diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4661cf2598..76f2586be3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,11 @@ Nokogiri follows [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/), please see the [REA
 * [JRuby] `{XML,HTML}::Document.parse` now invokes `#initialize` exactly once. Previously `#initialize` was not called, which was a problem for subclassing such as done by `Loofah`.
 
 
+### Improved
+
+* [JRuby] Update the algorithm used to calculate `Node#line` to be wrong less-often. The underlying parser, Xerces, does not track line numbers, and so we've always used a hacky solution for this method. [[#1223](https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri/issues/1223)]
+
+
 ## v1.11.1 / 2021-01-06
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/ext/java/nokogiri/XmlNode.java b/ext/java/nokogiri/XmlNode.java
index cfbea83dfa..790b849ec2 100644
--- a/ext/java/nokogiri/XmlNode.java
+++ b/ext/java/nokogiri/XmlNode.java
@@ -1406,14 +1406,22 @@ private boolean count(Node node, int[] counter) {
         if (node == this.node) {
             return true;
         }
+
         NodeList list = node.getChildNodes();
-        for (int i=0; i<list.getLength(); i++) {
-            Node n = list.item(i);
-            if (n instanceof Text
-                    && ((Text)n).getData().contains("\n")) {
-                counter[0] += 1;
+        for (int jchild=0; jchild<list.getLength(); jchild++) {
+            Node child = list.item(jchild);
+
+            if (child instanceof Text) {
+                String text = ((Text)child).getData();
+                int textLength = text.length();
+                for (int jchar = 0; jchar < textLength; jchar++) {
+                    if (text.charAt(jchar) == '\n') {
+                        counter[0] += 1;
+                    }
+                }
             }
-            if (count(n, counter)) return true;
+
+            if (count(child, counter)) return true;
         }
         return false;
     }
diff --git a/test/xml/test_node.rb b/test/xml/test_node.rb
index 5aa3ceebb9..dd4ae4e858 100644
--- a/test/xml/test_node.rb
+++ b/test/xml/test_node.rb
@@ -1055,28 +1055,6 @@ def test_namespace_without_an_href_on_html_node
           assert_nil(node.namespaces['xmlns:o'])
         end
 
-        def test_line
-          xml = Nokogiri::XML(<<~eoxml)
-            <root>
-              <a>
-                Hello world
-              </a>
-            </root>
-          eoxml
-
-          set = xml.search("//a")
-          node = set.first
-          assert_equal(2, node.line)
-        end
-
-        def test_set_line
-          skip("Only supported with libxml2") unless Nokogiri.uses_libxml?
-          document = Nokogiri::XML::Document.new
-          node = document.create_element('a')
-          node.line = 54321
-          assert_equal(54321, node.line)
-        end
-
         def test_xpath_results_have_document_and_are_decorated
           x = Module.new do
             def awesome!; end
@@ -1230,6 +1208,35 @@ def test_wrap
           assert_equal('wrapper', thing.parent.name)
           assert_equal('thing', doc.at_css("wrapper").children.first.name)
         end
+
+        describe "#line" do
+          it "returns a sensible line number for each node" do
+            xml = Nokogiri::XML(<<~eoxml)
+              <a>
+                <b>
+                  Hello world
+                </b>
+                <b>
+                  Goodbye world
+                </b>
+              </root>
+            eoxml
+
+            set = xml.search("//b")
+            assert_equal(2, set[0].line)
+            assert_equal(5, set[1].line)
+          end
+        end
+
+        describe "#line=" do
+          it "overrides the line number of a node" do
+            skip("Xerces does not have line numbers for nodes") unless Nokogiri.uses_libxml?
+            document = Nokogiri::XML::Document.new
+            node = document.create_element('a')
+            node.line = 54321
+            assert_equal(54321, node.line)
+          end
+        end
       end
     end
   end