The Song Dynasty (960–1279) was an era of Chinese history during which Chinese society was transformed by political and legal reforms, economic growth, and a philosophical revival of Confucianism. Song China is notable for the development of cities not only for administrative purposes but also as centers of trade, industry, and maritime commerce. The landed scholar-officials, sometimes collectively referred to as the gentry, lived in the provincial centers alongside the shopkeepers, artisans, and merchants. As land-holders and drafted government officials, the gentry considered themselves to be the leading members of society. Scholar-officials of the Song period departed in many ways from the more aristocratic-based scholar-officials of the earlier Tang Dynasty (618–907), while there were also many more scholar-officials in the Song period. The ministers of state often disagreed on which policies were most beneficial to the economy, the people, and their own official careers. These disagreements often led to factional political strife within the central court, which hindered the central government's ability to administer the empire and uphold political stability.

Although the mercantile class had long existed in China, the merchants of the Song period often rivaled officials and remaining aristocratic land-holders in wealth and power in the community, as landholding and government employment were no longer the only means of gaining wealth and prestige. However, landholding and official posts did provide more means of wealth, hence a greater ability to educate sons in order for them to become candidates for the civil service examinations. The scholar-officials also looked down upon the vocations of mercantilism as lowly pursuits that should not be placed in higher esteem than vocations designated to produce goods, such as farming and craftsmanship. The military provided a means for advancement in Song society if one rose to the level of officer class, yet soldiers were not viewed as highly respected members of society. Although certain duties were expected of them, women in Song society enjoyed a wide range of social and legal rights that benefited them in an otherwise patriarchal society.

Daoism and Buddhism were the dominant religions of China in this era, although Buddhism came under heavy criticism by staunch Confucian advocates and philosophers. Ironically, the tenets of Buddhism had a deep impact upon many of the beliefs and principles of Neo-Confucianism during the Song period. Older beliefs in ancient Chinese mythology, folk religion, and ancestor worship also played a large part in people's daily lives, as they believed deities and ghosts of the spirit realm frequently interacted with the living realm.

The Song justice system was maintained by policing sheriffs, investigators, official coroners, and exam-drafted officials who acted as judicial magistrates. In court cases, Song judges were encouraged to make decisions that would promote morality in society based upon their practical knowledge as well as the written law. Advancements in early forensic science, a greater emphasis on gathering credible evidence, and careful recording by clerks of autopsy reports and witness testimonies aided authorities in convicting criminals. The Song military reached the size of one million soldiers. However, various corruptions of state and military apparatuses often left Song territory vulnerable to attack by neighboring states in the north. The military was organized into infantry, cavalry, crossbowmen, and naval marines, while the navy and even cavalry adapted to new methods of gunpowder warfare. Although China had a long naval history beforehand, in 1132 the first permanent standing navy of China was established by the Song state.

Urban life

Urban growth and management

As a result of technological advances and an agricultural revolution, China boasted some of the largest cities in the world during the Song Dynasty period.^[1] For example, the Southern Song capital of Hangzhou had more than 400,000 inhabitants during the late 12th century,^[2] primarily due to the establishment of the new Song court after 1127 and its advantageous trading position at the southern end of the Grand Canal. During the 13th century, the city's population soared further, to approximately one million^[3] and the 1270 census counted 186,330 registered families living in the city.^[2] Although not as agriculturally rich as areas like Western Sichuan, Fujian also underwent a massive population growth; government records indicate a 1500% increase in the number of registered households from the years 742 to 1208.^[4] With a thriving shipbuilding industry connected to overseas commerce and an economy bolstered by new mining facilities, Fujian became the economic powerhouse of China during the Song period.^[4] The great seaport of China, Quanzhou, was located in Fujian and by 1120 its governor claimed that the city's population had reached some 500,000.^[4] The inland Fujianese city of Jiankang was also very large at this time, with a population of about 200,000.^[4]

During the Song period there were two capital cities, Kaifeng and Hangzhou, the former being the seat of central government during the Northern Song (960–1127) while the latter was chosen as the seat of government during the Southern Song (1127–1279). China's newly commercial society was evident in the differences between its northern capital and the earlier Tang capital at Chang'an. Chang'an was a center of great wealth, but its importance as the chief political center eclipsed its importance as a commercial entrepôt; afterall, Yangzhou was the economic hub of China during the Tang period.^[5] On the other hand, Kaifeng's role as a preeminent commercial center in China was equally as important as its role of chief political center.^[4] The Song era marketplaces in Kaifeng were open every hour of the day, whereas the two official marketplaces of Chang'an had had strict daily curfews ending at dusk; this curfew limited its potential as a city distinguished by commercialism.^[4] People in the Song era were also more eager to purchase houses located near bustling markets than in earlier periods. Kaifeng's wealthy, multi-story houses and common urban dwellings were situated directly along the streets of the city rather than being hidden behind walled compounds and gated wards as they had been in the earlier Tang capital.^[4] But like earlier cities, the Song capitals featured wide, open avenues to create fire breaks.^[4]

The municipal government of Hangzhou enacted essential policies and programs that aided in the maintenance of the city and ensured the well-being of its inhabitants. In order to maintain order in such a large city, four to five city guards were quartered in the city at intervals of about 300 yards.^[7] Their main duties were to prevent brawls, prevent thievery, patrol the streets at night, and quickly spread word to the public when fires broke out.^[8] The government assigned two thousand soldiers to fourteen fire stations built to combat the spread of fire within the city and stationed twelve hundred soldiers in areas outside the city's ramparts.^[3][3] These stations were placed 500 yards apart, with watchtowers that were permanently manned by one hundred men each.^[6] When a fire broke out in the year 1137, the government suspended the requirement of rent payments, alms of 108,840 kg (120 tons) of rice were distributed to the poor, and items such as bamboo, planks, and rush-matting were exempt from government taxation.^[8] Fires were not the only problem facing the residents of Hangzhou and other crowded cities, though. Far more than in the rural countryside, poverty was widespread and became a major topic of debate at the central court and in local governments. To mitigate its effects, the Song government enacted many initiatives, including the distribution of alms to the poor; the establishment of public clinics, state pharmacies, and retirement homes; and the creation of paupers' graveyards.^[3][3]

