Jin dynasty (1115–1234)

Origin

The progenitors of the Jin and the Jurchen people were the Mohe people, who lived in what is now Northeast China. The Mohe were a primarily sedentary people who practiced hunting, pig farming, and grew crops such as soybean, wheat, millet, and rice. Horses were rare in the region until the Tang period and pastoralism was not widespread until the 10th century under the domination of the Khitans. The Mohe exported reindeer products and may have ridden them as well. They practiced mass slavery and used the slaves to aid in hunting and agricultural work.^[9][10] The Tang described the Mohe as a fierce and uncultured people who used poisoned arrows.^[11]

The two most powerful groups of Mohe were the Heishui Mohe in the north, named after the Heilong River, and the Sumo Mohe in the south, named after the Songhua River. From the Heishui Mohe emerged the Jurchens in the forested mountain areas of eastern Manchuria and Russia's Primorsky Krai.^[12] The Wuguo ("Five Nations") federation that existed to the northeast of modern Jilin are also considered to be ancestors of the Jurchens. The Jurchens were mentioned in historical records for the first time in the 10th century as tribute bearers to the Liao, Later Tang, and Song courts. They practiced hunting, fishing, and kept domestic oxen while their primary export was horses. They had no script, calendar, or offices during the mid-11th century. The Jurchens were minor political actors in the international system at the time. By the 10th century, the Jurchens had become vassals of the Liao dynasty, but they also sent a number of tributary and trade missions to the Song capital of Kaifeng, which the Liao tried unsuccessfully to prevent.^[13] Some Jurchens paid tribute to Goryeo and sided with the latter during the Khitan–Goryeo War. They offered tribute to both courts out of political necessity and for material benefits.^[14]

In the 11th century there was widespread discontent against Khitan rule among the Jurchens as the Liao violently extorted annual tribute from the Jurchen tribes. Leveraging the Jurchens' desire for independence from the Khitans, chief Wugunai (1021–1074) of the Wanyan clan rose to prominence, dominating all of eastern Manchuria from Mount Changbai to the Wuguo tribes. According to tradition, Wugunai was a sixth generation descendant of Hanpu while his father held a military title from the Liao court, although the title did not confer or hold any real power. As described, Wugunai was a great warrior, eater, drinker, and lover of women. His grandson Aguda eventually founded the Jin dynasty.^[15]

Wanyan Aguda

The Jin dynasty was created in modern Jilin and Heilongjiang by the Jurchen tribal chieftain Aguda in 1115. According to tradition, Aguda was a descendant of Hanpu. Aguda adopted the term for "gold" as the name of his state, itself a translation of "Anchuhu" River, which meant "golden" in Jurchen.^[16] This river, known as Alechuka in modern Chinese, is a tributary of the Songhua River east of Harbin.^[16] Alechuka (阿勒楚喀) is a transliteration of its Manchu name alchuqa (ᠠᠯᠴᡠᡴᠠ), suggesting that the Jurchen name for the river sounded more similar to alchuhu rather than anchuhu. It was common for Chinese translators at the time to use the final -n sound at the end of a Chinese character to transliterate -l, -r, -s, -z etc. at the end of a syllable in foreign words. The Jurchens' early rulers were the Khitan-led Liao dynasty, which had held sway over modern north and northeast China and the Mongolian Plateau, for several centuries. In 1121, the Jurchens entered into the Alliance Conducted at Sea with the Han-led Northern Song dynasty and agreed to jointly invade the Liao dynasty. While the Song armies faltered, the Jurchens succeeded in driving the Liao to Central Asia. In 1125, after the death of Aguda, the Jin dynasty broke its alliance with the Song dynasty and invaded north China. When the Song dynasty reclaimed the Han-populated Sixteen Prefectures, they were "fiercely resisted" by the Han Chinese population there who had previously been under Liao rule, while when the Jurchens invaded that area, the Han Chinese did not oppose them at all and handed over the Southern Capital (present-day Beijing, then known as Yanjing) to them.^[17] The Jurchens were supported by the anti-Song, Beijing-based noble Han clans.^[18] The Han Chinese who worked for the Liao were viewed as hostile enemies by the Song dynasty.^[19] Song Han Chinese also defected to the Jin.^[20] One crucial mistake that the Song made during this joint attack was the removal of the defensive forest it originally built along the Song-Liao border. Because of the removal of this landscape barrier, in 1126/27, the Jin army marched quickly across the North China Plain to Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng).^[21] On 9 January 1127, the Jurchens ransacked the Imperial palaces in Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song dynasty, capturing both Emperor Qinzong and his father, Emperor Huizong, who had abdicated in panic in the face of the Jin invasion. Following the fall of Bianjing, the succeeding Southern Song dynasty continued to fight the Jin dynasty for over a decade, eventually signing the Treaty of Shaoxing in 1141, which called for the cession of all Song territories north of the Huai River to the Jin dynasty and the execution of Song general Yue Fei in return for peace. The peace treaty was formally ratified on 11 October 1142 when a Jin envoy visited the Song court.^[22]

