Wanyan Zonghan


Nianhan, also known by his sinicised name Wanyan Zonghan, was a Jurchen noble and military general who lived in the founding and early years of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty, which ruled northern China between the 12th and 13th centuries.

Life

Nianhan was the eldest son of Sagai and a great-grandson of Wugunai, the chief of the Wanyan tribe. He was a relative of Aguda, the founder of the Jin dynasty, because Aguda was Sagai's cousin and Wugunai's grandson.
Nianhan served as one of Aguda's chief advisers in the Jurchen rebellion against the Khitan-led Liao dynasty in 1114. He participated in the ensuing war between the Jurchens and Khitans that led to the destruction of the Liao dynasty and its replacement by the Jin dynasty. Under Aguda's successor, Wuqimai, Nianhan played a major role in the wars against the Song dynasty. During the campaign of 1125-1126, he was the "left vice-marshal": the commander the Jurchen Western Army, which invaded Shanxi Province and besieged Taiyuan, while the Eastern Army, led by the "right vice-marshal" Wolibu, was besieging Bianjing.
When the war against the Song dynasty resumed in 1126, Nianhan, who had taken Taiyuan, joined Wolibu at the walls of Bianjing. Together the two armies besieged the Song capital for a month, conquered it on January 9, 1127, captured the Song emperors Huizong and Qinzong, and returned to the Jin capital, Huining Prefecture, with their prisoners and loot.
Nianhan continued to be influential throughout Emperor Taizong's reign. He, along with Wanyan Xiyin, was instrumental in persuading Emperor Taizong to bequeath the throne to Aguda's son, Hela, rather than to his own son, Puluhu.
Like other top Jurchen generals, during Emperor Taizong's reign, Nianhan was able to run a portion of the empire as a semi-independent warlord, running his own government in Shanxi Province. However, he lost his military power during Emperor Xizong's drive to centralise the control of the empire in the hands of the central bureaucracy, and in 1135 was transferred to a position in the central government.

Commemoration

Mounted statues of Nianhan and Aguda have been erected on the grounds of the Jin Dynasty Shangjing History Museum at the site of the old Jin capital, Shangjing, near present-day Acheng District, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province.