In order to ensure an orderly urban life and a properly-functioning empire, the Song court made certain that the countryside was run efficiently. The empire was divided into counties and sub-prefectures known as xian, with about 1,230 sub-prefectures during the Song period.^[11] In order to maintain swift communication from one town or city to another, the Song laid out many miles of roadways and hundreds of bridges throughout rural China. They also maintained an efficient postal service that was nick-named the hot-foot relay, which featured thousands of postal officers who were managed by the central government.^[12] They government employed postal clerks in order to keep records of dispatches, and postal stations maintained a staff of cantonal officers who guarded mail delivery routes.^[13] After the Song period, the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368) transformed the postal system into a more militarized organization with couriers managed under controllers.^[12] This system persisted from the 14th century until the 19th century, when the telegraph and modern road-building was introduced to China from the West.^[12]

Amusements

A wide variety of social clubs for affluent Chinese became popular during this period. A text of 1235 mentions that in Hangzhou City alone there was the West Lake Poetry Club, the Buddhist Tea Society, the Physical Fitness Club, the Anglers' Club, the Occult Club, the Young Girls' Chorus, the Exotic Foods Club, the Plants and Fruits Club, the Antique Collectors' Club, the Horse-Lovers' Club, and the Refined Music Society.^[3] No formal event or festival was complete without banquets, which necessitated the need for catering companies.^[3]

The entertainment quarters of Kaifeng and Hangzhou also featured many amusements such as snake charmers, sword swallowers, fortunetellers, acrobats, puppeteers, actors, storytellers, tea houses, restaurants, and brokers offering young women who could serve as hired maids, concubines, singing girls, or prostitutes.^{[3][14][15][15]} These entertainment quarters, covered bazaars known as pleasure grounds, were places where strict social morals and formalities could be largely ignored.^[14] The pleasure grounds were located within the city, outside the city ramparts near the gates, and in the suburbs; each one was also regulated by a state-appointed official.^[16] Dramatic performances were popular in the markets and were often accompanied by music.^[16] The actors were distinguished in rank by type and color of clothing, honing their acting skills at drama schools.^[16] Comedies of satirical sketches denouncing corrupt government officials of the times were popular.^[15]

Besides the usual market entertainments, there were also many vibrant public festivities held in cities and rural communities. Martial arts were a source of public entertainment; the Chinese held fighting matches on lei tai, a raised platform without rails.^[19] With the rise in popularity of distinctive urban and domestic activities during the Song Dynasty, there was a decline in traditional outdoor Chinese pastimes, such as hunting, horseback riding, and polo.^[10] In terms of domestic leisure, the Chinese enjoyed a host of different activities, including board games such as xiangqi. There were lavish garden spaces designated for those wishing to stroll, and people often took their boats out on the lake to entertain guests.^[14]

Foreign minorities

Further information: Islam during the Song Dynasty

Much like the multicultural and metropolitan atmosphere of the earlier Tang capital at Chang'an, the Song capitals at Kaifeng and Hangzhou were home to an array of traveling foreigners and ethnic minorities. During the 9th century, the Tang seaport at Guangzhou had a large Islamic population.^[20] During the Song Dynasty the importance of the latter seaport declined as the ports of Quanzhou and Fuzhou in Fujian province eclipsed it.^[20] This was followed by a decline of Middle Eastern sea merchants in China and an increasing amount of Chinese ship owners engaging in maritime trade.^[20] However, Middle Eastern merchants and other foreigners were not entirely absent, and some even gained administrative posts.^[21] For example, the Muslim Kuwabara served as the Commissioner of Merchant Shipping for Quanzhou between the years 1250 and 1275, where he wrote a monograph on the Chinese shipping industry and maritime economy.^[22] There was also the Arab astronomer Ma Yize (910–1005), who became the chief astronomer of the Song court under Taizu. Muslims represented the largest minority within Song China, although there were many others.^[22] There was a community of Kaifeng Jews, who followed the exodus of the Song court to Hangzhou once the Jurchens invaded the north in 1126.^[20] Manichaeism from Persia was introduced during the Tang Dynasty; during the Song Dynasty the Manichaean sects were most prominent in Fujian and Zhejiang.^[22] Nestorian Christianity in China had for the most part died out after the Tang Dynasty; however, it was revived during the Mongol invasions of China in the 13th century.^[22]

Social class

One of the fundamental changes in Chinese society from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty was the transformation of the scholar-official class. The Song scholar-officials were better educated, less aristocratic in their habits, and there were simply more of them than in the Tang period, as tens of thousands of Song scholar-officials were required to administer the various bureaus and levels of the government.^[24] Although not all scholar-officials came from the land-holding class, sons of prominent land-holders had better means and access to higher education, and thus greater ability to pass examinations that permitted entry into government service.^[25] Arguably the most influential factor shaping this new class was the competitive nature of scholarly candidates entering civil service through the imperial examinations.^[26] Gaining a scholarly degree by passing prefectural, provincial, or palace exams in the Song period was the most important prerequisite in being considered for appointment to higher posts or appointment at all; this was a departure from the earlier Tang period, where the examination system was put into practice on a much smaller scale.^[27] The higher the degree one attained through the three levels of examinations, the greater chance the individual had of obtaining higher offices in government. Not only did this ensure a higher salary, but also higher social prestige that was visibly distinguished by dress. This institutionalized distinction of scholar officials by dress included the type and even color of traditional silken robes, hats, and girdles, demarcating that scholar official's level of administrative authority.^[28] This rigid code of dress was especially enforced during the beginning of the dynasty, although the prestigious clothing color of purple slowly began to diffuse throughout the ranks of middle and low grade officials.^[29]

Besides code of dress, the scholar-officials also distinguished themselves through their own intellectual pursuits. While some scholar-officials such as Shen Kuo (1031–1095) and Su Song (1020–1101) dabbled in every known field of science, study, and statecraft, Song elites were generally most interested in the leisurely pursuits of composing and reciting poetry, art collecting, and antiquarianism.^[30] Yet even this pursuit could turn into a scholarly one. After all it was the official, historian, poet, and essayist Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) who compiled an analytical catalogue of ancient rubbings on stone and bronze which involved pioneering ideas in early epigraphy and archeology.^[31]

