The Jin empire of Zhangzong

Who rules

Name

Zhangzong, Wanyan Jing (Jurchen name Madage)

Title

Emperor (huangdi) of the Great Jin; reign era Cheng'an (from 1196)

Since

January 1189, on the death of his grandfather Shizong (English Wikipedia gives 20 January 1189; the Chinese date was not checked)

Born

1168, so about 31 on 1 January 1200

Family

Wanyan clan. Grandson of Shizong; son of the Crown Prince Yungong (Xianzong, 1146-1185) and of Lady Tudan (posthumously Empress Xiaoyi, 1147-1191), whom the Zhangzong page names as his mother. Older half-brother Wudubu (b. 1163) and four other half-brothers are alive.

Confidence

high

Reign, eras, consorts, children and the later succession (dated in the likely course) from the English Wikipedia articles on Zhangzong, Shizong, Yungong, Empress Qinhuai and Yongji, which rest on the Jinshi's Benji, Houfei zhuan and Zongshi lists. The Jinshi's own Benji for Cheng'an 3 to 5 (juan 11 and 12) could not be opened in this session, so no appointment of that winter is quoted from it.

Overlord

none. The Jin takes yearly payment from the Song, homage from Xia (since 1124) and from Goryeo (since 1126), and gives titles to steppe chiefs.

What the realm holds

• Five capitals: Shangjing (Huining fu, the old homeland), Dongjing (Liaoyang), Beijing (Dading fu), Xijing (Datong) and Zhongdu (Daxing fu, the working capital since 1153); Nanjing (Kaifeng) is the southern seat, the old Song capital (drawn by ncn)
• Nineteen circuits (lu) as the Jinshi's Dili zhi lists them: Shangjing, Xianping, Dongjing, Beijing, Xijing, Zhongdu, Hebei East, Hebei West, Daming, Shandong East, Shandong West, Nanjing, Hedong North, Hedong South, Jingzhao, Fengxiang, Fuyan, Qingyuan and Lintao (a Taihe-era list: small changes of seat and rank under Shizong and Zhangzong are not pinned for 1 January 1200)
• About 180 prefectures (zhou, fu, jun) and their counties (xian)
• The Huai frontier with the Song and its licensed markets (quanchang), the Dasan pass in the Qinling
• The steppe edge: boundary trenches (jieyuan, 'the Jin Great Wall') and forts from the Khingan to the Yin Shan, the pacification commissions and the Ongud wardens
• Vassals and tributaries: Western Xia, Goryeo; the Song as yearly payer; steppe chiefs holding Jin titles since 1196 (as we recall Toghrul's is Wang and Temujin's a lesser one; the English page names neither)

How it was acquired

The Wanyan chiefs of the Anchuhu river rose under Aguda (emperor 1115), destroyed the Liao by 1125, took Kaifeng in 1126-27, fixed the Huai line with the Song at Shaoxing (1141-42), moved the court from Shangjing to Yanjing, renamed Zhongdu, in 1153 under Wanyan Liang, lost the 1161 war and the fleet at sea, and settled with the Song at the Treaty of Longxing in 1165 under Shizong. Zhangzong came to the throne in January 1189 because the Crown Prince Yungong had died in 1185.

Allies and rivals

Song: yearly payment of silver and silk since 1142, renamed from tribute to payment in 1165; Song embassies travel to Zhongdu twice a year (English Wikipedia), and Han Tuozhou is the Song minister to watch; whether the war talk has begun by 1 January 1200 is not pinned (the Song's declaration of war is a later event: see the likely course). Western Xia: a vassal since 1124, at peace. Goryeo: a vassal since 1126, at peace; the Yalu and Tumen frontier is ncm's.

Steppe: the Tatars declared independence in 1190, quarrelled with the Jin over the loot of the Khongirad war of 1195, and were beaten in 1196 by the Jin with Kereyit and Mongol help; a Tatar leader submitted again in 1198. The Khongirad (Onggirat) struck deep into Jin territory on 4 February 1196 and defeated a Jin detachment (English Wikipedia; it does not say they were punished). Toghrul and Temujin were given Jin titles in 1196.

Qara Khitai and Khwarazm are too far to matter yet.

