Rise and Fall of the Imperial Clan: The Wanyan Clan of Beijing

Author: Jing Ai
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-06-01
Features: The existence of the Jurchen remnants in Beijing is a rather accidental phenomenon. After the fall of the Jin Dynasty, the imperial Jurchen family primarily resided in two different locations. The imperial relatives who followed the emperor were mostly concentrated in Nanjing Kaifeng Prefecture (now Kaifeng City, Henan Province); the imperial relatives who refused to move south were still gathered in Shangying Prefecture Huining Fu (now Acheng City, Heilongjiang Province). The Jurchen remnants in these two places underwent more than 760 years of vicissitudes after the fall of the Jin Dynasty, including the Yuan, Ming, Qing, and Republican periods, and were almost completely assimilated by the Han and other ethnic groups. Now, it is difficult to find conclusive evidence of Jurchen descendants. Therefore, the existence of the Jurchen remnants in Beijing holds certain value for understanding the history of the Jurchen people and their relationship with the Qing Dynasty.