The wealthy families living in the landed estates of these scholar officials — as well as rich merchants, princes, and nobles — often maintained a massive entourage of employed servants, technical staffs, and favorites.^[32] They hired personal artisans such as jewellers, sculptors, and embroiderers, while servants cleaned house, shopped for listed goods, attended to kitchen duties, and performed duties of preparing furnishings for banquets, weddings, and funerals.^[32] Rich families also hosted literary men such as secretaries, copyists, and hired tutors to educate their sons.^[33] They were also the patrons of musicians, painters, poets, chess players, and storytellers.^[33] This patronage of various courtiers by rich and noble families was in many ways similar to those described during the European Renaissance by Baldassare Castiglione (1478–1529) in his Book of the Courtier.^[34]

The historian Jacques Gernet stresses that these servants and favorites hosted by the rich families represented the more fortunate members of the lower class.^[34] Other laborers and workers such as water-carriers, navvies, peddlers, physiognomists, and soothsayers "lived for the most part from hand to mouth."^[34] The entertainment business in the covered bazaars in the marketplace and at the entrance ways of bridges also provided a lowly means of occupation for storytellers, puppeteers, jugglers, acrobats, tightrope walkers, exhibitors of wild animals, and old soldiers who flaunted their strength by lifting heavy beams, iron weights, and stones for show.^[34] These people found the best and most competitive work during annual festivals.^[35] In contrast to this plethora of different people in the lower classes of urban society, the rural poor consisted mostly of peasant farmers. However, there were some in rural areas who chose vocations that centered chiefly around hunting, fishing, forestry, and state-offered occupations such as mining or working in the salt marshes.^[36]

According to their Confucian ethics, elite and cultured scholar-officials viewed themselves as the pinnacle members of society (second only to the imperial family). Rural farmers were seen as the essential pillars that provided food for all of society, hence they should be given more respect than the local or regional merchant, no matter how rich and powerful. The Confucian-taught scholar-official elite who ran China's vast and growing bureaucracy viewed their society's growing interest and greater emphasis on commercialism as a sign of moral decay. Nonetheless, Song Chinese urban society was teeming with "wholesalers, shippers, storage keepers, brokers, traveling salesmen, retail shopkeepers, and peddlers," along with many other lowly commercial-based vocations.^[10] Despite their suspicion and disdain for the powerful merchants, the latter colluded with the ruling scholarly elite, and the scholar officials themselves often became involved in mercantile affairs, blurring the lines of who belonged to the merchant class and who did not.^[38] Theoretically it was forbidden for an official to partake in private affairs of gaining capital while serving and recieving a salary from the state.^[39] In order to avoid ruining one's reputation as a moral Confucian, scholar-officials had to work through business intermediaries; as early as 955 there was a written decree that revealed officials used intermediary agents when engaged in private business transactions with foreign countries.^[40] Since the Song government took over several key industries and imposed strict state monopolies on them, the government itself acted as a large commercial enterprise run by scholar-officials.^[41] The state also had to contend with the merchant and artisan guilds; whenever the state requisitioned goods and assessed taxes it had to deal with the guild heads, who ensured fair prices and fair wages via official intermediaries.^[42][43] Yet joining a guild was not an immediate means to empowerment and true independence; historian Jacques Gernet states: "[the guilds] were too numerous and too varied to allow their influence to be felt."^[34]

From the scholar-official's view, the artisans and craftsmen were respected as essential workers in society on a tier just below the farming peasants, and unlike the merchants and traders who were judged as somewhat parasitic. It was craftsmen and artisans who fashioned and manufactured all of the goods and necessities needed in Song society, such as standard-sized waterwheels and chain pumps made by skilled wheelwrights.^[46] Although architects and carpenter builders were not as highly venerated as the scholar-officials, there were some architectural engineers and authors who gained wide acclaim at court and in the public sphere for their achievements. This included the official Li Jie (1065–1110), a scholar who was eventually promoted to high level positions in governmental agencies of building and engineering. His written manual on standard building codes and procedures was sponsored by Emperor Huizong for these government agencies to employ and was also widely printed for the benefit of literate craftsmen and artisans nationwide.^[47][48] The technical written work of the earlier 10th century architect Yu Hao was also given a great amount of praise by the polymath scholar-official Shen Kuo in his Dream Pool Essays of 1088.^[49]

Due to previous episodes of court eunuchs amassing power, eunuchs were looked upon with suspicion by scholar-officials and the Confucian literati. Despite this, their association with inner palace life and their frequent appointments to high levels of military command made them prestigious members of society.^[50] Although military officers with successful careers could gain a considerable amount of prestige, the soldier in Song society was looked upon with a bit of disdain by elite scholar-officials and cultured people during the Song period.^[50] This is best represented in an old saying of China, "Good iron isn't used for nails; good men aren't used as soldiers."^[50] The root of this attitude stems from a number of different reasons. It was known that many people who enrolled themselves as soldiers in the armed forces were rural peasants that had become debtors, many of them former workers of the salt trade who could not pay back their loans and had been reduced to flight.^[51] However, the prevailing attitude towards military servicemen stemmed largely from the knowledge of historical precedent, as military leaders in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907–960) period amassed more power than the civil officials, in some respects replacing them and the civilian form of government altogether.^[52] In fact, one of the main reasons why the Song emperors expanded the civil service examination system and government school system was to avoid the earlier scenario of domination by advantageous military strongmen over the civil order.^[26]

Education and civil service

In the Imperial examinations, the number of exam takers far outmatched the actual number of jinshi, or "presented scholars" that were accepted and given official appointments under the Song Dynasty. There were five times more jinshi in the Song period than there were during the earlier Tang, yet the larger amount of accepted officials did not lower the prestige of the degree; rather, it encouraged more to enter and compete in the exams.^[54] There were roughly 30,000 men who took the prefectural exams in the early 11th century, which increased to nearly 80,000 around 1100, and finally to an astonishing 400,000 exam takers by the 13th century.^[54] With these odds, the chances of a prefectural exam taker passing and becoming a government official was 1 in 333.^[54]