The realm that morning

Peace on every border, as far as any source we opened shows. In the last lunar month of Cheng'an 4 (about day 14 on 1 January 1200 by our computation) the court is probably at Zhongdu. The northern campaigns of 1195 to 1198 are over and the border works are being finished. The Yellow River has been out of its old bed since the Yangwu breach of 1194, which formed two new courses (English Wikipedia, Jin dynasty); the main water runs south-east to the Huai, and a northern arm is probable but not pinned.

Relief, repair and the displaced of Henan and Shandong are the state's chief domestic burden. The Quanzhen ban of the winter of 1191 (English Wikipedia, Qiu Chuji) may or may not still be on the books; we could not date its end, and the order has its houses on the peninsula (the Taixu guan at Qixia was built in the winter of 1191). The emperor has had five sons and all are dead; the question who follows him is open and nobody yet dares say so.

Wealth

Grain and cloth taxes on the Chinese counties (the summer and autumn assessments), a property-rating tax (wuli qian), monopolies on salt (Cangzhou, Baodi, Shandong, Hedong, Liaodong), liquor and iron, tea from the Song, and trade at the licensed frontier markets with the Song and Xia: all general knowledge of the Jin, not checked here. Paper money (jiaochao), first issued in 1154 as we recall, and the trouble of keeping it at par are, as we recall, the great fiscal theme of the dynasty. The Cheng'an baohuo silver ingots (from about 1197) are recalled, not checked, and we could not date any withdrawal; none of the English Wikipedia pages we opened mentions the Jin currency under Zhangzong.

The Jin page (its Zhangzong section) says, without a year, that to raise funds the government confiscated land from Han owners accused of tax evasion and gave it to reliable Jurchens, which caused friction.

Military

The core is Jurchen cavalry in hereditary meng'an (battalions) and mouke (companies) households settled on land in colonies across the north; Khitan, Xi and Bohai units in their own meng'an; Chinese infantry and garrisons raised from the counties; the emperor's own guard (huwei) and the Imperial Guard Army at Zhongdu. The Privy Council (Shumi yuan) commands; a commander-in-chief (duyuanshuai) is named for a campaign. Horses come from the state pastures of the north (Fuzhou and Xijing).

Fortresses and the boundary trench line the steppe edge; the Ongud are the wardens. The navy is small and was destroyed at sea by the Song in 1161. No troop numbers are quoted here: English Wikipedia's military page gives a standing army of about half a million about 1195, which we could not check and do not repeat as a fact.

Threats

• The Yellow River: refugees, lost harvests and unrest in Henan, Shandong and the Huai strip after 1194
• Jurchen poverty: households that sell their land or daughters and lease to Han tenants, and a land survey that angers Han owners
• The steppe: Tatars, Khongirad and the rising Mongols and Kereyit beyond a trench the Ongud may not hold
• A Song court that may turn revanchist (Han Tuozhou is the minister to watch), unable to move yet
• The succession: no living son, a favourite whose kin hold or will hold posts, and uncles and half-brothers with claims

Court

Emperor Zhangzong at Zhongdu. No empress (the first wife, of the Pucha clan, d. about 1186-89, was made Empress Qinhuai posthumously; the English pages tell, with no year, that the ministers fervently opposed raising Li Shi'er to empress and that she was made Consort Yuan; whether that has begun by 1 January 1200 is not pinned). Senior men of the 1190s: Tushan Yi and Wanyan Xiang (named by the regional brief), Wanyan Anguo (named by the Rise of Genghis Khan page as vanguard commander) and, from our recollection only, Jiagu Qingchen; their offices on 1 January 1200 are not pinned (see the lord records for the Department of State Affairs, the Privy Council and the Censorate).

Household

Consorts: Li Shi'er (First Consort, Yuanfei, in the Jinshi; her style on 1 January 1200 is not pinned), a Zhaoyi of the Jiagu clan, Furen Ziming of the Lin clan, Chengyu of the Jia clan, Chengyu of the Fan clan. Children (English Wikipedia from the Jinshi): Hongyu (1186-25 October 1188), Hongjing (1192-93), Hongxi (1192-93), Hongyan (1193), Honghui (3 June to 28 November 1197): all dead before 1200. A third daughter, the Princess of Shun, is named without a date.

No empress dowager is alive: Empress Xiaoyi died in 1191 and Shizong's empresses long before.

Administration

The Department of State Affairs (Shangshu sheng) is the single civil executive since 1156, with Left and Right Chancellors, two Managers of Affairs (pingzhang zhengshi), Left and Right Vice Directors and two Participants (canzhi zhengshi) over the six boards (Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Justice, Works). The Privy Council runs the army; the Censorate watches officials. Each circuit is a bundle of commissions (military commandery, fiscal transport, surveillance) not a single governor.

