CHAPTER XIV.

THE POSTERIOR DYNASTIES AND THE SUNG.

(907-1280 A.D.)

THE period of disturbance intervening between the fall of the Tang and the foundation of the Sung Dynasty extends over little more than half a century; but during this interval, fifteen emperors and five dynasties succeeded each other. They are known as the "posterior dynasties " because they all reproduce the name of some former ruling house. The Heou or "after" Leang reigned for sixteen years, and their fall required little further explanation to posterity than that a favourite musician had been employed. as general. The Heou Tang occupied the throne for fourteen years; the dynasty was founded by a son of Li-ke-yong, "the one-eyed dragon," a Tatar prince who had helped the last but one of the Tang emperors to suppress a rebellion, and who stands high in the favour of the historians. He is repeatedly mentioned as a loyal ally who might have saved the Crown if he had not been distrusted and kept unduly at a distance, on account of his extraction.

The name of the short-lived dynasty was adopted as a compliment to their former patrons. The first emperor of the stock was an enthusiast for the stage, and comedians are mentioned as taking the place of eunuchs in his favour. They not only enjoyed the license accorded to court fools in mediæval Europe, but (924 A.D.) one of them was appointed to an important governorship, and they and the eunuchs together had influence enough to discredit any statesman who sought to reduce the expenditure of the

court.

Two measures of far-reaching consequences were taken in the middle of this 10th century; one was the sub-division of provincial governorships, which increased the number of officers who could look to the Crown for profitable employment, while it lessened each governor's power of making himself dangerously formidable. The Sung Dynasty subsequently reaped the advantage of this change; it fell by attacks from without, not from internal disorganization, and its feebleness in resisting the foreign foe could not seriously be attributed to the decay of feudalism, since the local potentates, who flourished at the expense of the empire, had never been famous for patriotic resistance to alien armies.

The other and more calamitous step was taken when the founder of the third minor dynasty, the Heou Tsin (936 A.D.), summoned the Khitan Tatars to his assistance, offering them, in return, a share in the northern

provinces of China. He promised a yearly tribute of 300,000 pieces of silk, and ceded at once sixteen frontier towns, thus throwing all China open to the Khitan armies. Some of the ceded towns rebelled, thinking it unworthy of their civilization "to submit to barbarians;" but parts of Shansi and Pecheli remained in the Tatars' hands, in addition to the wide region on the North already held by them. The Khitan Dynasty at this stage took the name of Leao, by which it is afterwards known, from the province, Leao-tong, now in its possession; its capital was subsequently placed at Peking.

The Heou Han, shortest lived of all these short-lived families, was founded in 947 A.D. by a general of the emperor, who had previously been taken prisoner by the Khitan Tatars. He fixed his capital at and fortified Cai-fong-fu in Honan. The third prince of the line was deposed as soon as proclaimed, by the leader of an army which had gained some victories in the north. The Heou Chow (951-9) are regarded with less disfavour by the historians than any of their predecessors, and Chi-tsong (954 A.D.), last but one of the fifteen "posterior" emperors, may be held to have begun the work of restoration continued by the founder of the Sung Dynasty. Under him, we hear of a town changing hands without loss of life or disturbance of trade, and he gave his personal name to a very exquisite blue china, manufactured at Cai-fong-fu-a thing for collectors to dream of in fond despair.

He was asked to give an order, and commanded that the china for Imperial use should be henceforward "blue like the sky between the clouds after rain." His instructions were obeyed, the product being as thin as paper, lustrous, resonant, highly polished and delicately veined; colour and texture were so perfect that in later years, when it had become rare, small fragments of it were used for ornaments, like precious stones.1 Chi-tsong, had he lived, might have founded a great dynasty; as it is, he deserves to be remembered kindly by all who find delight in that purest, deepest, and brightest of heaven's blues, which is seen in precious morsels through the ragged rain-clouds, and which, since his day, no human art has succeeded. in reproducing on the lower earth. The self-consciousness of Chinese civilization has been noticed already, but it is curious to find that element mingling in what seems so purely spontaneous an art as Chinese pottery.2

