China had indeed already sent an embassy to the Nue-chens, suggesting an alliance and also a combination with Korea, by which means the aggression of the Kitans might easily be checked; but during the eleventh century Korea became alienated from the Nue-chens, and even went so far as to advise China to join with the Kitans in crushing the Nue-chens.

China, no doubt, would have been glad to get rid of both these troublesome neighbours, especially the Kitans, who were gradually filching territory from the empire, and driving the Chinese out of the southern portion of the province of Chihli.
For a long period China weakly allowed herself to be blackmailed by the Kitans, who, in return for a large money subsidy and valuable supplies of silk, forwarded a quite insignificant amount of local produce, which was called "tribute" by the 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.