女真大字

完颜阿骨打的从侄。他受命仿照汉文楷字，并基于契丹文字，配合女真口语，创制女真文字，于天辅三年(1119年)颁行，史称女真大字。

战功

从金太祖完颜阿骨打征战，后从完颜宗翰袭辽天祚帝。收降辽西京（今山西大同）。

金太宗天会三年（1125年），金第一次伐宋，时任元帅右监军，自西京攻太原。天会五年（1127年），金第二次伐宋，与诸将掳宋徽、钦二帝及后妃还，北宋亡。后从完颜宗翰追宋康王赵构于扬州。天会十三年（1135年），金太宗死，立金熙宗，任尚书左丞相兼侍中。熙宗天眷二年（1139年），封陈王，与完颜宗干共诛完颜宗磐、完颜宗隽。第二年，以「心在无君」等罪名与子同赐死。

评价

熙宗皇统三年（1143年），追赠邢国公。海陵王天德三年（1151年），追封豫王。海陵王正隆二年（1157年），降封金源郡王。金世宗大定十五年（1175年），谥「贞宪」。

家族

妻妾

• 正妃：乌古论曷罗哂，金穆宗之妻贞惠皇后乌古论氏的侄女。

• 次妃：李舜英（1110年－？），原为北宋和王赵栻之妻，靖康之变被俘，归完颜希尹为妾。

• 妾：忽土特满。

• 妾：王猫儿，原为宋徽宗妃嫔，封南阳郡夫人，靖康之变被俘，归完颜希尹为妾。

• 妾：刘百古，原为宋徽宗妃嫔，封益国夫人，靖康之变被俘，归完颜希尹为妾。

• 妾：章好郎，原为宋徽宗妃嫔，封夫人，靖康之变被俘，归完颜希尹为妾。

• 妾：孙星奴，原为宋徽宗妃嫔，封夫人，靖康之变被俘，归完颜希尹为妾。

• 妾：赵福金，原为宋徽宗之女，封茂德帝姬，靖康之变被俘，被完颜宗望强迫和亲，完颜宗望死后归完颜希尹为妾。

子孙

• 子：完颜把荅（ - 1140年），同修国史，和父亲同时被处死。

• 子：完颜漫带（ - 1140年），符宝郎，和父亲同时被处死。

• 子：完颜挞挞（ - 1140年），明威将军，杀完颜宗磐并奸淫其妻后受责受惊而死。

• 孙：完颜守道、完颜守贞、完颜守能。

Life

Wanyan Xiyin's original Jurchen name is transcribed in Chinese sources as "Gushen", "Wushi" or "Hushe". He was from the Wanyan tribe, the ruling clan of the Jin dynasty, but was not in the direct imperial family line. His father was Huandu (欢都), a cousin of Aguda (Emperor Taizu), the founder of the Jin dynasty. Along with Nianhan (Wanyan Zonghan), Wanyan Xiyin was one of the chief advisers to Aguda. He helped Aguda in unifying the various Jurchen tribes under the Wanyan tribe's leadership, and overthrowing the Khitan-led Liao dynasty. After Aguda's death, Wanyan Xiyin continued to serve as a civil minister in the imperial court of Wuqimai (Emperor Taizong), Aguda's younger brother and successor. However, he fell into disgrace during the reign of Emperor Xizong, Emperor Taizong's successor, and was eventually forced to commit suicide in 1140.

According to contemporary Chinese sources, Wanyan Xiyin "was crafted and talented. It was he who personally devised laws and the script for the Jurchen, and thus shaped them into one state (guo; 国). The people of the state called him shan-man (珊蛮); shan-man in Jurchen refers to a shaman. This is because he understood changing conditions like a good. From Nianhan down, nobody was able to be his equal."

As the translator of this text, Herbert Franke, notes, this may be the earliest known Chinese document in which the term shaman (珊蛮) is attested; it corresponds to the Manchu saman ("shaman, sorcerer").

Wanyan Xiyin was fascinated by Chinese classics, and collected a large library when Jurchens seized and looted the capital of the Northern Song dynasty, Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng), in the Jin–Song Wars. He invited several Han Chinese scholars, led by Yuwen Xuzhong (宇文虚中; a Song envoy detained by the Jurchens), to advise him and to teach his sons and grandsons. Hong Hao (洪皓) – another Song envoy similarly detained by the Jurchens – though that it was under Yuwen Xuzhong's influence that a variety of Han Chinese cultural practices entered the Jin dynasty, such as the forms of government organisations, the scale of official ranks, salaries, and hereditary privileges, as well as the rules for assigning posthumous names to emperors and the taboo against using characters that appear in emperors' names.

The instruction offered by Yuwen Xuzhong and other Han Chinese scholars must have been successful, as Wanyan Xiyin's sons were able to write Chinese poems for Hong Hao. The degree of their sinicisation was high enough for one of them to become one of the first Jurchens to have a Han Chinese wife.

The tombs of Wanyan Xiyin and his family members are said to be located near present-day Shulan, Jilin Province. Since 1961, they have been listed on the provincial register of the protected historical sites.

Jurchen script

On Aguda's orders, in 1119 or 1120, Wanyan Xiyin created the Jurchen script, known as the "large-character script", for use in the administration of the new Jurchen (Jin) Empire. He based it on Chinese characters and the Khitan script.