Encyclopedia
The
Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in
China from 960-1279. Its founding marked the reunification of China for the first time since the fall of the
Tang Dynasty in 907. The intervening years, known as the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms , were a time of division between north and south, and of rapidly changing administrations.
During the Song Dynasty, there were many threats from the northern borders by the Khitans from the Liao Dynasty , Tanguts from the
Western Xia Dynasty, and the
Jurchens from the
Jin dynasty . The Sòng dynasty itself can be divided into two distinct periods: the Northern Sòng and Southern Sòng. The
Northern Sòng signifies the time when the Sòng capital was in the northern city of
Kaifeng and the dynasty controlled most of inner China. The
Southern Sòng refers to the time after the Song lost control of northern China to the Jurchen Jin dynasty. The Song court retreated south of the
Yangtze River and made their capital at
Hangzhou .
The Jin Dynasty was soon conquered by the
Mongols in 1234, who subsequently took control of northern China and maintained uneasy relations with the Southern Sòng court
Arts, culture and economy
The founders of the Sòng Dynasty ,
Zhao Kuangyin posthumously honoured as Taizu , built an effective centralized bureaucracy staffed with civilian scholar-officials. Regional military governors and their supporters were replaced by centrally appointed officials. This system of civilian rule led to a greater concentration of power in the emperor and his palace bureaucracy than had been achieved in the previous dynasties.
The Sòng Dynasty 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. A new group of wealthy commoners - the mercantile class - arose as printing and education spread, private trade grew, and a market economy began to link the coastal provinces and the interior. Landholding and government employment were no longer the only means of gaining wealth and prestige. The development of paper money and a unified tax system meant the development of a true nationwide market system.
Accompanying this was the beginnings of what one might term the Chinese
industrial revolution. For example the historian Robert Hartwell has estimated that per capita iron output rose sixfold between 806 and 1078 , such that, by 1078 China was producing 125,000 tons of iron per year, a per capita consumption of roughly 1.5 kg of iron per year . This iron was used to mass produce
ploughs, hammers, needles, pins,
cymbals among other routine items for an indigenous mass market and for trade with the outside world, which also expanded greatly at this point. Concurrently the Chinese invented or developed
gunpowder, the
cannon, the
flamethrower , and
printing technology which increased literacy with the mass production of printed materials. This meant that parents could encourage sons to learn to read and write and therefore be able to take the
civil service exams and become part of the learned growing bureaucracy. As a result of these innovations China boasted some of the largest cities of the world at this time. For example it has been estimated that
Hangzhou had more than a million inhabitants by 1200: far larger than any European city - in western
Europe, only
Paris and
Venice had a population of over 100,000, though
Constantinople had 300,000.
According to the most common estimates, the GDP per capita income with purchasing power parity under the Sòng Dynasty was estimated to be over $600 in 1990 international dollars.
Western Europe had a per capita income of roughly $550 by 1000 AD, significantly smaller. Western Europe started to become slightly wealthier in per capita income than a slowly declining China after 1300 AD.
Culturally, the Sòng refined many of the developments of the previous centuries. Included in these refinements were not only the
Tang ideal of the universal man, who combined the qualities of scholar, poet, painter, and statesman, but also historical writings,
painting,
calligraphy , and hard-glazed
porcelain. Song intellectuals sought answers to all philosophical and political questions in the
Confucian Classics. This renewed interest in the Confucian ideals and society of ancient times coincided with the decline of
Buddhism , which the Chinese regarded as foreign and offering few practical guidelines for the solution of political and other mundane problems.
The Sòng Neo-Confucian philosophers, finding a certain purity in the originality of the ancient classical texts, wrote commentaries on them. The most influential of these philosophers was
Zhu Xi , whose synthesis of Confucian thought and Buddhist,
Taoist , and other ideas became the official imperial ideology from late Song times to the late
19th century. As incorporated into the
examination system , Zhu Xi's philosophy evolved into a rigid official creed, which stressed the one-sided obligations of obedience and compliance of subject to ruler, child to father, wife to husband, and younger brother to elder brother. The effect was to inhibit the societal development of premodern China, resulting both in many generations of political, social, and spiritual stability and in a slowness of cultural and institutional change up to the 19th century. Neo-Confucian doctrines also came to play the dominant role in the intellectual life of
Korea,
Vietnam, and
Japan.
