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175-639: Jin dynasty Song dynasty Mongol Empire ( 1233–34 ) The Jin–Song Wars were a series of conflicts between the Jurchen -led Jin dynasty (1115–1234) and the Han -led Song dynasty (960–1279). In 1115, Jurchen tribes rebelled against their overlords, the Khitan -led Liao dynasty (916–1125), and declared the formation of the Jin. Allying with the Song against their common enemy

350-478: A Han Chinese woman (surname Zhang); it is unknown which of them was Shi Tianze's mother. 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. His Jurchen wives' surnames were Monian and Nahe, his Korean wife's surname was Li, and his Han Chinese wife's surname was Shi. Shi Tianze defected to the Mongol forces upon their invasion of

525-616: A Song turncoat who had joined the Qi, led the campaign. Xiangyang and nearby prefectures fell to his army. The capture of Xiangyang on the Han River gave the Jurchens a passage into the central valley of the Yangtze River. Their southward push was halted by the general Yue Fei. In 1134, Yue Fei defeated Li and retook Xiangyang and its surrounding prefectures. Later that year, however, Qi and Jin initiated

700-564: A battle against Wuzhu at Shunchang (modern Fuyang in Anhui). Yue Fei was assigned to head the Song forces defending the Huainan region. Instead of advancing to Huainan, however, Wuzhu retreated to Kaifeng and Yue's army followed him into Jin territory, disobeying an order by Gaozong that forbade Yue from going on the offensive. Yue captured Zhengzhou and sent soldiers across the Yellow River to stir up

875-684: A bell tower and drum tower to announce the night curfew (which was revived after being abolished under the Song). 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. 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

1050-509: 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 . Because the Jin had few contacts with its southern neighbour, the Song dynasty, different cultural developments took place in both states. Within Confucianism ,

1225-512: A complete Canon for printing. 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. The final print consisted of 6,455 fascicles. Despite records that the Jin emperors offered copies of

1400-478: A critic of the treaty, retired. Yue Fei also announced his resignation as an act of protest. In 1141 Qin Hui had him imprisoned for insubordination. Charged with treason, Yue Fei was poisoned in jail on Qin's orders in early 1142. Jurchen diplomatic pressure during the peace talks may have played a role, but Qin Hui's alleged collusion with the Jin has never been proven. After his execution, Yue Fei's reputation for defending

1575-583: 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. Although crowned in October, Wanyan Yong (Emperor Shizong) was not officially recognised as emperor until the murder of Wanyan Liang's heir. The Khitan uprising

1750-532: A few months later when the eastern army withdrew. Meanwhile, on the eastern front, Wuzhu commanded the main Jin army. He crossed the Yangtze southwest of Jiankang and took that city when Du Chong surrendered. Wuzhu set out from Jiankang and advanced rapidly to try to capture Gaozong. The Jin seized Hangzhou (January 22, 1130) and then Shaoxing further south (February 4), but general Zhang Jun 's (1086–1154) battle with Wuzhu near Ningbo gave Gaozong time to escape. By

1925-466: A major defeat on Jurchen forces and tried to prevent Wuzhu from crossing back to the north bank of the Yangtze. The small boats of the Jin army were outmatched by Han Shizhong's fleet of seagoing vessels. Wuzhu eventually managed to cross the river when he had his troops use incendiary arrows to neutralize Han's ships by burning their sails. Wuzhu's troops came back south of the Yangtze one last time to Jiankang, which they pillaged, and then headed north. Yet

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2100-515: A massive strategic blunder when he commanded his remaining armies to protect prefectural cities instead of Kaifeng. Neglecting the importance of the capital, he left Kaifeng defended with fewer than 100,000 soldiers. The Song forces were dispersed throughout China, powerless to stop the second Jurchen siege of the city. The Jin assault commenced in mid-December 1126. Even as fighting raged on, Qinzong continued to sue for peace, but Jin demands for territory were enormous: they wanted all provinces north of

2275-614: A new offensive further east along the Huai River. For the first time, Gaozong issued an edict officially condemning Da Qi. The armies of Qi and Jin won a series of victories in the Huai valley, but were repelled by Han Shizhong near Yangzhou and by Yue Fei at Luzhou ( 廬州 , modern Hefei ). Their sudden withdrawal in 1135 in response to the death of Jin Emperor Taizong gave the Song time to regroup. The war recommenced in late 1136 when Da Qi attacked

2450-639: A new official edition of the Canon printed by the Northern Song. Completed in 1173, the Jin Tripitaka counted about 7,000 fascicles, "a major achievement in the history of Buddhist private printing." It was further expanded during the Yuan dynasty . Buddhism thrived during the Jin period, both in its relation with the imperial court and in society in general. Many sutras were also carved on stone tablets. The donors who funded such inscriptions included members of

2625-409: A peaceful solution to the conflict in 1130, saying that, "If it is desirable that there will be no more conflicts under Heaven , it is necessary for the southerners to stay in the south and the northerners in the north." Gaozong, who considered himself a northerner, initially rejected the proposal. There were gestures toward peace in 1132, when the Jin freed an imprisoned Song diplomat, and in 1133, when

2800-524: A peasant rebellion against the Jin. On July 8, 1140, at the Battle of Yancheng , Wuzhu launched a surprise attack on Song forces with an army of 100,000 infantry and 15,000 horsemen. Yue Fei directed his cavalry to attack the Jurchen soldiers and won a decisive victory. He continued on to Henan, where he recaptured Zhengzhou and Luoyang. Later in 1140, Yue was forced to withdraw after the emperor ordered him to return to

2975-439: A ruler. Huizong was known for his extravagance, and funded the costly construction of gardens and temples while rebellions threatened the state's grip on power. A modern analysis by Ari Daniel Levine places more of the blame on deficiencies in the military and bureaucratic leadership. The loss of northern China was not inevitable. The military was overextended by a government too assured of its own military prowess. Huizong diverted

3150-487: A series of floods culminating in a Yellow River flood in 1194 that devastated Hebei and Shandong in northern China, and the droughts and swarming locusts that plagued the south near the Huai. The Song were informed of the Jurchen predicament by their ambassadors, who traveled twice a year to the Jin capital, and started provoking their northern neighbor. The hostilities were instigated by chancellor Han Tuozhou . The Song Emperor Ningzong (r. 1194–1224) took little interest in

3325-590: A single multi-ethnic entity. The Qing emperors governed frontier non-Han areas in a separate administrative system under the Lifan Yuan . Nonetheless, it was the Qing emperors who expanded the definition of Zhongguo and made it "flexible" by using that term to refer to the entire empire. Zhongguo was also used by the Qing Empire as an endonym in diplomatic correspondence. However, some Han subjects criticized their usage of

3500-452: A span of 23 years, the Jin were ultimately conquered by the Mongols in 1234. The Jin dynasty was officially known as the "Great Jin" (大金), with Jin meaning "gold". The Jurchen word for "gold", and therefore also for their state name, was alchun . Furthermore, the Jin emperors referred to their state as China, Zhongguo ( 中國 ), just as some other non-Han dynasties. Non-Han rulers expanded

