The Organization and Roles of the Jiu Army(乣軍) Under the Northwestern Frontier’s Zhaotaosi(招討司) of Jin Dynasty

Among the Jiu groups of the Jin dynasty, the ten Jiu armies in Xinan-xibeilu (the southwestern and northwestern routes) were remnants transformed from the Tribal Jiu armies of the Liao dynasty and thus came to be known as the Jiu army. Unlike the Liao dynasty, the Jin dynasty did not employ a system in which the emperor’s right arms governed tribal peoples, so the Jiu army of the Jin dynasty became independent from tribal affiliations. When the Khitan people migrated to Dongbeilu (the northeastern route) following Wowo-Saba’s Rebellion, only the Jiu army, composed of nomadic tribes along the northwestern frontiers, remained in Xinan-xibeilu. The Tribal Jiu armies of Dongbeilu were organized in such a way that non-tribal Khitans, who had migrated from the northwestern frontier, were incorporated into the existing nomadic tribes, thereby showing similarities to the Tribal Jiu armies of the Liao dynasty and thus came to be called the Jiu army. Thus, while the Jiu groups of the Liao dynasty and the Jiu armies of the Jin dynasty’s Xinan-xibeilu and Dongbeilu possessed distinct characteristics, their functional similarities led them all to be designated by the same term, Jiu. Consequently, during the later period of the Jin dynasty, when the Jiu army rebellion occurred, the Jin court easily abandoned the Jiu armies of Xinan-xibeilu, who were ethnically close to the Mongols, but could not relinquish conciliatory policies toward the Tribal Jiu armies of Dongbeilu, composed of Khitans.