David Curtis Wright

Imperial China normally insisted on its superiority over all other states, and foreign relations were usually conducted as between suzerain and vassal, in form if not in substance. An exception occured in the early eleventh century, when the Song (Sung) dynasty, after decades of inconclusive warfare, found itself compelled to sign a treaty establishing diplomatic parity with the Liao or Kitan empire of Manchuria. The two dynasties then maintained peaceful relations for over a century until the fall of the Liao in the early twelfth century.

The book deals with the military campaign and diplomatic wrangling that lead to the Treaty of Shanyuan in 1005, and with various aspects of the regular diplomacy conducted between the two empires during the following century. The two emperors addressed one another as brothers (or uncle and nephew when generations mismatched) and embassies were sent to bring felicitations on the New Year, imperial birthdays, the ascensions of new emperors to the throne, etc., as well as for more ad hoc purposes to negotiate solutions to various disagreements that arose. Under the genial and familial veneer with which diplomacy was conducted, a serious strategic rivalry continued, and the implicit threat of renewed resort to war was always there.

Wright doesn't much comment on it, but the available source material clearly leans heavily to the Song side; we know a fair bit of the internal deliberations of the Song court, and of the experience of Song diplimats in Liao, but far less about what the Liao thought of the situation.

I liked the book well enough, but probably wouldn't have got it at list price, which typically of Brill is on the astronomical side.… (meer)