The national line of policy of the Hsiung-nu did not at all mean an end of hostilities and raids on Chinese territory, so that Kao Tsu declared himself ready to give the Hsiung-nu the foodstuffs and clothing materials they needed if they would make an end of their raids.  A treaty to this effect was concluded, and sealed by the marriage of a Chinese princess with Mao Tun.  This was the first international treaty in the Far East between two independent powers mutually recognized as equals, and the forms of international diplomacy developed in this time remained the standard forms for the next thousand years.  The agreement was renewed at the accession of each new ruler, but was never adhered to entirely by either side.  The needs of the Hsiung-nu increased with the expansion of their empire and the growing luxury of their court; the Chinese, on the other hand, wanted to give as little as possible, and no doubt they did all they could to cheat the Hsiung-nu.  Thus, in spite of the treaties the Hsiung-nu raids went on.  With China’s progressive consolidation, the voluntary immigration of Chinese into the Hsiung-nu empire came to an end, and the Hsiung-nu actually began to kidnap Chinese subjects.  These were the main features of the relations between Chinese and Hsiung-nu almost until 100 B.C.

In the extreme south, around the present-day Canton, another independent empire had been formed in the years of transition, under the leadership of a Chinese.  The narrow basis of this realm was no doubt provided by the trading colonies, but the indigenous population of Yueeh tribes was insufficiently civilized for the building up of a state that could have maintained itself against China.  Kao Tsu sent a diplomatic mission to the ruler of this state, and invited him to place himself under Chinese suzerainty (196 B.C.).  The ruler realized that he could offer no serious resistance, while the existing circumstances guaranteed him virtual independence and he yielded to Kao Tsu without a struggle.

3 Brief feudal reaction.  Consolidation of the gentry

Kao Tsu died in 195 B.C.  From then to 179 the actual ruler was his widow, the empress Lue, while children were officially styled emperors.  The empress tried to remove all the representatives of the emperor’s family and to replace them with members of her own family.  To secure her position she revived the feudal system, but she met with strong resistance from the dynasty and its supporters who already belonged in many cases to the new gentry, and who did not want to find their position jeopardized by the creation of new feudal lords.

On the death of the empress her opponents rose, under the leadership of Kao Tsu’s family.  Every member of the empress’s family was exterminated, and a son of Kao Tsu, known later under the name of Wen Ti (Emperor Wen), came to the throne.  He reigned from 179 to 157 B.C.  Under him there were still many fiefs, but with the limitation which the emperor Kao Tsu had laid down shortly before his death:  only members of the imperial family should receive fiefs, to which the title of King was attached.  Thus all the more important fiefs were in the hands of the imperial family, though this did not mean that rivalries came to an end.