The Jingkang Incident (), also known as the Humiliation of Jingkang () and the Disorders of the Jingkang Period (), was an episode of invasions and war crimes that took place in 1127 during the Jin–Song Wars when the forces of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty besieged and sacked the imperial palaces in Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng), the capital of the Han-led Northern Song dynasty. The Jin forces captured the Northern Song ruler, Emperor Qinzong, along with his father, the retired Emperor Huizong, and many members of the imperial family of Emperor Taizong's bloodline and officials of the Song imperial court. The ordinary Song civilians of Bianjing living in the non-imperial quarter were left alone after being forced to pay huge ransoms to the Jin.
This event marked the collapse of the Northern Song dynasty that originally controlled most of China proper. Many members of the Song imperial family, most notably Zhao Gou (later Emperor Gaozong), managed to escape to southern China, where they reestablished the Song dynasty (known in historiography as the Southern Song dynasty) in the new capital, Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou). This event also greatly contributed to the return of the descendants of Emperor Taizu to the line of succession, as most of Emperor Taizong's descendants were abducted; Emperor Gaozong himself failed to produce an heir as well.
This event is known as the "Jingkang Incident" because it took place during the Jingkang era of the reign of Emperor Qinzong.
Background
In 1120, under the Alliance Conducted at Sea, the Jin and Song dynasties agreed to form a military alliance against the Liao dynasty and, if victorious, divide up the Liao territories. The Jin would get a large portion of the northern land and the Song would get a smaller portion in the southern region called the Sixteen Prefectures.
Led by Tong Guan, the Song army marched to the Song-Liao border and was stopped by the defensive forest that the Song had maintained since the reign of Emperor Taizu. In order to pass through, Tong Guan ordered the soldiers to clear the forest and continued the expedition into the Liao.
The Jin army sacked the Liao capital of Shangjing and ended the Liao dynasty. The Song army in the south, however, could not even penetrate the Liao's defensive positions and the army was defeated by the remaining Liao troops afterwards. This exposed the limitations of the Song army as well as the corruption and inefficiency in the Song imperial court. In the end, the Jin took control of all former Liao territories.
After the fall of the Liao dynasty, the Song dynasty wanted the Sixteen Prefectures as promised. The Jin dynasty sold the land at a price of 300,000 bolts of silk and 200,000 ounces of silver. This price was considered to be extremely generous because it was the tribute that the Song had been paying to the Liao annually since the Chanyuan Treaty of 1005.
Prelude to the war
According to the Twenty-Four Histories, in 1123, three years after the fall of Liao, a Jin general Zhang Jue (), defected to the Song dynasty. He was governor of the Jin-controlled Pingzhou Prefecture (present-day Zunhua), which was within the Great Wall, but not counted among the Sixteen Prefectures. Nonetheless, the Song imperial court initially welcomed the defection and awarded Zhang Jue an honorific title and land. The Jin dynasty, on the other hand, sent a small army aiming to overturn the defection but was defeated by Zhang Jue's troops.
In 1123 or 1124 (records differ), Jin sent diplomats for Zhang Jue and sacked three Song cities. Panicking, Wang Anzhong (a Song general) killed someone who looked like Zhang Jue and sent the head to Jin. The Jin realized it was a ruse and attacked Song again. Zhang Jue was eventually executed in the winter of the same year. This came too late: in the fall of 1125, Emperor Taizong of the Jin dynasty issued an order to launch a full-scale attack on Song territories.