurchens, the ancestors of the Manchus who established the Qing Dynasty some 500 years later. The name is sometimes written as Jinn to differentiate it from an earlier Jìn Dynasty of China whose name is spelled identically in the Roman alphabet.

History

Map of Asia and parts of Europe and Africa circa 1200

The Jin Dynasty was founded in what would become northern Manchuria by the Jurchen tribal chieftain Wányán Āgǔdǎ (完顏阿骨打) in 1115. In 1125, it successfully annihilated the Liao Dynasty which had held sway over northern China, including Manchuria and part of the Mongol region for several centuries. Also at this time, the Jin made overtures to the Korean kingdom of Goryeo, which Emperor Yejong refused.^[3] On January 9, 1127, Jin forces ransacked Kaifeng, capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, capturing both Emperor Qinzong, and his father, Emperor Huizong, who had abdicated in panic in the face of Jin forces. Following the fall of Kaifeng, Song forces under the leadership of the succeeding Southern Song Dynasty continued to fight for over a decade with Jin forces, eventually signing the Treaty of Shaoxing in 1141, calling for the cessation of all Song land north of the Huai River to the Jin and the execution of Song General Yue Fei in return for peace.

The migration south

Jade ornament with flower design, Jin Dynasty, Shanghai Museum.

After taking over Northern China, the Jin Dynasty became increasingly Sinicized. About three million people, half of them Jurchens, migrated south into northern China over two decades, and this minority governed about thirty million people. The Jurchens were given land grants and organized society into 1,000 households (猛安 - meng'an) and 100 households (謀克 - mouke). Many married Hans, although the ban on Jurchen nobles marrying Hans was not lifted until 1191. After Jin Emperor Tàizōng (太宗) died in 1135, the next three Jin emperors were grandsons of Wányán Āgǔdǎ by three different princes. Young Jin Emperor Xīzōng (熙宗) (r. 1135-1149) studied the classics and wrote Chinese poetry. He adopted Han cultural traditions, but the Jurchen nobles had the top positions.

Later in life, Emperor Xīzōng became an alcoholic and executed many officials for criticizing him. He also had Jurchen leaders who opposed him murdered, even those in his own Wanyan family clan. In 1149 he was murdered by a cabal of relatives and nobles, who made his cousin Wányán Liàng (完顏亮) the next Jin emperor. Because of the brutality of both his domestic and foreign policy, Wanyan Liang was posthumously demoted from the position of emperor. Consequently, historians have commonly referred to him by the posthumous name of Prince Hǎilíng (海陵王).^[4]

Rebellions in the north

A marble statue of a Buddhist monk, 1180 AD, Jin Dynasty.

Having usurped the throne, Wanyan Liang embarked on the program of legitimizing his rule as an emperor of China. In 1153, he moved the empire's main capital from Huining Fu in northern Manchuria (south of present-day Harbin) to the former Liao capital, Yanjing (now Beijing).^[4][5] Four years later, in 1157, to emphasize the permanence of the move, he razed the nobles’ residences in Huining.^[4][5] Hǎilíng also reconstructed the former Song capital, Bianjing (now Kaifeng), which had been sacked in 1127, making it the Jin's southern capital.^[4]

Prince Hǎilíng also tried to suppress dissent by killing Jurchen nobles, executing 155 princes.^[4]

To fulfill his dream of becoming the ruler of all China, Prince Hǎilíng attacked the Southern Song in 1161. Meanwhile, two simultaneous rebellions erupted in Manchuria: one of Jurchen nobles, led by Hǎilíng's cousin, soon-to-be crowned Wányán Yōng (完顏雍), and the other of Khitan tribesmen. Hǎilíng had to withdraw Jin troops from southern China to quell the uprisings. The Jin were defeated in the Battle of Caishi and Battle of Tangdao. With a depleted military force, Prince Hǎilíng failed to make headway in his attempted invasion of the Southern Song. Finally he was assassinated by his own generals in December of 1161, due to his defeats. His son and heir was also assassinated in the capital.^[4]

Although crowned in October, Wányán Yōng was not officially recognized as Jin Emperor Shìzōng (世宗) until the murder of Prince Hǎilíng's heir.^[4] The Khitan uprising was not suppressed until 1164; their horses were confiscated so that the rebels had to take up farming. Other Khitan and Xi cavalry units had been incorporated into the Jin army. Because these internal uprisings had severely weakened the Jin's capacity to confront the Southern Song militarily, the Jin court under Emperor Shizong began negotiating for peace. The Treaty of Lóngxīng (隆興和議) was signed in 1164 and ushered over 40 years of peace between the two empires.

A wooden Bodhisattva statue, Jin Dynasty, Shanghai Museum.

