<P> The Song is considered a high point of classical Chinese innovation in science and technology, an era that featured prominent intellectual figures such as Shen Kuo and Su Song and the revolutionary use of gunpowder weapons . However, it was also a period of political and military turmoil, with opposing and often aggressive political factions formed at court that impeded political, social, and economic progress . The frontier management policies of the Chancellor Wang Anshi exacerbated hostile conditions along the Chinese - Vietnamese border . This sparked a border war with Vietnam's Lý dynasty, which was fought to a mutual draw and concluded with a peace treaty in 1082 . To the northwest the Song Empire frequently quarreled with the rival Western Xia, led by the Tanguts, as well as the Liao Dynasty to the northeast, led by ethnic Khitans . </P> <P> The Song Empire suffered a disastrous military defeat at the hands of invading Jurchens from the north in 1127 during the Jin--Song wars . Following the Jingkang Incident, the remnants of the Song court were forced to flee south from Kaifeng and establish a new capital at Hangzhou . The loss of northern territory and shifting of the capital marks the division of the dynasty into two distinct periods: the Northern Song (960 - 1127) and the Southern Song (1127 - 1279). The Southern Song developed a new navy to combat the Jurchen's Jin dynasty formed in the north . The Song dynasty was able to defeat further Jurchen invasions and even fought the Jin dynasty in an erstwhile alliance with the Mongols . However, the Mongol rulers Genghis Khan, Ögedei Khan, Möngke Khan, and finally Kublai Khan gradually conquered China, until the fall of the final Song emperor at the Battle of Yamen in 1279 . </P> <P> The Later Zhou was the last of the Five Dynasties that had controlled northern China after the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907 . Zhao Kuangyin, later known as Emperor Taizu (r . 960--976), usurped the throne and deposed the last Zhou ruler Guo Zongxun with the support of military commanders in 960, initiating the Song dynasty . Upon taking the throne, his first goal was the reunification of China after half a century of political division . This included the conquests of Nanping, Wu - Yue, Southern Han, Later Shu, and Southern Tang in the south as well as the Northern Han and the Sixteen Prefectures in the north . With capable military officers such as Yang Ye (d . 986), Liu Tingrang (929--987), Cao Bin (931--999) and Huyan Zan (d . 1000), the early Song military became the dominant force in China . Innovative military tactics, such as defending supply lines across floating pontoon bridges led to success in battle such as the Song assault against the Southern Tang state while crossing the Yangzi River in 974 . Using a mass of arrow fire from crossbowmen, Song forces were able to defeat the renowned war elephant corps of the Southern Han on January 23, 971, thus forcing the submission of Southern Han and terminating the first and last elephant corps that would make up a regular division within a Chinese army . </P> <P> Consolidation in the south was completed in 978, with the conquest of Wu - Yue . Song military forces then turned north against the Northern Han, which fell to Song forces in 979 . However, efforts to take the Sixteen Prefectures were unsuccessful and they were incorporated into the Liao state based in Manchuria to the immediate north instead . To the far northwest, the Tanguts had been in power over northern Shaanxi since 881, after the earlier Tang court appointed a Tangut chief as a military governor (jiedushi) over the region, a seat that became hereditary (forming the Xi - Xia dynasty). Although the Song state was evenly matched against the Liao dynasty, the Song gained significant military victories against the Western Xia (who would eventually fall to the Mongol conquest of Genghis Khan in 1227). </P>

How did the song dynasty rise to power
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