Page 162 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

it seemed that the Sung would be just one more in a succession of
short-lived houses. But Chao was an able man; in sixteen years of
vigorous campaigning he had practically united China, though, as
Goodrich observed, the Sung armies never succeeded in breaking
the iron ring that had been forged around the imperial boundaries
by the Khitan (until 1125), thejurchen Tungus (until 1234). and
the Mongols in the north; by the Tangut, a Tibetan people (c. 900-
1227), and the Mongols in the northwest; and by Annam and
Nan-chao in the southwest. In 1 125, the dynasty suffered a disas-
ter from which it barely recovered when the Jurchen raided the
capital at Kaifeng and captured the whole court, including the em-
peror Hui-tsung, famous throughout history as a painter, collec-
tor, and connoisseur. In 1127, a young prince and the remaining
officials fled south beyond the barrier of the Yangtse, where the
court wandered from place to place for several years before they
set up what they hoped was to be their temporary capital at
Hangchow. The Jurchen, who named their dynasty Chin, were
now in control of all China north of the Yangtse-Yellow River
watershed. Like the Liao, they were only prevented from further
incursions into Sung territory by the enormous tribute China paid
every year, chiefly in coin and rolls of silk, until Genghis Khan
with his savage hordes descended from the north, obliterating
Map 1 o China in die Sung Dynaity. friend and foe alike.

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