Jingkang incident
The Jingkang Incident, also known as the Humiliation of Jingkang and the Disorders of the Jingkang Period took place in 1127 during the Jin–Song Wars when the forces of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty besieged and sacked Bianjing, the capital of the Han Chinese-led Song dynasty. The Jin forces captured the Song ruler, Emperor Qinzong, along with his father, Emperor Huizong, and many members of the imperial family and officials of the Song imperial court.
This event marked the end of the era known as the Northern Song dynasty, when the Song dynasty controlled most of China. Some members of the Song imperial family, most notably Zhao Gou, managed to escape to southern China, where they reestablished the Song dynasty in the new capital, Lin'an. This event also greatly contributed to the return of the descendants of Emperor Taizu to the line of succession, as most of Emperor Taizong's descendants were abducted; Emperor Gaozong himself failed to produce an heir as well.
This event was referred to as the "Jingkang Incident" because it took place during the Jingkang era of the reign of Emperor Qinzong; "Jingkang" was the era name of Emperor Qinzong's reign.
Background
In 1120, under the Alliance Conducted at Sea, the Jin and Song dynasties agreed to form a military alliance against the Liao dynasty and, if victorious, divide up the Liao territories. The Jin would get a large portion of the northern land and the Song would get a smaller portion in the southern region called the Sixteen Prefectures.The Jin army sacked the Liao capital of Shangjing and ended the Liao dynasty. The Song army in the south, however, could not even penetrate the Liao's defensive positions and the army was defeated by the remaining Liao troops afterwards. This exposed the limitations of the Song army as well as the corruption and inefficiency in the Song imperial court. In the end, the Jin took control of all former Liao territories.
After the fall of the Liao dynasty, the Song dynasty wanted the Sixteen Prefectures as promised. The Jin dynasty sold the land at a price of 300,000 bolts of silk and 200,000 ounces of silver. This price was considered to be extremely generous because it was the tribute that the Song was previously paying to the Liao annually since the Chanyuan Treaty of 1005.
Prelude to the war
According to the Twenty-Four Histories, in 1123, three years after the fall of Liao, a Jin general Zhang Jue defected to the Song dynasty. Since he was governor of the Jin-controlled Pingzhou Prefecture, an area just north of the Sixteen Prefectures on the other side of the Great Wall, Pingzhou Prefecture was also merged into Song territory. The Song imperial court initially welcomed the defection and awarded Zhang Jue an honorific title and land. The Jin dynasty, on the other hand, sent a small army aimed to overturn the defection but was defeated by Zhang Jue's troops.Shortly thereafter, the Song imperial court realized that Zhang Jue's defection would only result in hostility from the north. Zhang Jue was executed in the winter of 1123. This came too late: in the fall of 1125, Emperor Taizong of the Jin dynasty issued an order to launch a full-scale attack on Song territories.
First Siege of Bianjing
The Jin armies invaded Song territory from the west and from the north. The Jin northern army advanced quickly, sacking Qinhuangdao in October 1125, followed Baoding, Dingzhou, Zhengding and Xingtai in January 1126. This army, commanded by Wolibu, did not meet much resistance as most of the Song generals surrendered themselves and their cities as soon as the Jin army arrived. On the other hand, the Jin western army, commanded by Nianhan, was held up near the cities of Datong and Taiyuan from the very beginning and did not make much progress for the rest of the war. In February 1126, the Jin northern army crossed the Yellow River and began the siege of Bianjing, the Song capital. Before the invaders surrounded the city, Emperor Huizong had abdicated in favor of his eldest son, Emperor Qinzong, and fled to the countryside with his entourage. The Jin northern army faced difficult siege fighting that was not well-suited for cavalry. At the same time, the Jin western army was still held up in the Datong area and could not come to the aid of the northern army. In an effort to end the battle sooner, Emperor Qinzong sent his ninth brother, Zhao Gou to the enemy camp for peace talks. The Jin emperor, Emperor Taizong, ordered Zhao Gou taken hostage until the Song imperial court came up with a ransom. Eventually, the Song imperial court came forth with the ransom and the city of Taiyuan was also given to Jin as a gift in good faith. Zhao Gou was released and the Jin northern army started to withdraw.Second Siege of Bianjing
Everything went back to normal as soon as the Jin forces retreated. Lavish parties continued to be held daily at the imperial palace. Emperor Huizong returned to Bianjing from the countryside. Song generals suggested that large numbers of troops ought to be garrisoned along the border of the Yellow River. Emperor Qinzong rejected the proposal by citing that the Jin forces might never come back. Many experienced generals who defended the city in the first siege of Bianjing were removed from the capital and posted elsewhere in the country. Many army groups were decommissioned or sent back to their prefectures of origin.Three months after the first siege of the city, the Jin imperial court sent two ambassadors to Song. The two ambassadors were nobles from the former Liao dynasty. Emperor Qinzong misjudged the situation and believed that they could be turned against the Jin ruler, Emperor Taizong. Emperor Qinzong sent a coded letter which was sealed in candle wax, inviting them to join Song to form an anti–Jin alliance. The two handed the letter to Emperor Taizong right away. Furious, Emperor Taizong ordered an even bigger army to attack Song. This second campaign would eventually topple the Northern Song dynasty.
