Song dynasty

Philosophers such as Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi reinvigorated Confucianism with new commentary, infused with Buddhist ideals, and emphasized a new organization of classic texts that established the doctrine of Neo-Confucianism.

[14] Emperor Taizu also promoted groundbreaking scientific and technological innovations by supporting works like the astronomical clock tower designed and built by the engineer Zhang Sixun.

[15] The Song court maintained diplomatic relations with Chola India, the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt, Srivijaya, the Kara-Khanid Khanate in Central Asia, the Goryeo Kingdom in Korea, and other countries that were also trade partners with Japan.

[25] The Song dynasty managed to win several military victories over the Tanguts in the early 11th century, culminating in a campaign led by the polymath scientist, general, and statesman Shen Kuo (1031–1095).

[26] However, this campaign was ultimately a failure due to a rival military officer of Shen disobeying direct orders, and the territory gained from the Western Xia was eventually lost.

[30] During the 11th century, political rivalries divided members of the court due to the ministers' differing approaches, opinions, and policies regarding the handling of the Song's complex society and thriving economy.

These involved land value tax reform, the establishment of several government monopolies, the support of local militias, and the creation of higher standards for the Imperial examination to make it more practical for men skilled in statecraft to pass.

During these battles the Song navy employed swift paddle wheel driven naval vessels armed with traction trebuchet catapults aboard the decks that launched gunpowder bombs.

On Kublai's orders, carried out by his commander Bayan, the rest of the former imperial family of Song were unharmed; the deposed Emperor Gong was demoted, being given the title 'Duke of Ying', but was eventually exiled to Tibet where he took up a monastic life.

As Song society became more and more prosperous and parents on the bride's side of the family provided larger dowries for her marriage, women naturally gained many new legal rights in ownership of property.

There were puppeteers, acrobats, theatre actors, sword swallowers, snake charmers, storytellers, singers and musicians, prostitutes, and places to relax, including tea houses, restaurants, and organized banquets.

During this period greater emphasis was laid upon the civil service system of recruiting officials; this was based upon degrees acquired through competitive examinations, in an effort to select the most capable individuals for governance.

[91] The gentry distinguished themselves in society through their intellectual and antiquarian pursuits,[94][95][96] while the homes of prominent landholders attracted a variety of courtiers, including artisans, artists, educational tutors, and entertainers.

[101] Shen Kuo's Dream Pool Essays argued against traditional Chinese beliefs in anatomy (such as his argument for two throat valves instead of three); this perhaps spurred the interest in the performance of post-mortem autopsies in China during the 12th century.

[102][103] The physician and judge known as Song Ci (1186–1249) wrote a pioneering work of forensic science on the examination of corpses in order to determine cause of death (strangulation, poisoning, drowning, blows, etc.)

[106] The imperial court often believed that successful generals endangered royal authority, and relieved or even executed them (notably Li Gang,[107] Yue Fei, and Han Shizhong[108]).

[113] Song cavalry employed a slew of different weapons, including halberds, swords, bows, spears, and 'fire lances' that discharged a gunpowder blast of flame and shrapnel.

[120] This defeat not only marked the eventual submission of the Southern Han to the Song dynasty, but also the last instance where a war elephant corps was employed as a regular division within a Chinese army.

[133] The Chan sect experienced a literary flourishing in the Song period, which saw the publication of several major classical koan collections which remain influential in Zen philosophy and practice to the present day.

They could choose from a wide variety of meats and seafood, including shrimp, geese, duck, mussel, shellfish, fallow deer, hare, partridge, pheasant, francolin, quail, fox, badger, clam, crab, and many others.

[153] The Moroccan geographer al-Idrisi wrote in 1154 of the prowess of Chinese merchant ships in the Indian Ocean and of their annual voyages that brought iron, swords, silk, velvet, porcelain, and various textiles to places such as Aden (Yemen), the Indus River, and the Euphrates.

[168] The concept of the differential gear that was used in this navigational vehicle is now found in modern automobiles in order to apply an equal amount of torque to a car's wheels even when they are rotating at different speeds.

[180] Su Song was best known for his horology treatise written in 1092, which described and illustrated in great detail his hydraulic-powered, 12 m (39 ft) tall astronomical clock tower built in Kaifeng.

This includes the printing of sixty-six copies of a 5,020 volume long encyclopedia in 1725, the Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China, which necessitated the crafting of 250,000 movable type characters cast in bronze.

Shen Kuo preserved the written dialogues of Yu Hao when describing technical issues such as slanting struts built into pagoda towers for diagonal wind bracing.

[212] The architect Li Jie (1065–1110), who published the Yingzao Fashi ('Treatise on Architectural Methods') in 1103, greatly expanded upon the works of Yu Hao and compiled the standard building codes used by the central government agencies and by craftsmen throughout the empire.

[222] About 100 km (62 mi) from Gongxian is another Song dynasty tomb at Baisha, which features "elaborate facsimiles in brick of Chinese timber frame construction, from door lintels to pillars and pedestals to bracket sets, that adorn interior walls.

