Treaty of Shaoxing ends Song-Jin war

January 1142

The Southern Song court, exhausted by years of fighting and stained by the judicial murder of their finest general Yue Fei, signed a humiliating peace with the Jurchen Jin dynasty. The Song emperor formally acknowledged himself a vassal, ceded everything north of the Huai River, and agreed to pay enormous annual tribute in silver and silk. China was now officially and bitterly divided in two.