In this essay I am going to write a brief summary of the Qidan Liao Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, which happened between 916 CE – 1368 CE. This essay is based on the third chapter of the book, “History of China” by J.A.G. Roberts, Third Edition, 2011.
Introduction
After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, China fell into another period of disunity. For 53 years, the North part of China was ruled by five dynasties and the South part of China was divided into ten kingdoms.
The Qidan Liao Dynasty (916 CE – 1125 CE)
The Qidan were a group of tribes, ancestors to the Xianbei (nomadic Chinese who lived in modern-day Mongolia).
In the 7th century the Qidan invaded Hebei (province near modern-day Beijing). They were defeated severely and were forced to follow Chinese authority. When the Tang authority started to collapse, the tributary relationship, which the Qidan had agreed to, turned into an aggressive military stance. This is believed to be the spur that made the all the Qidan tribes unify as one.
Abaoji, the leader of one of the Qidan tribes, united all of the tribes and started the Liao Dynasty in 916 CE. Abaoji adopted Chinese rule and set up his capital in present-day Liaoning (north-east province bordering North Korea and the Yellow Sea). Abaoji recruited warriors from different tribes to be his bodyguards. In 924 CE, Abaoji sent an expedition to the north west of China, which made the Uighurs subject to the Liao Dynasty. In the same year Abaoji also overthrew the kingdom of Bohai.
Before Abaoji’s death in 926 CE, he made it clear that he wanted to conquer northern China.
In 937 CE, the Shatuo Later Tang kingdom (a small dynasty that tried to rule after the Tang fell, they controlled most of Northern China, where Abaoji wanted to conquer), were having a succession dispute, the Qidan came and intervened. The Qidan ended up having to sign over a strip of their land knowns as the Sixteen Prefectures and allowed themselves to be controlled by the Later Tang (also known by the name Jin).
In 947 CE, the Qidan tried to invade and control Jin territory for a few months. They realized that they would not be able to hold the territories for long and fled to northern China.
The Qidan Liao ruled over part of north China and the lands beyond (Mongolia, North Korea and Russia), until 1125 CE, the year the Qidan Liao Dynasty fell.
The Qidan Liao lasted a long time, but their ruling system, known as ‘dualism’, caused tension between their north and south territories. The northern territories were ruled with customs in the Qidan society, while the southern territories (whose capital was in modern-day Beijing, which was part of the Sixteen Prefectures), were ruled by Tang customs.
The Song Dynasty (960 CE – 1279 CE)
The Song Dynasty was founded by Zhao Kuangyin (later known as Emperor Taizu). Zhao Kuangyin was the military leader of the Later Zhou Dynasty (951 CE – 960 CE).
Emperor Taizu was smart. He knew he had to convince the provincial commanders of northern China to submit to him. Instead of fighting on the battlefield, he presented honors and pensions for them. He also created a loyal army for the dynasty.
After Emperor Taizu’s death in 976 CE all of inner China, besides the two independent kingdoms in Zhejiang (a Chinese province near modern-day Shanghai) and Shanxi (a Chinese province near modern-day Beijing), and the parts of China ruled by the Qidan, were under Song reign.
Emperor Taizong (ruled from 976 CE – 997 CE), the brother of Emperor Taizu, took over as emperor. He acquired the obedience of the Zhejiang and the Shanxi and formed an alliance with the Xi Xia state (formed in the Ordos region, modern-day Gansu).
In 979, Taizong tried attempted to conquer the Sixteen Prefectures, which belonged to the Qidan Liao at the time. After almost being defeated near Beijing, Taizong tried two more times to invade into the Sixteen Prefectures. It was not until 1004 CE, that the Song and the Qidan Liao came to a truce. This truce was called the Treaty of Shanyuan. It stated that the Qidan could keep the Sixteen Prefectures, and that the Song was required to pay for the military expenses the Qidan used to keep the Song out. It has been said that this treaty was the “nearest thing to equality in Chinese history until modern times.”[i]
During the early Song period, scholars and officials were trying to improve their dynasty and start new reforms. One of the more noticeable was Wang Anshi, a pupil of Fan Zhongyan (a man who increased the standard on examinations and increased the production of agriculture with his reforms).