3675-400: A view of China ( Zhongxia ; 中夏 ), according to which non-Han peoples cannot become China's subjects and their lands cannot be integrated into the territory of China. This does not represent our dynasty's understanding of China, but is instead a view of the earlier Han , Tang, Song , and Ming dynasties." The Qianlong Emperor rejected the views of ethnic Han officials who claimed that Xinjiang

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3850-868: A year in the city. When the Jurchens advanced to the Huai River, the court was partially evacuated to Hangzhou in 1129. Days later, Gaozong narrowly escaped on horseback, just a few hours ahead of Jurchen vanguard troops. After a coup in Hangzhou almost dethroned him, in May 1129 he moved his capital back north to Jiankang (modern Nanjing ) on the south bank of the Yangtze. One month later, however, Zong Ze's successor Du Chong ( 杜充 ) vacated his forces from Kaifeng, exposing Jiankang to attack. The emperor moved back to Hangzhou in September, leaving Jiankang in Du Chong's hands. The Jin eventually captured Kaifeng in early 1130. From 1127 to 1129,

4025-724: Is for the Manchus the same as the birthplace is for the people of the Central Plain . Shun belonged to the Eastern Yi , and King Wen to the Western Yi . Does this fact diminish their virtues?" According to scholar Sergius L. Kuzmin of the Russian Academy of Sciences , despite the Qing dynasty's usage of the term "China", these empires were known officially by their respective dynastic name. Non-Han peoples considered themselves as subjects of

4200-621: 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

4375-504: The Bohai Sea . Negotiations for an alliance began secretly under the pretense that the Song wanted to acquire horses from the Khitans. Song diplomats traveled to the Jin court to meet Aguda in 1118, while Jurchen envoys arrived in the Song capital Kaifeng the next year. At the beginning, the two sides agreed to keep whatever Liao territory they would seize in combat. In 1120, Aguda agreed to cede

4550-590: The Canon as gifts, not a single fragment of it is known to have survived. A Buddhist Canon or "Tripitaka" was also produced in Shanxi , the same place where an enhanced version of the Jin-sponsored Taoist Canon would be reprinted in 1244. The project was initiated in 1139 by a Buddhist nun named Cui Fazhen, who swore (and allegedly "broke her arm to seal the oath") that she would raise the necessary funds to make

4725-576: The Great Jin ( 大金 ; Dà Jīn ), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 1115 and 1234. As the ruling Wanyan clan was of Jurchen descent, it is also sometimes called the Jurchen dynasty or the Jurchen Jin . At its peak, the empire extended from Outer Manchuria in the north to the Qinling–Huaihe Line in the south. The Jin dynasty emerged from Wanyan Aguda 's rebellion against

4900-722: 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 . 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

5075-463: 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. 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'),

5250-489: The Huainan circuits of the Song. Qi lost a battle at Outang ( 藕塘 ), in modern Anhui , against a Song army led by Yang Qizhong ( 楊沂中 ; 1102–1166). The victory boosted Song morale, and the military commissioner Zhang Jun (1097–1164) convinced Gaozong to begin plans for a counterattack. Gaozong first agreed, but he abandoned the counteroffensive when an officer named Li Qiong ( 酈瓊 ) killed his superior official and defected to

5425-654: The Liao dynasty (916–1125), which held sway over northern China until being driven by the nascent Jin to the Western Regions , where they would become known in Chinese historiography as the Western Liao . After conquering the Liao territory, the Jin launched a century-long campaign against the Song dynasty (960–1279) based in southern China, whose rulers were ethnically Han Chinese . Over

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5600-689: The Manchu language ( Dulimbai means "central" or "middle", while gurun means "nation" or "state"). The emperors labelled the lands of the Qing Empire (including present-day Northeast China , Xinjiang , Mongolia, Tibet, and other areas) as "China" in both the Chinese and Manchu languages. This effectively defined China as a multi-ethnic state, thereby rejecting the idea that "China" only meant Han-populated areas. The Qing emperors proclaimed that both Han and non-Han ethnic groups were part of "China". They also used both "China" and "Qing" to refer to their state in official documents, international treaties (the Qing Empire

5775-669: The Neo-Confucian "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) rather than on Zhu Xi 's (1130–1200) scholarship that constituted the foundation of the Learning of the Way. The Jin pursued a revival of Tang dynasty urban design with architectural projects in Kaifeng and Zhongdu (modern Beijing), building for instance

5950-546: The Sixteen Prefectures , a line of fortified cities and passes that the Liao had annexed from the Shatuo Turk Later Jin in 938, and that the Song had repeatedly but unsuccessfully tried to reconquer. The Song thus sought an alliance with the Jin against their common enemy the Liao. Because the land routes between the Song and Jin were controlled by the Liao, diplomatic exchanges had to occur by traveling across

6125-592: The Sixteen Prefectures , they had faced fierce resistance from the Han Chinese population, yet when the Jurchens invaded that area, the Han Chinese did not oppose them at all. By the end of December 1125, the Jin army had seized control of two prefectures and re-established Jurchen rule over the Sixteen Prefectures. The eastern army was nearing Kaifeng by early 1126. Fearing the approaching Jin army, Song emperor Huizong planned to retreat south. The emperor deserting

6300-524: 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

6475-636: The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors up to the Tang dynasty . Han Chinese literati during the Mongol period thought that China, after a few centuries of division and dissension, was finally reunified by the Yuan dynasty. Their view was not shared by all contemporaries, especially the Mongols and other non-Han people ( Semu ) who had quite different ideas about China, and the latter considered several different kingdoms or countries as having been conquered and brought under

6650-479: The Yellow River on January 27, 1126, two days after the New Year. Huizong fled Kaifeng the next day, escaping south and leaving the newly enthroned emperor Qinzong (r. 1126–1127) in charge of the capital. Kaifeng was besieged on January 31, 1126. The commander of the Jurchen army promised to spare the city if the Song submitted to Jin as a vassal; forfeited the prime minister and an imperial prince as prisoners; ceded

6825-460: The "Newly Submitted Army" ( 新附軍 ). 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

7000-513: The 1856 Treaty of Thapathali . It is pointed out that Tibetan subjects regarded the Qing as Chinese, unlike the Yuan which was founded by Mongols. According to Kuzmin, the Liao , Jin, Yuan and Qing were multi-national empires led by non-Chinese peoples to whom the conquered China or its part was joined. Nevertheless, American historian Richard J. Smith points out " China proper " (often designated 内地 meaning "inner territory" in Chinese) refers to

7175-460: The Chinese prefectures of Hejian , Taiyuan, and Zhongshan; and offered an indemnity of 50 million taels of silver, 5 million taels of gold, 1 million packs of silk, 1 million packs of satin, 10,000 horses, 10,000 mules, 10,000 cattle, and 1,000 camels. This indemnity was worth about 180 years of the annual tribute the Song had been paying to the Jin since 1123. With little prospect of help from afar arriving, infighting broke out in

