chin 665Qan Möngke on Aug.12, 1259, and a subsequent succession crisis,
brought on a pause in hostilities. This was not used by the Southern
Sung to its advantage, and Mongol envoys to its court in 1260 and
1261 were treated badly. After renewed border clashes, the war began
again in 1268. From 1273, the famous general Bayan was in command
of the Mongol troops. He crossed the Yangtze in 1275 and thereafter
defeated the main Chinese forces. The Empress Dowager, on behalf of
the child emperor Kung-tsung, sent an envoy to Bayan and proposed
that the Southern Sung become a nephew country to the Great Qan
and pay an annual tribute. The envoy returned on Mar.19, 1276, with
a flat rejection. The Empress Dowager and the child emperor then
surrendered, and on Mar.26 the Mongols entered the Palace.
Relations between the Chinese and Jurchen can be divided into
two periods. The earlier should be dated 925 to 1142. The first
recorded mission from the Jurchen to China was to the Later T’ang
in 925, followed by another to the Later Chou in 959. From 961, the
Jurchen traded with the Sung. But, for good reasons, the chief deal-
ings of the Jurchen until their unification by A-ku-ta in 1115 were
with their Khitan overlords. The various tribes had different aims.
Some circumvented the Khitan prohibition of trading with China and
complained to the Sung in 991 that the Khitan attempted to prevent
the traffic. Others reported to the Liao court in 995 that the Sung
tried to incite them against it. Some Jurchen sought titles from the
Liao and offered aid against Koryo. This fragmention of the Jurchen
made them valueless to China as a counterweight to the Liao. Their
missions were consequently for trade. But when after 1115 the Liao
State began to disintegrate, an alliance of the classical type across a
common enemy became a Sung desideratum, with the recovery of the
Sixteen Commanderies as the ultimate goal. This failed because of the
weakness of Sung and the incompetence of its government. The Sung
contribution toward the defeat of Liao was negligible and therefore
the treaty with the Jurchen in 1123 was not to Sung’s advantage. It
meant in practice little more than that the tributary relationship of
Sung to Liao had been transferred to Chin. Conflicting interests led
to war in 1125, the fall of K’ai-feng in 1127, the detention of Hui-
tsung and Ch’in-tsung with their families in Manchuria, and the end
of Northern Sung.
Hui-tsung died in captivity in 1135, and his empress, the Lady
Cheng, at about the same time. When this became known in Southern
Sung in 1137, diplomatic efforts were concentrated on the return of