Chi-tsong also recommended himself to the chroniclers by a revival of the anti-Buddhist edicts. The consent of all the elders of a family was required before monastic vows could be taken, and all unauthorized temples were ordered to be destroyed; yet there still remained 60,000 priests and nuns within the comparatively narrow limits of the imperial State, and statues of Buddha were as numerous as coin of the realm was scarce. Chi-tsong's treatment of the religio-financial difficulty is in the

1 La Porcelaine Chinoise, tr. Stanislas Julien, p. 12. 2" Writers on art advise artists to watch the shadow cast in bright moonlight by a bamboo tree on a white wall." (China, by Robert K. Douglas, p. 194.) The Chinese artist does not idealize, but by force of sympathetic observation he selects for reproduction the natural effects that are ideally perfect as they stand.

best Chinese manner. He explained that he did not wish "to raise doubts amongst the people by the confiscation of the Buddhas, but," he inquired, are these copper statues really what is called Buddha? he had heard that the virtue of Buddha was to do good to the people, and, in that case, since it is for their good to have more good copper cash for use, presumably Buddha would have wished to have his statues melted!

A contemporary statesman ventured to suggest a doubt as to whether the scarcity of copper could really be accounted for by the comparatively small quantity used for tools and Buddhas; and even went so far as to ask whether, if it were due instead to the exportation of copper, this must be looked upon as a calamity or loss, since commodities of some kind, and presumably of at least equal value, must have been received in exchange for it. And, though this view does not seem to have commended itself even to so enlightened a ruler as Chi-tsong, it is interesting as one among many evidences that the Chinese have not rejected without consideration the political and economical ideas now prevalent in Europe.

Apart from Tatar encroachments, none of the five dynasties had been acknowledged in the whole, or even the greater part, of China. The Imperial Dynasty held indeed the Middle State, as in the degenerate days of Chow, but it was surrounded by a fluctuating number of minor States, sometimes as many as twelve, some of which were always intriguing with the Tatars, while others were at war among themselves.

The founder of the Sung Dynasty, who was known as Tai-tsou (960 A.D.), had served successfully against the Tatars under Chi-tsong. When the latter died, leaving only an infant son, what was left of the empire was threatened by a coalition between the Leao and the northern Hans, who held Tai-yuen and a territory comprising over forty towns; and the army proclaimed their favourite general by force, the people approving, and the nobles not venturing to oppose. The new Emperor's first thought was how to put a stop to the incessant revolutions of the last half-century. At the time of his accession, besides the Khitan empire, seven separate principalities divided with him the inheritance of Tang. These were held by descendants or successful rivals of the governors, who secured hereditary offices for themselves in the degeneracy of the empire; and Tai-tsou's first object was to guard against the growth of similar dangers in the future, even before reclaiming the severed fiefs.

His first centralizing measure was well adapted to put the people on his side. He reserved to himself the power of passing capital sentences, and so gave a right of appeal to the emperor from the judgment of all provincial officers; and in the same year he withdrew from them the command of provincial troops, and required them to pay all tribute in full to the Imperial treasury, through which disbursements for local purposes were in future to be made. Without control of money or troops, the highest officers became powerless for evil, and their ambition was driven to content itself with the prizes that a powerful prince could bestow, in return for loyal and diligent service.

It took eighteen years to subdue all the minor States so as to re-unite the empire; the central ones between the Yellow River and the Yang-tsekiang fell first with little resistance; then the second Chow, under whom Sz'chuen had been independent for forty years; then the important district held by the southern Han, with Canton for its capital; and, finally, the remainder of the south, while a voluntary cession by the prince of Wuyuei added a territory nearly equal to that of the reduced empire taken. over by Tai-tsou in 960 A.D.; the northern Hans also surrendered voluntarily, and their officers were retained in the service of the emperor, whose domains thus became conterminous on the north with the empire of the Leao. On the accession of Tai-tsou, under a million families paid tribute to the empire; but on the accession of his son, Tai-tsong (977 A.D.), the number had increased to nearly four millions, not so much by growth of population or vigilance of the revenue officers, as by the addition of whole provinces to the Imperial territory. By 982 A.D. it was said that the empire was reunited, as in the days of Han or Tang, with the exception of the ill-fated cessions made to the Leao. And this was undoubtedly true as regards China proper, though the influence and authority exercised by the greatest Tang emperors, beyond the natural boundaries of the country, was never equalled by the Sung Dynasty, even in its palmiest days.