There was a great atmosphere of intellectual competition between aspiring Confucian scholars, as rich families were eager to gather tons of published books in their own personal libraries, with everything from Confucian classics (and other philosophical works), mathematical treatises, pharmaceutical documents, Buddhist sutras, and other books aimed at the gentry class.^[55] The advancement of widespread printing through woodblock printing and then movable type printing by the 11th century aided in the expansion of the number of educated candidates for the civil service exams, as well as reduced the cost of books so that they were more accessible to those of lesser means.^[24][56]

Song scholar-officials were granted ranks, honors, and career appointments on the basis of merit, the standards of which were codified and more objective than those in the Tang Dynasty.^[24] The anonymity of exam candidates assured against fraud and favoritism by those who could judge papers based upon one's handwriting, as a bureau of copyists was staffed with the specific job of recopying all the candidates' papers.^[58] Once someone passed the prefectural, provincial, and then palace exam — the most prestigious — scholarly degrees did not immediately ensure an appointment to office, but the more prestigious the degree, the more assured one's career in higher administrative posts would be.^[58] The central government held the exclusive right to appoint or remove officials.^[58] The case for removal was always carefully examined, since the central government kept a recorded dossier of reports on each official stored in the capital for later review.^[58] Meritocracy and a greater sense of social mobility were also prevalent in the civil service examination system, as the government held a list of all examination graduates, showing that only roughly half of those who passed had a father, or grandfather, or great-grandfather who served as a government official.^[25] However, families who already had members who were officials of the government had the advantage of early education and experience, often appointing their sons to low level staff positions.^[61] The Song era poet Su Shi (1037–1101) once wrote a poem called On the Birth of My Son, poking fun at the situation of affluent children having the upper edge in taking the exams over bright children of lower status:

	Families, when a child is born Want it to be intelligent. I, through intelligence Having wrecked my whole life, Only hope the baby will prove Ignorant and stupid. Then he will crown a tranquil life By becoming a Cabinet Minister.
Su Shi[62]

The elite aristocrats and officials of Su Shi's day would not find poems such as this amusing. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the central government established an official school system which eclipsed the role of private academies by the mid 11th century.^[63] However, by the late 12th century in the Southern Song period many critics of the examination system and government-run schools initiated a movement of reviving private academies.^[63] One of the earliest academic institutions established in the Song period was the Yuelu Academy, founded in 976 during the reign of Emperor Taizu of Song. The Chinese scientist and statesman Shen Kuo was once the head chancellor of the Hanlin Academy,^[64] established during the earlier Tang Dynasty. There was also the Neo-Confucian Donglin Academy, established in 1111. At its core, the Donglin Academy was based upon the staunch Neo-Confucian teaching that adulterant influences of other ideologies such as Buddhism should not influence the teaching of their purely Confucian school.^[65] This belief harkened back to the writings of the Tang Dynasty essayist and poet Han Yu (768–824), who was certainly a critic of Buddhism and its influence upon Confucian values. Although the White Deer Grotto Academy of the Southern Tang (937–976) period had fallen out of use during the early half of the Song period, the Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi (1130–1200) reinvigorated it.

Zhu Xi was one of many critics who argued that government schools did not sufficiently encourage personal cultivation of the self and molded students into officials that cared for little besides profit and salary.^[63] Not all social and political philosophers in the Song period blamed the examination system as the root of the problem (seeing it merely as a method of recruitment and selection), emphasizing instead the gentry's failure to take responsibility in society as a cultural elite.^[66] Zhu Xi laid also laid emphasis on the Four Books, a series of Confucian classics that would become the official introduction of education for all Confucian students, yet were initially discarded by his contemporaries.^[67] After his death his commentary on the Four Books found appeal amongst scholar officials and in 1241 his writings were adopted as mandatory readings for examination candidates with the support of Emperor Lizong.^[67]

Partisan politics

During the Song period, the careers of low grade and middle grade officials were largely secure, but in the high ranks of the central administration, "reverses of fortune were to be feared," as sinologist historian Jacques Gernet put it.^[58] The high echelons of the political scene during the Song Dynasty hold a notorious legacy of spiteful partisanship and strife among factions of leading state ministers. The Chancellor Fan Zhongyan (989–1052) introduced a series of reforms between 1043 and 1045 that received heated backlash from the conservative element at court. Fan set out to modify and erase corruption from the recruitment system and to provide higher salaries for minor officials in order to persuade them not to become corrupt and take bribes.^[58] He also established sponsorship programs that would ensure officials were drafted on their merits, administrative skills, and moral character more than their etiquette and cultured appearance.^[67] However, the conservatives at court did not want their career paths and comfortably-set positions put into jeopardy by obliging to new standards, and so they rallied together to successfully halt Fan's reform effort.^[67]

Inspired by Fan's desire and motivation for reform, the later Chancellor Wang Anshi (1021–1086) implemented a series of reforms starting in 1069. This included adoption of a community-based law enforcement and civil order under his Baojia system. Wang also established local militias that could aid the official standing army and lessen the already constrained state budget expenses for the military.^[67] He set up low-cost loans for the benefit of rural farmers, who he viewed as the essential backbone in the Song economy.^[68] Since it was the land tax exacted on rural farmers that filled the majority of the state treasury's coffers, Wang implemented a reform to update the land-survey system so that more accurate assessments could be gathered in the tax census.^[68] Wang removed the mandatory poetry requirement in the civil service exams, on the grounds that many otherwise skilled and knowledgeable Confucian-students who could benefit the system were being denied entry into the administration.^[68] All of these reforms received criticism from conservative ministerial peers, but the most heated debate centered around Wang's implementation of government monopolies exacted upon the tea, salt, and wine producers and distributors.^[68]

In order to gain support for his reforms, Wang sought out potential political allies and formed a coalition that became known as the New Policies Group, which in turn aligned his known political rivals in opposition.^[69] After Wang had served as chancellor, the political faction that was led by the historian and official Sima Guang (1019–1086) took control of the central government, allied with the dowager Empress who acted as regent over the young Emperor Zhezong of Song. Wang's new policies were then completely reversed, including reforms that were popular, such as the tax substitution for corvée labor service.^[68] When Emperor Zhezong came of age and replaced his grandmother as the leading power over the state, he favored Wang's policies and once again instituted Wang's reforms.^[70] As each political faction gained advantage over the other, ministers of the opposing side were labeled "obstructionist" and were sent out of the capital to govern remote frontier regions of the empire. This form of political exile was not only politically damaging, but could also be physically threatening as those who fell from favor could be sent to govern areas of the deep south, where the deadly disease of malaria was known to be prevalent.^[68]

