especially the Kitans, who were gradually filching territory from the
empire, and driving the Chinese out of the southern portion of the
province of Chihli.

For a long period China weakly allowed herself to be blackmailed by the
Kitans, who, in return for a large money subsidy and valuable supplies
of silk, forwarded a quite insignificant amount of local produce, which
was called "tribute" by the Chinese court.

Early in the twelfth century, the Kitan monarch paid a visit to the
Sungari River, for the purpose of fishing, and was duly received by
the chiefs of the Nü-chên tribes in that district. On this occasion the
Kitan Emperor, who had taken perhaps more liquor than was good for him,
ordered the younger men of the company to get up and dance before him.
This command was ignored by the son of one of the chiefs, named Akutêng
(sometimes, but wrongly, written _Akuta_), and it was suggested to
the Emperor that he should devise means for putting out of the way so
uncompromising a spirit. No notice, however, was taken of the affair
at the moment; and that night Akutêng, with a band of followers,
disappeared from the scene. Making his way eastward, across the Sungari,
he started a movement which may be said to have culminated five hundred
years later in the conquest of China by the Manchus. In 1114 he began to
act on the offensive, and succeeded in inflicting a severe defeat on
the Kitans. By 1115 he had so far advanced towards the foundation of an
independent kingdom that he actually assumed the title of Emperor. Thus
was presented the rare spectacle of three contemporary rulers, each of
whom claimed a title which, according to the Chinese theory, could only
belong to one. The style he chose for his dynasty was Chin (also read
_Kin_), which means "gold," and which some say was intended to mark a
superiority over Liao (= iron), that of the Kitans, on the ground that