History of the Song dynasty

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.

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.

So that no shadow of suspicion shall remain between prince and ministers, we will ally our families with marriages, and thus, ruler and subject linked in friendship and amity, we will enjoy tranquility'...The following day, the army commanders all offered their resignations, reporting (imaginary) maladies, and withdrew to the country districts, where the emperor, giving them splendid gifts, appointed them to high official positions.

[45] When Empress Dowager Gao died in 1093, Emperor Zhezong of Song asserted himself at court by ousting the political conservatives led by Sima Guang, reinstating Wang Anshi's reforms, and halting all negotiations with the Tanguts of the Western Xia.

[47] For roughly a millennium a series of Chinese dynasties had controlled northern Vietnam, until the Vietnamese regained independence in 905 when a local noble Khúc Thừa Dụ became jiedushi (governor) of Tĩnh Hải circuit, amid the collapse of the Tang Empire.

[55] In the aftermath, an agreement was negotiated by both sides that fixed the borders; the resulting line of demarcation "would largely remain in place through to the present day", according to James A. Anderson, Associate Professor in the History Department at the University of North Carolina.

[62] On the day that the Vietnamese envoy Lý Kế Tiên prepared to depart from Kaifeng back to Đại Việt, news arrived that Thàn Thiệu Thái had raided Song's Guangnan West Circuit again.

[68] Shenzong then ordered that all merchants were to cease trade with the subjects of Đại Việt, a further indication of heightened hostility that prompted the Vietnamese court under Lý Nhân Tông (r. 1072–1127) to prepare for war.

[70] In the early spring of 1076, Thường Kiệt and Nùng Tông Đản defeated the Song militia of Yongzhou,[70] and during a battle at Kunlun Pass, their forces beheaded the Governor-General of Guangnan West Circuit, Zhang Shoujie (d.

[71] According to Chinese sources, "tropical climate and rampant disease" severely weakened Song's military forces while the Vietnamese court feared the result of a prolonged war so close to the capital.

[71] Further negotiations took place from 6 July to 8 August 1084 and were held at Song's Yongping garrison in southern Guangnan, where Vietnamese Director of Military Personnel Lê Văn Thịnh (fl.

[80] Fan was a capable military leader (with successful battles in his record against the Tanguts of Xi-Xia) but as a minister of state he was known as an idealist, once saying that a well-minded official should be one that was "first in worrying about the world's troubles and last in enjoying its pleasures".

Along with the Baojia system of a community-based law enforcement, the New Policies included: In addition, Wang Anshi had his own commentaries on Confucian classics made into a standard and required reading for students hoping to pass the state examinations.

[91] Three thousand members of the Emperor's court were taken as captives,[92] including Qinzong and many of his relatives, craftsmen, engineers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, blacksmiths, weavers and tailors, Daoist priests, and female entertainers to label some.

[95] Hangzhou was chosen not only for its natural scenic beauty, but for the surrounding topographic barriers of lakes and muddy rice-fields that gave it defensive potential against northern armies comprising mostly cavalry.

[102] In the meantime, Emperor Gaozong negotiated with the Jin over his mother's ransom while he commissioned a symbolic art project about her, the Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute, originally based upon the life of Cai Wenji (b.

[107] During the Northern Song, Quanzhou was already a bustling port of call visited by a plethora of different foreigners, from Muslim Arabs, Persians, Egyptians, Hindu Indians, Middle-Eastern Jews, Nestorian Christians from the Near East, etc.

Commercial cities (located along the coast and by internal rivers), backed by patronage of the state, dramatically increased shipbuilding activity (funding harbor improvements, warehouse construction, and navigation beacons).

[116] Already during the Northern Song, the Chinese had established fortified trade bases in the Philippines, a noted interest of the court to expand China's military power and economic influence abroad.

[114][118] The new headquarters of the Southern Song Chinese admiralty was based at Dinghai, the office labeled as the Yanhai Zhizhi Shisi (Imperial Commissariat for the Control and Organization of Coastal Areas).

[120] Capturing the essence of the day, the Song era writer Zhang Yi once wrote in 1131 that China must regard the Sea and the River as her Great Wall, and substitute warships for watchtowers.

The age was one of continual innovation; in 1129 trebuchets throwing gunpowder bombs were decreed standard equipment on all warships, between 1132 and 1183 a great number of treadmill-operated paddle-wheel craft, large and small, were built, including stern-wheelers and ships with as many as 11 paddle-wheels a side (the invention of the remarkable engineer Kao Hsuan), and in 1203 some of these were armored with iron plates (to the design of another outstanding shipwright Chhin Shih-Fu)...In sum, the navy of the Southern Sung held off the [Jurchen Jin] and then the Mongols for nearly two centuries, gaining complete control of the East China Sea.

