Jin dynasty (1115–1234)
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- This is an article for the Jurchen Jin Dynasty (1115-1234). For other Chinese Dynasties of the same name please see Jin Dynasty.
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The Jīn Dynasty (Jurchen: Anchu; Chinese: 金朝; pinyin: Jīn Cháo; 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
Founded in 1115 in northern Manchuria by the Jurchen chieftain Wányán Āgǔdǎ (完顏阿骨打), it successfully annihilated in 1125 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.[2] 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 cesation of all Chinese land north of the Huai River to the Jin and the execution of Song General Yue Fei in return for peace.
However, Jin dynasty's history books, which was published under the Yuan dynasty, records that Aguda’s ancestor had originally come from Silla that is an ancient Korean dynasty (BC 57∼AD 935). The history book records that“金之始祖諱函普，初從高麗來，年已六十余矣。兄阿古乃好佛，留高麗不肯從." [1], which is translated that "The name of Qing dynasty founder was Hambo. When he came from Goryeo, he was about 60 years older or more. His brother, Agonae liked Buddhism, and didn't follow Hambo. But he stayed in Goryeo." Especially, the history book written at Qing dynasty named with 欽定滿洲源流考 records that the founder of Jin(金) is originally the same family with the Kim who are the Royal family of Silla[2]. There are many historical texts testifying the ethnical homogeneity between Korean and Jurchen, one of the most powerful expansionist in East Asian 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 meng'an (one thousand households) and mouke (one hundred households). 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).[3]
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.[4]
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.[5] 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 Treat 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.[6]
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 Yangzi 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. [7]
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.
| Temple Name Miao Hao 廟號 miàohào |
Posthumous Name Shi Hao 諡號 shìhào |
Birth Name 姓名 xìngmíng |
Years of Reign |
Era Name Nian Hao 年號 niánhào and Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convention: "Jin" + temple name or posthumous name | ||||
| Tàizǔ 太祖 |
(1) | Wányán Āgǔdǎ 完顏阿骨打 |
1115-1123 | |
| Tàizōng 太宗 |
(1) | Wányán Wúqǐmǎi 完顏吳乞買 or Wányán (Shèng or Chéng) 完顏晟 |
1123-1134 | Tiānhuì 天會 1123-1134 |
| Xīzōng 熙宗 |
(1) | Wányán Hélá 完顏合剌 or Wányán Dǎn 完顏亶 |
1135-1149 | |
| (2) | Hǎilíngwáng 海陵王 |
Wányán Liàng 完顏亮 |
1149-1161 | |
| Shìzōng 世宗 |
(1) | Wányán Yōng 完顏雍 |
1161-1189 | Dàdìng 大定 1161-1189 |
| Zhāngzōng 章宗 |
(1) | Wányán Jǐng 完顏璟 |
1190-1208 | Míngchāng 明昌 1190-1196 |
| (2) | Wèishàowáng 衛紹王 or Wèiwáng 衛王 |
Wányán Yǒngjì 完顏永濟 |
1209-1213 | Dà'ān 大安 1209-1212 |
| Xuānzōng 宣宗 |
(1) | Wányán Xún 完顏珣 |
1213-1223 | Zhēnyòu 貞祐 1213-1217 |
| Āizōng 哀宗 |
(1) | Wányán Shǒuxù 完顏守緒 |
1224-1234 | Zhèngdà 正大 1224-1232 |
| (2) |
Mòdì 末帝 |
Wányán Chénglín 完顏承麟 |
1234 | (2) |
(1) Quite long and thus not used when referring to this sovereign.
(2) Did not exist