| Jingkang Incident | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Song-Jin Wars | |||||||||
Map of Kaifeng |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Northern Song Dynasty | Jin Dynasty | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Emperor Qinzong | Emperor Taizong of Jin Wanyan Nianhan Wanyan Wolibu |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| First Siege: 200,000 Second Siege: 70,000 |
First Siege: 100,000 Second Siege: 150,000 |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| The entire royal family abducted, enslaved. Devastating destruction to government and civilians. | Unknown | ||||||||
The Jingkang Incident (simplified Chinese: 靖康事变; traditional Chinese: 靖康事變), the Humiliation of Jingkang (simplified Chinese: 靖康之耻; traditional Chinese: 靖康之恥), or The Disorders of the Jingkang Period (simplified Chinese: 靖康之乱; traditional Chinese: 靖康之亂) [1] took place in 1127 when invading Jurchen soldiers from the Jin Dynasty besieged and sacked Bianjing (Kaifeng), the capital of the Song Dynasty of China. The Jin forces abducted Emperor Qinzong, his father Emperor Emeritus Huizong, along with many members of the imperial court.
This ended the era known as the Northern Song Dynasty, when the Song Dynasty controlled most of China. The rest of the imperial family was forced to flee and establish a new government, now known as the Southern Song, at Lin'an, which was to become their capital. This incident is so named because this was the major incident during the short reign of Emperor Qinzong, whose era name was "Jingkang" (靖康).
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In 1120 AD, Jin & Northern Song joined forces to attack Liao, an empire ruled by the Khitan people in the north. Both countries had agreed that, if victorious, Jin would get a large portion of the Northern Liao land and Song would get a smaller portion in the southern Liao region, called the Sixteen Prefectures. The Jin army soon sacked the Liao capital Shangjing and ended the Liao dynasty. The Song army in the south, however, could not even penetrate Liao’s defensive positions and the army was defeated by the remaining Liao troops afterwards. This exposed the limitation of the Song army, as well as the corruption and bureaucracy in Song’s imperial court. At the end, the Jin army took control of the entire Liao territory.
After the fall of Liao, Song court wanted the Sixteen Prefectures as promised. Jin sold the land at a price of 300,000 bolts of silk and 200,000 ounces of silver. This price was considered to be extremely generous because it was the tribute that Song was already paying to the former Liao dynasty annually since the Shanyuan Treaty of 1005 AD.
According to the Twenty-Four Histories (二十四史), in 1123, three years after the fall of Liao, a Jin general by the name of Zhang Jue (張覺) defected to the northern Song dynasty (both they and Zhang Jue were Han Chinese). Since he was governor of the Jin-controlled Pingzhou Prefectures, an area just north of the Sixteen Prefectures on the other side of the Great Wall, the Pingzhou Prefectures were also merged into Song territory. The imperial court initially welcomed the defection and awarded Zhang an honorific title and land. Jin, on the other hand, sent a small army aimed to overturn the defection but was defeated by Zhang’s troops.[2]
Soon after that, the Song court realized Zhang’s defection would only bring more hostile actions from the north.[3] Zhang Jue was executed in the winter of 1123.[4] This came too late: in the fall of 1125, Emperor Taizong of Jin issued an order of full scale attack on Song territories.[5]
Taizong’s armies invaded Song territory from the west and from the north. The Northern Force took swift action, sacked Qinhuangdao in October 1125, sacked Baoding, Dingzhou, Zhengding and Xingtai in January of the year after. The Northern Force, commanded by Wanyan Wolibu,[6] did not meet much resistance as most of the Song generals surrendered themselves and the cities as soon as the Jin army arrived. On the other hand, the Western Force, commanded by Wanyan Nianhan,[6] was held up near the cities of Datong and Taiyuan from the very beginning and did not make much progress for the rest of the war. In February 1126, the Northern Force crossed the Yellow River and began the siege of Kaifeng, the capital city of Song. Before the invaders surrounded the city, Emperor Huizong (徽宗) abdicated in favour of his twenty-six-year old son who became Emperor Qinzong (钦宗) and fled to the countryside with his entourage. Jin’s Northern Force faced difficult siege fighting that was not designed for cavalries as Kaifeng put up a fight in the face of invaders. At the same time, Jin's Western Force was still held up in Datong area and could not come to aid. In an effort to end the battle sooner, the young emperor sent his brother Zhao Gou, who later on became the first emperor of Southern Song Dynasty, to the enemy camp for peace talks. Taizong ordered to take Zhao Gou as hostage until the Song court came up with a ransom. Eventually, the Song court came forth with the money and the city of Taiyuan was also given to Jin as a “good faith gift.” Soon, Zhao Gou was released and the Northern Force started to withdraw.
