This list is a mix of primary and secondary sources that I thought would be more accessible by dividing it into categories. For an overview of the topics discussed in episode 2, I recommend starting with the Cambridge History of China: volume 6. It provides the history of the Liao, Jin (Chin) and Mongol/Yuan dynasties that ruled China. For steppe history look to the Cambridge History of Inner Asia: the Chinggisid Age and also Paul Ratchnevsky’s biography ‘Genghis Khan’.
The Liao
Twitchett, D. and Tietze, K-P. 1994. The Liao. In H. Franke and D. Twitchett (eds.) The Cambridge History of China: Volume 6 Alien regimes and border states, 907-1368, p43-153. Cambridge University Press.
Wittfogel, K.A. and Feng, C.S. 1949. History of Chinese Society Liao (907-1125). Transactions of the American Philosophical Society vol. 36 (1946). Lancaster Press.
The Jin
Franke, H. 1978 Chinese Texts on the Jurchen (II): a translation of Chapter one of the Chin-Shih. Zentralasiatische Studien 12. Wiesbaden, p413-452. In H. Franke and Hok-lam Chan (eds.). 1997. Studies on the Jurchens and the Chin Dynasty. Ashgate Variorum.
Franke, H. 1994. The Chin Dynasty. In H. Franke and D. Twitchett (eds.) The Cambridge History of China: Volume 6 Alien regimes and border states, 907-1368, p215-320. Cambridge University Press.
Schneider, J. 2011. The Jin revisited: new assessment of Jurchen emperors. Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, 41: 343-404.
Tillman, H. C. 1995. An overview of Chin history and institutions. In H.C. Tillman and S.H. West (eds.) China under Jurchen Rule, p23-38. State University of New York Press (SUNY).
Wong, M. H. 2013. Economic factors led to the fall of the Jin Dynasty: Focus on the economic effects after relocation of capital to Kaifeng. Dissertation. Lingnan University.
The Mongols
Allsen, T. 1994. The rise of the Mongolian empire and Mongolian rule in north China. In H. Franke and D. Twitchett (eds.) The Cambridge History of China: Volume 6 Alien regimes and border states, 907-1368, p321-413. Cambridge University Press.
Di Cosmo, N. 1999. State Formation and Periodization in Inner Asian History. Journal of World History, vol. 10 (1), p1-40.
Golden, P. B. 2009. Inner Asia c.1200. In N. di Cosmo, A.J. Frank and P.B. Golden (eds.) The Cambridge History of Inner Asia: The Chinggisid Age, p9-25. Cambridge University Press.
Jackson, P. 2009. The Mongol age in Eastern Inner Asia. In N. di Cosmo, A.J. Frank and P.B. Golden (eds.) The Cambridge History of Inner Asia: The Chinggisid Age, p26-45. Cambridge University Press.
Ratchnevsky, P. 1992. Genghis Khan: his life and legacy. Blackwell, Oxford.
The Northern Frontier
Buell, P. 1979. The role of the Sino-Mongolian frontier zone in the rise of Cinggis-Qan. In H.G. Schwarz (ed.) Studies on Mongolia, proceedings of the first North American Conference on Mongolian Studies, p63-76.
Sloane, J. D. 2013. Ethnography, Environment, and Empire – Foreign and Domestic Travel Accounts of the Jin Dynasty Northern Frontier. Journal of Chinese Language and Literature 55: 121-159.
Sloane, J.D. 2017. Attitudes Toward the Northeast Frontier in the Travel Diaries of the Jin Dynasty Literati-Official Wang Ji (1128-1194) – A Comparative Study of Travel Writing in an Imperial Context. Journal of Chinese Language, Literature and Translation 41: 31-58.
Song travel writers
Garcia, C.D. 2013. A new kind of northerner: Initial Song perceptions of the Mongols. Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, 42:309-343.
Hargett, J. M. 1984. Fan Ch’eng-ta’s Lan-pei Lu: a Southern Sung embassy account. The Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 12: 119-177.
Tao Jing-shen. 2009. The move to the south and the reign of Kao-Tsung (1127-1162). In D. Twitchett and P.J. Smith (eds.) The Cambridge History of China Vol. 5, part 1: The Sung Dynasty and its precursors 907-1279, p644-709. Cambridge University Press.
Walton, L. 2002. Diary of a journey to the North: Lou Yue’s Beixing rilu. Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 32: 1-38.