Emperor Shizong of Jin

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Emperor Shizong of Jin : biography

1123 – January 20, 1189

Emperor Shizong of Jin (March 29, 1123 – January 20, 1189) of the Jin Dynasty () was emperor of the Jin Dynasty, the Jurchen dynasty which ruled northern China. He reigned from October 27, 1161 to January 20, 1189. His Jurchen name was Wanyan Wulu (完顏烏祿, Wányán Wūlù), Chinese name, Wanyan Yong (完顏雍, Wányán Yōng) and Wanyan Bao (完顏褒, Wányán Bāo).Jing-shen Tao, "The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China". University of Washington Press, 1976, ISBN 0-295-95514-7. Chapter 6. "The Jurchen Movement for Revival", Pages 69–83. The era name was Dading (大定, Dàdìng).

Modern evaluation

Modern scholars of the Jin Empire feel that Shizong’s efforts to maintain and revive 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 far Manchuria, people did not see the utility of speaking the "dying" and "inferior" language, and Shizong himself was wondering if the posterity would criticize him for his attempts to force people use it.

Shizong’s attempts to preserve 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.

Biography

Early life

Wanyan Wulu was a grandson of the founder of the dynasty, Wanyan Aguda, and the son of the famous early-Jin general Wanyan Zongfu (完顏宗輔; courtesy name 完颜宗尧, Wanyan Zongyao). Wulu’s father died when the boy was just 12 years old, and he grew up under the influence of his mother, who had come from a Sinicized 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. Thanks to his mother and her relatives, Wulu received a good Chinese education, and had as good a knowledge of Chinese classics as any Chinese emperor.

Wulu is said to have also been greatly influenced by the wife he had before becoming emperor. Her birth name was Wulinda (乌林荅). She advised Wulu to be patient and to pretend to be loyal to his cousin, the then reigning Emperor Hailingwang (also known as Wanyan Liang). Hailingwang admired his cousin’s wife and in 1151 called her to his inner court, but she committed suicide. This event resulted in a deep enmity between the two cousins.

When in 1161 Emperor Hailingwang invaded the Southern Song to reunify China under the Jurchen rule, he also sent agents to assassinate many of his own relatives and thus to cement his power within the Jin state. Wulu, also on the hit list, raised a rebellion against Emperor Hailingwang. The rebellion was supported by many Jurchen officers and aristocrats dissatisfied with Hailingwang’s policy of cultural Sinicization and administrative centralization, and the human cost of Hailingwang’s southern adventure. The first military officer to support the rebellion was said to be Wanyan Mouyan (完顏谋衍). The emperor was soon murdered, and Wulu was able to become the new ruler of the empire without actually fighting Hailingwang.

Shizong’s rule

Once on the throne, Wulu – who from now on would be known to the posterity as Emperor Shizong – reversed Hailingwang’s plan for invading Southern Song, as well as his domestic Sinicization policies. Although conversant with Chinese culture himself, Shizong thought that the Jurchens’ strength was in maintaining their "simple and sincere", culture, and would often attribute Hailingwang’s defeat to the latter’s wholesale abandonment of it. He wasn’t 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 classics without putting their ideas into practice was counterproductive.