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7350-436: The Chinese". The Jin hoped a proxy state would be capable of administering northern China and collecting the annual indemnity without requiring Jurchen interventions to quell anti-Jin uprisings. In 1127, the Jurchens installed a former Song official, Zhang Bangchang (張邦昌; 1081–1127), as puppet emperor of the newly established " Da Chu " (Great Chu) dynasty. The puppet government did not deter the resistance in northern China, but

7525-603: The German-American sinologist Karl August Wittfogel in his 1949 revisionist history of the Liao dynasty (916–1125). He argued that the Liao, as well as the Jin (1115–1234), Yuan (1271–1368), and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties of China were not really "Chinese", and that the ruling families did not fully assimilate into the dominant Han culture. The "conquest dynasty" concept was warmly received by mostly Japanese scholars such as Otagi Matsuo, who preferred to view these dynasties in

7700-580: The Great Chu and execution of Zhang Bangchang antagonized the Jurchens and violated the treaty that the two parties had negotiated. The Jin renewed their attacks on the Song and quickly reconquered much of northern China. In late 1127 Gaozong moved his court further south from Yingtianfu to Yangzhou , south of the Huai River and north of the Yangtze River , by sailing down the Grand Canal . The court spent over

7875-464: 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. The Jurchens were supported by the anti-Song, Beijing-based noble Han clans. The Han Chinese who worked for the Liao were viewed as hostile enemies by

8050-503: The Imperial Jurchen Academy was founded, and the imperial examinations started to be offered in the Jurchen language. 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

8225-541: 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

8400-450: 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

8575-494: The Jin and Song agreed to a treaty that designated the Yellow River as border between the two states and recognized Gaozong as a "subject" of the Jin. But because there remained opposition to the treaty in both the courts of the Jin and Song, the treaty never came into effect. A Jurchen army led by Wuzhu invaded in early 1140. The Song counteroffensive that followed achieved large territorial gains. Song general Liu Qi ( 劉錡 ) won

8750-430: The Jin decided to create Da Qi (the "Great Qi"), their second attempt at a puppet state in northern China. The Jurchens believed that this state, nominally ruled by someone of Han Chinese descent, would be able to attract the allegiance of disaffected members of the insurgency. The Jurchens also suffered from a shortage of skilled manpower, and controlling the entirety of northern China was not administratively feasible. In

8925-434: The Jin dynasty merged Jurchen customs with institutions adopted from the Liao and Song dynasties. The pre-dynastic Jurchen government was based on the quasi-egalitarian tribal council. 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. Tribal customs were retained after Aguda united

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9100-507: 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". 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. The Mongols created a Han army out of defecting Jin troops, and another army out of defected Song troops called

9275-471: The Jin had been caught off guard by the strength of the Song navy, and Wuzhu never tried to cross the Yangtze River again. In early 1131, Jin armies between the Huai and the Yangtze were repelled by bandits loyal to the Song. Zhang Rong ( 張榮 ), the leader of the bandits, was given a government position for his victory against the Jin. After the Jin incursion that almost captured Gaozong, the sovereign ordered pacification commissioner Zhang Jun (1097–1164), who

9450-417: The Jin imperial family, high officials, common people, and Buddhist priests. Some sutras have only survived from these carvings and thus they are important in the study of Chinese Buddhism. At the same time, the Jin court sold monk certificates for revenue. This practice was initiated in 1162 by Emperor Shizong to fund his wars, and stopped three years later when the wars were over. His successor Zhanzong used

9625-606: The Jin leaders were ready to attack their southern neighbor. Before they could invade the Song, the Jurchens reached a peace agreement with their western neighbors the Tangut Western Xia in 1124. The following year near the Ordos Desert , they captured Tianzuo , the last emperor of the Liao, putting an end to the Liao dynasty for good. Ready to end their alliance with the Song, the Jurchens began preparations for an invasion. In November 1125 Taizong ordered his armies to attack

9800-512: The Jin southern capital Kaifeng (the former Northern Song capital) to the central capital's "Abbey of Celestial Perpetuity" ( Tianchang guan 天長觀), on the site of what is now the White Cloud Temple in Beijing. Other Daoist writings were also moved there from another abbey in the central capital. Zhangzong instructed the abbey's superintendent Sun Mingdao (孫明道) and two civil officials to prepare

9975-462: The Jin with 30,000 soldiers. This rebellion was provoked by Zhang Jun's attempt to reassert government control over the regional military commanders, as the court had previously been forced to tolerate growing military autonomy during the chaos of the Jin invasion. Meanwhile, Emperor Xizong (r. 1135–1150) inherited the Jin throne from Taizong, and pushed for peace. He and his generals were disappointed with Liu Yu's military failures and believed that Liu

10150-419: The Jin would now attack the Liao Central Capital, whereas the Song would seize the Liao Southern Capital, Yanjing (modern-day Beijing). The joint attack against the Liao had been planned for 1121, but it was rescheduled for 1122. On February 23 of that year, Jin captured the Liao Central Capital as promised. The Song delayed their entry into the war because it diverted resources to fighting the Western Xia in

10325-405: The Jin. Meanwhile, not all non-Han regimes were seen as "conquest dynasties" by Karl August Wittfogel; some of these regimes, such as the Northern Wei , were considered "infiltration dynasties" by him. In the English language, " Zhongguo ren " ( 中國人 ; "People of China") is frequently confused and conflated with " Han ren " ( 漢人 ; " Han people "). The term Zhongguo was used initially around

10500-402: The Jin. Qin Hui, in a reply to Gaozong's gratitude for the success of the peace negotiations, told the emperor that "the decision to make peace was entirely Your Majesty's. Your servant only carried it out; what achievement was there in this for me?" On October 11, 1142, after about a year of negotiations, the Treaty of Shaoxing was ratified, ending the conflict between the Jin and the Song. By

10675-407: The Jin. Wanyan Liang began the invasion in 1161 without formally declaring war. Jurchen armies personally led by Wanyan Liang left Kaifeng on October 15, reached the Huai River border on October 28, and marched in the direction of the Yangtze. The Song lost the Huai to the Jurchens but captured a few Jin prefectures in the west, slowing the Jurchen advance. A group of Jurchen generals were sent to cross

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10850-426: The Jurchen cavalry to breach its fortifications. Access to the sea made it easier to retreat from the city. In 1138, Gaozong officially declared Lin'an the capital of the dynasty, but the label of temporary capital would still be in place. Lin'an would remain the capital of the Southern Song for the next 150 years, growing into a major commercial and cultural center. Qin Hui , an official of the Song court, recommended

11025-533: The Jurchen demands, and his officials convinced him to go through with the deal. The Song recognized Jin control over the three prefectures. The Jurchen army ended the siege in March after 33 days. Almost as soon as the Jin armies had left Kaifeng, Emperor Qinzong reneged on the deal and dispatched two armies to repel the Jurchen troops attacking Taiyuan and bolster the defenses of Zhongshan and Hejian. An army of 90,000 soldiers and another of 60,000 were defeated by Jin forces by June. A second expedition to rescue Taiyuan

