wishing to enter into relations with China could only do so on China’s
terms, as a vassal of the Son of Heaven.^10 For the court mandarins, all
means of reinforcing the Chinese worldview strengthened their own
influence. If lofty isolation was the price to pay, its ideological and
moral value nevertheless outweighed any material benefit to be gained
from trade over tribute. If the Tang had revelled in the opportunities
offered by more open intercourse with the rest of the world, the Song
were more wary.
With the defeat of Song armies in northern China, and the fall
in 1126 CE of the Song capital of Kaifeng to the Jurchen Jin empire,
the Song court fled south to Hangzhou. The new capital, however, was
vulnerable to attack from the sea and so for the first time a Chinese
dynasty had to build a permanent sea-going navy. Many warships at
first were converted and armed merchantmen, sailed by experienced
merchant seamen, but in time the Southern Song constructed its own
superior vessels with improved naval technology and weaponry.
The Southern Song navy was primarily a defensive force, pro-
tecting the mouth of the Yangze River and the capital from northern
attack, and coastal shipping from the depredations of Korean and
Japanese pirates. It was not used offensively to project Chinese power
into the Nanyang. That was left to the succeeding dynasty. Given the
cost of defence and its reduced land and salt tax base, the Southern
Song dynasty looked to overseas trade to provide an additional source
of revenue. Private trade seems initially to have diminished following
the loss of northern China, but soon picked up again as Muslim traders
returned to southern ports.
With China again divided, however, tribute missions to the
Southern Song fell away, especially from more far-flung regions.
Despite the importance of seaborne trade, the dynasty did little to
extend relations with Southeast Asia, though Suryavarman II,
builder of the great temple of Angkor Wat, did dispatch Cambodia’s
first diplomatic mission to China. Regular missions also arrived from
Dai Viet (Vietnam), Champa and Srivijaya, because it was in their
Early relations