Having conquered Kaifeng and occupied northern China, the Jin later deliberately chose earth as its dynastic element and yellow as its royal color. According to the theory of the wuxing ('five elements'), the earth element follows the fire, the dynastic element of the Song, in the sequence of elemental creation. Therefore, this ideological move shows that the Jin regarded the Song reign of China was officially over and themselves as the rightful ruler of China Proper.^[23] The decision to choose "earth" (signalling the Jin as successor of the Song) was chosen against the alternative suggestion of linking Jin (literally meaning "gold") with the element of metal. This rejected suggestion was based on a nativist current that distanced the Jin from the Song and interpreted the Jin as an autonomous development rooted in Northeast Asia unrelated to the precedents of Chinese dynasties. However, the emperor dismissed the "metal" suggestion.^[24]

Migration south

After taking over northern China, the Jin became increasingly sinicised. Over the span of twenty years, the new Jurchen ruling class constituted around half of a larger pattern of migration southward into northern China. There, many Jurchens were granted land, which was then organised around a social structure based on hereditary military units: a mouke ('company') was a unit consisting of 300 households, and groups of 7–10 moukes were further organised into meng-an ('battalions').^[25] The Jurchen ruling class ruled over an estimated 30 million people. Many Jurchens intermarried with Han Chinese, though the ban on Jurchen nobility marrying outside of their ethnicity was only annulled in 1191.

Following the death of Emperor Taizong in 1135, each of the next three emperors were the remaining grandsons of Aguda, each by a different one of his sons. Emperor Xizong (r. 1135–1149) studied the classics and wrote Chinese poetry. He adopted Han Chinese cultural traditions, but the Jurchen nobles had the top positions. Later in life, Emperor Xizong became an alcoholic and executed many officials for criticising him. He also had Jurchen leaders who opposed him murdered, even those in the Wanyan clan. In 1149 he was murdered by a cabal of relatives and nobles, who made his cousin Wanyan Liang 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. Historians have consequently referred to him by his posthumous name "Prince of Hailing".^[26]

Rebellions in the north

Having usurped the throne, Wanyan Liang embarked on the program of legitimising his rule as an emperor of China. In 1153, he moved the empire's main capital from Huining Prefecture (south of present-day Harbin) to the former Liao capital, Yanjing (present-day Beijing).^[26][27] Four years later, in 1157, to emphasise the permanence of the move, he razed the nobles' residences in Huining Prefecture.^[26][27] Wanyan Liang also reconstructed the former Song capital, Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng), which had been sacked in 1127, making it the Jin's southern capital.^[26]

Wanyan Liang also tried to suppress dissent by killing Jurchen nobles, executing 155 princes.^[26] To fulfil his dream of becoming the ruler of all China, Wanyan Liang attacked the Southern Song dynasty in 1161. Meanwhile, two simultaneous rebellions erupted in Shangjing, at the Jurchens' former power base: led by Wanyan Liang's cousin, soon-to-be crowned Wanyan Yong, and the other of Khitan tribesmen. Wanyan Liang had to withdraw Jin troops from southern China to quell the uprisings. The Jin forces were defeated by Song forces in the Battle of Caishi and Battle of Tangdao. With a depleted military force, Wanyan Liang failed to make headway in his attempted invasion of the Southern Song dynasty. Finally he was assassinated by his own generals in December 1161, due to his defeats. His son and heir was also assassinated in the capital.^[26]

Although crowned in October, Wanyan Yong (Emperor Shizong) was not officially recognised as emperor until the murder of Wanyan Liang's heir.^[26] 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 Longxing was signed in 1164, ushering in more than 40 years of peace between the two empires.