[122] In 1178, the Guangzhou customs officer Zhou Qufei wrote in Lingwai Daida of an island far west in the Indian Ocean (possibly Madagascar), from where people with skin "as black as lacquer" and with frizzy hair were captured and purchased as slaves by Arab merchants.

[130] Patricia Ebrey writes that at this point the Mongol population could not have been greater than 1.5 million, yet they boosted their numbers by employing Khitans and Han Chinese "who felt no great loyalty to their Jurchen lords.

[134] The Mongols eventually gained the upper hand under Möngke Khan, famed for his battles in Russia and Hungary in Eastern Europe, and ushered in the final destruction of the ruling Ch'oe family of Korea in 1258.

[142] Although Möngke's forces stalled the war effort immediately after his death, his younger brother Kublai continued to fight the Southern Song along the Yangzi River for the next two months into the autumn of 1259.

[146] With his ally Hulagu busy fighting the Golden Horde and his own forces needed in the north against the rival Khagan claimant Ariq Böke, Kublai was unable to focus on hostilities in the south.

[149] In the mid 13th century, the Song government led by Jia Sidao began confiscating portions of estates owned by the rich in order to raise revenues in a land nationalization scheme.

[166] It was later edited and published by the Jesuit Abbé, Jean Baptiste Gabriel Alexandre Grosier (1743–1823), in part with Le Roux des Hauterays, where a thirteenth volume and a title page were added.

Divided into 1000 volumes of 9.4 million written Chinese characters, this book provided important information on political essays of the period, extensive autobiographies on rulers and various subjects, as well as a multitude of memorials and decrees brought forth to the imperial court.

