L14 - Five Dynasties and the Song Founding

By the late 9 th century, the Tang dynasty was weakened by corruption, the diffusion of military power, and the power conflicts of great aristocratic families. In 907, the last Tang ruler was deposed, and the empire fell into a half century of fragmentation and chronic warfare. A series of regional states rose and fell in rapid succession until, in 960, two brothers established a new dynasty called the Song. These men, Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Kuangyi, defeated various rivals and consolidated their power over the next decade, establishing a new order that would rule China until the Mongol conquest in the later 13 th century. They faced a political challenge in bringing the prolonged period of military rule after the fall of the Tang to an end and resolved the problems facing them through institutional and social innovations that fundamentally reshaped the later imperial state.