4: Sworn Brotherhood and Emperor-Subject Ties: Emotional Contexts of Liao-Song Diplomacy

This paper examines the diplomatic practices and their affective dimensions between the Liao (916−1125) and the Northern Song (960−1127) empires. I argue that the two empires had different primary models of diplomacy, while they actively borrowed from and negotiated with each other in a multipolar world. For the Song, the primary model was the emperor-subject relationship centering on loyalty, subordination, and benevolence; for the Liao, it was brotherhood and the extended sworn kinship ties that foreground fraternity, equality, and intimacy. Nevertheless, as a result of exchange and negotiation, both sworn brotherhood and emperor-subject ties played a crucial role in Liao-Song diplomacy. The Song and the Liao emperors after the Chanyuan Covenant (澶淵之盟) in 1005 agreed to call each other brothers. Both courts took seriously the sworn kinship between the two imperial families in diplomatic rituals, border policies, and foreign relations with other states, especially the Tangut-led empire Xixia (1038-1227). But at times sworn kinship conflicted with the emperor-subject relationship; for the Song court, Xixia could only be the subject, not a self-proclaimed ‘son’ of the ‘father’ Song emperor. But for the Liao, Xixia was both their subject and their ‘nephew’ state because of intermarriages. By demonstrating that sworn kinship and emperor-subject ties were coexisting and often compatible models of diplomacy in the tenth and eleventh century Eastern Eurasia, this paper shows that Liao-Song relations were fluid. Thus, it challenges conventional narratives of rivalry and protonationalism, even as ideas of border and ethnicity had begun to emerge.