The conquest of the Song dynasty from 960 to 979 which ended the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
An official paying respects to the emperor, from Classic of Filial Piety .
A white teapot with an almost perfectly spherical body and a large, cylindrical cap in the center which is topped with a small crown shaped embellishment. Several vertical lines are glazed into the body of the pot.
A porcelain teapot in the Qingbai style, from Jingdezhen , Song dynasty.
From left to right, a white, nearly spherical jar with a small top and a brown floral pattern glazed onto it, a shallow, unadorned, brown bowl, an unadorned black plate in the shape of a five petaled flower, and a white jar with a large opening and a grey vine pattern glazed into it.
Porcelain , lacquerware , and stoneware from the Song dynasty.
A square painting of several small, two person fishing vessels in a river, with mountains in the background.
Fishermen's Evening Song , one of Xu Daoning 's (970–1051) most famous paintings
A wooden carving of a sitting Buddhist figure in loose fitting, painted robes.
A Liao dynasty polychrome wood-carved statue of Guan Yin , Shanxi Province , China, (907–1125)
Song dynasty ritual ceremony, with officials attending in ceremonial chaofu (朝服).
A short man in heavy white robes, wearing a black hat with long horizontal protrusions coming from the bottom of the hat. The man has a small, pointed beard and a small mustache.
Contemporary portrait of Emperor Taizong of Song , National Palace Museum , Taipei
Two women hold out a long bolt of white silk by the corners, while two other women brush out the silk with combs.
A 12th century Song painting of ladies processing silk ; as part of the agreement in the Treaty of Shanyuan , the Song sent annual tribute of 200,000 bolts of silk to the Khitan Liao dynasty .
A map showing the territory of the Song, Liao, and Xia dynasties. The Song dynasty occupies the east half of what constitutes the territory of the modern People's Republic of China, except for the northernmost areas (modern Inner Mongolia province and above). The Xia occupy a small strip of land surrounding a river in what is now Inner Mongolia, and the Liao occupy a large section of what is today northeast China.
The Northern Song, Liao, and Xia dynasties.
Two circular bronze plates with square handles. The plate on the right is thicker, has four characters embossed into it, and contains a rim around about three-fourths of the edge of the plate. The plate on the left is thinner, and contains a rim that, when the two plates were stacked on one another, would perfectly meet the edges of the first plate.
Bronze edicts written in the Tangut script of the Western Xia ; edict plates were used to send urgent documents and messages, under imperial orders. When these matching pieces are joined, they prove the bearer's identity.
A map of the region of southeast Asia that contains the modern day states of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, divided into three sections. The northern half of modern-day Vietnam, as well as some of southern China, is controlled by the Lý dynasty. South of Lý is a strip of territory along the eastern coast controlled by the Champa. The rest of the peninsula is controlled by the Khmer Empire.
The Lý dynasty controlled areas seen in light yellow on the map, then called Đại Việt , bordered by Champa and the Khmer Empire
A headshot of an adult Asian elephant.
Elephas maximus ; the Lý dynasty court sent nine elephants as tribute to the Song capital of Kaifeng on February 8, 1063.
A map of modern Vietnam, with the location of the Đại Việt's capital highlighted. If Vietnam was divided up horizontally into three sections of equal height, the highlighted area would be in the center, both horizontally and vertically, of the topmost of the three sections.
The location of modern Hanoi in Vietnam, where the Đại Việt's capital of Thăng Long was located, and which Song forces nearly besieged before both sides agreed to withdraw
A head-shot style painting of a middle aged to late middle aged man with pointed eyebrows, sideburns, a mustache, and a beard. He is wearing a red robe and a black, square cut hat.
A portrait painting of Chancellor Wang Anshi
A young boy and a slightly older girl bend over a short cylindrical table to play with small figurines. Both children are very well dressed.
"Children Playing in an Autumn Courtyard" (秋庭婴戏图), close-up detail of a larger vertical-scroll painting on silk by Su Hanchen (苏汉臣, active 1130-1160s AD)
An early Yuan dynasty portrait of Su Shi (1037–1101), by Zhao Mengfu 趙孟頫, held at Taipei Palace Museum.
A line drawing of an older man with a thinning beard in thick robes and a soft, floppy cap.
A drawing of Sima Guang.
A painting of a young faced man in gold trimmed red robes, sitting on a throne made out of red wood covered in gold cloth.
Official court portrait painting of Emperor Huizong of Song .
A map showing the territory of the Song dynasty after suffering losses to the Jin. The western and southern borders remain unchanged from the previous map; however, the northernmost third of the Song's previous territory is now under control of the Jin. The Xia dynasty's territory remains unchanged. In the southwest, the Song dynasty is bordered by a territory about a sixth its size, Nanchao.
Southern Song in 1142.
A painting of an older man with a white mustache, wearing red robes and a square cut cap.
Emperor Gaozong (r. 1127–1162)
A Song era junk ship, 13th century; Chinese ships of the Song period featured hulls with watertight compartments .
A long, landscape oriented segment of scroll depicting throngs of people, mainly men, crossing a bridge over a large river. The atmosphere is chaotic.
A small section of Along the River During Qingming Festival , a large horizontal scroll painting by Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145).
An illustration of a short, wide ship propelled by seven rowers per side. The entire surface area of the deck is occupied by a trebuchet, with a small area in the front for two archers and a small platform in the rear for one man to hold a rod controlling the vessel's rotor.
A Song illustration from the Wujing Zongyao manuscript of 1044, showing a rivership with a Xuanfeng traction trebuchet catapult mounted on the top deck.
A painting of people boating in a lake. There is a small island in the center of the lake, connected to the mainland by an arched bridge. The entire lake is surrounded by a low wall.
Games in the Jinming Pool , by Zhang Zeduan, a painting depicting the imperial gardens of Kaifeng , Northern Song.
A head-shot style painting of a middle aged to older middle aged man with small eyes and eyebrows, but a long, grey beard and a thick grey mustache. He is wearing white robes and a white cap that folds over the head and hangs loosely at the back.
Portrait of Genghis Khan , who initiated the first Mongol invasions of China.
An animated map showing the expansion of the Mongol Empire. The first slide, the year 1206, shows the Mongol controlled area as being about twice the size of modern-day Mongolia, located in modern-day Mongolia and to its north, in modern-day south-central Russia. Over the years it expands, most rapidly towards the west until 1227, then to the west and the south. By 1279 all of the territory in the modern People's Republic of China is under Yuan control, and has reached as far west as present day Germany. By 1294, the empire has split into four parts, with the area encompassing the modern day People's Republic, as well as modern-day Mongolia and some parts of southern Russia, under the control of the Yuan dynasty.
Growth of the Mongol Empire throughout the 13th century until Kublai Khan 's death in 1294. The bounds of the Yuan dynasty of China is seen in purple in the final stage.
A square painting depicting ten men on horseback. Some of the men are carrying weapons, including one with a drawn bow and one with a spear. In the upper center is Kublai, in a red outfit and a thick white fur with black trim. He is unarmed.
Painting of Kublai Khan on a hunting expedition with guards, by court artist Liu Guandao, c. 1280.
A head-shot style portrait of a middle aged man with flush cheeks and a black beard that extends from ear to ear, and is part in the middle, as well as a long mustache extending out horizontally rather than down. He is wearing a white robe and a black trimmed white had with a red inside lining.
Kublai Khan ruled as the Khagan of the Mongol Empire from 1260 to 1271. From 1271 until his death in 1294 he was the emperor of China, establishing the Yuan dynasty that would end in 1368.
An illustration of a younger middle aged man with no facial hair, wearing a robe with a patterned trim.
Emperor Bing , the last Song emperor.
Zhu Xi (1130–1200), the Neo-Confucian philosopher who edited the Zizhi Tongjian historical text originally compiled by Sima Guang.