Li Fuwei, in 620, captures much of the lower Yangtze River territory of another agrarian ruler, Li Zitong, the Emperor of Wu, in the name of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Zitong, in turn, defeats and takes over the territory of Shen Faxing the Prince of Liang, roughly modern Zhejiang.

Emperor Taizu had been successful in nearly completing the incorporation of the southern kingdoms into the Song Dynasty by his death in 976.

His younger brother, Emperor Taizong, wishes to emulate his older brother’s successes.

The last king of Wuyue, Qian Chun, in the face of certain annihilation from northern imperial Chinese troops, pledges allegiance to the Song Dynasty in 978, saving his people from war and economic destruction.

While Qian Chu nominally remains king, Wuyue is absorbed into the Song Dynasty, effectively ending the kingdom.

The Northern Han is a small kingdom located in Shanxi, which ad been a traditional base of power since the fading days of the Tang Dynasty in the late ninth century and early tenth century.

With its capital located at Taiyuan, Northern Han is wedged between the two major powers of the day, the Liao Dynasty to the north and the Song Dynasty to the south.

It also shares a border with the Tangut kingdom of Western Xia.

The existence of the Northern Han is one of the two major thorns in relations between the Liao Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, the other being the continued possession of the Sixteen Prefectures by the Liao Dynasty, under whom the Northern Han has placed itself in protection.

Emboldened by his success to the south, Emperor Taizong has decided to embark on a campaign to finally destroy the Northern Han.

Leading the army personally, he brings his forces to the Northern Han capital of Taiyuan, which is laid under siege in June.

An initial relief force sent by the Liao is easily defeated by the Song.

After a two-month siege of the capital, the leader of the Northern Han surrenders, and the kingdom is incorporated into the Song Dynasty.

Another Jurchen invasion across the Yangtze River in 1129 causes the Nanjing-based Song government, under emperor Gaozong, to retreat south to Lin'an (in modern Hangzhou), from where the southern Song dynasty, as its rulers become known, control only a truncated southern regime.

The Jurchen conquest of northern China and shift of capitals from Kaifeng to Lin'an is the dividing line between the Northern Song Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty.

Li Tang has worked for most of his life as a painter at the court of Song Emperor Huizong in Kaifeng.

The highly influential Li, a pivotal figure in the transition from the monumentally scaled landscape tradition of the Northern Song period to the more intimate mode of the succeeding Southern Song period, is renowned for his so-called ax-cut brushstroke, which he employs to finely depict sharply faceted rock surfaces, as in his celebrated scroll painting “Whispering Pines in the Mountains”, executed in 1124.

After the Jurchen invasion in 1126, he had fed with the court to Hangzhou, becoming director of the imperial painting academy there until his death in 1130, at about eighty.

Hangzhou is chosen as the new capital of the Southern Song Dynasty in 1132, when most of northern China has been conquered by the Jurchens in the Jin–Song wars.

The Song court had retreated south to the city in 1129 from their original capital in Kaifeng, after it was captured by the Jurchens in the Jingkang Incident of 1127.

From Kaifeng, they had moved to Nanjing, modern Shangqiu, then to Yangzhou in 1128.

The government of the Song intends it to be a temporary capital.

However, over the decades Hangzhou will grew into a major commercial and cultural center of the Song Dynasty, rising from a middling city of no special importance to one of the world's largest and most prosperous.

A fire breaks out in Hangzhou in June, destroying thirteen thousand homes and forcing many to flee to nearby hills.

Due to large fires such as this, the government installs an effective fire fighting force for the city.

Items such as bamboo, planks, and rush-matting are temporarily exempted from taxation, one hundred and twenty tons of rice are distributed to the poor, and the government temporarily suspends the housing rent requirement of the city's residents.

Government buildings in Hangzhou are extended and renovated once the prospect of the Song dynasty’s retaking northern China has diminished, to better befit its status as an imperial capital and not just a temporary one.

The imperial palace in Hangzhou, modest in size, is expanded in 1133 with new roofed alleyways.

A fire breaks out in the new Song capital of Hangzhou; the government suspends the requirement of rent payments, alms of one hundred and eight thousand, eight hundred and forty kilograms (one hundred and twenty tons) of rice are distributed to the poor, and items such as bamboo, planks, and rush-matting are exempt from government taxation.

A palace dispute in 1141 over continuing the war results in a decision by the Song government to make peace with the Jurchen.

Yue Fei, branded a warmonger, is recalled and executed, following which the Song and Jin conclude a treaty whereby the watershed dividing the valley of the Chang Jiang from that of the Hwang He becomes the boundary between the two polities.

Zhang Zeduan, a native of Dongwu (present Zhucheng, Shandong), had been a court painter of the Northern Song Dynasty, and in the aftermath of that dynasty's fall, his paintings often convey criticisms of the social circumstances of the time.

Zhang’s most famous painting is Along the River During the Qingming Festival, a wide handscroll which depicts life in a city.

It reveals much about life in China during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Its myriad depictions of different people interacting with one another reveals the nuances of class structure and the many hardships of urban life as well.

It also displays accurate depictions of technological practices found in Song China.

For example, it depicts one river ship lowering its bipod mast before passing under the prominent bridge of the painting.

It shows ships in two major types, yet all of which have slung rudders for steering; the painting depicts freighters with narrow sterns or passenger boats and smaller craft with broad sterns, sailing upriver or docked along the banks while loading and unloading goods.

Large stern sweeps and bow sweeps can be seen on at least three of the river ships, worked by up to eight men each.

It also shows how personal gardens had begun to take root in China—in addition to the immense walled garden on the far left of the scroll, for example, one sees several private gardens with their man-made mountains and rockery (for example, the small private garden close to the city gate, squeezed between a chemist's shop and a large building selling furniture, consisting of a small pond surrounded by trees and bamboo).

The original painting is celebrated as the most famed work of art from the Song Dynasty, and will be a pride of the personal imperial collections of emperors for centuries.

Due to its high artistic reputation, it will inspire several works of art that revive and update the style of the original.

This painting will be made famous throughout China, as an emperor of the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) will feel compelled to write a poem in praise of the artwork.

A popular remake of the painting will be made in the eighteenth century, during the Qing Dynasty.