[226] On the unreliability of historical works written after the fact, the epigrapher and poet Zhao Mingcheng (1081–1129) stated "... the inscriptions on stone and bronze are made at the time the events took place and can be trusted without reservation, and thus discrepancies may be discovered.

Rudolph states that Zhao's emphasis on consulting contemporary sources for accurate dating is parallel with the concern of the German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886),[227] and was in fact emphasized by many Song scholars.

[228] The Song scholar Hong Mai (1123–1202) heavily criticized what he called the court's "ridiculous" archaeological catalogue Bogutu compiled during the Huizong reign periods of Zheng He and Xuan He (1111–1125).

Painted image of a portly man sitting in a red throne-chair with dragon-head decorations, wearing white silk robes, black shoes, and a black hat, and sporting a black mustache and goatee.
Court portrait of Emperor Taizu ( r. 960–976 )
A man in heavy white robes, wearing a black hat with long horizontal protrusions coming from the bottom of the hat.
Portrait of Emperor Taizong ( r. 976–997)
A Song-era wooden Bodhisattva
Auspicious Cranes , a painting of the Song royal palace by Emperor Huizong
A wooden carving of a sitting Buddhist figure in loose fitting, painted robes.
A Liao dynasty (907–1125) polychrome wood-carved statue of Guanyin , Shanxi
A man in heavy white robes, wearing a black hat with long horizontal protrusions coming from the bottom of the hat.
A portrait of Emperor Gaozong of Song (r. 1127–1162)
Southern Song in 1142. The western and southern borders remain unchanged from the previous map. However, the north of the Qinling Huaihe Line was under the control of the Jin dynasty. The Xia dynasty's territory generally remained unchanged. In the southwest, the Song dynasty bordered a territory about a sixth its size, the Dali dynasty .
A city gate of Shaoxing , Zhejiang province, built in 1223 during the Song dynasty
Model of the capital city Kaifeng
Emperor Taizu of Song , Emperor Taizong of Song , prime minister Zhao Pu and other ministers playing Cuju , an early form of football , by Qian Xuan (1235–1305)
Two young girls play with a toy consisting of a long feather attached to a stick, while a cat watches them. There is a large rock formation and a flowering tree to the left of the girls and the cat.
A 12th-century painting by Su Hanchen; a girl waves a peacock feather banner like the one used in dramatical theater to signal an acting leader of troops.
The Donglin Academy , an educational institution equivalent to modern-day college. It was originally built in 1111 during the Northern Song dynasty.
Traction trebuchet on an Early Song dynasty warship from the Wujing Zongyao . Trebuchets like this were used to launch the earliest type of explosive bombs.
Armoured Song cavalry
The Liaodi Pagoda , the tallest pre-modern Chinese pagoda , built in 1055; it was intended as a Buddhist religious structure , yet served a military purpose as a watchtower for observation of potential dangers. [ 115 ]
Four lines of vertically oriented Chinese characters. The two on the left are formed from a continuous line, the calligraphy equivalent of cursive. The two on the right use a more traditional multiple stroke writing style.
Chinese calligraphy of mixed styles written by Song dynasty poet Mi Fu (1051–1107)
A portrait of an older, balding man in a half pale green and half sky blue robe. He is sitting on an armchair holding a thin wooden stick, possibly a folded up fan.
Portrait of the Chinese Zen Buddhist Wuzhun Shifan , painted in 1238 AD.
A bowl of reddish-purple, oval-shaped fruits with raisin texture.
Dried jujubes such as these were imported to Song China from South Asia and the Middle East. [ 137 ]
Earliest known written formula for gunpowder from the Wujing Zongyao (1044)
Facsimile of Zhu Shijie's Jade Mirror of Four Unknowns
Inverted image of a stone rubbing, comprising a map of eastern China, complete with detailed rivers. The area of the map covered by land features a near perfect grid pattern, which because it does not overlap any text, is clearly the work of the original mapmaker.
The Yu Ji Tu , or "Map of the Tracks of Yu", carved into stone in 1137, located in the Stele Forest of Xi'an . This 3 ft (0.91 m) squared map features a graduated scale of 100 li for each rectangular grid. China's coastline and river systems are clearly defined and precisely pinpointed on the map. Yu refers to the Chinese deity described in the geographical chapter of the Book of Documents , dated 5th–3rd centuries BCE.
A diagram of the pound lock system, from a bird's eye perspective and from a side perspective. The bird's eye view illustrates that water enters the enclosed area through two culverts on either side of the upper lock gate. The side view diagram illustrates how the elevation is higher before reaching the top gate than it is afterward.
A plan and side view of a canal pound lock , a concept pioneered in 984 by the Assistant Commissioner of Transport for Huainan , the engineer Qiao Weiyo. [ 206 ]
A heavily tarnished bronze bowl adorned with several carvings of squares that curl in on themselves at the bottom. It has three stubby, unadorned legs and two small, square handles coming off from the top rim.
Scholars of the Song dynasty claim to have collected ancient relics dating back as far as the Shang dynasty , such as this bronze ding vessel .