Wikipedia:Today's featured list/June 27, 2014
The campaigns of the Jin–Song Wars were conducted by the Jurchen Jin dynasty and the Song dynasty in the 12th and 13th centuries. This series of conflicts began when the Jurchens declared war against the Song dynasty in November 1125. The Jin captured the provincial capital of Taiyuan and besieged the Song capital of Kaifeng. The Jurchens withdrew when the Song promised to pay an annual indemnity. As the Song dynasty weakened, the Jin armies conducted a second siege against Kaifeng. The city was captured and looted, and the Song dynasty emperor, Emperor Qinzong (pictured), was imprisoned and taken north to Manchuria as a hostage. The remainder of the Song court retreated to southern China, beginning the Southern Song period of Chinese history. A peace accord, the Treaty of Shaoxing, was negotiated and ratified in 1142. Peace between the Song and Jin was interrupted twice. Emperor Hailingwang of Jin invaded the Southern Song in 1161, while Song revanchists tried and failed to retake northern China in 1204. (Full list...)