11200-482: The Jurchen tribes and formed the Jin dynasty, coexisting alongside more centralised institutions. The Jin dynasty had five capitals, a practice they adopted from the Balhae and the Liao. 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. The Jin court maintained

11375-404: The Jurchen tribes were vassals of the Liao dynasty (907–1125), an empire ruled by the nomadic Khitans that included most of modern Mongolia , a portion of North China , Northeast China, northern Korea , and parts of the Russian Far East . To the south of the Liao lay the Han Chinese Song Empire (960–1276). The Song and Liao were at peace, but since a military defeat to the Liao in 1005 ,

11550-400: The Jurchen troops from advancing to Luoyang. Meanwhile, the eastern army, commanded by Wanyan Zongwang, was dispatched towards Yanjing (modern Beijing) and eventually the Song capital Kaifeng. It did not face much armed opposition. Zongwang easily took Yanjing, where Song general and former Liao governor Guo Yaoshi ( 郭藥師 ) switched his allegiances to the Jin. When the Song had tried to reclaim

11725-419: 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

11900-429: The Jurchens for the tax revenue they would have earned had they not returned the prefectures. In May 1123 Tong Guan and the Song armies entered the looted Yanjing. Barely one month after the Song had recovered Yanjing, Zhang Jue ( 張覺 ), who had served as military governor of the Liao prefecture of Pingzhou about 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of Yanjing, killed the main Jin official in that city and turned it over to

12075-459: The Khitan Xiao Zhala defected and commanded the three tumens in the Mongol army. Liu Heima and Shi Tianze served Genghis Khan's successor, Ögedei Khan . Liu Heima and Shi Tianxiang led armies against Western Xia for the Mongols. 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

12250-401: 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. 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

12425-430: 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. 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. In the 11th century there was widespread discontent against Khitan rule among

12600-439: The Liao dynasty, the Jin promised to cede to the Song the Sixteen Prefectures that had fallen under Liao control since 938. The Song agreed but the Jin's quick defeat of the Liao combined with Song military failures made the Jin reluctant to cede territory. After a series of negotiations that embittered both sides, the Jurchens attacked the Song in 1125, dispatching one army to Taiyuan and the other to Bianjing (modern Kaifeng ),

12775-455: The Mongols, became a lasting legacy of Mongol rule in China (and Iran). Qing emperors referred to all subjects of the Qing dynasty regardless of their ethnicity as "Chinese" ( 中國之人 ), and used the term " Zhongguo " as a synonym for the entire Qing Empire while using " neidi " ( 内地 ; "inner regions") to refer only to the core area (or China proper ) of the empire. The Qing Empire was viewed as

12950-456: 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 . 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 ] , and

13125-624: The Mysterious Metropolis of the Great Jin ( Da Jin Xuandu baozang 大金玄都寶藏). 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). In 1188, Zhangzong's grandfather and predecessor Shizong (r. 1161–1189) ordered for the Song Canon woodblocks to be transferred from

13300-437: The Qing Empire were fixed through a series of treaties with neighboring foreign powers, it was able to inculcate in the Qing subjects a sense that China included areas such as Mongolia and Tibet due to educational reforms. Specifically, the educational reform made it clear where the borders of the Qing Empire were, even if Han subjects did not understand how the Chinese identity included Mongols and Tibetans or understand what

13475-556: The Sixteen Prefectures to the Song in exchange for transfer to the Jin of the annual tributary payments that the Song had been giving the Liao. By the end of 1120, however, the Jurchens had seized the Liao Supreme Capital, and offered the Song only parts of the Sixteen Prefectures. Among other things, Jin would keep the Liao Western Capital of Datong at the western end of the Sixteen Prefectures. The two sides agreed that

13650-465: The Song Southern Capital at Yingtianfu ( 應天府 ; modern Shangqiu ) in early June 1127. For Gaozong (r. 1127–1162), Yingtianfu was the first in a series of temporary capitals called xingzai 行在 . The court moved to Yingtianfu because of its historical importance to Emperor Taizu of Song , the founder of the dynasty, who had previously served in that city as a military governor. The symbolism of

13825-426: The Song and Jin brought about the introduction of various gunpowder weapons . The siege of De'an in 1132 was the first recorded use of the fire lance , an early ancestor of firearms . There were also reports of incendiary huopao or the exploding tiehuopao , incendiary arrows , and other related weapons. In northern China, Jurchens were the ruling minority of an empire predominantly inhabited by former subjects of

14000-402: The Song and Jin continued along the border, but subsided in 1165 after the negotiation of a peace treaty. There were no major territorial changes. The treaty dictated that the Song still had to pay the annual indemnity, but the indemnity was renamed from "tribute", which had implied a subordinate relationship, to "payment". The Jin were weakened by the pressure of the rising Mongols to the north,

14175-410: The Song and the other by the Jin. Wanyan Liang led a coup against Emperor Xizong and became fourth emperor of the Jin dynasty in 1150. Wanyan Liang presented himself as a Chinese emperor, and planned to unite China by conquering the Song. In 1158, Wanyan Liang provided a casus belli by announcing that the Song had broken the 1142 peace treaty by acquiring horses. He instituted an unpopular draft that

14350-442: The Song capital. Surprised by news of an invasion, Song general Tong Guan retreated from Taiyuan, which was besieged and later captured. As the second Jin army approached the capital, Song emperor Huizong abdicated and fled south. Qinzong , his eldest son, was enthroned. The Jin dynasty laid siege to Kaifeng in 1126, but Qinzong negotiated their retreat from the capital by agreeing to a large annual indemnity . Qinzong reneged on

14525-452: The Song court between the officials who supported the Jin offer and those who opposed it. Opponents of the treaty like Li Gang ( 李剛 ; 1083–1140) rallied around the proposal of remaining in defensive positions until reinforcements arrived and Jurchen supplies ran out. They botched an ambush against the Jin that was carried out at night, and were replaced by officials who supported peace negotiations. The failed attack pushed Qinzong into meeting

14700-417: The Song court received news of the fall of Taiyuan, the officials who had advocated defending the empire militarily fell from favor again and were replaced by counselors who favored appeasement. In mid-December the two Jurchen armies converged on Kaifeng for the second time that year. After the defeat of several Song armies in the north, Emperor Qinzong wanted to negotiate a truce with the Jin, but he committed

14875-414: The Song court were captured by the Jurchens as hostages. They were taken north to Huining (modern Harbin ), where they were stripped of their royal privileges and reduced to commoners. The former emperors were humiliated by their captors. They were mocked with disparaging titles like "Muddled Virtue" and "Double Muddled". In 1128 Jin made them perform a ritual meant for war criminals. The harsh treatment of

15050-420: The Song court. Emperor Gaozong supported settling a peace treaty with the Jurchens and sought to rein in the assertiveness of the military. The military expeditions of Yue Fei and other generals were an obstacle to peace negotiations. The government weakened the military by rewarding Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, and Zhang Jun (1086–1154) with titles that relieved them of their command over the Song armies. Han Shizhong,