The last record of three departments added to the empire in 985 A.D. is interesting, as the proportion between the tribute-paying families and others is mentioned. The district was occupied by 125 different families, to whom 16,000 other households paid tribute, or rent. The proportion is doubtless mentioned because it is exceptional, as the same proportion, throughout the empire, would give an incredibly large population; but it is a sufficient reason for doubting whether the population ever declined as much as the decline in the number of tax-paying householders implies.

The restoration of peace was celebrated by public rejoicings, and the empire settled down to the enjoyment of internal tranquillity, only broken by occasional disturbances on the frontier, the significance of which it was always dangerously easy to ignore. The founder of the dynasty had wished to establish his capital in the ancient city of Loyang, a naturally strong position, and nearer to the formidable Tatars on the north-west than either Cai-fong-fu or Pien-chow. Tai-tsou yielded reluctantly to the persuasions of the courtiers desirous of returning to the latter, but he is credited with a prophecy, that before a hundred years had passed, the people would be exhausted by the large armies necessary to protect the empire, when the emperor himself did not stand sentinel at the point of danger.

Tchin-tsong, the third emperor of the dynasty, succeeded to the throne in 997. By this time the Khitan people had become civilized, and converted to Chinese manners and modes of government. Like their successors, the Kin and the Mongols, they began to value their Chinese subjects, who gave no trouble and paid taxes; and to employ Chinese officers, who knew how to make the rôle of emperor easy as well as profitable. The

De Mailla, vol. viii. p. 95.

boundary between the two empires had never been satisfactorily determined, as the Chinese had never acquiesced in the cession of territory made by the Heou Tsin in 937, while the Leao Government demanded the restoration of some of the ceded towns which had been retaken. Ultimately peace was made in 1004, in consideration of an annual payment of silk and money on the part of China. The Khitan prince was described in the treaty as the " younger brother" of the emperor, and it was believed that a little more vigour would have secured better terms, and have saved the empire from future disaster by driving the Leao back to the Great Wall. The emperor's timidity and love of peace was held responsible for the error, and the remainder of his reign was made inglorious by the ascendency of superstitious impostors and other unworthy favourites.

In 1023 the reign of Gin-tsong begins with a regency, which Ma-twanlin regards as the most brilliant period of the whole dynasty. The Empress mother's first measure was to appoint a commission, with a view to a general reduction of taxes, and meanwhile the duties on tea and salt were remitted. The Leao were occupied by wars with their own still barbarous neighbours, so that the people reaped all the benefit of internal good government. The census of 1029 A.D. for the first time records a number of tax-paying families slightly in excess of the highest figure reached in the middle of the 8th century.1 The Empress died in 1033, shortly after emulating the audacity of Wu-heou by herself performing the imperial sacrifice. Few emperors in the history are commended in equally unqualified terms of eulogy; but the will by which she endeavoured to prolong the regency was set aside, as her son, Gin-tsong, was already twenty-three, and capable of governing himself. It is, however, a curious illustration of the clannish tendency of the Chinese, that the ladies of the harem should be found ready to unite in quasi-political alliances, like the literati and the eunuchs. The empress regent appointed as empress mother, in her stead, the first of the inferior wives of the late emperor, so far as appears, purely out of regard to her character and ability, and, though not allowed to continue the regency, this lady was actually installed as the lawful object of the young emperor's filial piety.

Throughout the first century of the Sung Dynasty, the legitimate influence of the women of the imperial house seems to have stood high. A daughter of Tai-tsong, who was married to a subject and died in 1062 A.D., is commemorated at length by the historians, who not only praise her private virtues, and her knowledge of history, but also mention that she was frequently consulted by the empress regent on public affairs.

In the year 1042 A.D. there was some threatening of a Khitan war, but the danger was avoided by diplomacy, the Chinese envoy pointing out to the Leao emperor that his interest in the matter was not identical with that of the turbulent nobles who clamoured for a fray, in which they might get booty, but their sovereign little or no advantage. The precise nuances of respect, to be evidenced by the terms in which the high contracting Mém. sur la pop. de la Chine. Journ. As., 1836, p. 461.