Family and gender

Familial rights and customs

The Chinese philosophy of the ancient Kong Fuzi (551–479 BC) and the hierarchical social order his disciples adhered to had become embedded into mainstream Chinese culture since the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BC). During the Song Dynasty, the whole of Chinese society was theoretically modelled upon this familial social order of superiors and inferiors.^[68] Confucian dogma dictated what was proper moral behavior for an inferior or superior, and how a superior should regulate rewards or punishments when dealing with an inferior member of one's family or larger society.^[70] This is best exemplified in the Tang Dynasty law code, which was still largely retained in the Song period.^[72] Jacques Gernet writes:

The family relationships supposed to exist in the ideal family were the foundation of the entire moral outlook, and even the law, in its total structure and its scale of penalties, was nothing but a codified expression of them.^[72]

Under the Tang law code, severe punishments were outlined for those who disobeyed and disrespected the hierarchical system of elders. Those who assaulted their parents could be put to death, those who assaulted an older sibling could be put to forced labor, and those who assaulted an older cousin could be sentenced to caning.^[72] A household servant who killed his master could be sentenced to death, while a master who killed his servant would be arrested and forced into a year of hard labor for the state.^[72] Yet this reverence for elders and superiors was grounded in more than just secular Confucian discourse; Chinese beliefs of ancestor worship transformed the identity of one's parents into otherworldly abstract figures.^[72] However, Song society itself was one built upon social relationships governed not by abstract principles, but by devoting oneself to a superior that could in turn offer protection.^[73] Likewise, perpetuating the religious family cult with a greater amount of descendents was coupled with the notion that producing more children offered parents and the family as a whole a layer of protection, reinforcing the power of that family in the community.^[74] Having more children meant gaining better odds of extending a family's power through familial marriage alliance with other prominent families, as well as better odds of having a child occupying a prestigious administrative post in government.^[75] No one was better prepared for society than one who gained plenty of experience in first dealing with the members of his extended family, as it was common for upper class families to have several generations living together under the same household.^[76] Those who simply came from noteworthy and exceptional families were treated with dignity, and the wider a circle of influence a family had in a community of families, the better chance an individual of that family had in securing his own fortunes.^[73] One did not even have to share the same blood line in order to create and build more social ties. This could be done through accepting any number of artificial blood brothers in a ceremony assuring mutual obligations and shared loyalty.^[73]

Women: legality and intellectualism

It is often claimed that women during the earlier Tang Dynasty were brazen, assertive, active, and relatively more socially liberated than Song women.^[73] Women of the Song period are typically seen as often well educated and interested in expressing themselves through poetry,^[73] yet more reserved and quiet in a more Confucian-orientated society.^[76] Evidence of foot binding as a growing trend in the Southern Song period would certainly reinforce this notion.^[77] However, the greater number of documents due to more widespread printing reveal a much more complex and rich reality about family life and Song women.^[76] Through written stories, legal cases, and other documents, many different sources show that Song women held considerable amount of clout in family decision making.^[79] Although men were by far the most prominent figures in the public sphere, women's lives were not solely bound to the domestic sphere.^[76] Contrary to the limited domestic range of activities that women should follow according to Confucian text, in Song China it was common for wealthy women to manage town inns, farmers' daughters to weave mats so that they could sell them on their own behalf, midwives to deliver babies, Buddhist nuns to study and learn religious texts and sutras, wives to be jealous and conniving towards concubines their wealthy husbands brought home, and common for women to keep a close eye on their own financial affairs.^[80] In the case of the latter, there are existing legal case documents describing childless widows who would accuse their nephews of stealing their property, and there are also numerous mentions of women drawing upon their dowries to help their husband's sisters marry into good families.^[80]

The economic prosperity of the Song period prompted many families to provide their daughters with larger dowries in order to attract the wealthiest son-in-laws who were the most eligible marriage candidates in providing a stable life and economic security for their daughters.^[76] With large amounts of properties allotted to a daughter's dowry, her family would naturally want to seek benefits out of this, and as a result women's legal claims to property were greatly improved.^[76] Daughters had equal opportunity with sons in inheriting the property of their parents.^[10] Under the Song law code, if an heirless man left no clear successor to his property and household, then it was his widowed wife's right to designate her own heir in a process called liji ('adopting an heir').^[82] If an heir was appointed by the parents' relatives after their deaths, then the 'appointed' heir did not have the same rights as a biological son to inherit the estate; instead he shared juehu (extinct household) property with a daughter/daughters (if any) of the parents.^[83] Remarriage to a new husband after the death of an earlier spouse was common during the Song period.^[83] However, women under dynasties after the Song did not often remarry, following the ethic of the Confucian philosopher Cheng Yi, who stated that it was better for a widow to die than to lose her virtue by remarrying.^[83]

Despite advances in relative social freedoms and legal rights, women were still expected to attend to the duty of tending to the home. Along with child-rearing, women were responsible for spinning yarn, weaving cloth, sewing clothing, and cooking meals. Women who belonged to families that sold silk were especially busy, since their duties included coddling the silkworms, feeding them chopped mulberry tree leaves, and keeping them warm to ensure that they would eventually spin their cocoons.^[80] In the family pecking order, the dominant female of the household was the mother-in-law, who was free to hand out orders and privileges to the wife/wives of her son(s). Aged mothers often had strong ties with their grown and married sons, since their sons often stayed at home.^[76] If a mother-in-law could not find sufficient amount of domestic help mustered by the daughters-in-law, there was always a growing market for women to be bought as maids and servants.^[54] There were also many professional courtesans (and concubines brought into the house) who kept men busy in the pursuits of entertainment, relations, and romantic affairs.^[79]