In the early 1180s, Emperor Shizong 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, Emperor 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.^[28] Emperor Shizong's reign (1161–1189) was remembered by the posterity as the time of comparative peace and prosperity, and the emperor himself was compared to the mythological rulers Yao and Shun. Poor Jurchen families in the southern Routes (Daming and Shandong) Battalion and Company households tried to live the lifestyle of wealthy Jurchen families and avoid doing farming work by selling their own Jurchen daughters into slavery and renting their land to Han tenants. The wealthy Jurchens feasted and drank and wore damask and silk. The History of Jin says that Emperor Shizong took note and attempted to halt these things in 1181.^[29]

Shizong's grandson, Emperor Zhangzong (r. 1189–1208), venerated Jurchen values, but he also immersed himself in Han Chinese culture and married an ethnic Han Chinese woman. The Taihe Code of law was promulgated in 1201 and was based mostly on the Tang Code. In 1207, the Southern Song dynasty attempted an invasion, but the Jin forces effectively repulsed them. In the peace agreement, the Song dynasty had to pay higher annual indemnities and behead Han Tuozhou, the leader of the hawkish faction in the Song imperial court.

Fall of Jin

1205

KHWARAZMIAN
EMPIRE

CUMAN KHANATES

KIEVAN
RUS'

MONGOL
CONFEDERATION

QARA KHITAI

KIPCHACKS

QOCHO

GEORGIA

GHURID EMPIRE

ZENGIDS

ABBASID
CALIPHATE

MALAYU

YADAVAS

JIN
DYNASTY

XI XIA

SONG
DYNASTY

PAGAN

DALI

KHMER

AYYUBID
SULTANATE

SULTANATE
OF RUM

GO-
RYEO

The Jin dynasty ( ) and main contemporary Asian polities c. 1205

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 it four years later. In 1211 about 50,000 Mongol horsemen invaded the Jin Empire and began absorbing Khitan and Jurchen rebels. The Jin had a large army with 150,000 cavalry but abandoned the "western capital" Datong (see also the Battle of Yehuling). The next year the Mongols went north and looted the Jin "eastern capital", and in 1213 they besieged the "central capital", Zhongdu (present-day Beijing). In 1214 the Jin made a humiliating treaty but retained the capital. That summer, Emperor Xuanzong abandoned the central capital and moved the government to the "southern capital" Kaifeng, making it the official seat of the Jin dynasty's power.

In 1216, a hawkish faction in the Jin imperial court persuaded Emperor Xuanzong to attack the Song dynasty, but in 1219 they were defeated at the same place by the Yangtze River where Wanyan Liang had been defeated in 1161. The Jin dynasty now faced a two front war that they could not afford. Furthermore, Emperor Aizong 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 of Western Xia, who had been allied with the Mongols.

The Jurchen Jin emperor Wanyan Yongji's daughter, Jurchen Princess Qiguo was married to Mongol leader Genghis Khan in exchange for relieving the Mongol siege of Zhongdu in the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty.^[30]

Many Han Chinese and Khitans defected to the Mongols to fight against the Jin dynasty. Two Han Chinese leaders, Shi Tianze and Liu Heima [zh],^[31] and the Khitan Xiao Zhala defected and commanded the three tumens in the Mongol army.^[32] Liu Heima and Shi Tianze served Genghis Khan's successor, Ögedei Khan.^[33] Liu Heima and Shi Tianxiang led armies against Western Xia for the Mongols.^[34] There were four Han tumens and three Khitan tumens, with each tumen consisting of 10,000 troops. The three Khitan generals Shimo Beidi'er, Tabuyir, and Xiao Zhongxi [zh] (Xiao Zhala's son) commanded the three Khitan tumens and the four Han generals Zhang Rou [zh], Yan Shi [zh], Shi Tianze and Liu Heima commanded the four Han tumens under Ögedei Khan.^{[35][36][37][38][better source needed]}

