A Petty Official Chapter 79

During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, after many wars, the Song and Liao countries signed the Treaty of Chanyuan. The Song Dynasty would pay tribute to the Liao Dynasty every year, which marked the beginning of a peaceful mode and the start of economic and trade exchanges. During the period when Empress Liu was in power, the alliance was also faithfully implemented.

It was after this that the two countries began to have more exchanges, and thus a relatively complete and standardized diplomatic etiquette was developed. The more common envoys between the two countries were the Zhengdan envoys and the birthday envoys, the former congratulating the New Year and the latter congratulating the emperor on his birthday.

Because the two countries were neighbors and the Liao Kingdom had extremely high combat effectiveness, they were treated relatively well in the Song Dynasty. When they arrived, they were given royal banquets, while other countries were arranged by the Privy Council.

When the various countries entered the territory of the Song Dynasty after a long journey, the court would send envoys to accompany them all the way to Bianjing to ensure that there would be no accidents on the road. After entering the capital, there were also envoys to accompany them on their journey in Bianjing.

These accompanying people were all officials from the Privy Council's Rites Office or the Honglu Temple. They accompanied the emperor throughout the entire process, from arriving in Beijing a few days before New Year's Day to bidding farewell around the fifth day of the first lunar month. At that time, there would be escorting envoys to take over and send them out of the border. In short, they had to ensure the rigor of the entire process and that no mistakes could be made.