Although boys were taught at Confucian schools and academies for the ultimate goal of government service, brothers often taught their sisters how to read and write. By Song times, more women of the upper and educated classes were able to read due to advances in widespread printing, which amounted to a hefty volume of letters, poems, and other documents penned by women.^[76] Some women were educated enough to become their sons' first teacher before they were sent to an official school of learning.^[76] For example, the mother of the statesman and scientist Shen Kuo, taught him basic education and even military strategy that she had learned from her elder brother.^[84] There were many noted intellectual women during the Song Dynasty, including Li Qingzhao (1084–1151), whose father was a friend of Su Shi, and who wrote many poems throughout her often turbulent life (only about 100 of which survive).^[83] She even became a famous and renowned poet during her own lifetime.^[76] After the death of her husband, she would write poems profusely about poring over his paintings, calligraphy, and ancient bronze vessels, as well as poems with deep emotional longing:

	Lovely in my inner chamber. My tender heart, a wisp; My sorrow tangled in a thousand skeins. I'm fond of spring, but spring is gone, And rain urges the petals to fall. I lean on the balustrade; Only loose ends left, and no feeling. Where is he? Withered grasses stretch to the heavens; I can't make out the path that leads him home to me.
Li Qingzhao[83]

Religion

Main article: Religion in China

Ancient Chinese Daoism, ancestor worship, and the foreign-originated ideology of Buddhism were the most prominent religious ideologies practiced by the Chinese in the Song period. Daoism developed largely from the ancient teachings of the Daodejing, attributed to the 6th century BC philosopher Laozi ("Old Master"), considered one of the Three Pure Ones (the prime deities of Daoism). Buddhism in China, which was introduced by Yuezhi, Persian, and Kushan missionaries in the first and second centuries, gradually became more native in character and was transformed into distinct Chinese Buddhism.

Although many followed the teachings of Buddha, there were also many critics of its religious and philosophical tenets. This included the ardent nativist, scholar, and statesman Ouyang Xiu, who called Buddhism a "curse" upon China, an alien tradition that infiltrated the native beliefs of his country while at its weakest during the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420–581).^[86] Although conservative proponents of native Confucianism were highly skeptical of the teachings of Buddhism and often sought to distance themselves from it, there were others who used Buddhist teachings to bolster their own Confucian philosophy. The early Neo-Confucian philosophers and brothers Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi of the 11th century sought philosophical explanations for the workings of principle (li) and vital energy (qi) in nature, in response to the notions of highly complex metaphysics in popular Buddhist thought.^[87] Neo-Confucian scholars also sought to borrow the Mahayana Buddhist ideal of self-sacrifice, welfare, and charity embodied in the bodhisattva.^[88] Seeking to replace the Buddhist monastery's once prominent role in societal welfare and charity, supporters of Neo-Confucianism converted this Buddhist ideal into practical measures of state-sponsored support for the poor under a secular mission of ethical universalism.^[89]

Although Buddhism never fully recovered after several major persecutions in China from the fifth through the tenth centuries, Daoism continued to thrive in Song China. In northern China under the Jin Dynasty's control after 1127, the Daoist philosopher Wang Chongyang (1113–1170) established the Quanzhen School of Daoism. Wang's seven disciples, known as the Seven Immortals, gained great fame throughout China. This included the prominent Daoist priestess Sun Bu'er (c. 1119–1182), who became a female role model in Daoism. There was also Qiu Chuji (1148–1227), who founded his own Quanzhen Daoist branch known as Longmen ("Dragon Gate").

Chinese folk religion continued as a tradition in China, drawing upon aspects of both ancient Chinese mythology and ancestor worship. Many people believed that spirits and deities of the spirit realm often interacted with the realm of the living. This subject was popular in Song literature. Hong Mai (1123–1202), a prominent member of an official family from Jiangxi, wrote a popular book called The Record of the Listener, which had many anecdotes dealing with the spirit realm and people's supposed interactions with it.^[90] People in Song China believed that many of their daily misfortunes and blessings were caused by an array of different deities and spirits who interfered with their daily lives.^[90] These deities included the nationally accepted deities of Buddhism and Daoism as well as the local deities and demons known by Chinese in specific geographic locations.^[90] If for some reason one displeased a long-dead relative, it was believed that the dissatisfied ancestor was the true cause of natural ailments and illnesses.^[90] It was believed that there were also mischievous demons and malevolent spirits who had the capability of extorting sacrificial offerings meant for ancestors, in essence the bullies of the spiritual realm.^[90] The Chinese believed that spirits and deities had the same emotions and drives as the living did.^[90] In some cases the chief deity of a local town or city was believed to act as a municipal official who could receive and dispatch orders on how to punish or reward spirits.^[90] Residents of cities offered many sacrifices to their divinities in hopes that their city would be spared from disasters such as fire.^[92] However, it was not only the common people who felt the need to appease local deities. Magistrates and officials sent from the capital to govern various places of the empire often had to ensure the local populace that the local deity supported and favored his administrative authority, hence solidifying social bonds and trust between the official and the local community.^[93]

Justice and legality

Further information: Traditional Chinese law

During the Song Dynasty, the legal code issued in the earlier Tang Dynasty was largely preserved, although judicial officials (really the prefects and magistrates who passed examinations) in the Song period were expected to know more than just the written laws.^[94] Magistrates and prefects were expected to promote morality in society, to punish the wicked, and carefully recognize in their sentences which party in a court case was truly at fault.^[94] Gernet states that it was often the most serious cases that came before the court; most people desired to settle potential legal troubles and quarrels privately, since preparations of going to court were expensive.^[94] The accused were also immediately put in jails that were often filthy and were nourished only by the efforts of friends and relatives.^[94] Even those who had made the accusations against the defendant were viewed with the highest suspicion by the judge.^[94] In ancient China, the status quo dealing with criminals was the idea of guilty until proven innocent, not the other way around.^[94] Although Gernet points out that disputes that would assure arrest were mostly avoided or settled privately, historian Patricia Ebrey states that legal cases in the Song period portrayed the courts as being overwhelmed with cases of neighbors and relatives suing each other over the rights to land and property.^[96] The Song Dynasty author and official Yuan Cai repeatedly warned against this, and like other officials of his time, also warned his readers about the rise of banditry in Southern Song society and a need to physically protect oneself and personal property.^[96]

Court cases

Further information: Bao Qingtian

There are many Song court cases that serve as examples for the promotion of morality in society, which in the West would be called the doctrine of equity. Using his knowledge and understanding of townsmen and farmers, one Song Dynasty judge made this ruling in the case of two brawling fishermen, who were labeled as Pan 52 and Li 7 by the court:

Competition in Selling Fish Resulted in Assaults

A proclamation: In the markets of the city the profits from commerce are monopolized by itinerant loiterers, while the little people from the rural villages are not allowed to sell their wares. There is not a single necessity of our clothing or food that is not the product of the fields of these old rustics. The men plow and the women weave. Their toil is extremely wearisome, yet what they gain from it is negligible, while manifold interest returns to these lazy idlers. This sort, in tens and hundreds, come together to form gangs. When the villagers come to sell things in the market place, before the goods have even left their hands, this crowd of idlers arrives and attacks them, assaulting them as a group. These idlers call this "the boxing of the community family." They are not at all afraid to act outrageously. I have myself seen that it is like this...Have they not given thought to the foodstuffs they require and the clothing they wear? Is it produced by these people of the marketplaces? Or is it produced by the rural farmers? When they recognize that these goods are produced by the farming people or the rural villages, how can they look at them in anger? How can they bully and insult them? ...Now, Pan Fifty-two and Li Seven are both fishmongers, but Pan lives in the city and fishmongering is his source of livelihood. Li Seven is a farmer, who does fishmongering between busy times. Pan Fifty-two at the end of the year has his profit, without having had the labor of raising the fish, but simply earning it from the selling of the fish. He hated Li and fought with him at the fish market. His lack of humanity is extreme! Li Seven is a village rustic. How could he fight with the itinerant armed loiterers who hang around the marketplace? Although no injuries resulted from the fight, we still must mete out some slight punishments. Pan Fifty-two is to be beaten fifteen blows with the heavy rod. In addition, Li Seven, although he is a village farmer, was still verbally abusive while the two men were stubbornly arguing. He clearly is not a man of simple and pure character. He must have done something to provoke this dispute. Li Seven is to be given a suspended sentence of a beating of ten blows, to be carried out if hereafter there are further violations.^[94]

Early forensic science

In the Song Dynasty, policing sheriffs were employed to investigate and apprehend criminals in suspected crimes, determining from the crime scene and evidence found on the body if the cause of death was disease, old age, an accident, or foul play.^[97] If the cause of death was determined to be murder, a local official from the prefecture was sent out to investigate the crime and draw up a formal inquest to be signed by witnesses to be used in court.^[98] The documents of this inquest also included drawn sketches of human bodies with details of where and what injuries were inflicted upon the victim.^[99]

Song Ci (1186–1249) was a Chinese physician and judge during the Southern Song Dynasty. His famous written work, Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified was a basis for early forensic science in China. Song's predecessor Shen Kuo offered critical analysis of human anatomy, dispelling the old Chinese belief that the human throat had three valves instead of just two.^[100] A Chinese autopsy in the early 12th century confirmed Shen's writing about only two throat valves, esophagus and larynx.^[101] However, dissection and examination of human bodies for solving criminal cases was of interest to Song Ci. His book was compiled on the basis of older and similar Chinese works dealing with justice and forensics.^[102] His book provided a list of all the various types of death (strangulation, drowning, poison, blows, etc.) and a means of physical examination in order to distinguish if these specific cases of death were caused by murder, suicide, or accident.^[102] Besides instructions on proper ways to examine corpses, Song Ci also prodived instructions on how to provide first aid for victims who are close to dying from hanging, drowning, sunstroke, freezing to death, and undernourishment.^[103] For the specific case of drowning, Song Ci advised using the first aid technique of artificial respiration.^[104] He wrote of examinations of victims' bodies performed in the open amongst official clerks and attendants, a coroner's assistant (or midwife),^[105] actual accused suspect of the crime and relatives of the deceased, with the results of the autopsy called out loud to the group and dually noted in the inquest report.^[106] Song Ci wrote:

In all doubtful and difficult inquests, as well as when influential families are involved in the dispute, [the deputed official] must select reliable and experienced coroner’s assistants and Recorders of good character who are circumspect and self-possessed to accompany him...Call a brief halt and wait for the involved parties to arrive. Otherwise, there will be requests for private favors. Supposing an examination is held to get the facts, the clerks will sometimes accept bribes to alter the reports of the affair. If the officials and clerks suffer for their crimes, that is a minor matter. But, if the facts are altered, the judicial abuse may cost someone his life. Factual accuracy is supremely important.^[107]

Song Ci also wrote of his opinion that having the accused suspect of the murder present at the autopsy of his victim, in close proximity to the grieving relatives of the deceased, was a very powerful psychological tool for the authorities to use in gaining willing confessions.^[108] Although interests in human anatomy had a long tradition in the Western world, a forensic book such as Song Ci's did not appear in Western works until Roderic de Castro's book in the 17th century.^[102] There have been several modern books published about Song Ci's writing and translations of it into English. This includes W.A. Harland's Records of Washing away of Injuries (1855), Herbert Giles' The Hsi Yuan Lu, or Instructions to Coroners (1924), and Dr. Brian E. McKnight's The Washing Away of Wrongs: Forensic Medicine in Thirteenth-Century China (1981).

Military

Main articles: Military history of China and Naval history of China

Growth of the army and navy

During the Song Dynasty, if one did not have the advantage of gaining a formal education, then the quickest way to power and joining the upper echelons of society was to first join the military.^[109] If a man had a successful career in the military and had victorious battles to boast of, then he had a sure path to success in politics.^[109] Exam-drafted scholar-officials came mostly from prominent families and could rely on their clan status to advance their careers and place in society. Yet many Song military officers did not have this advantage of higher clan affiliation and owed their status in society solely to the status that military power granted them.^[109] Many court eunuchs such as Tong Guan (1054–1126) were eager to enlist as military officers in the central army since this was a means to elevate their position at court.^[50] Hence the military became a prospect for many in Song society. In the year 960 the Song military had 378,000 enlisted soldiers.^[50] Around the turn of the 11th century the size of the Song military had grown to 900,000 soldiers, increasing to the size of 1,000,000 by the year 1022, and well over 1,250,000 by the year 1041.^{[68][112][110]} The overall expenses of upholding a military of this size consumed three quarters of the state's entire annual revenue.^[112] To lessen the expenses of the state budget in maintaining such a large armed force, in 1069 the Chancellor Wang Anshi created the institution of local militias as supporting units.^[68] In 1073, Wang Anshi created a new bureau of the central government called the Directorate of Weapons, which supervised the manufacture of armaments and ensured quality control over the products of weaponry for the military.^[114]