Southern Sòng's resistance against the Jin
Before the arrival of the Jurchens the Song Dynasty for centuries was engaged in a stand-off against the
Western Xia and the Khitan Liao Dynasty. This balance was disrupted when the Song Dynasty developed a military alliance with the
Jurchens in annihilating the Liao Dynasty. This balance of power disrupted, the Jurchens then turned on the Song Dynasty, resulting in the fall of the Northern Song and the subsequent establishment of the Southern Song.
A new triangular arrangement was formed, between the Song, Jin and Western Xia. The Southern Song deployed several military commanders, among them
Yue Fei and Han Shizhong. Yue Fei in particular had been preparing to recapture
Kaifeng , the former capital of the Song dynasty and the then southern capital of the Jin dynasty, after a streak of uninterrupted military victories. The possible defeat of the Jurchens however threatened the power of the new emperor of the Southern Song,
Gaozong and his premier Qin Hui. The reason was that
Qinzong, the last emperor of the Northern Song was living in Jin-imposed exile in
Manchuria and had a good chance of being recalled to the throne should the Jin Dynasty be destroyed. Emperor Gaozong signed the Treaty of Shaoxing in 1141, which conceded most of the territory regained through the efforts of Yue Fei. Yue Fei in particular was executed under the terms of the treaty in 1142.
Kaifeng as the Jin capital
In 1153, Jin Emperor
Wányán Liàng moved the empire's capital from Huining Fu in northern Manchuria to Zhongdu . Four years later in 1157, he razed Beijing, including the nobles’ residences, and moved the
Jurchen “southern” capital from Beijing to Kaifeng, former seat of the Song Dynasty, and began to reconstruct it .
Emperor Wányán Liàng attacked the
Southern Song in 1161. Meanwhile, two simultaneous rebellions of
Jurchen nobles, led by soon-to-be crowned Jin Emperor Wányán Yong , and Khitan tribesman erupted in
Manchuria, forcing the Jin Dynasty to withdraw its troops from southern China to quell the uprisings. The Jin navy was wiped out by a smaller Song fleet because of their use of gunpowder, the first recorded use in military history. Emperor Wányán Liàng failed in taking the Song and was assassinated by his own generals in December of 1161. His son and heir was also assassinated in
Kaifeng. Although crowned in October, Emperor Wányán Yong was not officially recognized as the 5th successive Jin Emperor until the murder of Wányán Liàng’s heir.
A Second Treaty
The Khitan uprising was not suppressed until 1164; their horses were confiscated so that the rebels had to take up farming. Other Khitan and Xia cavalry units had been incorporated into the Jin army. The Treat of Lóngxing was signed in 1164 and ushered in 44 years of peace between the two empires.
Mongol invasion
Following the death of Gaozong and the emergence of the Mongols, the Song Dynasty formed a military alliance with the
Mongols in the hope of finally defeating the Jin Dynasty. Several tens of thousands of carts of grain were sent to the Mongol army during the siege. Following the destruction of the Jurchens, the Southern Song generals broke the alliance, proceeding to recapture the three historical capitals of
Kaifeng,
Luoyang and Chang'an.
However the cities, ravaged by years of warfare, lacked economic capacity and yielded little defensibility. The Mongols eventually gained the upper hand, and in 1276 the Southern Sòng court fled to Guangdong by boat.
Emperor Gong of Song China was left behind. Any hope of resistance was centred on two young princes, Emperor Gong's brothers. The older boy,
Zhao Shi , who was nine years old, was declared emperor ; and in 1277, the imperial court sought refuge in
Silvermine Bay on
Lantau Island and later in what is today
Kowloon City,
Hong Kong .
The older brother became ill and died, and was succeeded by the younger,
Zhao Bing , aged seven. On March 19, 1279 the Song army was defeated in its last battle, the Battle of Yamen , fought against the Mongols in the
Pearl River Delta ; subsequently a high official is said to have taken the boy emperor in his arms and jumped from a clifftop into the sea, drowning both of them . Hau Wong, an official from this court, is still revered as a god in Hong Kong.
