The Song dynasty was a state that ruled in China from 960 to 1279 CE, with its capitals at modern Kaifeng and then Hangzhou. While militarily unsuccessful against their northern and western neighbors (the Tangut Xixia, the Khitan Liao, the Jurchen Jin, and finally the Mongol Yuan), the Song period is remembered as one of the great ages of Chinese art and intellectual life, when Chinese Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism, and associated painting, printing, and silk weaving traditions reached their greatest sophistication. Although the Song had limited direct contact with the Himalayan world in its own time, the art of the Song period would be influential for centuries afterwards .