Despite the size of the army and any beneficial reforms that were established, the high ranks of Song military command were heavily corrupt. By the beginning of the 12th century, Song generals were collecting funds based on the size of their recorded amount of troops, and instead of using the funds for the benefit of the troops, they used this money to bolster their own salaries.^[115] On the other hand, troops of the standing army were given very small salaries despite being often assigned tasks of menial labor.^[50] The scholar officials running the government often paid little attention to the plight of soldiers and even to the demands of officers, since they were seen as being on a lower tier in society.^[50] The corruption of the high command and ineffectiveness of military strength was soon revealed once the Song made a joint effort with the Jurchen people to conquer the Khitan Liao Dynasty. After the successful rebellion of the Jurchens against their Khitan masters, the Jurchen observed the weakness of the Song army and broke their pact and attacked Song as well. By 1127, the capital at Kaifeng was captured and northern China overrun, while the remnants of the Song court fled south to Hangzhou and established the Southern Song. This was a crucial blow to the Song military elites, as they had been closely tied to the political structure until 1127; afterwards the military leadership became alienated from the emperor and the Song court.^[118] Although they had lost northern China to the new Jurchen Jin Dynasty (1115–1234), this loss prompted the Song to make drastic and lasting military reforms. Emperor Gaozong of Song (r. 1127–1162), desperate to refill the diminished ranks of the central army, drafted men from all over the country.^[118] This had been done in previous times but not on the same scale. Only the most skilled became imperial guardsmen, while under Gaozong entire central army units were composed of soldiers from every region and background.^[118] The Southern Song eventually recovered their strength and commanded the loyalty of vaunted commanders such as Yue Fei (1103–1142) who successfully defended the border at the Huai River. The Jurchens and Song eventually signed a peace treaty in 1141.^[115]

In 1131, the Chinese writer Zhang Yi noted the importance of employing a navy to fight the Jin, writing that China had to regard the sea and the river as her Great Wall, and use warships as its greatest watchtowers.^[115] Although the use of navies in China had been done since the ancient Spring and Autumn Period (722–481 BC),^[120] in the year 1132 the Southern Song established China's first permanent standing navy.^[119] The Jurchen launched an invasion against the Southern Song along the length of the Yangtze River, which culminated in two crucial Song victories at the Battle of Caishi and Battle of Tangdao in 1161. The Jin navy was effectively defeated by the Song's standing navy, which employed trebuchets on their ships' top deckhouses that launched gunpowder bombs.^[122][123]

Organization and equipment

Further information: Chinese armour

In the Song Dynasty, infantry units were organized 50 men to a platoon, two platoons to a company, and those into batallions of 500 men each.^[124][114] During the Northern Song Dynasty, half of the entire army of 1 million was stationed in and around Kaifeng.^[124] The rest were posted in scattered forces along borders and near large municipal locations, and in peacetime were used as means to maintain local security.^[124] Although the Song military was rife with corruption and largely ignored by civil officials, it did provide some valuable strengths to the empire through effective organization. During the Song era, military drills and training were studied as a science, while elite soldiers were allocated different responsibilities based on examinations of their skills in weaponry and athletic ability.^[124] In their training, soldiers and officers were prepared for battle by following signal standards for troop movement, advancing when a flag or banner was raised, halting when the blaring sound of bells and drums rang out.^[114]

Song crossbowmen comprised their own separate units aside from the infantry, and according to the Chinese Wujing Zongyao military manuscript of 1044, the crossbow used in mass was the most effective weapon used against northern nomadic cavalry charges.^[114] Elite crossbowmen were also valued as long-range snipers; such was the case when the Liao Dynasty general Xiao Talin was picked off by a Song crossbow marksman at the Battle of Shanzhou in 1004.^[114] Crossbows were mass produced in state armories with often improved designs as time went on, such as the design of a mulberry wood and brass crossbow in 1068 that could pierce a tree from 140 paces away.^[125] Song cavalry used an array of different weapons, including halberds, swords, bows, and fire lances that discharged a gunpowder blast of flame and shrapnel.^[126] In preparation for war, government armories manufactured weapons in enormous quantities, with tens of millions of arrowheads crafted each year, along with armor components by the tens of thousands.^[112] There were sixteen known varieties of catapults in the Song period, designed to fit many different proportions and requiring work crews in sizes ranging from several tens to several hundred men.^[110]

Unlike many other Chinese dynasties throughout history, the Song Dynasty did not model its military infrastructure and organization on the precedent of northern nomadic armies, such as the earlier Xianbei and later Mongols.^[50] There were only two instances in the Song era where non-Chinese people were employed in Song cavalry units, in the beginning of the dynasty with the campaigns of Emperor Taizu of Song, and later 13th century Mongol defectors who came over to fight for the Song.^[126] With the Khitan and Tangut kingdoms possessing much of the pasture and grazing lands in the north, the Song Dynasty military had a shortage of horses for cavalry.^[124] Although lacking enough horses for a large cavalry-based army, the Song established considerably large navies: in the 10th century, in the war to reunite China, and then a standing navy in the 12th century. Many of the warships in the Song Dynasty's navy were paddle-wheel driven crafts and some Song naval ships could carry up to 1,000 soldiers.^[128] It was also during the Song period that naval ships were first armed with gunpowder weapons.^[129] The use of enormous pontoon bridges in the Song era on at least one occasion was the key to victory. The Song built a large floating bridge across the Yangtze River in 974; while troops were under attack, the pontoon bridge was used as a means of transport for troops and supplies to the other bank during the early Song conquest of the Southern Tang state.^[129]

See also

• Han Shizhong
• Qin Kuai
• Shao Yong
• Wei Pu
• Wen Tianxiang

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

• Culture in the Song Period
• Song Dynasty Culture
• Chinese Siege Warfare: Mechanical Artillery & Siege Weapons of Antiquity
• Song Dynasty at bcps.org
• Song Dynasty at MSN encarta

Song Dynasty
Architecture | Culture | Economy | History | Society | Technology