The Jin Dynasty: A History of China

The Jin Dynasty: A History of China, PART TWO, carries you into one of China's most turbulent centuries — an age of brilliance, betrayal, and survival. It begins with the rise of a fierce northern people, the Jurchens, who carved out a vast realm across northern China and into the Central Plains. From the triumphs of their founder to the chaos that would one day undo them, this book brings their story vividly to life — in all its fire and heartbreak. At the center of the saga stands Wanyan Liang, the proud and reckless sovereign whose grand ambition to subdue the Southern Song plunged the Jin Empire onto a path of irreversible upheaval. His campaign shook both the Jin court and the Southern Song alike, leaving devastation in its wake — wounds that even his successor, Emperor Shizong, with his calm wisdom and determined drive to rebuild, struggled to heal. Shizong's reign, often associated with the Longxing era of restoration and the fragile peace it produced, gave the empire a brief second wind — but it also exposed just how precarious that peace truly was. Under Emperor Zhangzong (Wanyan Jing), the Jin court drew ever closer to Chinese ways — embracing Confucian learning and cultivating a refined court culture in the late Dading years. Yet while the empire turned inward, a new force was rising on the steppe: Genghis Khan, whose relentless Mongol riders would soon thunder across the plains and cast a shadow over every capital. As that storm gathered, brave and tragic figures stepped forward: Wanyan Chenglin, whose rise and fall echoed the fate of his dynasty; Emperor Aizong, who fought on to the bitter end; and the countless anonymous soldiers who held the walls of cities like Caizhou even after hope had faded. Their courage and despair make history deeply human — not merely the collapse of a state, but the story of people refusing to surrender to the darkness.