Jurchen Jin Dynasty

The Jin dynasty (Great Jin) was a Jurchen-led imperial dynasty ruled by the Wanyan clan, founded on 28 January 1115 by the tribal chieftain Wanyan Aguda (Emperor Taizu), who unified the Jurchen tribes of Manchuria and rebelled against their Khitan overlords.

The Jin rapidly overthrew the Liao dynasty by 1125, then turned on its former ally the Northern Song. In the Jingkang Incident of 1126-1127, Jin armies besieged and sacked the Song capital Bianjing (Kaifeng), capturing Emperor Qinzong and the retired Emperor Huizong along with thousands of the imperial court, ending the Northern Song. Surviving Song loyalists fled south to establish the Southern Song under Emperor Gaozong, and the Jin-Song border stabilised along the Qinling-Huai River line after the 1142 Treaty of Shaoxing. At its height around 1186 the Jin controlled roughly 4.75 million square kilometres and a population near 53 million, ruling all of northern China from successive capitals at Huiningfu, Zhongdu (modern Beijing), and later Kaifeng. The dynasty increasingly adopted Chinese administrative and cultural practices while attempting to preserve Jurchen identity. Weakened by Mongol invasions that began in 1211, the Jin collapsed in 1234 when the Mongols, allied with the Southern Song, overran its last refuge at Caizhou, ending Jurchen rule over China.