The Influence of Song Envoys Dispatched to the Jin on the Culture and Education of Jin Empire

During the period when the Song Dynasty and Jin Dynasty stood in opposition to each other,the Song frequently dispatched ministers to the Jin Empire.These parties of envoys were all exceptionally talented men who had received the best of educations,and the Jin often detained these scholars and officials,persuading and forcing them to work in the political service of their empire and their puppet states.Although a great number of these envoys refused to work for the Jin and then suffered the fates of banishment and exile,during the time they spent in Jin custody they made inadvertent yet significant contributions to the transmission of Confucian thought and culture into the Jin Empire.