Counties are taxed by the book; the Jurchen units answer to their own officers.

Calendar

1 January 1200 (Julian) falls in the 12th month of Cheng'an 4, about the 14th day. Computed from astronomical new moons at Zhongdu's meridian (Meeus's algorithm, delta-T about 400 s; the Jin's Daming calendar may differ by a day): month 11 began 20 November 1199, month 12 began 19 December 1199, and Cheng'an 5 begins on 18 January 1200 Julian (about 25 January in the proleptic Gregorian calendar). The winter solstice fell about 15 December 1199.

Foreign policy

Keep the Song paying and quiet; keep Xia and Goryeo loyal with titles and markets; keep the steppe divided (the Tatars against the Khongirad, the Kereyit and Mongols against the Tatars); build the trench and let the Ongud watch it. A policy of buying and dividing that works only while someone is strong enough to punish.

Wars feuds truces

In force on 1 January 1200: the peace with the Song (Longxing, 1165; high confidence); Xia and Goryeo vassalage at peace (high); no Jin field army in the steppe (fair: the campaigns of 1195-98 ended, and the Tatar Zuxu is reported to have submitted again in 1198); any Khitan unrest in Liaoxi belongs to the Manchuria researcher (ncm) and we found none in our area; the Quanzhen edict of the winter of 1191 may still stand, but its standing in 1200 is not pinned (low); a possible court quarrel over the favourite's kin and the empress's chair (low: the English pages date none of it, and 'in his later years' may mean after 1200).

Religion

Buddhism and Daoism under state registers and imperial patronage (the Daoist canon was printed at Zhongdu in the Mingchang years; the Buddhist canon at Zhaocheng is ncw's); Confucian temples in every prefecture and county (English Wikipedia); the Quanzhen order established in Shandong, with the ban of 1191 of unknown standing; Muslim and Nestorian communities in Zhongdu; the Kong family at Qufu with the title Duke Yansheng.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 18 January 1200 (Julian)Cheng'an 5 begins at the lunar new year; the court receives the New Year embassies including the Song's.Depends on: The Jin's own calendar; our computation may be a day out. Stopped by: Nothing; only the exact day is in doubt.
2. 1200, spring to autumnOn the steppe Temujin and Toghrul fight the Taichiud and then a coalition of Tatar, Khongirad and others (English Wikipedia, Rise of Genghis Khan); the Jin does not intervene.Depends on: The steppe war staying beyond the trench. Stopped by: A Tatar or Khongirad raid across the trench, or a Jin decision to punish.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201Era name Taihe begins; the Taihe code is drawn up in the following years.Depends on: Court stability. Stopped by: A palace crisis or the emperor's death.
2. 1202-1203A sixth son, Telin, is born and dies (1202-03); Liu Chuxuan, head of Quanzhen, dies in 1203 and Qiu Chuji succeeds him.Depends on: Natural events. Stopped by: Birth or death falling otherwise.
3. 1204 to mid-June 1206 (14 or 20 June; the English pages differ)Song armed groups begin raids on the Jin border in 1204; the Song declares war on the Jin in June 1206 (Kaixi northern expedition), taking Sizhou and losing in Hebei; the Jin besiege Chuzhou.Depends on: Han Tuozhou keeping power at Lin'an and the Jin being seen as weak. Stopped by: Han Tuozhou's fall or a Jin show of strength on the Huai.
4. 29 December 1208Zhangzong dies without a son; his uncle Wanyan Yongji, Prince of Wei, succeeds.Depends on: No son surviving him and the court choosing an uncle over his half-brothers. Stopped by: A living heir, or a different choice by the ministers.
5. 1211 to 1215The Mongols break the tribute relation (1210), invade (1211), the court leaves Zhongdu for Kaifeng in 1214 and Zhongdu falls in 1215.Depends on: The rise of Temujin as Chinggis Khan (1206) and the Jin's loss of the Ongud and Khitan. Stopped by: A Jin victory or a steppe collapse after 1206.

Places of note

• Zhongdu (Daxing fu): The Central Capital and working capital of the empire since 1153.
• Nanjing (Kaifeng): The southern seat; ncn writes it.
• Xijing (Datong): The western capital; ncw writes it.
• Dongjing (Liaoyang): The eastern capital; ncm writes it.
• Beijing (Dading fu): The northern capital in Liaoxi; ncm writes it.
• Shangjing (Huining fu): The old Supreme Capital in the homeland; ncm writes it.

