Dust of Chanyuan: A Century of Peace Between Song and Liao

In the first year of the Jingde era, Empress Dowager Xiao Chuo of the Liao, accompanied by Emperor Shengzong, personally led an expedition. Two hundred thousand cavalry shattered the defenses of Hebei, their advance pressing straight toward Chanzhou on the north bank of the Yellow River. The greatest threat to the Northern Song’s survival since its founding had arrived without warning.

By then, the Great Song had enjoyed peace for a long time. Its deep-rooted preference for civil officials over military officers had left the imperial troops strong in appearance but weak in reality, while the border defenses were empty and unable to withstand an attack. The court in Bianjing split apart in an instant: the faction urging flight advocated moving south to escape disaster, seeking only to preserve imperial rule, while the faction calling for war stood firm and risked death to urge the emperor to lead the campaign in person. Song Zhenzong, Zhao Heng, was timid and suspicious, yet in the face of a catastrophe threatening the people, he was forced to embark on an expedition that would decide the fate of the realm.

The isolated city of Chanzhou held out. A Song arrow killed the Liao general Xiao Talan, and the tide of battle suddenly turned. The Song and Liao armies faced each other across the river. Victory would not mean total annihilation; defeat would mean the fall of the country. War would bring misery to the people, while peace would earn condemnation for generations. The envoy Cao Liyong ventured alone into the Liao camp and argued fiercely for every advantage. In the end, he secured a truce between the two countries at the cost of 300,000 bolts of silk and silver each year.

The Treaty of Chanyuan made the Song and Liao brothers, extinguished the smoke of war for a thousand miles, and opened a century of border trade. It allowed displaced people to return home and ensured the Central Plains would know no more ravages of war.

Some denounced it as a humiliating treaty imposed under siege; others praised it as a sound policy that saved the people and secured the nation. The iron-blooded chancellor Kou Zhun turned the tide, only to be framed and demoted, ultimately becoming a tragic, isolated courtier. Zhenzong ruled over an era of peace, yet remained trapped by his own demons, and in his later years became obsessed with auspicious omens and imperial ceremonies. Civil officials, military officers, a borderland physician, wandering refugees, and soldiers all made choices for their country in troubled times, though not of their own choosing.

Rooted in official history and driven by human nature, this book moves beyond simplistic judgments of right and wrong to recreate the military and political dilemmas and court intrigues of Zhenzong’s reign. It tells of the people’s blood and tears caught between war and peace, and lays bare the smoke and turmoil of Chanyuan.