Jurchen “Golden” emperors taught Europe a Chinese dynastic name
Great Jin (1115–1234) was a Jurchen Wanyan empire that rose against the Khitan Liao, pushed them west, and seized northern China from the Song. Mongol attacks beginning in 1211 ended the state by 1234. Jin means gold—Jurchen alchun—echoed in the Anchuhu “golden” river name Aguda adopted.
The Jin began as a revolt. Wanyan Aguda led the Jurchens against the Khitan Liao, who had dominated northern China since 916, and drove them off to Central Asia, where Chinese historians call their successor state the Western Liao. Having taken the Liao lands, the Jin spent about a century fighting the Han Chinese Song dynasty in the south. At its height the empire ran from Outer Manchuria down to the Qinling–Huaihe line.
Even the ruling clan's name had borrowed roots. Wanyan, rendered Wanggiyan in Manchu, is not Jurchen at all but a Sino-Khitan compound of the Chinese title for king or prince and a Khitan suffix, so the Wanyan Jurchens were the royal Jurchens. The state name Jin means gold, echoing the Jurchen alchun. That word may point to a river east of Harbin, a Songhua tributary now called Alechuka, whose Manchu form suggests the original sounded like alchuhu; Chinese scribes of the time often used a final -n to stand for foreign -l or -r sounds.
After capturing Kaifeng, the court debated which of the five cosmic elements should govern the dynasty. Nativists pushed metal, matching the golden name and stressing roots in Northeast Asia rather than Chinese precedent. The emperor refused and chose earth, with yellow as the royal colour, because in the cycle of elements earth follows fire, the Song's element. The message was that the Song mandate had ended and the Jin were China's rightful rulers. Jin emperors called their state Zhongguo, the Middle Kingdom, and their documents show that usage began earlier than once assumed. They also embraced Han customs, revived Confucian learning and strengthened the Great Wall.
None of that stopped the Mongols. Genghis Khan invaded in 1211, and over 23 years the Jin suffered defeats, revolts, defections and coups before falling in 1234. The Mongols called the Jin ruler the Golden Khan, and through them the Jin became the first Chinese dynasty known in Europe by its dynastic name; Marco Polo turned the title into roi d'or, the gold king.
Source: Jin dynasty (1115–1234)