Where the sources disagree

• The regional brief says Cheng'an 5 begins around late January or early February 1200. Our computation gives 18 January 1200 Julian, which is about 25 January in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.
• The regional brief calls the Tatars, Onggirat and Ongud 'the Jin's wardens or allies'. On the English pages we opened only the Ongud are wardens (posted to watch the walls). The Tatars declared independence in 1190, were beaten in 1196 and a Tatar leader submitted again in 1198; the Khongirad (Onggirat) were attacked by the Jin with Tatar help in 1195 and then defeated a Jin detachment on 4 February 1196. Treat neither the Tatars nor the Onggirat as a Jin ally on 1 January 1200.
• The campaign board's Jin blurb calls the year 'the era Cheng'an in its fifth' and 'twelfth year on the throne'. On 1 January 1200 the era is still in its fourth year (the fifth begins on 18 January Julian by our computation), and Zhangzong, who succeeded in January 1189, is in his eleventh year by complete years (the twelfth if 1189 is counted as the first).
• The campaign board's note for the Jin says the Song treaty silver 'comes each spring'. No source we opened gives a spring date; English Wikipedia says Song ambassadors travelled to Zhongdu twice a year.
• The campaign board calls the Tatar wars of the 1190s 'won for the moment'. English Wikipedia: the Tatars declared independence in 1190, were beaten in 1196, and a Tatar leader submitted again in 1198; the Khongirad beat a Jin detachment on 4 February 1196.
• English Wikipedia's Beihai Park and History of Beijing pages credit Zhangzong with building Taiye lake and the Daning palace in 1179; 1179 is Shizong's time (Dading 19), not Zhangzong's.
• The brief asks for an empress dowager: none is alive on 1 January 1200 by the English Wikipedia dates (Empress Xiaoyi d. 1191).

Evidence: The reign, family and succession are well attested in secondary sources we opened. The Jinshi's text (Wikisource, ctext) was not reachable in this session, so chancellors' offices on 1 January 1200, the dates of the currency measures and the Quanzhen ban are given from memory with confidence marked.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: The Jin ground is not one outline. The atlas gives every unit of this map to the realm whose seats, towns, circuits and frontier posts are nearest by travel over the terrain, and these records are the starting points: the Heartland researcher's own rough polygon (the plain from the Taihang foothills to the Bohai and the Shandong peninsula, and from the Yan mountains to the Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu border), the circuits and prefectures of all four researchers, and the frontier posts they marked as firm. The edges against the Song, the Xia, the steppe, Korea and the forest peoples are therefore the atlas's own drawing and are firm only where a researcher fixed a post.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
• Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
• Essentials of the History of Goryeo, Kim Jong-seo (金宗瑞) and the Joseon history office (1452). The chronological companion to the Goryeosa, finished a year after it and drawing on the same lost records, sometimes with entries the Goryeosa omits. Read online
• Outline and Details of Two Reigns (thirteenth century, after 1224). A Song outline-and-detail chronicle of exactly the two reigns around 1200, drawn from the court's daily records. Read online
• Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
• The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
• History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
• Record of the Great Jin State, Attributed to Yuwen Maozhao (宇文懋昭); the attribution is doubtful (preface dated 1234; probably assembled in the Southern Song from Song and Jin material, with later accretions). A Song-side history of the Jin, with annals for each emperor and chapters on institutions, customs, the capitals and the Jurchen way of life. Read online
• Compendium of Chronicles: the Turkic and Mongol tribes and the life of Chinggis Khan, Rashid al-Din Hamadani (about 1300 to 1311, in the Ilkhanate). The fullest description of who held what on the steppe around 1200, written a century later from Mongol court records (the Altan Debter) and from informants such as Bolad Chingsang. Read online
• History of Goryeo, Jeong Inji (鄭麟趾), Kim Jong-seo (金宗瑞) and the Joseon history office (completed 1451, from the Goryeo veritable records and earlier drafts). The official history of Goryeo, compiled by the Joseon state from the lost Goryeo veritable records. Read online
• History of the Liao, chapter 30, on the Western Liao, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1344). The only Chinese official notice of the Qara Khitai, a few pages at the end of juan 30. Read online
• History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. Read online

10 more in the sources library for North China and Manchuria.