What happened
Kaifeng fell in January 1127, at the end of a second siege. The Jin carried off Emperor Qinzong and his father, the retired Emperor Huizong — the artist-emperor — together with thousands of imperial clansmen, palace women and craftsmen to the northeast. Both emperors died in captivity.
Background
Jurchen Jin armies besieged the capital twice. The first siege, in 1126, was bought off; the Jin returned, and the second siege ended with the city’s fall.
Consequences
A surviving prince, Zhao Gou, escaped south and refounded the dynasty as Emperor Gaozong — the Southern Song, with its capital eventually at Hangzhou. The humiliation defined the era: it set off the wars of Yue Fei’s generation, and the poem traditionally attributed to Yue Fei, “Man Jiang Hong,” cries that “the shame of Jingkang has not yet been wiped away.”