Turning now to China, the famous House of Sung, the early years of which were so full of promise of national prosperity, and which is deservedly associated with one of the two most brilliant periods in Chinese literature, was founded in 960.  Korea was then forced, in order to protect herself from the encroachments of China, to accept the hated supremacy of the Kitans; but being promptly called upon to surrender large tracts of territory, she suddenly entered into an alliance with the Nue-chens, who were also ready to revolt, and who sent an army to the assistance of their new friends.  The Nue-chen and Korean armies, acting in concert, inflicted a severe defeat on the Kitans, and from this victory may be dated the beginning of the Nue-chen power.  China had indeed already sent an embassy to the Nue-chens, suggesting an alliance and also a combination with Korea, by which means the aggression of the Kitans might easily be checked; but during the eleventh century Korea became alienated from the Nue-chens, and even went so far as to advise China to join with the Kitans in crushing the Nue-chens.  China, no doubt, would have been glad to get rid of both these troublesome neighbours, especially the Kitans, who were gradually filching territory from the empire, and driving the Chinese out of the southern portion of the province of Chihli.

For a long period China weakly allowed herself to be blackmailed by the Kitans, who, in return for a large money subsidy and valuable supplies of silk, forwarded a quite insignificant amount of local produce, which was called “tribute” by the Chinese court.

Early in the twelfth century, the Kitan monarch paid a visit to the Sungari River, for the purpose of fishing, and was duly received by the chiefs of the Nue-chen tribes in that district.  On this occasion the Kitan Emperor, who had taken perhaps more liquor than was good for him, ordered the younger men of the company to get up and dance before him.  This command was ignored by the son of one of the chiefs, named Akuteng (sometimes, but wrongly, written Akuta), and it was suggested to the Emperor that he should devise means for putting out of the way so uncompromising a spirit.  No notice, however, was taken of the affair at the moment; and that night Akuteng, with a band of followers, disappeared from the scene.  Making his way eastward, across the Sungari, he started a movement which may be said to have culminated five hundred years later in the conquest of China by the Manchus.  In 1114 he began to act on the offensive, and succeeded in inflicting a severe defeat on the Kitans.  By 1115 he had so far advanced towards the foundation of an independent kingdom that he actually assumed the title of Emperor.  Thus was presented the rare spectacle of three contemporary rulers, each of whom claimed a title which, according to the Chinese theory, could only belong to one.  The style he chose for his dynasty was Chin (also read Kin), which means “gold,” and which some say was intended to mark a superiority over Liao (= iron), that of the Kitans, on the ground that gold is not, like iron, a prey to rust.  Others, however, trace the origin of the term to the fact that gold was found in the Nue-chen territory.