Siege of Caizhou | |||||||
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Part of Mongol–Jin War and Jin–Song Wars | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Jin dynasty | Mongol Empire Southern Song dynasty | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Emperor Aizong of Jin † Emperor Mo of Jin (Wanyan Chenglin) † | Ögedei Khan |
The siege of Caizhou in 1233 and 1234 was a battle fought between the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty and the allied forces of the Mongol Empire and Southern Song dynasty. It was the last major battle in the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty.
The Jin and Mongols had fought for decades beginning in 1211, when the Mongols first invaded under the command of Genghis Khan. [1] The Jin capital, Zhongdu (present-day Xicheng and Fengtai districts, Beijing), had been besieged in 1213, [2] then captured by the Mongols in 1215. In the intervening years, the Jin dynasty moved its capital to Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng, Henan Province). [3] Ögedei Khan, the successor to Genghis Khan, rose to power after his predecessor died in 1227. [4] In 1230, the war effort against the Jin dynasty recommenced. [5] Emperor Aizong, the Jin ruler, fled when the Mongols besieged Bianjing. [6] On February 26, 1233, he reached Guide (present-day Shangqiu, Henan Province), and then moved on to Caizhou (present-day Runan County, Henan Province), [6] [7] on August 3. [6]
The Mongols arrived at Caizhou in December 1233. The Southern Song dynasty had rebuffed Emperor Aizong's plea for assistance, and joined forces with the Mongols. The Southern Song dynasty ignored Emperor Aizong's warning that they would become the Mongol Empire's next target. [6]
Emperor Aizong tried to escape, but eventually committed suicide when he realised that the likelihood of escaping from Caizhou was no longer plausible. [6] Before his death, he had abdicated his throne to Wanyan Chenglin, a general and descendant of the Jin imperial clan, on February 9, 1234. Caizhou was breached by Mongol and Song forces on the same day, [6] and Wanyan Chenglin died in the ensuing melee, ending a reign that spanned less than a day. [6] [8]
The Jin dynasty came to a close with the fall of Caizhou. [9] The Southern Song dynasty was eager to exploit the destruction of the Jin dynasty by annexing Henan. They did not succeed and were repelled by the Mongols. [10]
Year 1234 (MCCXXXIV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.
The Jin dynasty, officially known as the Great Jin, was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 1115 and 1234 founded by Emperor Taizu (first). Because the Wanyan clan that founded the dynasty were of Jurchen descent, it is also sometimes called the Jurchen dynasty or the Jurchen Jin. The empire covered much of Inner Asia and all of present-day North China.
The Western Xia or the Xi Xia (Chinese: 西夏; pinyin: Xī Xià; Wade–Giles: Hsi1 Hsia4), officially the Great Xia (大夏; Dà Xià; Ta4 Hsia4), also known as the Tangut Empire, and known as Mi-nyak to the Tanguts and Tibetans, was a Tangut-led imperial dynasty of China that existed from 1038 to 1227. At its peak, the dynasty ruled over modern-day northwestern China, including parts of Ningxia, Gansu, eastern Qinghai, northern Shaanxi, northeastern Xinjiang, and southwest Inner Mongolia, and southernmost Outer Mongolia, measuring about 800,000 square kilometres (310,000 square miles).
Emperor Qinzong of Song, personal name Zhao Huan, was the ninth emperor of the Song dynasty of China and the last emperor of the Northern Song dynasty.
Emperor Taizu of Jin, personal name Aguda, sinicised name Min, was the founder and first emperor of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty of China. He was originally the chieftain of the Wanyan tribe, the most dominant among the Jurchen tribes which were subjects of the Khitan-led Liao dynasty. Starting in 1114, Aguda united the Jurchen tribes under his rule and rebelled against the Liao dynasty. A year later, he declared himself emperor and established the Jin dynasty. By the time of his death, the Jin dynasty had conquered most of the Liao dynasty's territories and emerged as a major power in northern China. In 1145, he was posthumously honoured with the temple name Taizu by his descendant Emperor Xizong.
Runan County is a county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhumadian, in the southeast of Henan Province, China.
The Battle of Caishi was a major naval engagement of the Jin–Song Wars of China that took place on November 26–27, 1161. It ended with a decisive Song victory, aided by their use of gunpowder weapons.
The Wanyan, alternatively rendered as Wanggiya, was a clan of the Heishui Mohe tribe living in the drainage region of the Heilong River during the time of the Khitan-led Liao dynasty. Of the Heishui Mohe, the clan was counted by the Liao dynasty among the "uncivilized Jurchens" (生女真), indicating that the clan was not subject to the direct rule of the Liao emperors. Those Heishui Mohe clans ruled by the Liao dynasty were referred to as "civilized Jurchens" (熟女真). The Wanyan clan later founded the Jin dynasty.
