Treaty of Chanyuan

After obtaining the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, Liao came into sharper conflict with Central Plains dynasties. After the founding of Northern Song, Emperor Taizong twice campaigned north to recover the Sixteen Prefectures and failed, and Song then adopted a defensive policy toward Liao. In autumn 1004, Emperor Shengzong of Liao and his mother, Empress Dowager Xiao, led 200,000 troops south, taking cities as far as Chanzhou (present-day Puyang, Henan) on the north bank of the Yellow River, threatening the capital Kaifeng and throwing the Song court into panic. Some ministers urged moving the capital to Jinling or Chengdu, but the chancellor Kou Zhun firmly opposed this and urged Emperor Zhenzong to campaign in person. Zhenzong reluctantly came to Chanzhou and climbed the city tower; Song soldiers, seeing the emperor's yellow dragon banner, cheered and their morale soared. Earlier, Song troops had killed the Liao vanguard commander Xiao Talin with a bed-crossbow outside Chanzhou, dulling the Liao edge, and as the Liao army had pushed far in and feared its retreat being cut, it asked for peace. Zhenzong was also eager to end the war, and after negotiations the two sides made a treaty in early 1005: Song and Liao became brother states; Song paid Liao 100,000 taels of silver and 200,000 bolts of silk each year as “annual tribute”; the border was set along the Baigou River, with each side keeping to its frontier and building no new fortifications; and border markets were opened for trade. Because Chanzhou was also called Chanyuan Commandery, it is called the “Treaty of Chanyuan”.