Since most of the Jin troops had just returned from their first expedition and had not even demobilized, the army was quickly remobilized. Following precedents set in the previous campaign, the Jin army divided into two groups, Wolibu's northern army and Nianhan's western army, even daring to take the same routes again.
In September 1126, the two Jin army groups set foot in Song territory. Unlike the previous battle, however, the western army was able to sack Datong within only one month. Cities like Luoyang and Zhengzhou surrendered themselves, clearing the way to Bianjing. The northern army, having sacked Baoding, Dingzhou and Zhengding in September, regrouped and crossed the Yellow River in November. It then went on a rampage and sacked Qingfeng, Puyang and other satellite cities around Bianjing in December. By the middle of December, the two forces regrouped at Bianjing and the capital was finally besieged.
Unlike the first siege, Bianjing's defenses in the second siege had some fatal flaws:
- Due to the lack of experienced generals and personnel, the whole defense process was unorganized.
- The Jin army was much bigger than the last time. Emperor Taizong sent a 150,000 strong force, having learnt from the first siege, when the western army was held up in Datong and could not advance on Bianjing. This time, however, Datong was sacked within a month, and the full strength of the western army was under the city walls.
- Although Emperor Qinzong called for help and many responded, the rapid deployment of Jin troops made it impossible to aid the city. Song troops from all over the country, including Zhao Gou's troops came to Bianjing but were not able to get into the city.
- Emperor Qinzong's trust in a minister who claimed he could summon "divine soldiers" from Heaven to the battleground was misplaced, causing much wasted time and human lives.
In exchange for the Jin soldiers sparing Kaifeng's ordinary civilian population, the people of Kaifeng gave them wine, meat, silk and gold. Song officials turned over wine, wine makers, painters, weapons, horses, gold, silver and plain silk bolts after the Jin demanded them. Gold and silver were given to the Jin in exchange for Jin soldiers sparing the Kaifeng's people from looting, as well as Buddhist and Daoist books, printing blocks, silk bolts, silk thread pharmacy pills, parasols, ox carts, old nronze vessels, Buddhist monks, professors, storytellers, painters, clerks, jade carvers,
gardeners, masons, weapons makers, astronomers, musicians, physicians diagrams, maps, headgear worn by consorts, musical instruments, bells and shop, temple and palace lanterns.
Abduction
On 20 March 1127, Jin troops summoned the two captured emperors to their camps. Awaiting them was a directive from Emperor Taizong that they were to be demoted to commoners, stripped of their ceremonial trappings and Jin troops would compound the imperial palace.According to The Accounts of Jingkang, Jin troops looted the entire imperial library and the decorations in the palace. Jin troops also abducted all the female servants and imperial musicians. The imperial family was abducted and their residences were looted. All the female prisoners were ordered, on pain of death, to serve the Jin aristocrats no matter what rank in society they had previously held. A Jin prince wanted to marry Emperor Huizong's daughter, Zhao Fujin, who had been another man's wife. Later on, the emperor's concubines were also given to the prince by Emperor Taizong. To avoid captivity and slavery under the Jurchens, many palace women committed suicide.
Emperor Taizong feared that the remaining Song troops would launch a counter-offensive to reclaim the capital. Therefore, he set up in Bianjing a puppet government for the lands south of the Yellow River, called Chu, and ordered all the assets and prisoners to be taken back to the Jin capital – Shangjing. The captives marched to the Jin capital along with the assets. Over 14,000 people, including the Song imperial family, went on this journey. Their entourage — almost all the ministers and generals of the Northern Song dynasty — suffered from illness, dehydration and exhaustion, and many never made it. Upon arrival, each person had to go through a ritual where the person has to be naked and wearing only sheep skins. Contrary to what was previously thought, the ceremony was drawn from ancient Han Chinese customs, drawn together by Jin experts on China rather than a Jurchen ritual. Empress Zhu committed suicide because she could not bear the humiliation. Men were sold into slavery in exchange for horses with a ratio of ten men for one horse. Women, especially former Song princesses, became palace slaves in a part of the Jin palace called the laundry hall and others were taken as slaves by Jin princes and others. Some Song princesses became Jin princes' concubines. Someone bought an "ex–royal" for less than ten ounces of gold.