15225-467: 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

15400-527: The Song dynasty. Song Han Chinese also defected to the Jin. 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 ). On 9 January 1127, the Jurchens ransacked

15575-401: The Song offered to become a Jin vassal, but a treaty never materialized. The Jin requirement that the border between the two states be moved south from the Huai River to the Yangtze was too large of a hurdle for the two sides to reach an agreement. The continuing insurgency of anti-Jin forces in northern China hampered the Jurchen campaigns south of the Yangtze. Reluctant to let the war drag on,

15750-453: The Song paid its northern neighbor an annual indemnity of 200,000 bolts of silk and 100,000 ounces of silver. Before the Jurchens overthrew the Khitan, married Jurchen women and Jurchen girls were raped by Liao Khitan envoys as a custom which caused resentment by the Jurchens against the Khitan. Song princesses committed suicide to avoid rape or were killed for resisting rape by the Jin. In 1114,

15925-411: The Song royalty softened after the death of Huizong in 1135. Titles were granted to the deceased monarch, and his son Qinzong was promoted to Duke, a position with a salary. Many factors contributed to the Song's repeated military blunders and subsequent loss of northern China to the Jurchens. Traditional accounts of Song history held the venality of Huizong's imperial court responsible for the decline of

16100-471: The Song sent thirteen embassies to the Jin to discuss peace terms and to negotiate the release of Gaozong's mother and Huizong, but the Jin court ignored them. In December 1129, the Jin started a new military offensive, dispatching two armies across the Huai River in the east and west. On the western front, an army invaded Jiangxi , the area where the Song dowager empress resided, and captured Hongzhou ( 洪州 , present-day Nanchang ). They were ordered to retreat

16275-412: The Song still intended to seize most of the prefectures. In the spring of 1123 the two sides finally set the terms of the first Song–Jin treaty. Only seven prefectures (including Yanjing) would be returned to the Song, and the Song would pay an annual indemnity of 300,000 packs of silk and 200,000 taels of silver to the Jin, as well as a one-time payment of one million strings of copper coins to compensate

16450-443: The Song was willing to provoke the Jin, and that the Jin had yet to solidify their control over the newly conquered territories. The submission and abolition of Chu meant that Kaifeng was now back under Song control. Zong Ze  [ zh ] ( 宗澤 ; 1059–1128), the Song general responsible for fortifying Kaifeng, entreated Gaozong to move the court back to the city, but Gaozong refused and retreated south. The southward move marked

16625-571: The Song, the Song did not have a significant foothold in Central Asia where a large proportion of its horses could be bred or procured. As Song general Li Gang noted, without a consistent supply of horses the dynasty was at a significant disadvantage against Jurchen cavalry : "Jin were victorious only because they used iron-shielded cavalry , while we opposed them with foot soldiers. It is only to be expected that [our soldiers] were scattered and dispersed." The Jin leadership had not expected or desired

16800-475: The Song. In early 1123 it was Jurchen forces that easily took the Liao Southern Capital. They sacked it and enslaved its population. The quick collapse of the Liao led to more negotiations between the Song and Jin. Jurchen military success and their effective control over the Sixteen Prefectures gave them more leverage. Aguda grew increasingly frustrated as he realized that despite their military failures

16975-405: The Song. Jurchen migrants settled in the conquered territories and assimilated with the local culture. Jin, a conquest dynasty , instituted a centralized imperial bureaucracy modeled on previous Chinese dynasties , basing their legitimacy on Confucian philosophy . Song refugees from the north resettled in southern China. The north was the cultural center of China, and its conquest by Jin diminished

17150-706: The Song. The Jurchens defeated his armies a few months later and Zhang took refuge in Yanjing. Even though the Song agreed to execute him in late 1123, this incident put tension between the two states, because the 1123 treaty had explicitly forbidden both sides from harboring defectors. In 1124, Song officials further angered Jin by asking for the cession of nine more border prefectures. The new Jin emperor Taizong (r. 1123–1135), Aguda's brother and successor, hesitated, but warrior princes Wanyan Zonghan and Wanyan Zongwang ( 完颜宗望 ) vehemently refused to give them any more territory. Taizong eventually granted two prefectures, but by then

17325-429: The Song. The defection of Zhang Jue two years earlier served as the casus belli . Two armies were sent to capture the major cities of the Song. The western army, led by Wanyan Zonghan, departed from Datong and headed towards Taiyuan through the mountains of Shanxi , on its way to the Song western capital Luoyang . The Song forces were not expecting an invasion and were caught off guard. The Chinese general Tong Guan

17500-409: The Southern Song grew to that of a national folk hero. Qin Hui was denigrated by later historians, who accused him of betraying the Song. The real Yue Fei differed from the later myths based on his exploits. Contrary to traditional legends, Yue was only one of many generals who fought against the Jin in northern China. Traditional accounts have also blamed Gaozong for Yue Fei's execution and submitting to

17675-429: The Yangtze near the city of Caishi (south of Ma'anshan in modern Anhui) while Wanyan Liang established a base near Yangzhou. The Song official Yu Yunwen was in command of the army defending the river. The Jurchen army was defeated while attacking Caishi between November 26 and 27 during the Battle of Caishi . The paddle-wheel ships of the Song navy , armed with trebuchets that fired gunpowder bombs, overwhelmed

17850-406: The Yellow River. After more than twenty days of heavy combat against the besieging forces, Song defenses were decimated and the morale of Song soldiers was on the decline. On January 9, 1127, the Jurchens broke through and started to loot the conquered city. Emperor Qinzong tried to appease the victors by offering the remaining wealth of the capital. The royal treasury was emptied and the belongings of

18025-641: The Yuan and Qing empires and did not necessarily equate them to "China". This resulted from different ways of the Yuan and Qing legitimization for different peoples in these empires. Qing emperors were referred to as "Khagan of China" (or " Chinese khagan ") by their Turkic Muslim subjects (now known as the Uyghurs ), as " Bogda Khan " or "(Manchu) Emperor" by their Mongol subjects, and as " Emperor of China " (or "Chinese Emperor") and "the Great Emperor" (or "Great Emperor Manjushri ") by their Tibetan subjects, such as in

18200-413: 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

18375-423: The battle is said to have rivaled a similarly revered victory at the Battle of Fei River in the 4th century. Contemporaneous Song accounts claimed that the 18,000 Song soldiers commanded by Yu Yunwen and tasked with defending Caishi were able to defeat the invading Jurchen army of 400,000 soldiers. Modern historians are more skeptical and consider the Jurchen numbers an exaggeration. Song historians may have confused

18550-474: The bureaucracy, and enacted laws that enforced the collection of high taxes. It was also responsible for supplying a large portion of the troops that fought the Song in the seven years following its creation. The Jin granted Qi more autonomy than the first puppet government of Chu, but Liu Yu was obligated to obey the orders of the Jurchen generals. With Jin support, Da Qi invaded the Song in November 1133. Li Cheng,

