A Research On Policy To Xia In Renzong Northern Song Dynasty

At the beginning of RenZong taking the throne, it is Li Deming who governed Xia, who got along well with Song Dynasty. However, when Yuan Hao began to govern Xia, he was preparing for establishing a state, and always harassed the frontier of Song Dynasty in order to pry the actual strength. In 1038, Yuan Hao claimed to be the king of Xia, which surprised Song Dynasty so much that they did not admit his throne, and even sent out an imperial decree to deprive all the honors given by Song. Therefor, the war between Song and Xia broke out. From 1040 to 1042, Yuan Hao had waged three big wars to Song Dynasty, which were all ended in Song's failure. In 1044, a contract was singed between Song and Xia, which led both sides end their hostilities and maintain a peace statement until the control of Song Ying Zong.In early time of Ren Zong, Song Dynasty did not take any actions to reply Yuan Hao's probing attack. When the war broke out,there was a discussion in Song Dynasty on whether to attack Xia or not. As to specific policies, the Northern Song Dynasty had implemented many measures such as allying Tibet to restrict Xia, controlling the trade and so on. After the contract in 1044, Northern Song Dynasty abandoned some measures in accordance with the needs of situation, but still prohibited salt trade with Xia in order to restrict Xia in economy. Meanwhile, Song started to to implement a proactive strategy in Northwest area.The policy Northern Song Dynasty had taken to Xia had some positive effects, for instance, allying Tibet to restrict Xia hampered the strength of Xia in some degree, recruitment Tibet soldiers improved the combat effectiveness of Song soldiers, and controlling of trade caused financial problems to Xia, thus severely affected people's lives, which was the main reason for the agreement in 1044. However, there were still some drawbacks and deficiencies. Though the agreement ended the war temporarily, it did not end the conflict between Song and Xia, another war is just a time problem. About the trouble in the northwest frontier, although Northern Song Dynasty had taken a lot of measures including political, economic, and martial actions, Song military was still defeated in the face of Yuan Hao's attack. The shortcomings in Song Military system was the main reason for its failure, and the imperial court did not take any actions to solve this problem. It is a climax of the relationship between Song and Xia in Ren Zong's dominion time, when the policy Northern Song Dynasty had taken to Xia had a deep influence to the development of their relationship, and also provided a reference to the offsprings.