The Song male Chinese princes who were captured were given Khitan women to marry from the Liao dynasty palace by the Jin Jurchens, who had also defeated and conquered the Khitan. The original Chinese wives of the Song princes were confiscated and replaced with Khitan ones. One of the Song Emperor Huizong's sons was given a Khitan consort from the Liao palace and another one of his sons was given a Khitan princess by the Jin at the Jin Supreme capital. The Jin Jurchens continued to give new wives to the captured Song royals, the grandsons and sons of Song Emperor Huizong after they took away their original Chinese wives. The Jin Jurchens told the Chinese Song royals that they were fortunate because the Liao Khitan royals were being treated much worse by the Jurchen than the Song Chinese royals, Jurchen soldiers were given the children of the Liao Khitan Tianzuo Emperor as gifts while the Song Emperor was allowed to keep his children while he was in captivity. The Jurchens had sacked and destroyed the Khitan Liao supreme capital and burned the ancestral tombs of the Liao Emperors. Emperor Qinzong of Song would spend the rest of his life in Liao captivity, although his status was eventually raised to nobility and he began to receive a stipend. In 1156, as a humiliation for both men, the former Emperor Qinzong of Song and the former Emperor Tianzuo of Liao were forced by the Jin Emperor to play a match of polo against each other. Quizong was weak and frail, and so fell off his horse, while Tianzuo, even though he was quite old himself, was more familiar with horse-riding and tried to escape on his horse, but was shot and killed by Jurchen archers. Khitan Liao royal princesses from the Yelü family and Xiao family were also distributed to Jurchen Jin princes as concubine. Jurchen Prince Wanyan Liang married the Khitan women Lady Xiao, Consort Chen Lady Yelü, Consort Li Lady Yelü, Consort Rou and Lady Yelü, Zhaoyuan. Before the Jurchens overthrew the Khitan, married Jurchen women and Jurchen girls were raped by Liao Khitan envoys as a custom which caused resentment by the Jurchens against the Khitan. Song princesses committed suicide to avoid rape or were killed for resisting rape by the Jin.
Aftermath and appraisal
- The scale of destruction and devastation was unprecedented: treasures, art collections, scrolls from the imperial library and human lives were lost on a scale that the Chinese had never seen before. Due to the heavy damage to the country's economy and military, and the loss of talented manpower, the Southern Song dynasty did not recover the lost territories, despite constant fighting between the Song and Jin, the territory was ruled by non-Han Chinese emperors. It would take another 200 years, until the Ming dynasty, to claim back all the territories that the Song dynasty lost.
- Many foreign-sounding, non-traditional Chinese family names existing in China today can date back to this incident, as the Han Chinese captives were forced to adapt Jurchen family names. In fact, many members of the imperial family of the Qing dynasty had the surname "Gioro" ; it is believed that they were the descendants of Emperor Huizong and Emperor Qinzong.
- This invasion, combined with the later Mongol rule, were speculated to have caused China's advance into capitalism to fall behind by several centuries; although the Ming dynasty later restored the old order, the results of their own fall to the Manchus was to stagnate China once more. This view is supported by the fact that the Song economy had been advanced, and exhibited many features of capitalism. According to this view, the Jingkang Incident holds historic significance in regard to late imperial China's decline.
- Researchers in China who published their findings in the People's Political Consultative Daily in 2001, pointed out that this incident led to the transformation of women's rights after the Song dynasty. Since the members of the imperial family who were captured were sold as slaves or concubines, Chinese rulers after the Song dynasty greatly emphasized the importance of sexual norms, especially a woman's chastity and loyalty towards her husband. Chinese rulers of later dynasties instructed that when a woman is confronted between the choice of survival or the honor of chastity, survival is not an option.
In popular culture
- This incident was referred to as the "Lingering Humiliation of Jingkang" in Man Jiang Hong, a lyrical poem commonly attributed to the Song dynasty general Yue Fei, but was actually written by an anonymous poet in the Ming dynasty.
- In The Legend of the Condor Heroes, a wuxia novel by Louis Cha, this national humiliation inspired the Quanzhen Taoist Qiu Chuji to name the two main characters, Guo Jing and Yang Kang, who were born soon afterwards in the storyline.
- In Bandit Kings of Ancient China, a video game by Koei, failure to win the game before 1127 results in the Jurchens occupying the entire China in January 1127, ending the game.
- Guy Gavriel Kay liberally fictionalized the incident in River of Stars, an alternate historical fiction novel for adults. Kay uses alternate names for historic places and fictional characters.