Jin dynasty (1115–1234): A Visual History

The Jin dynasty was founded in 1115 by Aguda, chief of the Jurchen tribes of Manchuria, who threw off the Khitan Liao and destroyed it by 1125. Turning on their Song allies, the Jurchen sacked Kaifeng in 1127 and captured the emperor and his court, forcing the Song to the Yangtze. Ruling north China from Beijing (Zhongdu) with about 50 million subjects, the Jin gradually Sinicised. Genghis Khan invaded in 1211, took Zhongdu in 1215, and his son Ogedei's forces, with Song help, ended the dynasty at Caizhou in 1234.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Jin dynasty (1115-1234). The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Jin territory

Timeline of the Jin dynasty (1115-1234)

1. 1115
   Jin dynasty proclaimed
2. 1125
   Liao destroyed
3. 1127
   Kaifeng sackedTwo Song emperors captured.
4. 1141
   Treaty of ShaoxingThe Huai River border.
5. 1153
   Capital moved to Zhongdu (Beijing)
6. 1211
   Genghis Khan invades
7. 1215
   Zhongdu falls
8. 1234
   Caizhou fallsThe Jin ends.

Aguda's revolt

The Jurchen were forest and river peoples of Manchuria, hunters, farmers and horse breeders under Liao overlordship. Aguda refused to dance at a Liao banquet, rebelled in 1114 and won victories with a small but ferocious cavalry force. He proclaimed the Jin (gold) dynasty in 1115 and, in alliance with the Song, destroyed the Liao by 1125.

Conquest of the north

Contemptuous of the Song army's weakness, the Jin invaded in 1125 and in January 1127 took Kaifeng, carrying off Emperors Huizong and Qinzong. Song resistance under Yue Fei stopped them at the Yangtze; the treaty of 1141 fixed the border at the Huai River and made the Song a tributary. Emperor Shizong (1161-1189) presided over prosperity, and the Jin adopted Chinese administration while trying to preserve Jurchen martial culture and language.

The Mongols

Genghis Khan, whose ancestors had suffered from Jin policy of setting steppe tribes against each other, invaded in 1211 and won at Yehuling. Zhongdu fell in 1215 and the Jin retreated to Kaifeng. After Genghis's death, Ogedei and Tolui invaded again, Kaifeng fell in 1233 and the last emperor died at Caizhou in 1234 as Mongol and Song armies stormed it. Jurchen descendants, the Manchus, would take China four centuries later.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Liao dynasty (916 to 1125)
• Northern Song dynasty (960 to 1127)
• Southern Song dynasty (1127 to 1279)
• Western Xia (1038 to 1227)
• Mongol Empire (1206 to 1368)
• Qing dynasty (1636 to 1912)
• Yuan dynasty (1271 to 1368)

Wars of the same era and region

• Mongol invasions and conquests (1206 to 1368)
• Fang La rebellion (1120 to 1121)
• Song-Dai Viet War (1075 to 1077)

8 surprising things about the Jin dynasty (1115-1234)

1. Aguda's revolt began when he refused a Liao emperor's order to dance at a banquet.
2. The Jurchen sack of Kaifeng, the Jingkang incident, is remembered in China as one of history's great humiliations.
3. The Jin were the first dynasty to make Beijing a principal capital, in 1153.
4. The Jurchen script created in 1119 is now readable only in part.
5. The Jin issued paper money that inflated massively during the Mongol wars.
6. The Jin invented or perfected early gunpowder weapons including the 'thunder crash bomb', used against the Mongols in 1232.
7. The Manchus who founded the Qing in 1636 first named their state 'Later Jin' in homage to this dynasty.
8. The famous Song general Yue Fei, who fought the Jin, was executed by his own government on a trumped-up charge in 1142.

Sources

• Jin dynasty (1115-1234) Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Jin dynasty (1115-1234) Wikipedia
• Jin Dynasty World History Encyclopedia
• Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett (eds), The Cambridge History of China, vol. 6 (1994) Cambridge University Press

Back to all empires and wars