In 900 the Tang Empire had collapsed, heralding the demise of an East Asian world order centered on the Tang imperium. As the great aristocratic families of the Tang grappled with the end of their social and political world, new powers rose to establish regional military regimes, north and south. While the political map changed dramatically, and the social order was transformed, economic change took place in both urban and rural settings as well as along overland and maritime trading routes. The collapse of the Tang had an impact on rulers and peoples in surrounding states as well as the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago. Tang China’s nomadic neighbors realigned themselves and created new polities, notably the Khitan Liao Empire. The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms briefly captured the political stage following the fall of the Tang. The ruler of one of these states went on to become the founder of the Song, eventually accomplishing the political unification of north and south and laying the foundations of later imperial rule. Truce with the Khitan Liao was established by the Chanyuan Treaty in 1005, as the Tangut Xi Xia rose to threaten Song from the northwest.

State violence in early medieval China was characterized by bloody patrimonial politics that contributed to the high degree of political volatility of the period. Like other times in Chinese history, individual monarchs and dynasties came to power through force of arms and kept order by implementing Chinese legal-bureaucratic systems that legitimized violent punishments. The political instability of the early medieval period often can be traced to the informal, patrimonial political ties that intertwined the court, harem, bureaucracy and military. Males and females of the imperial family, eunuchs and generals became involved in the struggle to rule directly or place a puppet on the throne. Winners frequently killed rivals and their adherents. State violence appears to have been most intense during the periods of political division from 220 to 589 and 907 to 960 when “China” was separated into two or more states with relatively frequent internecine conflicts at courts, interstate wars and dynastic transitions via warfare or usurpation. The geographically unified Sui and Tang empires, lasting from 589 to 907, also were disrupted episodically by bloody conflicts at court and rebellions in the provinces.