cultural advance, but militarily they were not strong. Chao
K'uang-yin (named as emperor T'ai Tsu) attacked them in succession. Most
of them fell very quickly and without any heavy fighting, especially
since the Sung dealt mildly with the defeated rulers and their
following. The gentry and the merchants in these small states could not
but realize the advantages of a widened and well-ordered economic field,
and they were therefore entirely in favour of the annexation of their
country so soon as it proved to be tolerable. And the Sung empire could
only endure and gain strength if it had control of the regions along the
Yangtze and around Canton, with their great economic resources. The
process of absorbing the small states in the south continued until 980.
Before it was ended, the Sung tried to extend their influence in the
south beyond the Chinese border, and secured a sort of protectorate over
parts of Annam (973). This sphere of influence was politically
insignificant and not directly of any economic importance; but it
fulfilled for the Sung the same functions which colonial territories
fulfilled for Europeans, serving as a field of operation for the
commercial class, who imported raw materials from it--mainly, it is
true, luxury articles such as special sorts of wood, perfumes, ivory,
and so on--and exported Chinese manufactures. As the power of the empire
grew, this zone of influence extended as far as Indonesia: the process
had begun in the T'ang period. The trade with the south had not the
deleterious effects of the trade with Central Asia. There was no sale of
refined metals, and none of fabrics, as the natives produced their own
textiles which sufficed for their needs. And the export of porcelain
brought no economic injury to China, but the reverse.

This Sung policy was entirely in the interest of the gentry and of the
trading community which was now closely connected with them. Undoubtedly
it strengthened China. The policy of nonintervention in the north was