Everything went back to normal as soon as the invaders retreated: lavish parties continued to be held daily at the imperial palace. The “run-away emperor” – Huizong returned from the countryside, and joined the parties that were being held by his son. Song generals suggested that large numbers of troops ought to be garrisoned along the border of the Yellow River. Qinzong rejected the proposal by citing that the Jin might never come back. Many experienced generals who defended the city in the first siege of Kaifeng were removed from the capital and posted elsewhere in the country. Many army groups were decommissioned or sent back to their prefectures of origin.
Three months after the first siege of the city. Jin sent two ambassadors to Song. The two ambassadors were nobles from the former Liao Dynasty. Qinzong misjudged the situation and believed that they could be used to turn against their Jin ruler. The emperor sent a coded letter which was sealed in candle wax, inviting them to join Song to form an Anti–Jin alliance. The two handed the letter to Taizong right away. Furious, the Jin emperor ordered an even bigger army to attack Song. This second campaign would eventually topple the Northern Song Dynasty.
Since most of the Jin troops just returned from their first expedition and had not even unpacked, the army was quickly mobilized. Following precedents set in the previous campaign, the Jin army divided into two groups, Wolibu's Northern Force and Nianhan's Western Force, even daring to take the same routes again.
In September 1126, the two Jin army groups set foot in Song territory. Unlike the previous battle, however, the Western Force was able to sack Datong within only one month. Cities like Luoyang and Zhengzhou surrendered themselves, clearing the way to the capital. The Northern Force, having sacked Baoding, Dingzhou and Zhengding in September, regrouped and crossed the Yellow River in November. It then went on a rampage and sacked Qingfeng, Puyang and other satellite cities around the capital in December. By the middle of December, the two forces regrouped at Kaifeng and the capital was finally besieged.
Unlike the first siege, Kaifeng’s defenses in the second siege had some fatal flaws:
On the January 9, 1127, Kaifeng fell. Emperor Qinzong and his father Huizong were captured by the Jin army and the Northern Song Dynasty fell.[7][8]
On March 20, 1127 AD, Jin troops summoned the two captured emperors to their camps. Awaiting them was a directive from Taizong that they were to be demoted to commoners, stripped of their ceremonial trappings and Jin troops would compound the imperial palace. This was just the beginning of weeks of looting, rapes, arson and execution of prisoners of war and civilians.
According to the Accounts of Jingkang (靖康稗史箋證), Jin troops looted the entire imperial library and the decorations in the palace. Jin troops also abducted all the female servants and imperial musicians.[9] The royal family was abducted and their residences were looted.[10] All the female prisoners were ordered, on pain of death, to serve the Jin aristocrats no matter what rank in society they had previously held.[11] A Jin prince wanted to marry Huizong’s daughter Fujin, who had been other's wife. Later on the emperor’s concubines were also given to the prince by Taizong.[12]
Taizong feared that the remaining Song troops would launch a counter offensive to reclaim the capital. Therefore, he set up in Kaifeng a puppet government for the lands south of the Yellow River (called Chu, 楚),[6] and ordered all the assets and prisoners to be taken back to Jin's capital – Shangjing (near today's Harbin) in Manchuria.[6] The captives would march to the Jin capital along with the assets. Over 14,000 people, including the entire royal family (except Zhao Gou) went on this “one-way” journey. Their entourage — almost all the ministers and generals of Northern Song Dynasty — suffered from sickness, dehydration and exhaustion, and many never made it.[13] Upon arrival, each person had to go through a Jurchen ritual where the person has to be naked and wearing only sheep skins. Empress Zhu committed suicide because she could not bear the humiliation. Men were sold into slavery in exchange for horses with a ratio of ten men for one horse. Women were kept in a part of Jin palace called huanyiyuan(浣衣院) or offered for public bidding. Some Song princesses became Jin princes' concubines. Someone bought an “ex–royal” for less than ten ounces of gold.[14]
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