Inflation 3 Reforms and Welfare schemes 4 Cultural situation (philosophy, religion, literature, painting) 5 Military collapse (2) The Liao (Kitan) dynasty in the north (937-1125) 1 Sociological structure.

One is very primitive, the Liao culture, the peoples of which are the Austroasiatics already mentioned.

The striking power of his empire, which from 937 onward was officially called the Liao empire, grew steadily, because the old tribal league of the Kitan was transformed into a centrally commanded military organization.

There were frequent clashes, but no real effort was made to destroy the Kitan, whose dynasty was now called "Liao".

In 1110 the situation seemed to improve for the Sung in this game, as a new enemy appeared in the rear of the Liao (Kitan), the Tungusic Juchên (Jurchen), who in the past had been more or less subject to the Kitan.

(2) The Liao (Kitan) dynasty in the north (937-1125) 1 Social structure.

It was hoped now to secure dominance over China, and accordingly the Mongol name of the dynasty was altered to "Liao dynasty" in 937, indicating the claim to the Chinese throne.

Considerable regions of North China came at once under the direct rule of the Liao.

As a whole, however, the plan failed: the feudatory Shih Ching-t'ang tried to make himself independent; Chinese fought the Liao; and the Chinese sceptre soon came back into the hands of a Sha-t'o dynasty (947).

This ended the plans of the Liao to conquer the whole of China.

Thus great wealth accumulated in Peking, the capital of the Liao; in this wealth the whole Kitan ruling class participated, but the tribes in the north, owing to their remoteness, had no share in it.

In a campaign of unprecedented rapidity they captured Peking, and the Liao dynasty was ended (1125), a year earlier, as we know, than the end of the Sung.

2 The State of the Kara-Kitai A small troop of Liao, under the command of a member of the ruling family, fled into the west.

There they founded the "Western Liao" state, or, as the western sources call it, the "Kara-Kitai" state, with its capital at Balasagun.

It was pampered by Liao and Sung in the effort to win it over or to keep its friendship.

It attacked the province of Shensi, but the Chinese and the Liao attached the greatest importance to that territory.

In 1125, when the Tungusic Juchên destroyed the Liao, the Hsia also lost large territories in the east of their country, especially the province of Shensi, which they had conquered; but they were still able to hold their own.

The Ming government therefore, had organized an overseas flotilla of grain ships which brought grain from Central China directly to the front in Liao-tung and Manchuria.

The volume of short stories entitled Liao-chai chich-i, by P'u Sung-lin (1640-1715?), is world-famous and has been translated into every civilized language.

For this period the standard work is K.A. Wittfogel and Feng Chia-sheng, History of Chinese Society, Liao, Philadelphia 1949.Po-hai had been in tributary relations with the dynasties of North China before its defeat, and resumed these from 932 on; there were even relations with one of the South Chinese states; in the same way, Kao-li continuously played one state against the other (M. Rogers et al.).

Chung Liao Feng (C of Yu-lan Fung) & Derk Bodde (A); 5Dec75; R620140. R620141.

Chung Liao Feng (C of Yu-lan Fung) & Derk Bodde (A); 5Dec75; R620140. R620141.

Looking out on the field of Gettysburg from Round Top, I can always get the same thrill that I had when, seated in a gallery above the Russian and the Japanese armies, I saw the battle of Liao-yang.

Only ten years ago, at the battle of Liao-yang, as I watched a cloud of shrapnel smoke sending down steel showers over the little hill of Manjanyama, which sent up showers of earth from shells burst by impact on the ground, a Japanese military attaché remarked: "There you have a prophecy of what a European war will be like!"

MUKDEN (250), in Chinese Shing-king, the capital of Manchuria, on a tributary of the Liao, in the S. of the province; is a city of considerable commercial importance, and has good coal-mines in the neighbourhood; there are a great palace, and numerous temples; Irish and Scotch Presbyterian and Roman Catholic missions have a centre here; the Japanese invasion of 1894-98 was directed towards it.