Emperor Shizong of Jin


Emperor Shizong of Jin, personal name Wulu, sinicised name Wanyan Yong, was the fifth emperor of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty, which ruled northern China between the 12th and 13th centuries. Ruling from 1161 to 1189 under the regnal name "Dading", Emperor Shizong's reign was the longest and most stable among the Jin dynasty emperors.

Early life

Wulu was a grandson of Aguda, the founding emperor of the Jin dynasty. His father was Eliduo, Aguda's third son and a famous general in the early Jin dynasty. As Eliduo died when Wulu was just 12 years old, the latter grew up under the influence of his mother, who had come from a sinicised bohai gentry family from Liaoyang. After her husband's death, Wulu's mother preferred to become a nun instead of remarrying one of her husband's relatives, as was the Jurchen custom. Due to his mother and her relatives, Wulu received a Han Chinese-style education and acquired good knowledge of the Chinese classics.
Wulu is said to have also been greatly influenced by the wife he had before becoming emperor. She was from the Wulinda clan. She advised Wulu to be patient and to pretend to be loyal to his cousin, the emperor Digunai. Digunai admired Lady Wulinda so he summoned her to his inner court in 1151, but she committed suicide. Her death resulted in a deep enmity between Wulu and Digunai.
In 1161, when Digunai invaded the Southern Song dynasty to unify China under the Jin dynasty's rule, he also sent agents to assassinate many of his own relatives and thus to cement his power within the imperial clan. Wulu, who was on the hit list, started a rebellion against the emperor. The rebellion was supported by many Jurchen officers and aristocrats who were dissatisfied with Digunai's policy of cultural sinicisation and administrative centralisation, and the human cost of the emperor's southern adventure. The first military officer to support the rebellion was Wanyan Mouyan. Digunai lost the Battle of Caishi against the Song dynasty and was assassinated by his own disaffected officers. Wulu was able to become the new emperor without having to struggle against Digunai whose title he demoted down to Prince Yang of Hailing.

Reign

Once on the throne, Wulu – who is historically known as Emperor Shizong – abandoned his predecessor's plan for invading the Southern Song dynasty, and abolished his domestic sinicisation policies. Although conversant with Han Chinese culture himself, Emperor Shizong thought that the Jurchens' strength was in maintaining their "simple and sincere", culture, and would often attribute Digunai's defeat to the latter's wholesale abandonment of it. He was not opposed to Chinese culture per se – in fact, he once claimed that the "natural and honest" Jurchen way of life was much like what the ancient Chinese sages taught – but he thought that merely reading the Chinese classics without putting their ideas into practice was counterproductive.
During Emperor Shizong's reign, he confiscated large areas of unused land and land that had been grabbed by a few large Jurchen landowners, and redistributed it to the Jurchen settlers in northern China. Still, many Jurchens preferred not to work their land plots, but lease them to Han Chinese farmers, and engage in heavy drinking instead. The emperor criticised his people for losing their martial spirit and military skills, such as archery and riding. To give an example to his subjects, Emperor Shizong made hunting an annual royal activity in 1162, and until 1188 he went hunting almost every autumn and winter. He also enjoyed archery and ball games.
As part of his promotion of Jurchen culture and the Jurchen language, soon after ascending the throne, Emperor Shizong started a programme of translating Chinese classics into Jurchen. The Jurchen version of the Classic of History was the first to be published; by the end of the Dading era, many other Chinese classics had become available in Jurchen.
Early in his reign, Emperor Shizong chose 3,000 Jurchen men to study the Jurchen language. In 1173, the state started offering jinshi degrees in Jurchen, opened the Jurchen Imperial Academy in the capital and local schools in all the circuits of the empire. It is thought by modern scholars that the purpose of offering the jinshi examinations in Jurchen was more to promote Jurchen scholarship than to recruit more Jurchen for the state service, as most of the Jurchen jinshi degree holders ended up working as teachers of the Jurchen language and of the Chinese classics in Jurchen translation.
Emperor Shizong required that, when dealing with Jurchen speakers, government officials respond in Jurchen. In 1174, even the imperial guards were told to learn Jurchen, and not to speak in Chinese; in 1183, one thousand copies of the Jurchen edition of the Classic of Filial Piety were distributed to them for their edification.
As one of the ways of restoring Jurchen traditions, Emperor Shizong prohibited servants and slaves from wearing silk, and in 1188 he prohibited Jurchens in general from wearing Han Chinese clothes.
Emperor Shizong and his successor, Emperor Zhangzong, were described as believers in both Buddhism and Taoism. In 1187, Emperor Shizong invited Wang Chuyi, a disciple of Wang Chongyang, to preach in his palace. According to some sources, another of Wang Chongyang's disciples, Qiu Chuji, was invited as well. The emperor requested the presence of Wang Chuyi at his deathbed.

Modern evaluation

Modern scholars feel that Emperor Shizong's efforts to maintain and revive the Jurchen language and culture were not particularly efficacious. The language lacked native literature, and his translations of Chinese works into Jurchen were helping to bring Chinese ideas and values into Jurchens' minds. In fact, the emperor himself once said that the Jurchen language was "inferior to Chinese", and could not even match Khitan. Outside of the old Jurchen lands in Manchuria, people did not see the utility of speaking the "dying" and "inferior" language, and Emperor Shizong himself was wondering if his descendants would criticise him for his attempts to force people use it.
Emperor Shizong's attempts to preserve the Jurchens' identity as hunters, too, were conflicting with his drive to improve their livelihood by making them into good farmers. Nonetheless, people generally admired his love of peace, his promotion of learning and care of people's well being; traditionally, his era was called a "miniature of Yao and Shun", referring to the legendary ancient sage kings.

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