Shi Tianze was a Han Chinese who lived under Jin rule. Inter-ethnic marriage between Han Chinese and Jurchens became common at this time. His father was Shi Bingzhi. Shi Bingzhi married a Jurchen woman (surname Nahe) and a Han Chinese woman (surname Zhang); it is unknown which of them was Shi Tianze's mother.^[39] Shi Tianze was married to two Jurchen women, a Han Chinese woman, and a Korean woman, and his son Shi Gang was born to one of his Jurchen wives.^[40] His Jurchen wives' surnames were Monian and Nahe, his Korean wife's surname was Li, and his Han Chinese wife's surname was Shi.^[39] Shi Tianze defected to the Mongol forces upon their invasion of the Jin dynasty. His son, Shi Gang, married a Keraite woman; the Keraites were Mongolified Turkic people and considered as part of the "Mongol nation".^[40][41] Shi Tianze, Zhang Rou, Yan Shi and other Han Chinese who served in the Jin dynasty and defected to the Mongols helped build the structure for the administration of the new Mongol state.^[42]

The Mongols created a Han army out of defecting Jin troops, and another army out of defected Song troops called the "Newly Submitted Army" (新附軍).^[43]

Genghis Khan died in 1227 while his armies were attacking Western Xia. His successor, Ögedei Khan, invaded the Jin dynasty again in 1232 with assistance from the Southern Song dynasty. The Jurchens tried to resist; but when the Mongols besieged Kaifeng in 1233, Emperor Aizong fled south to the city of Caizhou. A Song–Mongol allied army surrounded the capital, and the next year Emperor Aizong committed suicide by hanging himself to avoid being captured in the Mongols besieged Caizhou, ending the Jin dynasty in 1234.^[26] The territory of the Jin dynasty was to be divided between the Mongols and the Song dynasty. However, due to lingering territorial disputes, the Song dynasty and the Mongols eventually went to war with one another over these territories.

Architecture

The Jin pursued a revival of Tang dynasty urban design with architectural projects in Kaifeng and Zhongdu (modern Beijing), building for instance a bell tower and drum tower to announce the night curfew (which was revived after being abolished under the Song).^[51] The Jurchens followed Khitan precedent of living in tents amidst the Chinese-style architecture, which were in turn based on the Song dynasty Kaifeng model.^[52]

Religion

Taoism

This section may require copy editing. (March 2024)

A significant branch of Taoism called the Quanzhen School was founded under the Jin Dynasty by Han Chinese Wang Zhe (1113–1170), founder of formal congregations in 1167 and 1168. He took the nickname of Wang Chongyang (Wang "Double Yang") and his disciples were retrospectively known as the "seven patriarchs of Quanzhen". The ci poetry that characterized Jin literature was tightly linked to Quanzhen: two-thirds of the ci poetry written in Jin times was composed by Quanzhen Taoists.

The Jin state sponsored an edition of the Taoist Canon that is known as the Precious Canon of the Mysterious Metropolis of the Great Jin (Da Jin Xuandu baozang 大金玄都宝藏). Based on a smaller version of the Canon printed by Emperor Huizong (r. 1100–1125) of the Song, it was completed in 1192 under the direction and support of Emperor Zhangzong (r. 1190–1208).^[53] In 1188, Zhangzong's grandfather and predecessor Shizong (r. 1161–1189) ordered for the Song Canon woodblocks to be transferred from the Jin southern capital Kaifeng (the former Northern Song capital) to the central capital's "Abbey of Celestial Perpetuity" (Tianchang guan 天长观), on the site of what is now the White Cloud Temple in Beijing.^[53] Other Daoist writings were also moved there from another abbey in the central capital.^[53] Zhangzong instructed the abbey's superintendent Sun Mingdao (孙明道) and two civil officials to prepare a complete Canon for printing.^[53] After sending people on a "nationwide search for scriptures" that yielded 1,074 fascicles of text that had not been included in the Huizong edition of the Canon and also securing donations to fund the new printing, Sun Mingdao proceeded to have the new woodblocks cut in 1192.^[54] The final print consisted of 6,455 fascicles.^[55] Despite records that the Jin emperors offered copies of the Canon as gifts, not a single fragment of it is known to have survived.^[55]

Fashion