Jurchen Jin Dynasty Nüzhēn Jīn Cháo 女真金朝

◀ Junk Comprehensive index starts in volume 5, page 2667.

The Jurchen Jin dynasty was founded in Man- including Kitan tribesmen dissatisfied with their own churia by the chieftain Aguda in 1125. During government, to a Jurchen core. its 109-year reign the Jurchen people combined After a series of raids conducted all along the Liao’s tribal vigor with Chinese-style government, western frontiers, Aguda began attacks that captured the Liao subordinate capitals one by one, sometimes with the struggling all the while to preserve their ethnic help of the Northern Song dynasty (960–1126), the native identities. Although the dynasty was defeated Chinese dynasty occupying the rest of China. Aguda died by the Mongols in 1234, the Jurchen people before completing his conquest of the Liao, but his suc- were able to prosper and survive for several cessor, Wuqimai, or Taizong (1075–1135), not only com- more centuries. pleted the task but also began a massive invasion of the Song, his former ally. The invasion had attempted to make gains in the north as the Liao had collapsed at the expense of the Jurchen Jin. wo groups of Jurchen, a sedentary, Tungus- speaking people living in Manchuria and south- eastern Siberia, existed in the eleventh century. New Dynasty One was a little-assimilated group of “raw” tribespeople living more or less the traditional life. The other was In the decades of war that followed, the Song dynasty was the “cooked” Jurchen, who had interacted closely with nearly destroyed; it was then reorganized as the Southern the Kitan, who, as the rulers of the Liao dynasty (906– Song dynasty (1127–1279) under a collateral branch of the 1125), were the dominant political group at that time old imperial line based in the city of Hangzhou in central in north China, and with the many Chinese ruled by China. Not just the old Liao domains, which had been the Kitan. confined to the northeast, but the entire north came un- The chieftain Aguda (1068–1123) of the Wanyan clan, der Jurchen Jin control. China was divided between two the founder of the Jurchen state, was primarily a ruler of equally powerful regimes, with a third regime, that of the the “raw” Jurchen people, but he had learned how to use Xi Xia state, occupying the northwest. cavalry effectively in warfare from the Kitan. (Horseman- Even as the wars with the Song continued, internecine ship and war on horseback were then not part of Jurchen struggle (conflict within a group) divided the Jurchen Jin native tradition but soon became an important part of elite. The courts of Wuqimai and his successors had ad- Jurchen culture and the real basis of their military power.) opted Chinese forms of government in order to organize Aguda had also learned how to form a state in the cen- its new conquests. Many traditional elements of Jin soci- tral Asian manner by joining heterogeneous elements, ety failed to understand why this was necessary; they felt 1230

Detail of a scroll from the Jurchen Jin dynasty, titled Admonitions of the Instructress to the Palace Ladies, by Gu Kaizhi (c. 344–406). Royal children are groomed by their nannies as their parents look on indulgently. Collection of the British Museum.

that their vested interests were in danger and that they problems with its other tribal groups, principally with the faced absorption by Chinese culture. This conflict was Kitan of the Sino-Mongolian frontier zone. In 1207 most still unresolved at the time of the Mongol invasions, and of the peoples involved revolted, handing what is now In- it was one of the reasons why the Mongols were able to ner Mongolia over to the Mongols, who used it as a base conquer the Jin with relative ease—in part with some of for raiding and expansion. the very same tribal allies that the Jurchen people had The Jurchen Jin, who had once actively intervened in used in their own rise. the steppe and had manipulated events there in its own The Jurchen emperor at the time of the dynasty’s first interests, build fortifications in response to the Mongol Mongol crisis was Zhangzong (1168–1208), a sinicizer. He threat. These proved to be no barrier whatever to the had begun a new war with the Southern Song in 1207 in Mongols, who began a general assault on the Jurchens in which Jurchen cavalry had proven far less effective than in 1211. During the next twenty-three years they conquered the past, indicating a weakening of a native Jurchen tribal Jurchen Jin territory piecemeal. They took the principal base that was having more and more difficulty maintain- capital of Zhongdu in 1215 and consolidated their rule in ing its traditional life, not to speak of the cavalry forces much of the north with a great deal of local help, including sanctioned by Aguda as part of this traditional life. The from Chinese warlords, the Kitan, and even Jurchen allies. reign of Zhangzong also witnessed growing Jurchen Jin Forced to retreat to its domains along the Huang (Yellow)

River, the Jurchen court held out for another nineteen components and who also tried to combine tribal vigor years thanks to Mongol preoccupation elsewhere, prin- with a Chinese style of government. They had even less cipally with a campaign in the west (1218–1223) and the success than the Jurchen in maintaining their ethnic iden- conquest of Xi Xia, and then with an interregnum (the tity during their reign of China, and the once-large Tungus time during which a throne is vacant between two suc- population of Manchuria is all but extinct today. cessive reigns or regimes). Paul D. BUELL

Mongol Assault Further Reading Buell, P. D. (1979). The role of the Sino-Mongolian fron- When the Mongol khan (sovereign) Ogodei (1185–1241) tier zone in the rise of Cinggis-qan. In H. G. Schwarz gathered his resources and refocused Mongol attention on (Ed.), Studies on Mongolia, proceedings of the first North China, the Jurchen Jin dynasty came to a close. Mongols American conference on Mongolian studies (pp. 63–76). assaulted the capital, then at Kaifeng, from several direc- Bellingham, WA: Center for East Asian Studies. tions. The Jurchen Jin court fled south to Caizhou, where Franke, H. H. (1994). The Chin dynasty. In H. Frank & D. it attempted to organize further resistance. Kaifeng fell in Twitchett (Eds.), The Cambridge history of China: Vol. 1233 and Caizhou in February 1234. The last Jurchen Jin 6. Alien regimes and border states, 907–1368 (pp. 215– 320). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. emperor committed suicide. Vorob’yev, M. V. (1975). Chzhurchzheni i gosudarstvo Unlike the Tangut of Xi Xia, who were virtually ex- Tszin’ (X v.-1234g.): Istoricheskiy Ocherk [The Jurchen terminated resisting the Mongols, the Jurchen survived and the state of Jin (10th century to 1243), a historical and prospered when their dynasty ended. The Jurchen had overview]. Moscow: Nauka. their own native scripts, based loosely on Chinese, and Vorob’yev, M. V. (1983). Kultura Chzhurchenzhenei i gosu- these survived into the sixteenth century. Later the same darstva Tszin (Xv-1234g) [Culture of the Jurchen and cultural groups that had given rise to the Jurchen pro- of the state of Jin (10th century to 1234)]. Moscow: duced the Manchu, who had their own “raw” and “cooked” Nauka.

China changes constantly, and 閒談 the Encyclopedia of China will chat change and grow, too. Berk- shire’s authors and editors wel- come questions, comments, and corrections: [email protected].

K ▶

Jurchen Jin Dynasty Nüzhēn Jīn Cháo ​女真金朝

Jurchen Jin Dynasty Nüzhēn Jīn Cháo 女真金朝