Editing Balhae (section)

====Jin dynasty====
The Khitans themselves eventually succumbed to the [[Jurchen people]], the descendants of the Mohe, who founded the [[Jin dynasty (1115–1234)|Jin dynasty]]. Jurchen proclamations emphasized the common descent of the Balhae and Jurchens from the seven Wuji (勿吉) tribes. The Jin sent two Balhae representatives to recruit "people from their home area" while bearing a message that "The Jurchen and Bohai are originally of the same family; as we rise in arms to smite the wicked, [harm] will not unjustly reach the innocent."{{sfn|Sloane|2014|p=373}} The fourth, fifth and seventh emperors of Jin were mothered by Balhae consorts.{{sfn|Sloane|2014|p=381}} Nevertheless, the 13th century census of Northern China by the Mongols distinguished Balhae people who belonged to the Khitan Empire from other ethnic groups such as Goryeo, Khitans and Jurchens.<ref name="Hong Won-tak page 80-110">Hong Won-tak. "''Liao and Jin: After Khitan and Xianbei in West Manchuria, Jurchen in Eastern Manchuria appeared''" East Asian History: Distortion and Correcting, page 80-110. Seoul: Gudara, 2012.</ref>

A Song observer notes that during the Liao era, Balhae people were not employed in the government, as a result they were the first to defect to the Jin.{{sfn|Sloane|2014|p=376}} The call for Balhae defectors was met with significant success. Aguda was advised by a Balhae man named Yang Pu who aided him in establishing an imperial court. An 1125 embassy noted that Jin protocol officers included Khitans, Jurchens, as well as Balhae. They all spoke Chinese.{{sfn|Sloane|2014|p=373}} A descendant of the Balhae royal family, Da Gao (1086–1153), served in the Jin army and was given command of eight Balhae battalions in the war against the [[Song dynasty]]. One Balhae commander, Guo Yaoshi (active 1116–1132) fought in the Liao, Jin, and Song armies at one point or another.{{sfn|Sloane|2014|p=375}} The Balhae played a critical role in supporting [[Emperor Shizong of Jin]]'s accession to the throne.{{sfn|Sloane|2014|p=383}}

Families of Balhae descent were able to rise high in the Jin hierarchy, including Zhang Rulin (d. 1190) and Zhang Rubi (d. 1187), who were key advisers of Emperor Shizong, and Li Yin (''jinshi'' 1194, d. 1214), who died fighting against the [[Mongols]]. Balhae descendants also participated with success in the Jin imperial examinations. Many Balhae literati-officials such as Gao Kan (d. 1167), Gao Xian (''jinshi'' 1203), Zhang Rulin, Zhang Runeng, Zhang Ruwei (fl. 1150), Zhang Rufang, and Wang Tingyun (1151–1202) were entrusted as arbiters of culture and cultivated taste.{{sfn|Sloane|2014|p=384-385}} Wang Tingyun's family received literary distinctions. His eldest daughter became a [[Daoist]] priestess, named Congqing, and was a poet at the imperial court. Intermarriage between Balhae civil elites in the Jin dynasty was common. In 1190, Wang Ji identified two families he encountered in Liaodong as Balhae. Writing after the fall of the Jin dynasty in 1234, Liu Qi identified the military commander Li Ying as a "Bohai man of Liaodong."{{sfn|Sloane|2014|p=386}}

There were still limitations on Balhae people in the Jin dynasty. In 1136, the Jurchen official Wanyan Puluhu revoked the pardon of a man when his origin was determined to be Balhae. Policies to restrain and weaken Balhae were increased over time. In 1140, an edict abolished Han Chinese and Balhae hereditary military garrisons but not [[Kumo Xi]] and Khitan garrisons. The Jin government also targeted the Balhae population for relocation. Over the years, groups of Balhae who were once moved outside to areas near the Liao supreme or central capital regions were resettled east of the [[Taihang Mountains]], which was completed by 1141. Another relocation south of [[Zhongdu]] was planned in 1149, but the Balhae court attendant Gao Shouxing protested to [[Empress Daoping]], who told the emperor, resulting in the beating and death of the two officials planning the relocation.{{sfn|Sloane|2014|p=381}} A substantial Jin military presence was bought to Liaodong in which as many as thirty Jurchen meng'an units (''meng'an'' literally means ''one thousand'' or units composed of one thousand soldiers) and the families of the retinues were moved to garrisons in the Eastern Capital Circuit. The southward migration of Jurchens, especially Jurchen aristocrats, may have contributed to a decline of people who identified as Balhae.{{sfn|Sloane|2014|p=389-390}} In 1177, a decree was passed to abolish the "old Bohai custom" of marriage through mock abduction. Although the Balhae experienced less restrictions under the Jin, there was also less emphasis on Balhae as a distinct group. During the later Jin era, the strong association between Balhae and Liaodong declined as Liaodong became dominated by other identities.{{sfn|Sloane|2014|p=388-389}}

As Balhae descendants became firmly incorporated into the apparatus of the Jurchen-led state, many individual Balhae-descended officials willingly chose to self-identify as Chinese. In 1135, Nansali was chosen as an emissary to Goryeo, for which he changed his name to the Sinitic Wang Zheng. Wang Tingyun also invented a genealogy record on his epitaph tracing his lineage to [[Taiyuan]] rather than Liaodong. The epitaph acknowledges that his most recent ancestors were in the employ of Balhae but added that they only "lived dispersed among the eastern barbarians", rejecting his Balhae identity. The practice of inventing fictitious genealogies to hide ancestry outside of the "Central Territories" was widespread from Song times onward.{{sfn|Sloane|2014|p=390-391}}