The Song Dynasty

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Zhao Kuangyin founded the Song dynasty in 960 AD，after conquering the brief Later Zhou dynasty that had beenruling the North China Plain.Emperor Taizu and his brother，who succeeded him as Emperor Taizong in 976AD，conquered the rest of the north and the several kingdoms in the south，unifying the empire in 978 AD.They established the dynasty’s capital at Kaifeng in Henan Province.But powerful Barbarian states in the north blocked all attempts to expand the empire in that direction.

Zhao Kuangyin took over the middle Yangzi River Area in 963AD，Sichuan in 965 AD，Guangdong in 971 AD，and Anhui，Jiangxi，and Hunan in 975 AD.After his death in 976AD，his younger brother succeeded in conquering Jiangsu and Zhejiang in 978 and Shanxi in 979 AD.The Song dynasty was

one of several states competing for power in continental EastAsia.The survival of the dynasty was tied to the government’s ability to establish stable relations with foreign states.After unifying north and south，Emperor Taizong，the younger brother，turned to the northeastern border（in the area of what is now Beijing）and tried to recover 16 prefectures with amainly native-Chinese population from the Qidans，a tribal confederation that had established the Liao dynasty in 907.

The Song army was defeated，and in 1004 it signed a peace treaty with the Liao in which it agreed to make an annual payment of 100，000 ounces of silver and 200，000 bolts of silk.

Although humiliating，the combination of the peace treaty and the Song’s large defensive army secured relative peace for more than a century.Another inner Asian tribal confederation，the Tanguts，a tribe of Tibetans established the Xixia Dynasty（1038-1227 AD）on the Song’s northwestern border.The Tangut state also received an annual subsidy from the Song once peace was made in 1044 AD.

Some Tibetan tribes occupied Tufan（what is now Qinghai province and Tibet）on the western border.On the Song’s’s southwestern border in what is now Yunnan province was the independent kingdom of Dali）.

So，from the very beginning，the Song Dynasty was under the threats of Barbarian invasions.