Much of this success in defense lay in the world's first use of gunpowder ( i. e. with early flamethrowers, grenades, firearms, cannons, and land mines ) to fight back against the Khitans, the Tanguts, the Jurchens, and then the Mongols.

Since then, the Jurchens of North China increasingly merged with Han Chinese and the ones living in their homeland started to be Mongolized.

Less Jurchens could recognize their own scripts since then.

Gaozong then signed the Treaty of Shaoxing with the Jurchens which further ceded huge amounts of territories to the Jurchens in the hope of appeasement.

The Jurchens advanced from Manchuria in 1117, and captured the Liao dynasty's supreme capital in 1120, then its central capital in 1122.

His uncle Yelü Chun then formed the short-lived Northern Liao in the southern capital, but died soon afterwards, and Nanjing was captured by the Jurchens at the end of 1122 or early 1123.

He had by then 10, 000 horsemen, however Jurchens had grown far too strong, and in 1130, Dashi elected to move westward and established a base there.

The Khitans were a Mongolian people of the Liao Dynasty who moved west from Northern China when the Jurchens invaded in 1125 and destroyed the Liao Dynasty.

In 1375, Nahacu, a Mongol official in Liaoyang province invaded the Liaodong Peninsula with aims of restoring the Mongols to power and succeeded with the support of the pro-Mongol Jurchens.

Some scholars theorize the concept of Han evolved from Korea's history of having been invaded by other neighboring nations, such as the Khitans, the Manchu / Jurchens, the Mongols, and the Japanese.

Uninterested in peace, the Jurchens invaded Kaifeng in January 1127 and captured 26 year old Qinzong, Grand-Emperor Huizong and the entire Song imperial family including dozens of government officials in the Jingkang Incident, thus ending the Northern Song dynasty.

The Jurchens referred to the empire as Dashi or Dashi Linya ( after its founder ), to reduce any claims the empire may have had to the old territories of the Liao Dynasty.

Later, he fought wars against other Jurchen clans and succeeded to unify all Jurchens under Wanyan leadership.

For example, it denies Yue Fei, a " Han Chinese " who fought for China against the Jurchens, a place as a " hero of China ".

Under the Mongols ' control, Jurchens were mainly divided in two groups and treated differently: the ones who were born and raised in North China and fluent in Chinese were considered as Chinese people ( Han ); but the people who were born and raised in Jurchen's homeland ( Manchuria ) without a Chinese-speaking abilities were treated as Mongols politically.

The later Manchus ( who were also Jurchens ) similarly made the Han men shave their heads and adopt the queue ( ponytail ), or soncoho (), which was the traditional Manchurian hairstyle.

Initially, he used military officials such as Li Gang, Zong Ze, Yue Fei, Han Shizhong and Yu Yunwen to hold the Jurchens at bay.

He collaborates with the Jurchens to exploit his own race ( the Han Chinese ) and pretends to have acknowledged his ethnicity.

Until the end of the sixteenth century, when Manchu became the new literary language, the Jurchens used a combination of Mongolian and Chinese.

Chinese chroniclers of the Ming Dynasty distinguished three groups of Jurchens: the Wild Jurchens ( Chinese: 野人女真 ) of northernmost Manchuria, the Haixi Jurchens ( Chinese: 海西女真 ) of modern Heilongjiang ( Chinese: 黑龍江 ) and the Jianzhou Jurchens of modern Jilin province.

A massive revolt against the Jurchens by the Liaodong Chinese broke out in 1623, due to the Jurchens squeezing the Chinese for labor and stationing Jurchen in Chinese households.

* 1127: The Northern Song dynasty loses power over northern China to the Jurchens of Manchuria.

* Northern Expansion against Jurchens ( see also Korean-Jurchen border conflicts )

In Song Dynasty China an invasion by Jurchens causes a political schism of north and south.

In 1121, the Jurchens entered into the Alliance on the Sea with the Song Dynasty and agreed to jointly invade the Liao.

While the Song armies faltered, the Jurchens succeeded in driving the Liao to Central Asia.

