CHIN DYNASTY

Pinyin Jin, also called Juchen dynasty, Juchen also spelled Jurchen, Wade-Giles romanization Ju-chen, Pinyin Ruzhen, Mongolian Jrched, or Jrchid (1115-1234), dynasty that ruled an empire formed by the Tungus Juchen (or Jurchen) tribes of Manchuria. The empire covered much of Inner Asia and all of North China. Originally subjects of the Liao, an Inner Asian dynasty created in the 10th century by the Khitan tribes, the Juchen, with the aid of the Chinese Sung dynasty, threw off the rule of their overlords and established their own dynasty between 1115 and 1122. They then turned to attack the Sung dynasty and drove it south of the Huai River. Like the Liao they set up a dual-administration system: a Chinese-style bureaucracy to rule over the southern part of their conquests and a tribal state to control the nomadic tribes of Inner Asia. Their capital was at Hui-ning until 1152 and thereafter at Ta-hsing. The major part of their realm was in China proper, but the Juchen were very conscious of preserving their ethnic identity. To this end, they continued to use their own alphabet and speech and banned Chinese clothing and customs from their armies-although they had chosen the Chinese name of Chin for their dynasty. Their fierce warrior ways gradually disappeared, however, and the dynasty was finally destroyed in 1234, when it was caught in the middle of a newly concluded alliance between the Mongols on the north and the Sung on the south.