In the early 1180s Emperor Shìzōng instituted a restructuring of 200 meng'an units to remove tax abuses and help Jurchens. Communal farming was encouraged. The Jin empire prospered and had a large surplus of grain in reserve. Although learned in Chinese classics, Shizong was also known as a promoter of Jurchen language and culture; during his reign, a number of Chinese classics were translated into Jurchen, the Imperial Jurchen Academy was founded, and the Imperial examinations started to be offered in the Jurchen language.^[6] Shizong's reign (1163–1188) was remembered by the posterity as the time of comparative peace and prosperity, and the emperor himself was compared to the legendary Yao and Shun^[6]

Shìzōng's grandson, Emperor Zhāngzōng (章宗) (r. 1189-1208) venerated Jurchen values, but he also immersed himself in Chinese culture and married an ethnic Han woman. The Taihe Code of law was promulgated in 1201 and was based mostly on the Tang Code. In 1207 the Song tried to invade, but the Jin forces effectively repulsed them. In the peace agreement the Song had to pay higher annual indemnities and behead Hán Tūozhòu (韩侂胄), the leader of their war party.^[7]

Fall of Jin

Starting from the early 13th century the Jin Dynasty began to feel the pressure of Mongols from the north. Genghis Khan first led the Mongols into Western Xia territory in 1205 and ravaged them four years later. In 1211 about 50,000 Mongols on horses invaded the Jin Empire and began absorbing Khitan and Jurchen rebels. The Jin army had a half million men with 150,000 cavalry but abandoned the “western capital” Datong (see also Badger's Mount Campaign). The next year the Mongols went north and looted the Jin “eastern capital”, and in 1213 they besieged the “central capital”. In 1214 the Jin made a humiliating treaty but retained the capital. That summer, Jin Emperor Xuānzōng (宣宗) abandoned the central capital and moved the government to the “southern capital” of Kaifeng, making it the official seat of Jin Dynasty power. In 1216 a war faction persuaded Xuānzōng to attack the Song, but in 1219 they were defeated at the same place by the Yangtze River, where Prince Hǎilíng had been defeated in 1161. The Jin now faced a two front war which they could not afford. Furthermore, the Jin Emperor Āizōng (哀宗) won a succession struggle against his brother and then quickly ended the war and went back to the capital. He made peace with the Tanguts, who had been allied with the Mongols. Genghis Khan died in 1227 while his armies were conquering the Western Xia Dynasty. His son Ögedei Khan invaded the Jin Empire in 1232 with assistance from the Southern Song. The Jurchens tried to resist; but when Kaifeng was attacked, Āizōng fled south. An allied army of Song and Mongols looted the capital in 1233, and the next year Āizōng committed suicide to avoid being captured, ending the Jin dynasty in 1234.^[4] The territory of the Jin was to be divided between the Mongols and the Song. However, due to descrepancies, the Song and the Mongols eventually went to war with one another over these territories.

The Chengling Pagoda of Zhengding, Hebei province, built between 1161 and 1189 AD.

In his book Empire of The Steppes, Grousset reports that the Mongols were always amazed at the valor of the Jin warriors, who held out until seven years after the death of Genghis Khan.

The Jin military

Contemporary Chinese writers ascribed Jurchen success in overwhelming the Liao and Northern Song mainly to their cavalry. Already during Aguda's rebellion against the Liao, all Jurchen fighters were mounted. It was said that the Jurchen cavalry tactics were a carryover from their hunting skills.^[8] Jurchen horsemen were provided with heavy armor; on occasions, they would use a team of horses attached to each other with chains (拐子马, guaizi ma)^[8]

As the Liao Empire fell apart and the Song retreated beyond the Yangtze, the army of the new Jin Dynasty absorbed many soldiers who formerly fought for the Liao or Song.^[8] The new Jin empire adopted many of the Song's weapons, including various machines for siege warfare and artillery. In fact, the Jin use of cannons, grenades, and even rockets to defend besieged Kaifeng against the Mongols in 1233 is considered the first ever battle in human history in which gunpowder was used effectively, even though it failed to prevent the eventual Jin defeat.^[8]

On the other hand, Jin Empire was not particularly good at naval warfare. Both in 1129-30 and in 1161 Jin forces were defeated by the Southern Song navies when trying to cross the Yangtze River into the core Southern Song territory (see Battle of Tangdao and Battle of Caishi), even though for the latter campaign the Jin had equipped a large navy of their own, using Chinese shipbuildiers and even Chinese captains who had defected from the Southern Song.^[8]

Rise of the Manchus

After thirty years of struggle, the Jurchen chief Nurhaci (努爾哈赤) combined the three Jurchen tribes and founded the Later Jin Dynasty (1616–1636). Nurhaci's eighth son and heir, Huáng Tàijí (皇太極), later changed the name of his people from Jurchen to Manchu in 1635. The next year, he changed the name of the Later Jin to Qing in 1636.

List of Jin Dynasty Emperors

(1) Quite long and thus not used when referring to this sovereign.
(2) Did not exist

See also

• Puxian Wannu

Literature

• Jing-shen Tao, "The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China". University of Washington Press, 1976, ISBN 0-295-95514-7.

References

External links

• Jin-Song relations