During the time of Emperor Renzong (1022 CE – 1063 CE), Wang Anshi presented the emperor with an essay known as the “Ten Thousand Word Memorial”. In this essay Wang Anshi expressed his concern for the current state of the empire (at that time a famous writer named Ouyang Xiu, was trying to form a Confucian party). Wang Anshi also suggested that men should be placed in positions where they had special skills and that the emperor should do more than only oversee the government. Emperor Renzong ignored these suggestions. But Emperor Shenzong (1068 CE – 1085 CE), like Wang Anshi’s ideas and appointed him as Chief Minister, which Wang Anshi occupied until 1076 CE and reoccupied from 1078 CE – 1085 CE.
After being given the position of Chief Minister, Wang Anshi started many new reforms, one of the most noticeable ones in 1074 CE. It was called the Tea and Horse agency. The Chinese would pay tea for war horses from Tibet, this obviously saved the Chinese money, and it started a monopoly around the Sichuan tea industry. The agency continued until 1126 CE when the Jin (Jurchen Jin Dynasty) captured most of north China. This stopped the income of horses from Tibet and ruined the Sichuan tea industry.
In 1115 CE, the Song made an alliance with the Jurchen Jin and attacked the Qidan in an attempt conquer the Sixteen Prefectures. In 1125 CE, the Jin overthrew the Qidan. Towards the end of Song reign the Jin attacked the north of China and captured the Song’s emperor as prisoner. The Jin forced the Song to flee south. Because the Jin did not have power in the south of China they made an agreement with the Song, which involved the Song paying an abnormal amount of silver and silk. With internal rebellions and fights with the Jin the Song fell in 1279 CE.
The Jurchen Jin (1115 CE – 1234 CE)
The rule of the Jurchen Jin can be divided into three parts. The time of dualism, this lasted until 1150 CE. A time of sinicization (non-Chinese start using Chinese practices), and the period of decline, which started in 1215 CE.
When the Jin first started they adapted the practice of dualism from the Qidan Liao. The Song tried to enforce their rule and power on the north part of Jin territory, which resulted in Jurchen ‘farmer-soldiers’ to head south and quell Chinese rebellions with harsh and brutal means. This continued until 1142 CE when the Jin and the Song made a peace treaty.
From 1150 CE to 1215 CE, Jin emperors were carrying out reforms in hope to Sinicize their dynasty. It started with Emperor Hailing (1150 CE – 1161 CE). He set up the Jin capital in Yanjing (modern-day Beijing), cut down the power the Jurchen nobility could hold, and admitted Chinese and Qidan people into the ranks. Emperor Hailing studied Chinese and followed certain Chinese customs, like drinking tea. But he also separated himself from the Chinese in slight ways, like allowing public flogging of senior officials at court.
Hailing’s successor, Emperor Shizong (1161 CE – 1189 CE), tried to setback the sinicization by promoting the Jurchen language instead of Chinese, and prohibiting the people from wearing Chinese clothing and marrying Chinese people. However, Shizong used a Chinese way of governing and employed thousands of Chinese officials. After Shizong’s death in 1189 CE, the Jurchen culture was almost completely abandoned and sinicization continued. By 1191 CE, the rule of not being allowed to marry a Chinese was lifted and the emperors of the Jin considered themselves as a genuine Chinese dynasty.
There were many causes to the fall of the Jin starting from 1194 CE when the Yellow River went over its banks. The Southern Song also declared war against the Jin in 1206 CE. Genghis Khan started to rise and attacked the Jin court from 1211 CE to 1213 CE. The Xi Xia state also started a rebellion against the Jin. With all of the threats surrounding them, the Jin moved their capital to Kaifeng (a city in the Henan province) in 1215 CE.
In 1232 CE, the Mongols, with their new leader, Ogodei, continued the attack on the Jin and besieged Kaifeng, which lasted for over a year. The last Jin emperor tried to warn the Song about the ruthlessness of the Mongols. Instead of listening the Song allied with the Mongols and attacked the Jin. The dynasty ended in 1234 CE when the emperor committed suicide.
