On Revision and Reconstruction: A Discussion about the Founding Year of the Jin Dynasty and Related Questions

According to records in the Jinshi, Wanyan Aguda established the Jin dynasty and proclaimed himself emperor in the year 1115. He selected the dynastic name Da Jin and the era name Shouguo. Liu Pujiang’s publications, however, have raised serious doubts about the Jinshi version of the Jin dynasty’s founding narrative and sparked a scholarly debate on the matter. On the basis of Liu Pujiang’s research and by careful analysis of records on the founding of the Jin state in Song and Yuan dynasties documents and stone inscriptions, this article manages to restore a rough picture of the real history of the early Jin. On advice by his counsellor Yang Pu, Aguda established the Jin dynasty and declared himself emperor in the seventh year (1117) of the Tianqing period of the Liao. He proclaimed the dynastic name Da Jin and the era name Tianfu. The founding history of the Jin dynasty as described in the Jinshi should be considered the product of historical revision that occurred during the rewriting process of the Taizu shilu. The era name Shouguo was only created retrospectively.