Jingkang incident

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.

Led by Tong Guan, the Song army marched to the Song-Liao border and was stopped by the defensive forest that the Song had maintained since the reign of Emperor Taizu. In order to pass through, Tong Guan ordered the soldiers to clear the forest and continued the expedition into the Liao.[3]

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 had been paying to the Liao annually since the Chanyuan Treaty of 1005.

A portrait of Emperor Huizong of Song

The Jin armies invaded Song territory from the west and from the north. When the Jin troops reached the former Song-Liao border in Heibei, since the original defensive forest was cleared during 1122 expedition, the Jin troops marched through a defenseless border without impediment.[3] 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 (Wanyan Zongwang),[8] 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 (Wanyan Zonghan),[8] 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 (present-day Kaifeng), 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.

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:

1. Due to the lack of experienced generals and personnel, the whole defense process was unorganized.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

On 9 January 1127, Bianjing fell to Jin forces. Emperor Qinzong and his father, Emperor Huizong, were captured by the Jin army. Thus, the Northern Song dynasty came to an end.[9][10]

In exchange for the Jin soldiers sparing Kaifeng's ordinary civilian population, the people of Kaifeng gave them wine, meat, silk and gold.[11] Song officials turned over wine, wine makers, painters, weapons, horses, gold, silver and plain silk bolts after the Jin demanded them.[12] 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 bronze 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.[13]

• The scale of destruction and devastation was unprecedented: treasures, art collections, scrolls from the imperial library 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.[30][31][32] 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 adopt Jurchen family names. In fact, many members of the imperial family of the Qing dynasty had the surname "Gioro" (e.g. Aisin Gioro, Irgen Gioro); it is believed that they were the descendants of Emperor Huizong and Emperor Qinzong.[33]
• 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.[34]
• 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.[35]

"The Four Generals of the Restoration," painted by Liu Songnian during the Southern Song dynasty. Yue Fei is the second person from the left. It is believed to be the "truest portrait of Yue in all extant materials."[36]

• This incident was referred to as the "Lingering Humiliation of Jingkang" (靖康恥，猶未雪，臣子恨，何時滅) 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.[37]
• 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.[38]
• 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.[39]
• Guy Gavriel Kay liberally fictionalized the incident in River of Stars, an alternate historical fiction novel for adults.[40] Kay uses alternate names for historic places and fictional characters.[41]

• Jin–Song Wars
• Timeline of the Jin–Song Wars
• Han Shizhong
• Li Qingzhao
• Zhou Tong (archer)

• Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. (2013). Emperor Huizong (Harvard University Press; 2013) 661 pages; scholarly biography online review
• Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. (1999). The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052166991X (paperback).
• Jing-shen Tao (1976) The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China. University of Washington Press. ISBN 0295955147.
• Franke, Herbert and Denis Twitchett. Alien Regimes and Border States, 907–1368 (Cambridge History of China, vol. 6). Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN 0521243319. Partial text on Google Books.
• Kaplan, Edward Harold. Yueh Fei and the founding of the Southern Sung. Thesis (PhD) – University of Iowa, 1970. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1970.