In foreign affairs the whole eleventh century was a period of diplomatic manoeuvring, with every possible effort to avoid war.  There was long-continued fighting with the Kitan, and at times also with the Turco-Tibetan Hsia, but diplomacy carried the day:  tribute was paid to both enemies, and the effort was made to stir up the Kitan against the Hsia and vice versa; the other parties also intrigued in like fashion.  In 1110 the situation seemed to improve for the Sung in this game, as a new enemy appeared in the rear of the Liao (Kitan), the Tungusic Juchen (Jurchen), who in the past had been more or less subject to the Kitan.  In 1114 the Juchen made themselves independent and became a political factor.  The Kitan were crippled, and it became an easy matter to attack them.  But this pleasant situation did not last long.  The Juchen conquered Peking, and in 1125 the Kitan empire was destroyed; but in the same year the Juchen marched against the Sung.  In 1126 they captured the Sung capital; the emperor and his art-loving father, who had retired a little earlier, were taken prisoner, and the Northern Sung dynasty was at an end.

The collapse came so quickly because the whole edifice of security between the Kitan and the Sung was based on a policy of balance and of diplomacy.  Neither state was armed in any way, and so both collapsed at the first assault from a military power.

(2) The Liao (Kitan) dynasty in the north (937-1125)

1 Social structure.  Claim to the Chinese imperial throne

The Kitan, a league of tribes under the leadership of an apparently Mongol tribe, had grown steadily stronger in north-eastern Mongolia during the T’ang epoch.  They had gained the allegiance of many tribes in the west and also in Korea and Manchuria, and in the end, about A.D. 900, had become the dominant power in the north.  The process of growth of this nomad power was the same as that of other nomad states, such as the Toba state, and therefore need not be described again in any detail here.  When the T’ang dynasty was deposed, the Kitan were among the claimants to the Chinese throne, feeling fully justified in their claim as the strongest power in the Far East.  Owing to the strength of the Sha-t’o Turks, who themselves claimed leadership in China, the expansion of the Kitan empire slowed down.  In the many battles the Kitan suffered several setbacks.  They also had enemies in the rear, a state named Po-hai, ruled by Tunguses, in northern Korea, and the new Korean state of Kao-li, which liberated itself from Chinese overlordship in 919.

In 927 the Kitan finally destroyed Po-hai.  This brought many Tungus tribes, including the Jurchen (Juchen), under Kitan dominance.  Then, in 936, the Kitan gained the allegiance of the Turkish general Shih Ching-t’ang, and he was set on the Chinese throne as a feudatory of the Kitan.  It was hoped now to secure dominance over China, and accordingly the Mongol name of the dynasty was altered to “Liao