Jin dynasty (1115–1234)

Jurchen-led imperial dynasty of China

Not to be confused with Jin dynasty (266–420).

"Anchu" and "Jurchen dynasty" redirect here. For the novel, see Anchu (novel). For the 17th-century Jurchen khanate, see Later Jin (1616–1636).

Great Jin 大金
1115–1234
Location of Jin dynasty (blue  ) c. 1141
Circuits of Jin
Capital	Huining Prefecture (1122–1153) Zhongdu (1153–1214) Kaifeng (1214–1233) Caizhou (1233–1234)
Common languages	Middle Chinese (later Old Mandarin), Jurchen, Khitan
Religion	Buddhism Taoism Confucianism Chinese folk religion
Government	Monarchy
Emperor
• 1115–1123	Taizu (first)
• 1161–1189	Shizong
• 1234	Modi (last)
Historical era	Northern Song dynasty	9 January 1127
• Mongol invasion	1211
• Fall of Caizhou to the Mongol Empire	9 February 1234
Area
1142 est.	3,610,000 km2 (1,390,000 sq mi)
1186 est.	4,750,000 km2 (1,830,000 sq mi)
Population
• 1186 est.[1]	53,000,000
Currency	paper money see Jin dynasty coinage (1115–1234)
Preceded by Succeeded by Liao dynasty Northern Song Northern Liao Mongol Empire Southern Song Western Liao Eastern Xia Eastern Liao
Today part of	China North Korea Russia

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The Jin dynasty (/dʒɪn/,^[2] [tɕín]; Chinese: 金朝; pinyin: Jīn cháo),^[a] officially known as the Great Jin (大金; Dà Jīn), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 1115 and 1234.^[b] Because the Wanyan clan that founded the dynasty were of Jurchen descent, it is also sometimes called the Jurchen dynasty or the Jurchen Jin.

The Jin dynasty emerged from

century-long campaign against the Song dynasty (960–1279) based in southern China, and whose rulers were ethnically Han Chinese. Over the course of the Jin's rule, their emperors adapted to Han customs, and even fortified the Great Wall against the ascendant Mongol Empire. The Jin also oversaw a number of internal cultural advancements, such as the revival of Confucianism

.

After spending centuries in vassalage under the Jin, the Mongols under Genghis Khan invaded in 1211, inflicting several crushing defeats upon Jin armies. After a sequence of defeats, revolts, defections, and coups over a span of 23 years, the Jin were ultimately conquered by the Mongols in 1234.

Name

Main article: Names of China

The Jin dynasty was officially known as the "Great Jin" at that time. Furthermore, the Jin emperors referred to their state as China, Zhongguo (中國), just as some other non-Han dynasties.^[6] Non-Han rulers expanded the definition of "China" to include non-Han peoples in addition to Han people whenever they ruled China.^[7] Jin documents indicate that the usage of "China" by dynasties to refer to themselves began earlier than previously thought.^[8]

History

Main article:

Jin–Song Wars

See also: Timeline of the Jurchens

Jin dynasty
Chinese name
Hanyu Pinyin	Dà Jīn
Bopomofo	ㄉㄚˋ ㄐㄧㄣ
Wade–Giles	Ta4 Chin1
Tongyong Pinyin	Dà Jin
IPA	[tâ.tɕín]
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutping	daai6 gam1
IPA	[taːi˨ kɐm˥]

Khitan nameKhitanNik, Niku

Origin

The Mohe were the ancestors of the Jin. the Mohe were called Wuji, the Wuji lived on the land of the Sushen people. There are seven Wuji tribes: Sumo, Boduo, Anchegu, Funie, Haoshi, Heishui, Baishan.

The progenitors of the

Khitans. The Mohe exported reindeer products and may have rode 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

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

Aguda eventually founded the Jin dynasty.^[15]

Wanyan Aguda

The Jin dynasty was created in modern

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]

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').^[24]

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".^[25]

Rebellions in the north

Zhengding

, Hebei, built between 1161 and 1189.

Having usurped the throne,

Huining Prefecture (south of present-day Harbin) to the former Liao capital, Yanjing (present-day Beijing).^[25][26] Four years later, in 1157, to emphasise the permanence of the move, he razed the nobles' residences in Huining Prefecture.^[25][26] 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.^[25]

Wanyan Liang also tried to suppress dissent by killing Jurchen nobles, executing 155 princes.

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.^[25]

Although crowned in October, Wanyan Yong (Emperor Shizong) was not officially recognised as emperor until the murder of Wanyan Liang's heir.^[25] 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

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.^[28]

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

Main article:

Mongol conquest of Jin China

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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

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.^[29]

Many

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.^[38] 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.^[39] His Jurchen wives' surnames were Monian and Nahe, his Korean wife's surname was Li, and his Han Chinese wife's surname was Shi.^[38] 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".^[39][40] 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.^[41]

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).^[42]

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

The government of the Jin dynasty merged Jurchen customs with institutions adopted from the Liao and Song dynasties.^[43] The pre-dynastic Jurchen government was based on the quasi-egalitarian tribal council.^[44] Jurchen society at the time did not have a strong political hierarchy. The Shuo Fu (說郛) records that the Jurchen tribes were not ruled by central authority and locally elected their chieftains.^[43] Tribal customs were retained after Aguda united the Jurchen tribes and formed the Jin dynasty, coexisting alongside more centralised institutions.^[45] The Jin dynasty had five capitals, a practice they adopted from the Balhae and the Liao.^[46] The Jin had to overcome the difficulties of controlling a multicultural empire composed of territories once ruled by the Liao and Northern Song. The solution of the early Jin government was to establish separate government structures for different ethnic groups.^[47]

The Jin court maintained a clear separation between the sedentary population who had lived under Liao rule, and the sedentary population who formerly lived under Northern Song rule but had never been under Liao rule. The former they referred to as hanren or yanren while the latter they referred to as nanren.^[48]

Culture

Because the Jin had few contacts with its southern neighbour, the Song dynasty, different cultural developments took place in both states. Within Confucianism, the "Learning of the Way" that developed and became orthodox in Song did not take root in Jin. Jin scholars put more emphasis on the work of northern Song scholar and poet Su Shi (1037–1101) than on Zhu Xi's (1130–1200) scholarship, which constituted the foundation of the Learning of the Way.^[49]

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).^[50] 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.^[51]

Religion

Taoism

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A significant branch of

The Jin state sponsored an edition of the

List of emperors

Emperors family tree

See also

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• Eastern Xia
• Jurchen Jin emperors family tree
• Korean–Jurchen border conflicts
• Timeline of the Jin–Song Wars

Notes

References

Citations