had brought wide stretches of Chinese territory under the rebels’ power, beginning with the southern coast.  This rising was the first in the south.  It was led by members of a secret society which was a direct continuation of the “Yellow Turbans” of the latter part of the second century A.D. and of organized church-Taoism.  The whole course of this rising of the exploited and ill-treated lower classes was very similar to that of the popular rising of the “Yellow Turbans”.  The movement spread as far as the neighbourhood of Canton, but in the end it was suppressed, mainly by Liu Yue.

Through these achievements Liu Yue’s military power and political influence steadily increased; he became the exponent of all the cliques working against the Huan clique.  He arranged for his supporters to dispose of Huan Hsuean’s chief collaborators; and then, in 404, he himself marched on the capital.  Huan Hsuean had to flee, and in his flight he was killed in the upper Yangtze region.  The emperor was restored to his throne, but he had as little to say as ever, for the real power was Liu Yue’s.

Before making himself emperor, Liu Yue began his great northern campaign, aimed at the conquest of the whole of western China.  The Toba had promised to remain neutral, and in 415 he was able to conquer the “Later Ch’in” in Shensi.  The first aim of this campaign was to make more accessible the trade routes to Central Asia, which up to now had led through the difficult mountain passes of Szechwan; to this end treaties of alliance had been concluded with the states in Kansu against the “Later Ch’in”.  In the second place, this war was intended to increase Liu Yue’s military strength to such an extent that the imperial crown would be assured to him; and finally he hoped to cut the claws of pro-Huan Hsuean elements in the “Later Ch’in” kingdom who, for the sake of the link with Turkestan, had designs on Szechwan.

3 The Liu-Sung dynasty (A.D. 420-478) and the Southern Ch’i dynasty (479-501)

After his successes in 416-17 in Shensi, Liu Yue returned to the capital, and shortly after he lost the chief fruits of his victory to Ho-lien P’o-p’o, the Hun ruler in the north, while Liu Yue himself was occupied with the killing of the emperor (419) and the installation of a puppet.  In 420 the puppet had to abdicate and Liu Yue became emperor.  He called his dynasty the Sung dynasty, but to distinguish it from another and more famous Sung dynasty of later time his dynasty is also called the Liu-Sung dynasty.

The struggles and intrigues of cliques against each other continued as before.  We shall pass quickly over this period after a glance at the nature of these internal struggles.