e 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 Nue-chen 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 Akuteng
(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 Akuteng, 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
gold is not, like iron, a prey to rust. Others, however, trace the
origin of the term to the fact that gold was found in the Nue-chen
territory.

A small point which has given rise to some confusion, may fitly be
mentioned here. The tribe of Tartars hitherto spoken of as Nue-chens, and
henceforth known in history as the "Golden Dynasty," in 1035 changed the
word _chen_ for _chih_, and were called Nue-chih Tartars. They did this
because at that date the word _chen_ was part of the personal name of
the reigning Kitan Emperor, and therefore taboo. The necessity for such
change would of course cease with their emancipation from Kitan rule,
and the old name would be revived; it will accordingly be continued in
the following pages.

The victories of Akuteng over the Kitans were most welcome to the
Chinese Emperor, who saw his late oppressors humbled to the dust by the
victorious Nue-chens; and in 1120 a treaty of alliance was signed by the
two powers aga