The Song official Tong Guan ( 1054 – 1126 ) advised Emperor Huizong ( 1100 – 1125 ) to form an alliance with the Jurchens, and their joint military campaign toppled and completely conquered the Liao Dynasty by 1125.

However, the poor performance and military weakness of the Song army was observed by the Jurchens who immediately broke the alliance with the Song, launching an invasion into Song territory in 1125 and another in 1127 ; in this latter invasion, the Jurchens captured not only the Song capital at Kaifeng, but the retired emperor Huizong, his successor Qinzong, and most of the Imperial court.

As such, the name was likely to be viewed as closely tied to the Jurchens and would perhaps evoke hostility from Chinese who viewed the Song dynasty, rival state to the Jin, as the legitimate rulers of China at that time.

Through effective military organizations that integrated cavalry, chariots, archery, shields, artillery ( cannons carried on the back of camels ), and amphibious troops for combats on the land and water, the Xia army maintained a powerful stance in opposition to the Song, Liao ( 916-1125 ), and Jin ( 1115 – 1234 ) empires to its east, the last of which was founded by the Jurchens, who were the predecessors of the Manchus to found the Qing Dynasty ( 1644 – 1912 ) later.

The northern Song capital of Kaifeng fell in 1126 to the Jurchens.

After the conquest of the northern China by the Jurchens, the new Jin Dynasty renamed Xianyuan back to Qufu ( in 1142 ), but the city stayed at its Song location.

Larger scale migrations south occurred during the middle and late Song Dynasty, when north China was overrun by the Jurchens and later the Mongols.

The Song had to rely on new gunpowder weapons introduced during the late Tang and bribes to fend off attacks by its enemies, such as the Khitan, Tanguts, Jurchens, and Mongols, as well as an expanded army of over 1 million men.

After being threatened by these northern states and realizing the possible effects of a war to the country and people, the Song Dynasty rulers invented a false concept of kinship with the Jurchens in an attempt to improve relations.

The border between the Song Dynasty and Jin Dynasty, 1115-1234 | Jin Dynasty is shown in this map as being stabilized along the Huai River, after the Jin Dynasty ( 1115 – 1234 ) | Jurchens conquered northern China in 1127.

He fled south after the Jurchens overran Kaifeng in the Jingkang Incident, hence the beginning of the Southern Song dynasty 1127 – 1279.

* September 30 – Nurhaci, chieftain of the Jurchens and founder of the Qing Dynasty dies and is succeeded by his son Hong Taiji.

In 1644, after the Ming Dynasty's capital of Beijing was sacked by the peasant rebels, the Jurchens ( now called Manchus ) allied with Ming general Wu Sangui and seized control of Beijing, overthrowing the short-lived Shun Dynasty and establishing Qing Dynasty rule ( 1644 – 1912 ) over all of China.

The Jīn Dynasty ( Jurchen: Anchun Gurun ;, ); Manchu: Aisin Gurun ; Khitan language: Nik, Niku ; ; 1115 – 1234 ), also known as the Jurchen Dynasty or Jurched Dynasty, was founded by the Wanyan ( 完顏 Wányán ) clan of the Jurchens, the ancestors of the Manchus who established the Qing Dynasty some 500 years later.

The Jurchens ' early rival was the Liao Dynasty, which had held sway over northern China, including Manchuria and part of the Mongol region for several centuries.

The Khitans were later replaced by the Jurchens, precursors to the modern Manchus, who established the Jin Dynasty over Manchuria and northern China.

* Mo Nian ( 抹捻 ) clan of Mohe / Jurchens people at Jin Dynasty, 12th century

By the 11th century, the Jurchens had become vassals of the Khitans ( see also Liao Dynasty ).

In 1125, the Jin Dynasty founded by the Jurchens overthrew the Liao Dynasty, and attempted to gain control over former Liao territory in Mongolia.

Genghis quickly came into conflict with the Jin Dynasty of the Jurchens and the Western Xia of the Tanguts in northern China.