Wanyan Yongji, childhood name Xingsheng, was the seventh emperor of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty of China. He reigned for about five years from 1208 until 1213, when he was assassinated by the general Heshilie Zhizhong. Despite having ruled as an emperor, Wanyan Yongji was not posthumously honoured as such. Instead, in 1216, his successor, Emperor Xuanzong, reverted his status to "Prince of Wei" (衛王) – the title Wanyan Yongji held before he became emperor – and gave him the posthumous name "Shao" (紹), hence Wanyan Yongji is generally known in historiography as the "Prince Shao of Wei".
Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, personal name Wudubu, sinicized names Wanyan Xun and Wanyan Congjia, was the eighth emperor of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty of China. He was the second Jin emperor to be defeated by the Mongol Empire, and the first after they crossed the Great Wall in 1211 during the Jin campaign.
Emperor Aizong of Jin, personal name Ningjiasu, sinicized names Wanyan Shouxu and Wanyan Shouli, was the ninth emperor of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty of China. He was considered an able emperor who made several reforms beneficial to the Jin dynasty, such as the removal of corrupt officials and the introduction of more lenient tax laws. He also ended the wars against the Southern Song dynasty, and canceled the Treaty of Shaoxing, free of obligation, instead focusing the Jin dynasty's military resources on resisting the Mongol invasion. Despite his efforts, the Jin dynasty, already weakened by the flawed policies of his predecessors, eventually fell to the Mongol Empire. He escaped to Caizhou when the Mongols besieged Bianjing, the Jin capital, in 1232. When Caizhou also came under Mongol attack in 1234, he passed the throne to his army marshal Wanyan Chenglin and then committed suicide.
Emperor Mo of Jin, name Wanyan Chenglin, was the last emperor of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty of China. Originally a military general, he inherited the throne from his predecessor, Emperor Aizong, during the siege of Caizhou. He was killed in action on the same day he was crowned emperor, when Caizhou fell to the allied forces of the Mongol Empire and Southern Song dynasty. Having ruled as emperor for less than a day, or maybe even just a few hours, he holds the record for being the shortest-reigning monarch in Chinese history.
The Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty, also known as the Mongol–Jin War, was fought between the Mongol Empire and the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in Manchuria and North China. The war, which started in 1211, lasted over 23 years and ended with the complete conquest of the Jin dynasty by the Mongols in 1234.
This is the timeline of the Mongol Empire from the birth of Temüjin, later Genghis Khan, to the ascension of Kublai Khan as emperor of the Yuan dynasty in 1271, though the title of Khagan continued to be used by the Yuan rulers into the Northern Yuan dynasty, a far less powerful successor entity, until 1634.
The Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) was a dynasty of China ruled by the Mongol Borjigin clan. Founded by Kublai Khan, it is considered one of the successors to the Mongol Empire.
The Jin–Song Wars were a series of conflicts between the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty (1115–1234) and the Han-led Song dynasty (960–1279). In 1115, Jurchen tribes rebelled against their overlords, the Khitan-led Liao dynasty (916–1125), and declared the formation of the Jin. Allying with the Song against their common enemy the Liao dynasty, the Jin promised to cede to the Song the Sixteen Prefectures that had fallen under Liao control since 938. The Song agreed but the Jin's quick defeat of the Liao combined with Song military failures made the Jin reluctant to cede territory. After a series of negotiations that embittered both sides, the Jurchens attacked the Song in 1125, dispatching one army to Taiyuan and the other to Bianjing, the Song capital.
The Jin–Song wars were a series of armed conflicts conducted by the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty and the Song dynasty in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Jurchens were a Tungusic–speaking tribal confederation native to Manchuria. They overthrew the Khitan-led Liao dynasty in 1122 and declared the establishment of a new dynasty, the Jin. Diplomatic relations between the Jin and Song deteriorated, and the Jurchens first declared war on the Song dynasty in November 1125.
Between 1205 and 1227, the Mongol Empire embarked on a series of military campaigns that ultimately led to the destruction of the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty in northwestern China. Hoping to both to plunder and acquire vassalage, Genghis Khan commanded some initial raids against the Western Xia before launching a full-scale invasion in 1209. This was the first major invasion conducted by Genghis, and his first major incursion into China.
In the Mongol siege of Kaifeng from 1232 to 1233, the Mongol Empire captured Kaifeng, the capital of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty. The Mongol Empire and the Jin dynasty had been at war for nearly two decades, beginning in 1211 after the Jin dynasty refused the Mongol offer to submit as a vassal. Ögedei Khan sent two armies to besiege Kaifeng, one led by himself, and the other by his brother Tolui. Command of the forces, once they converged into a single army, was given to Subutai who led the siege. The Mongols arrived at the walls of Kaifeng on April 8, 1232.
The military of the Jin dynasty, officially known as the Great Jin, was the military force of an imperial dynasty of China, founded by rulers of Jurchen origin, that ruled over northern China between 1115 and 1234.