A dynasty that governed Manchuria, part of Mongolia, and much of northern China. It was founded by the Juchen, nomad huntsmen, who came from around the Amur and Sungari rivers. They were ancestors of the Manchus. When the Northern Song set out to overthrow the Liao, to whom they were tributary, they allied with the Juchen, hoping to play off one alien people against another. The latter, however, once having conquered the Liao, sacked the Song capital, Kaifeng, in 1126. The Song retreated south, establishing their new capital at Xingsai (Hangzhou).

The Juchen were in time tamed by their Chinese subjects, who far outnumbered them. Their frontier with Southern Song was stabilized. Jin emperors studied the Chinese classics and wrote poetry in Chinese. Their nomad vigour was sapped by a sedentary life. By 1214 much of their territory, including Beijing, their central capital, was in Genghis Khan’s hands. The dynasty survived, ruling from Kaifeng, until a final Mongol onslaught 20 years later.