# Timeline of the Jin–Song Wars

The Jin–Song Wars were a series of armed conflicts conducted by the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty and the Song dynasty in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Jurchens were a Tungusic–speaking tribal confederation native to Manchuria. They overthrew the Khitan-led Liao dynasty in 1122 and declared the establishment of a new dynasty, the Jin. Diplomatic relations between the Jin and Song deteriorated, and the Jurchens first declared war on the Song dynasty in November 1125.
Two armies were dispatched against the Song. One army captured the provincial capital of Taiyuan, while the other besieged the Song capital of Kaifeng. The Jin withdrew when the Song promised to pay an annual indemnity. As the Song dynasty weakened, the Jin armies conducted a second siege against Kaifeng. The city was captured and looted, and the Song dynasty emperor, Emperor Qinzong, was imprisoned and taken north to Manchuria as a hostage. The remainder of the Song court retreated to southern China, beginning the Southern Song period of Chinese history. Two puppet governments, first the Da Chu dynasty and later the state of Qi, were established by the Jin as buffer states between the Song and Manchuria.
The Jin marched southward with the aim of conquering the Southern Song, but counteroffensives by Chinese generals like Yue Fei halted their advance. A peace accord, the Treaty of Shaoxing, was negotiated and ratified in 1142, establishing the Huai River as the boundary between the two empires. Peace between the Song and Jin was interrupted twice. Wanyan Liang invaded the Southern Song in 1161, while Song revanchists tried and failed to retake northern China in 1204.
The Jin–Song Wars were notable for the appearance of new technological innovations. The siege of De'an in 1132 included the first recorded use of the fire lance, an early gunpowder weapon and an ancestor of the firearm. The huopao, an incendiary bomb, was employed in a number of battles and gunpowder bombs made of cast iron were used in a siege in 1221. The Jurchens migrated south and settled in northern China, where they adopted the language and Confucian culture of the local inhabitants. The Jin dynasty government grew into a centralized imperial bureaucracy structured in the same manner as previous dynasties of China. Both the Song and Jin dynasties ended in the 13th century as the Mongol Empire expanded across Asia.

## Campaigns against the Northern Song

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1125 | November | Jin dynasty declares war against the Song dynasty and dispatches two armies. |
| 1126 | January | Jin forces reach Taiyuan and besiege the city. |
| 1126 | January 27 | Jin army crosses the Yellow River on their way to the Song capital of Kaifeng. |
| 1126 | January 28 | Emperor Huizong of Song abdicates and Emperor Qinzong is enthroned as Jin forces approach Kaifeng. |
| 1126 | January 31 | Jin forced besiege Kaifeng. |
| 1126 | February 10 | Siege of Kaifeng ends. |
| 1126 | March 5 | The Jin army retreats from Kaifeng after the Song emperor promises to pay an annual indemnity. |
| 1126 | June | Two armies dispatched by Emperor Qinzong to Taiyuan, Zhongshan, and Hejian are defeated by the Jin. |
| 1126 | December | The Jin army that captured Taiyuan arrives in Kaifeng. The second siege of Kaifeng begins. |
| 1127 | January 9 | During the Jingkang Incident, Kaifeng surrenders and the city is looted by Jin forces. |
| 1127 | May | Emperor Qinzong, former Emperor Huizong, and members of the Song court are taken north to Manchuria as prisoners. |
| 1129 | | Song dynasty capital moved to Nanjing. End of the Northern Song. |
| 1129 | | Former Song official Liu Yu is enthroned as the emperor of the Jin puppet state of Qi. |

## Campaigns against the Southern Song

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1132 | | De'an is besieged by Jin forces. The battle is the earliest known use of the fire lance, an ancestor of the firearm. |
| 1133 | | Yue Fei is appointed a general tasked with leading the largest army in a region near the central Yangtze River. |
| 1134 | | Yue Fei commanded a military campaign that recaptured much of the territory seized by the Jin. |
| 1135 | | Qi captures the town of Xiangyang. |
| 1137 | | Jin dynasty dissolves the Qi state and demotes Liu Yu as emperor. |
| 1140 | | Yue Fei launches a successful military expedition against the Jin and makes considerable territorial gains, but was forced to withdraw by Emperor Gaozong. |
| 1141 | | Yue Fei is imprisoned as Gaozong moves forward with his plans for a peace treaty. |
| 1141 | October | Negotiations for a peace treaty begins between the Song and Jin. |
| 1142 | | Yue Fei is poisoned in his jail cell. |
| 1142 | October | The peace treaty, the Shaoxing Accord, is ratified and the Song agrees to pay an annual indemnity. The Huai River is settled as the boundary. |

## After the peace treaty

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1152 | | The Jin emperor Wanyan Liang moves his capital south from Manchuria to Beijing. |
| 1158 | | Wanyan Liang blames the Song for breaching the peace treaty after it procured horses from the frontier regions. |
| 1159 | | The Jin begins preparations for a war against the Song. |
| 1161 | Summer | Conscription of ethnic Han soldiers for the Jin war effort ends. |
| 1161 | June 14 | Jin envoys arrive in the Song on the eve of the invasion. Their behavior led to suspicions of a Jin plot against the Song. |
| 1161 | October 15 | Jin forces depart from Kaifeng. |
| 1161 | October 28 | The Jin army reaches the Huai River and continue their march to the Yangtze River. |
| 1161 | November 26–27 | Jin forces try to capture the city of Caishi during the Battle of Caishi but are repelled by the Song. |
| 1161 | | The Battle of Tangdao is fought at sea between the Jin and the Song. The Song navy uses incendiary bombs and other weapons against a Jin fleet of 600 ships. |
| 1161 | December 15 | Wanyan Liang is assassinated in his military camp by his officers, ending the Jurchen invasion. |
| 1204 | | Song armies begin raiding the Jin settlements north of the Huai River. |
| 1206 | June 14 | The Song declares war against the Jin. |
| 1206 | Fall | Jin armies capture towns and military bases, slowing the Song advance. |
| 1206 | December | Wu Xi, general and governor of Sichuan, defects to the Jin, threatening the war effort. |
| 1207 | March 29 | Wu Xi is assassinated by Song loyalists. |
| 1208 | July | Following negotiations for peace, the war ends and Jin forces withdraw. |
| 1208 | November 2 | A peace treaty is signed between the Jin and the Song. The Song agreed to continue paying tribute to the Jin. |
| 1217 | | Jin forces invade the Song to remedy the territory they had lost to the Mongols. |
| 1221 | | A gunpowder bomb made of cast iron is used as Jin forces try to capture Qizhou, a Song city. |
| 1224 | | The Jin and Song agreed to a peace treaty. Song discontinues its annual tributes to the Jurchens. |
| 1234 | February 9 | The Jin dynasty ends after an invasion by the Mongols and the Song. |