18725-479: The capital would have been viewed as an act of capitulation, so court officials convinced him to abdicate. There were few objections. Rescuing an empire in crisis from destruction was more important than preserving the rituals of imperial inheritance. In January 1126, a few days before the New Year , Huizong abdicated in favor of his son and was demoted to the ceremonial role of Retired Emperor . The Jurchen forces reached

18900-462: The chieftain Wanyan Aguda (1068–1123) united the disparate Jurchen tribes and led a revolt against the Liao. In 1115 he named himself emperor of the Jin "golden" dynasty (1115–1234). Informed by a Liao defector of the success of the Jurchen uprising, the Song emperor Huizong (r. 1100–1127) and his highest military commander the eunuch Tong Guan saw the Liao weakness as an opportunity to recover

19075-447: The city was meant to secure the political legitimacy of the new emperor, who was enthroned there on June 12. After reigning for barely one month, Zhang Bangchang was persuaded by the Song to step down as emperor of the Great Chu and to recognize the legitimacy of the Song imperial line. Li Gang pressured Gaozong to execute Zhang for betraying the Song. The emperor relented and Zhang was coerced into suicide. The killing of Zhang showed that

19250-405: The city's residents were seized. The Song emperor offered his unconditional surrender a few days later. On the evening of the twenty-fifth, [Yao] Zhongyou was beaten to death by soldiers in the southern part of the city. His brain and intestines scattered, it was impossible to locate his flesh and bones afterward. Even his home got ransacked. What a shameful end to a good man like him! The spirit of

19425-399: The claim by anti-Qing rebels that the Qing dynasty were only the rulers of the Manchus and not of China, saying "The seditious rebels claim that we are the rulers of Manchus and only later penetrated central China to become its rulers. Their prejudices concerning the division of their and our country have caused many vitriolic falsehoods. What these rebels have not understood is the fact that it

19600-460: The connotations of being "Chinese" were. In an attempt to portray different ethnicities as part of one family ruled by the Qing dynasty, the phrase " Zhongwai yijia " ( 中外一家 ; "interior and exterior as one family") was used to convey the idea of the "unification" of different ethnic groups. After conquering China proper, the Manchus identified their state as "China" ( 中國 ; Zhōngguó ; "Middle Kingdom"), and referred to it as " Dulimbai Gurun " in

19775-514: The context of a "history of Asia" rather than a "history of China". Alternative views to the concept of "conquest dynasty" from American sinologists include Owen Lattimore 's idea of the steppe as a "reservoir", Wolfram Eberhard 's concept of a "superstratification" of Chinese society with nomadic peoples, and Mary C. Wright 's thesis of sinicization . Among historians, the labelling of "conquest dynasties" has proven to be controversial, especially when using such characterization on dynasties such as

19950-466: The control of the Mongols. But similar to the development in Mongol Iran , native intellectuals interested in their own history interpreted the unification by the Mongols as a revival of their dynastic tradition, and the concept of Zhongguo was considered an important ideology and was further developed by the subsequent Ming dynasty. The revival of the concept of territorial unity, although not intended by

20125-604: The core eighteenth provinces of the Qing dynasty, but from a Manchu perspective, however, the concept of “China” (Chinese: Zhongguo ; Manchu: Dulimbai Gurun ) embraced the entire empire, including Manchuria , Mongolia , Xinjiang , and Tibet . The modern territorial claims of both the People's Republic of China , based in Beijing , and the Republic of China , based in Taipei , are derived from

20300-467: 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 advances, such as the revival of Confucianism . 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

20475-613: The deal and ordered Song forces to defend the prefectures instead of fortifying the capital. The Jin resumed war and again besieged Kaifeng in 1127. They captured Qinzong, many members of the imperial family and high officials of the Song imperial court in an event known as the Jingkang Incident . This separated north and south China between Jin and Song. Remnants of the Song imperial family retreated to southern China and, after brief stays in several temporary capitals, eventually relocated to Lin'an (modern Hangzhou ). The retreat divided

20650-555: The definition of "China" to include non-Han peoples in addition to Han people whenever they ruled China. Jin documents indicate that the usage of "China" by dynasties to refer to themselves began earlier than previously thought. 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

20825-422: The dynasty into two distinct periods, Northern Song and Southern Song . The Jurchens tried to conquer southern China in the 1130s but were bogged down by a pro-Song insurgency in the north and a counteroffensive by Song generals, including Yue Fei and Han Shizhong . The Song generals regained some territories but retreated on the orders of Southern Song emperor Gaozong , who supported a peaceful resolution to

21000-399: The dynasty. These narratives condemned Huizong and his officials for their moral failures. Early Song emperors were eager to enact political reforms and revive the ethical framework of Confucianism , but the enthusiasm for reforms gradually died after the reformist Wang Anshi 's expulsion as chancellor in 1076. Corruption marred the reign of Huizong, who was more skilled as a painter than as

21175-438: 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. 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

21350-464: 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. After taking over northern China, the Jin became increasingly sinicised . Over the span of twenty years,

21525-637: The end of the Northern Song and the beginning of the Southern Song era of Chinese history. The descendant of Confucius at Qufu , the Duke Yansheng Kong Duanyou fled south with the Song Emperor to Quzhou, while the newly established Jin dynasty (1115–1234) in the north appointed Kong Duanyou's brother Kong Duancao who remained in Qufu as Duke Yansheng. Zhang Xuan 張選, a great-grandson of Zhang Zai , also fled south with Gaozong. The Song disbandment of

21700-428: The entire country but culturally to refer to only Han areas of the empire. The Xianbei -led Northern Wei referred to itself as " Zhongguo " and claimed yogurt as a food of Zhongguo . Similarly, the Jurchen -led Jin dynasty referred to itself as " Zhongguo ". In 1271, Kublai Khan proclaimed the Yuan dynasty with the official name "Great Yuan" ( 大元 ) and claimed succession from former Chinese dynasties from

21875-421: The fall of the Song dynasty. Their intention was to weaken the Song in order to demand more tribute, and they were unprepared for the magnitude of their victory. The Jurchens were preoccupied with strengthening their rule over the areas once controlled by Liao. Instead of continuing their invasion of the Song, an empire with a military that outnumbered their own, they adopted the strategy of "using Chinese to control

22050-584: The final months of 1129, Liu Yu ( 劉豫 ; 1073–1143) won the favor of the Jin emperor Taizong. Liu was a Song official from Hebei who had been a prefect of Jinan in Shandong before his defection to the Jin in 1128. Da Qi was formed late in 1130, and the Jin enthroned Liu as its emperor. Daming in Hebei was the first capital of Qi, before its move to Kaifeng, former capital of the Northern Song. The Qi government instituted military conscription , made an attempt at reforming

22225-404: 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

22400-672: The frontier of what was Sinitic, beyond which was considered uncivilized. When a new dynasty gained control of the Central Plain, elements of an outside culture would be added to what had come before. In this way, most Chinese dynasties, not just the Yuan and the Qing, can be regarded as conquest dynasties, even traditionally Sinitic ones such as the Zhou and the Qin . In 2023, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) requested historians make changes to