Despite the fact the Southern Song was conquered, they had fought the longest against the Mongols out of any other nations and despite its relative close geographical location, remained one of the last places the Mongols successfully invaded. During a military campaign in Southern China, the Mongols suffered one of the most humilating defeats, notably the death of
Mongke Khan, the first and only Khan ever to die during an invasion. Mongke's death in 1259 led to the recall of the main Mongol armies in the Middle East, and a joint invasion of Southern China which finally succeeded in 1279.
Sòng dynasty emperors
Convention: "Sòng" + temple name or posthumous name except last emperor who was revered as Song Di Bing .
Bei Sòng dynasty, 960- 1127
Temple Names
|
Posthumous Names
|
Born Names |
Period
of Reigns |
Era Names and their according range of years |
|---|
Taizu |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Kuangyin |
960-976 |
*Jianlong 960-963
*Qiande 963-968
*Kaibao 968-976
|
Taizong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Kuangyi or Zhao Guangyi |
976-997 |
*Taipingxingguo 976-984
*Yongxi 984-987
*Duangong 988-989
*Chunhua 990-994
*Zhidao 995-997
|
Zhenzong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Heng |
997-1022 |
*Xianping 998-1003
*Jingde 1004-1007
*Dazhongxiangfu 1008-1016
*Tianxi 1017-1021
*Qianxing 1022
|
Renzong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Zhen |
1022-1063 |
*Tiansheng 1023-1032
*Mingdao 1032-1033
*Jingyou 1034-1038
*Baoyuan 1038-1040
*Kangding 1040-1041
*Qingli 1041-1048
*Huangyou 1049-1054
*Zhihe 1054-1056
*Jiayou 1056-1063
|
Yingzong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Shu |
1063-1067 |
*Zhiping 1064-1067
|
Shenzong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Xu |
1067-1085 |
*Xining 1068-1077
*Yuanfeng 1078-1085
|
Zhezong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Xu |
1085-1100 |
*Yuanyou 1086-1094
*Shaosheng 1094-1098
*Yuanfu 1098-1100
|
Huizong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Ji |
1100-1125 |
*Jianzhongjingguo 1101
*Chongning 1102-1106
*Daguan 1107-1110
*Zhenghe 1111-1118
*Chonghe 1118-1119
*Xuanhe 1119-1125
|
Qinzong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Huan |
1126-1127 |
*Jingkang 1125-1127
|
Nan Song dynasty, 1127- 1279
Temple Names
|
Posthumous Names
|
Born Names |
Period
of Reigns |
Era Names and their according range of years |
|---|
| Gaozong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Gou |
1127-1162 |
*Jingyan 1127-1130
*Shaoxing 1131-1162
|
| Xiaozong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Shen |
1162-1189 |
*Longxing 1163-1164
*Qiandao 1165-1173
*Chunxi 1174-1189
|
| Guangzong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Dun |
1189-1194 |
*Shaoxi 1190-1194
|
| Ningzong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Kuo |
1194-1224 |
*Qingyuan 1195-1200
*Jiatai 1201-1204
*Kaixi 1205-1207
*Jiading 1208-1224
|
| Lizong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Yun |
1224-1264 |
*Baoqing 1225-1227
*Shaoding 1228-1233
*Duanping 1234-1236
*Jiaxi 1237-1240
*Chunyou 1241-1252
*Baoyou 1253-1258
*Kaiqing 1259
*Jingding 1260-1264
|
| Duzong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Qi |
1264-1274 |
*Xianchun 1265-1274
|
| Emperor Gonggong |
Gong Di |
Zhao Xian
|
1275 |
*Deyou 1275-1276
|
| Duan Zong |
too tedious; thus, not used when referring to this sovereign |
Zhao Shi |
1276-1278 |
*Jingyan 1276-1278
|
| did not exist |
Di or Wei Wang |
Zhao Bing |
1278-1279 |
*Xiangxing 1278-1279
|
Bibliography
See also
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