Editing Jin dynasty (1115–1234) (section)

== Government ==
{{see also|Military of the Jin dynasty (1115–1234)}}
The government of the Jin dynasty merged Jurchen customs with institutions adopted from the Liao and Song dynasties.{{sfn|Franke|1994b|p=265}} The pre-dynastic Jurchen government was based on the quasi-egalitarian tribal council.{{sfn|Franke|1994b|pp=265–266}} Jurchen society at the time did not have a strong political hierarchy. The ''Shuo Fu'' ({{zhi|c=說郛}}) records that the Jurchen tribes were not ruled by central authority and locally elected their chieftains.{{sfn|Franke|1994b|p=265}} Tribal customs were retained after Aguda united the Jurchen tribes and formed the Jin dynasty, coexisting alongside more centralised institutions.{{sfn|Franke|1994b|p=266}} The Jin dynasty had five capitals, a practice they adopted from the [[Balhae]] and the Liao.{{sfn|Franke|1994b|p=270}} The Jin had to overcome the difficulties of controlling a multicultural empire composed of territories once ruled by the Liao and Northern Song. The solution of the early Jin government was to establish separate government structures for different ethnic groups.{{sfn|Franke|1994b|p=267}}

The Jin court maintained a clear separation between the sedentary population who had lived under Liao rule, and the sedentary population who formerly lived under Northern Song rule but had never been under Liao rule. The former they referred to as ''hanren'' or ''yanren'' while the latter they referred to as ''nanren''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thomas Mullaney, James Patrick Leibold, Stéphane Gros, Eric Armand Vanden Bussche |title=Critical Han Studies |date=2012 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520289758 |pages=186–187}}</ref>