22575-411: The insurgents were motivated by their anger towards the Jurchens' looting rather than by a sense of loyalty towards the inept Song court. A number of Song commanders, stationed in towns scattered across northern China, retained their allegiance to the Song, and armed volunteers organized militias opposed to the Jurchen military presence. The insurgency hampered the ability of the Jin to exert control over

22750-531: 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. 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

22925-430: The light ships of the Jin fleet. Jin ships were unable to compete because they were smaller and hastily constructed. The bombs launched by the Song contained mixtures of gunpowder, lime, scraps of iron, and a poison that was likely arsenic . Traditional Chinese accounts consider this the turning point of the war, characterizing it as a military upset that secured southern China from the northern invaders. The significance of

23100-523: 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'). The Jurchen ruling class ruled over an estimated 30 million people. Many Jurchens intermarried with Han Chinese, though

23275-415: 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. 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. The government of

23450-515: 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

23625-593: The north that professed loyalist sympathies. These early clashes continued to escalate, partly abetted by revanchist Song officials, and war against the Jin was officially declared on June 14, 1206. The document that announced the war claimed the Jin lost the Mandate of Heaven , a sign that they were unfit to rule, and called for an insurrection of Han Chinese against the Jin state. Jin dynasty (1115%E2%80%931234) The Jin dynasty ( / dʒ ɪ n / , Chinese : 金朝 ; pinyin : Jīn cháo ), officially known as

23800-588: The north. Meanwhile, one Song prince, Zhao Gou, had escaped capture. He had been held up in Cizhou while on a diplomatic mission, and never made it back to Kaifeng. He was not present in the capital when the city fell to the Jurchens. The future Emperor Gaozong managed to evade the Jurchen troops tailing him by moving from one province to the next, traveling across Hebei, Henan , and Shandong . The Jurchens tried to lure him back to Kaifeng where they could finally capture him, but did not succeed. Zhao Gou finally arrived in

23975-451: The northwest and suppressing a large popular rebellion led by Fang La in the south. When a Song army under Tong Guan's command finally attacked Yanjing in May 1122, the smaller forces of the weakened Liao repelled the invaders with ease. Another attack failed in the fall. Both times, Tong was forced to retreat back to Kaifeng. After the first attack, Aguda changed the terms of the agreement and only promised Yanjing and six other prefectures to

24150-486: The number of Jurchen soldiers at the Battle of Caishi with the total number of soldiers under the command of Wanyan Liang. The conflict was not the one-sided battle that traditional accounts imply, and the Song had numerous advantages over the Jin. The Song fleet was larger than the Jin's, and the Jin were unable to use their greatest asset, cavalry, in a naval battle. Government troops using the “sea-eels” sailed straight towards

24325-481: The permanence of the move, he razed the nobles' residences in Huining Prefecture. 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. Wanyan Liang also tried to suppress dissent by killing Jurchen nobles, executing 155 princes. To fulfil his dream of becoming the ruler of all China, Wanyan Liang attacked

24500-436: The position of emperor. Historians have consequently referred to him by his posthumous name "Prince of Hailing". 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 ). Four years later, in 1157, to emphasise

24675-482: 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

24850-521: 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. The Tang described the Mohe as a fierce and uncultured people who used poisoned arrows. The two most powerful groups of Mohe were

25025-404: The regional stature of the Song dynasty. The Southern Song, however, quickly returned to economic prosperity, and trade with Jin was lucrative despite decades of warfare. Lin'an, the Southern Song capital, expanded into a major city for commerce. The Jurchens were a Tungusic-speaking group of semi-agrarian tribes inhabiting areas of northeast Asia that are now part of Northeast China . Many of

25200-464: The river. A modern analysis of the battlefield has shown that it was a minor battle, although the victory did boost Song morale. The Jin lost, but only suffered about 4,000 casualties and the battle was not fatal to the Jurchen war effort. It was Wanyan Liang's poor relationships with the Jurchen generals, who despised him, that doomed the chances of a Jin victory. On December 15, Wanyan Liang was assassinated in his military camp by disaffected officers. He

25375-462: The same method to raise military funds in 1197 and again one year later to raise money to fight famine in the Western Capital. The same practice was used again in 1207 (to fight the Song and more famine) as well as under the reigns of emperors Weishao ( r.   1209–1213) and Xuanzong (r. 1213–1224) to fight the Mongols. Conquest dynasty The term "conquest dynasty" was coined by

25550-411: The seventeen [enemy] boats, and split them up into two groups. The government troops shouted “The government troops have won,” and struck at the men of Jin. The bottoms of the boats of the Jin were as broad as a box and the boats were unstable. Moreover, their men knew nothing about handling boats and were quite helpless. Only five or seven men [on each boat] could use their bows. So they were all killed in

25725-493: The state's resources to failed wars against the Western Xia. The Song insistence on a greater share of Liao territory only succeeded in provoking their Jin allies. Song diplomatic oversights underestimated Jin and allowed the unimpeded rise of Jurchen military power. The state had plentiful resources, with the exception of horses, but managed its assets poorly during battles. Unlike the expansive Han and Tang empires that preceded

25900-429: The tenth century BCE and did not refer to any specific ethnicity. This ambiguity allowed different interchangeable definitions to come into existence later on. Dynasties of ethnic Han origin used " Zhongguo " ( 中國 ; "Middle Kingdom") to refer to Han areas of their empire. Non-Han founders of dynasties used the term to refer to a combined state of Hans and non-Hans. The Ming dynasty used Zhongguo politically to refer to

26075-472: The term and used Zhongguo only to refer to the seventeen provinces of China and three provinces of the east (Manchuria), excluding other frontier areas. Han literati who remained loyal to the Ming dynasty held to defining the old Ming borders as "China" and used the term "foreigner" to describe ethnic minorities under Qing rule, such as the Mongols, as part of their anti-Qing ideology. As the territorial borders of

26250-413: The term for "gold" as the name of his state, itself a translation of "Anchuhu" River, which meant "golden" in Jurchen . This river, known as Alechuka in modern Chinese, is a tributary of the Songhua River east of Harbin . 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

26425-432: The terms of the treaty, the Huai River , north of the Yangtze, was designated as the boundary between the two states. The Song agreed to pay a yearly tribute of 250,000 taels of silver and 250,000 packs of silk to the Jin. The treaty reduced the Southern Song dynasty status to that of a Jin vassal. The document designated the Song as the "insignificant state", while the Jin was recognized as the "superior state". The text of

26600-506: The territories that were held by the Qing dynasty at the time of its demise. The nationalistic concept of the Zhonghua minzu (Chinese nation) also traces its roots to the multiethnic and multicultural nature of the Qing Empire. Former history professor Hugh R. Clark presents another view on the subject. In his formulation, Chineseness centered around the culture of the Central Plain built up over time. Each major Chinese dynasty represented

26775-421: 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. 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

