Song Dynasty China Thematic Overview.pdf

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