The Song Dynasty ruled China from 960 to 1229 CE. Geographically, China contained deserts, mountains, plains, and rivers suitable for only 10% of farming. Politically, the Song established a merit-based bureaucracy but faced threats from northern tribes. Technologically, the Song saw improvements in agriculture, proto-industrialization, gunpowder, printing, and shipbuilding. Culturally, Confucianism and Buddhism flourished with the spread of philosophy and medicine through printing. Economically, the Grand Canal and Silk Roads supported trade in porcelain, tea, and silk.

1. Song Dynasty
China,
960-1229 CE:
Thematic Overview

2. Geography

3. Geography
Deserts:
• Taklimakan Desert
• Gobi Desert
Mountains:
• Himalayas
• Tibetan Plateau
• Tian Shan

5. Geography
Plains:
• North China Plain – only 10% of China suitable for farming
• Chiang Jiang (Yangtze River)
• Huang He (Yellow River)
• Yellow Sea
• Loess Plateau (rich yellow soil)
• Manchurian Plain
• Mongolian Plateau

6. Geography

7. Politics

8. Politics
Chinese Dynasties
• Song (960-1229 CE)
• Yuan (1279-1368 CE) (Mongols)
• Ming (1368-1644 CE)
Song:
• Zhao Kuangyin aka Emperor Taizu
• imperial civil service exam ➔ merit-
based bureaucracy ➔ state financial
distress
• 1000s: > 30K government officials
• 1200s: < 400K government officials

9. Politics
To the North:
• Xi Xia = Tangut
• Jin = Jurchens
• Mongols

10. Politics
• Song standing army = 1 m.; < 50% of government
revenue
• strong iron armor and weapons
• crouching tiger catapult
• crossbows
• flamethrowers
• incendiary bombs
• BUT lack of horses and trained horsemen ➔ vulnerable
to mounted nomadic invasions from the north
• scholar gentry = poor military strategy and tactics
• northern tribes bought off ➔ state financial distress

11. Technology

12. Technology
• agricultural improvements:
• irrigation ditches
• reservoirs
• dams
• terraces
• water wheels
• pumps
• manure
• oxen or water buffalo-
pulled heavy iron plows

13. Technology
• fast-growing Champa rice
two crops allowed two crops
per year
• rapid population growth
• 800 CE: 50 m.
• 1000 CE: 60 m.
• 1200 CE: 115 m.

14. Technology
• proto-industrialization of porcelain, silk, and iron

15. Technology
• improved iron production through use of water wheel piston-driven bellows and coke (high
carbon coal with few impurities) ➔ 1000% increased production!
• used for plows, weapons, bridges, pagodas

16. Technology
• Su Song – 80 ft. tall mechanical
clock

17. Technology
• gunpowder
• 900s CE: fire-lance

18. Technology
• magnetic compass
• stern-mounted rudder
• junks – up to 400 ft. (3x larger than European ships)

19. Technology
• paper
• woodblock printing
• flying paper money

20. Society

21. Society
• urbanization:
• Hangzhou – 1 m. pop.
• Chang’an – 2 m. pop.
• taverns, restaurants, teahouses, markets, street vendors, theaters, specialty luxury shops, brothels

22. Society
• Social order:
• Confucian scholar gentry
• aristocracy
• farmers
• artisans
• merchants

23. Society
• patriarchal
• foot-binding
• daughters sold as
maids, concubines,
and prostitutes
• human-trafficking

24. Culture

25. Culture
• Period of Warring States (481-221 BCE)
• Confucianism
• Daoism

26. Culture

27. Culture
• 646 CE: Xuanzang returned after
17 years at Nalanda, India with
Mahayana Buddhism
• Journey to the West (aka Monkey)

28. Culture
• dharma = Dao
• nirvana = wu wei
• 1100s: Zhu Xi - metaphysical Buddhism and Daoism + rational structured Confucianism =
Neo-Confucianism
• Buddhism + Daoism = Chan/Zen Buddhism based on meditation and direct experience
rather than scripture
• Pure Land Buddhism

29. Culture
• Middle Kingdom
• Sinification of East
Asia
• Chinese as lingua
franca of East Asia
• wood-block printing –
• calendars
• histories
• philosophies
• medical texts
• encyclopedia

30. Commerce

31. Commerce
• public works ➔ economic stimulus
• Grand Canal
• roads
• inns
• postal stations
• stables

32. Commerce
• Silk Roads
• ports of Guangzhou and Quanzhou – Arab, Persian, Indian, and Malay sailors
• export – porcelain, tea, silk, lacquerware