26950-462: The time Wuzhu resumed pursuit, the Song court was fleeing on ships to islands off the coast of Zhejiang , and then further south to Wenzhou . The Jin sent ships to chase after Gaozong, but failed to catch him. They gave up the pursuit and the Jurchens retreated north. After they plundered the undefended cities of Hangzhou and Suzhou , they finally started to face resistance from Song armies led by Yue Fei and Han Shizhong . The latter even inflicted

27125-531: 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

27300-410: The treaty has not survived in Chinese records, a clear sign of its humiliating reputation. The contents of the agreement were recovered from a Jurchen biography. Once the treaty had been settled, the Jurchens retreated north and trade resumed between the two empires. The peace ensured by the Treaty of Shaoxing lasted for the next 70 years, but was interrupted twice. One military campaign was initiated by

27475-542: 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,

27650-415: The war effort. Under Han Tuozhou's supervision, preparations for the war proceeded gradually and cautiously. The court venerated the irredentist hero Yue Fei and Han orchestrated the publishing of historical records that justified war with the Jin. From 1204 onwards, Chinese armed groups raided Jurchen settlements. Han Tuozhou was designated the head of national security in 1205. The Song funded insurgents in

27825-438: The war. The Treaty of Shaoxing (1142) set the boundary of the two empires along the Huai River , but conflicts between the two dynasties continued until the fall of Jin in 1234. A war against the Song begun by the 4th Jin emperor, Wanyan Liang , was unsuccessful. He lost the Battle of Caishi (1161) and was later assassinated by his own disaffected officers. An invasion of Jin territory motivated by Song revanchism (1206–1208)

28000-448: The warrior flowed in Yao’s blood. For three generations, his family served the state loyally and their name was feared among the barbarians. Ever since the defense began, he labored day and night and allowed himself little time to eat and rest. He was the only court official to do this. How ironic that he would meet his tragic end because of it! Qigong, the former emperor Huizong, and members of

28175-412: The western front again from 1132 to 1134. The Jin attacked Hubei and Shaanxi in 1132. Wuzhu captured Heshang Yuan in 1133, but his advance was halted by a defeat at Xianren Pass. He gave up on taking Sichuan, and no more major battles were fought between the Jin and Song for the rest of the decade. The Song court returned to Hangzhou in 1133, and the city was renamed Lin'an. The imperial ancestral temple

28350-438: Was also unsuccessful. Accusing the Song of violating the agreement and realizing the weakness of the Song, the Jin generals launched a second punitive campaign, again dividing their troops into two armies. Wanyan Zonghan, who had withdrawn from Taiyuan after the Kaifeng agreement and left a small force in charge of the siege, came back with his western army. Overwhelmed, Taiyuan fell in September 1126, after 260 days of siege. When

28525-536: Was also unsuccessful. A decade later, Jin launched an abortive military campaign against the Song in 1217 to replace territory they had lost to the invading Mongols . The Song allied with the Mongols in 1233, and in the next year jointly captured Caizhou , the last refuge of the Jin emperor. The Jin dynasty collapsed that year. After the demise of Jin, the Song became a target of the Mongols , and collapsed in 1279. The wars engendered an era of swift technological, cultural, and demographic changes in China. Battles between

28700-555: Was built in Lin'an later that same year, a sign that the court had in practice established Lin'an as the Song capital without a formal declaration. It was treated as a temporary capital. Between 1130 and 1137, the court would sporadically move to Jiankang, and back to Lin'an. There were proposals to make Jiankang the new capital, but Lin'an won out because the court considered it a more secure city. The natural barriers that surrounded Lin'an, including lakes and rice paddies, made it more difficult for

28875-469: 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

29050-584: Was in charge of Shaanxi and Sichuan in the far west, to attack the Jin there to relieve pressure on the court. Zhang put together a large army, but was defeated by Wuzhu near Xi'an in late 1130. Wuzhu advanced further west into Gansu , and drove as far south as Jiezhou ( 階州 , modern Wudu ). The most important battles between Jin and Song in 1131 and 1132 took place in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Sichuan. The Jin lost two battles at Heshang Yuan in 1131. After failing to enter Sichuan, Wuzhu retreated to Yanjing. He returned to

29225-448: Was informed of the military expedition by an envoy he had sent to the Jin to obtain the cession of two prefectures. The returning envoy reported that the Jurchens were willing to forgo an invasion if the Song ceded control of Hebei and Shanxi to the Jin. Tong Guan retreated from Taiyuan and left command of his troops to Wang Bing. Jin armies besieged the city in mid January 1126. Under Wang Bing's command, Taiyuan held on long enough to stop

29400-425: Was known internationally as "China" or the "Chinese Empire" ), and foreign affairs. The "Chinese language" ( Dulimbai gurun i bithe ) included Chinese , Manchu, Mongol , and Tibetan languages, while the "Chinese people" ( 中國之人 ; Zhōngguó zhī rén ; Manchu: Dulimbai gurun i niyalma ) referred to all subjects of the Qing Empire. In the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk , the term "China" ( Dulimbai Gurun ; Zhongguo )

29575-499: Was not part of China and that he should not annex it, putting forth the argument that China was multi-ethnic and did not just refer to Han areas. When the Qing conquered Dzungaria , they proclaimed that the new land which formerly belonged to the Oirat -led Dzungar Khanate was now absorbed into China ( Dulimbai Gurun ) in a Manchu language memorial. The Yongzheng Emperor spoke out against

29750-454: 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

29925-455: 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. Starting from the early 13th century, the Jin dynasty began to feel

30100-525: Was secretly conspiring with Yue Fei. In late 1137, the Jin reduced Liu Yu's title to that of a prince and abolished the state of Qi. The Jin and Song renewed the negotiations towards peace. Gaozong promoted Qin Hui in 1138 and put him in charge of deliberations with the Jin. Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, and a large number of officials at court criticized the peace overtures. Aided by his control of the Censorate , Qin purged his enemies and continued negotiations. In 1138

30275-411: Was succeeded by Emperor Shizong (r. 1161–1189), who had long resented Digunai for driving his wife, Lady Wulinda , to suicide. Shizong was pressured into ending the unpopular war with the Song, and ordered the withdrawal of Jin forces in 1162. Emperor Gaozong retired from the throne that same year. His mishandling of the war with Wanyan Liang was one of many reasons for his abdication. Skirmishes between

30450-482: Was the source of widespread unrest in the empire. Anti-Jin revolts erupted among the Khitans and in Jin provinces bordering the Song. Wanyan Liang did not allow dissent, and opposition to the war was severely punished. The Song had been notified beforehand of Wanyan Liang's plan. They prepared by securing their defenses along the border, mainly near the Yangtze River, but were hampered by Emperor Gaozong's indecisiveness. Gaozong's desire for peace made him averse to provoking

30625-615: Was used to refer to the Qing territories in Manchuria in both the Manchu and Chinese language versions of the treaty. Additionally, the term "the wise Emperor of China " was also used in the Manchu version of the treaty. The Qianlong Emperor rejected the earlier idea that only the Han people could be subjects of China and only Han lands could be considered as part of China. Instead, he redefined China as being multi-ethnic, saying in 1755 that "there exists

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