The Southern Song Dynasty (1127 CE – 1279 CE)
The Southern Song Dynasty was started by Gaozong who reigned from 1127 CE – 1162 CE. He put the capital in Hangzhou (a city in the Zhejiang province) and started to reassert the Song’s way of ruling over the south of China. Emperor Gaozong, at the beginning of his rule, did not have the military power suppress the rebellions and started a law known as ‘summoning to pacification’. It stated that anyone who tried to rebel was given a choice, to surrender and become part of the imperial army, or to be caught and killed.
In the thirteenth century, Han Tuozhou, an emperor of the Song, heard reports of damage caused by the Yellow River’s flooding. He thought that the Chinese under the Jin would rebel if provoked and invaded Jin territory in 1206 CE. The invasion was not planned well and the people did not rebel, instead they raided the Song territory. The fail of this plan led to the dismissal and execution of Han Tuozhou.
In 1208 CE, the Song and the Jin made a peace with each other. By this point in time the Jin already knew the threat of the uprising Mongols. The Song, however, knew nothing of the threat the Mongols posed to their dynasty.
In 1234 CE, the Song tried to reclaim Kaifeng and Beijing from Kublai Khan (Genghis Khan’s grandson). The Mongols and the Songs fought for nearly two decades before the Mongols attacked the Song’s capital and ended the Song dynasty.
The Yuan Dynasty (1271 CE – 1368 CE)
Even though the Yuan Dynasty started in 1271 CE, the Mongol reign across China started in 1206 CE, when Genghis Khan unified all the steppe lands north of China.
After Genghis Khan’s death in 1226 CE, his third son, Ogodei, took over ruling the Mongol Empire. Ogodei invaded Korea, ended the Jin dynasty, attacked Russia, and wreaked damage and destruction over states of eastern Europe. It was only when Ogodei died in 1241 CE that the expansion of the Mongols halted.
The expansion resumed ten years later in 1251 CE, when Mongke (brother of Kublai Khan and grandson of Genghis Khan), took over and reigned. Mongke did not do much conquering and let his brother, Khubilai, do most of the work.
In 1260 CE, Khubilai took over and started ruling. Khubilai established a capital in Kaiping (part of inner Mongolia, modern-day Shangdu). Khubilai resumed the attack on the Southern Song in 1268 CE. After a five year siege the Song finally fell, and the last members of the Song were defeated at sea. Even though Khubilai won this battle, he had a few military setbacks. In 1274 CE and in 1281 CE, Khubilai attempted to invade Japan but was driven back by the Japanese military and the weather. On the second attempt in 1281 CE, the Japanese sent in their kamikaze forces which killed almost half of the Mongol force.
During the last few years of Khubilai’s life he became ill and had to decide who would succeed him. In Mongol culture, a council will vote for khaghan’s (the person that is ruling) male relative. But Khubilai considered himself as a Chinese ruler and tried to do it the Chinese way. He chose his eldest son, Zhenjin, to succeed him. But Zhenjin died in 1285 CE, and Khubilai died in 1294 CE. It was then a rivalry between Temur, Khubilai’s second son, and the eldest surviving son. It is said that rivalries like these contributed to the downfall of the Yuan.
Temur reigned from 1294 CE – 1307 CE, he continued to rule the way his father did. But his successor, Khaishan, gained the throne after a violent fight and spent money extravagantly. Khaishan was succeeded by Ayurbarwada, his brother, who reigned from 1311 CE – 1320 CE. After his death the court split into two. From the split two men emerged, Yesun Temur (reigned from 1323 CE – 1328 CE), and Tugh Temur (reigned from 1328 CE – 1333 CE). The last Mongol emperor was Toghon Temur, who was a minor when he took the throne. Toghon reigned from 1333 CE until 1368 CE when the Mongols fled from China.
From the lat 1340s and onwards the Yuan people were faced with hunger and drought. The emperors lost all control over most Mongol territories. In 1351 CE a peasant uprising led by a man named Liu Fotong weakened the government. Toghon Temur was able to end this rebellion but was tired and running out of military forces. The Yuan dynasty officially ended in 1368 CE, when the Ming attacked and forced the Yuan to surrender.
Conclusion
This is essay was about the Qidan Liao Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty. I hope you now have a basic understanding of what happened during those dynasties. My next History essay will be about the early Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Thanks for reading!
[i] A History of China by J. A. G. Roberts Page 82
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