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This is an article for the Jurchen Jin Dynasty (1115-1234). For other Chinese dynasties whose names are also rendered "Jin" in pinyin, see Jin Dynasty. The Jīn Dynasty (Jurchen: Anchu; ; 1115-1234), Wade-Giles Chin Dynasty, also known as the Jurchen dynasty, was founded by the Wanyan (完顏 Wányán) clan of the Jurchen, 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
The migration south 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 Chinese. 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 Chinese, although the ban on Jurchen nobles marrying Chinese 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 Chinese cultural traditions, but the Jurchen nobles had the top positions. Later in life, Emperor Xīzōng became an alcoholic and executed many Chinese 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. He was also violent, and historians refused to give him a posthumous name as an emperor but only referred to him as Prince Hǎilíng (海陵王).* Rebellions in the north In 1153, Prince Hǎilíng moved the empire's "southern" capital from Huining Fu in northern Manchuria (south of present-day Harbin) to Zhongdu (now Beijing). Four years later in 1157, he razed Beijing, including the nobles’ residences, and moved the Jurchen southern capital from Beijing to Kaifeng and began to reconstruct it (since its sack in 1127). Prince Hǎilíng also tried to suppress dissent by killing Jurchen nobles, executing 155 princes.* Emperor Prince Hǎilíng attacked the Southern Song in 1161. Meanwhile, two simultaneous rebellions of Jurchen nobles, led by soon-to-be crowned Wányán Yōng (完顏雍), and Khitan tribesman erupted in Manchuria, forcing the Jin Dynasty to withdraw its troops from southern China to quell the uprisings. With a “watered-down” military force, Prince Hǎilíng failed in taking the Song and was assassinated by his own generals in December of 1161. His son and heir was also assassinated in the capital. Although crowned in October, Wányán Yōng was not officially recognized as Jin Emperor Shìzōng (世宗) until the murder of Prince Hǎilíng's heir.* The Khitan uprising was not suppressed until 1164; their horses were confiscated so that the rebels had to take up farming. Other Khitan and Xia cavalry units had been incorporated into the Jin army. Because the uprisings had severally weakened the Jin’s hold on the southern Song, the Treaty of Lóngxīng (隆興和議) was signed in 1164 and ushered over 40 years of peace between the two empires. 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. Shìzōng's grandson, Emperor Zhāngzōng (章宗) (r. 1189-1208) venerated Jurchen values, but he also immersed himself in Chinese culture and married a Chinese woman. The Taihe Code of law was promulgated in 1201 and was based mostly on the Tang Code. In 1207 the Song Chinese 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.* Fall under the Mongol Empire 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”. 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. 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 Tangut Empire. His son Ögedei Khan invaded the Jin Empire in 1232. The Jurchens tried to resist; but when Kaifeng was attacked, Āizōng fled south. The Mongols looted the capital in 1233, and the next year Āizōng committed suicide to avoid being captured, ending the Jin dynasty in 1234. * 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 Latter Jin Dynasty (1616-1636 CE). 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 Latter Jin to Qing in 1636. (1) Quite long and thus not used when referring to this sovereign. (2) Did not exist See also Puxian Wannu | ||||||||||
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