The Flourishing Of Song Dynasty China | The World 1000 Years Ago

China. When historians who focus on the West talk about China, if they do at all, it's often in very abstract terms. China is some land far away on the other side of the world, a mysterious land of powerful emperors and luxury exports. For the most part, this is because that's how the people they're focused on saw it. They knew of China through legendary stories and expensive luxury items. But if we're going to explore a truly global history, we're going to have to dig a little bit deeper. Today then, we're going to take a look at Song Dynasty China a thousand years ago. Before we start on this video, my usual disclaimer applies. My area of expertise is medieval Christian Europe. My training in history has informed me throughout my research for this video, but I am far from infallible. So if anyone watching is knowledgeable about Chinese history and has noticed mistakes on my part or just wants to add context, I highly encourage you to leave comments below. That out of the way, let's get to it. In the 11th century, China was ruled by the Song Dynasty. More specifically, this is the period which is known to historians as the Northern Song, which lasted from 960 to 1127, in reference to the location of the imperial capital Bianjing, now known as Kaifeng. This is in contrast to the Southern Song, which came after 1127 when the North was conquered by the Jurchen Jin Empire, and the Song capital moved south. This lasted until the Song were fully conquered by the Mongols in 1279. A thousand years ago, in the 1020s, the Song Dynasty was still relatively young. The Tang Dynasty had collapsed into several regional states in 907, and the first Song Emperor, known to history as Taizu, usurped the throne of the largest one of these in a military coup in 960, before beginning his campaigns to reunify China under his rule. Taizu died in 976, and the unification of China was completed, sort of, by his brother, Taizong, with the conquest of northern Han in 979. The reason I say sort of is because, although the Song brothers unified all of the Chinese successor states, the Song Empire would never obtain all the lands previously held by the Tang. The most notable region out of the reach was the area in the north known as the Sixteen Prefectures, considered by the Song to be core Chinese lands inhabited by Chinese people, but ruled by the Khitan Liao Dynasty. Taizu, Taizong, and Taizong's son and successor, Zhensong, all tried to take the Sixteen Prefectures from Liao, but they never succeeded. These attempts culminated in a Liao campaign into Song lands in 1004, which led to the Tianyuan Treaty the following year. The treaty saw, amongst other things, the creation of a neutral frontier with both sides giving up any claims to lands beyond, including Song giving up the Sixteen Prefectures, and an annual payment to Liao from the Song, who had to begrudgingly recognize the Liao rulers as equals. I bring up the Tianyuan Treaty because it had a big impact on Song China in the 1020s and beyond. First of all, China had long been seen as the center of civilization surrounded by barbarian And although this was still seen as true, the treaty forced the Song to accept and recognize the fact that they were now only one of several equally powerful entities in East Asia, not the universal monarchs they'd long presented themselves as, though they still saw these other entities as being barbarians. Secondly, the treaty established a peace between Song and Liao which lasted for 120 years. And although the northern frontier was still militarized and the Song would still fight other wars during this time, this lasting peace with their greatest rival allowed the Song to spend fewer resources and energy on military affairs and concentrate on the civil and cultural. That being said, although the treaty was seen as a great success early on, it wasn't long before Song officials started decrying it as a great tragedy which needed to be avenged, though this was mostly talk since most of them were well aware that the empire was in no position to actually challenge Liao. In any case, by the 1020s, the early Song emperors had managed to create a new stable empire. Stability was key here since Taizu had taken power through a coup, a common occurrence in the central plain which had five dynasties from 907 to 960, with Song being the sixth. Unlike his predecessors, Taizu managed to exert a great deal of control over his armies, famously persuading his generals to retire in exchange for governing posts and imperial marriages, which then allowed him to restructure the army, which was a professional standing army by the way, so that only the emperor could have complete control over it. He also revived the Tang examination system for the selection of office holders for the imperial bureaucracy, and divided the bureaucracy into civil and military branches, making it harder for anyone to dominate both. Office holders of either branch were also frequently rotated. This was especially the case with military commanders who were moved around to avoid soldiers developing conflicting bonds of loyalty, as well as with provincial and regional officials so they couldn't entrench themselves too strongly. Taizu mostly appointed officials from the old military governorship classes, which helped him gain their support for his rule. But by the time his brother Taizong was in charge, the exam system became more important and was expanded beyond even what the Tang had had, and the majority of officials were coming through there, at least in the civil branch. Most officials in the military branch were retired army officers. The civil service exam was based around classical, that is Confucian, literature, which is often concerned with, amongst other things, tradition, harmonious conduct, and good government. There's obviously more to it than that, but right now I have neither the time nor the expertise to do a deep dive on Confucianism. The idea, however, was that those who studied the classics would be the best at governing the empire, and so the exam was open to everyone. Well, every man. Though, of course, leisure for study and tutors to help you, let alone the ability to read and write, weren't things everyone possessed or could afford. Still, the relative openness and meritocratic nature of officeholding in Song China meant that political power was less tied to landholding as it had been in the past. Those who completed the exam became part of the learned elite class, the shi, often called literati in English scholarship. It was members of this literati elite who would be chosen and cycled through for offices within the imperial bureaucracy. This bureaucracy was central to Chinese government, and it was complex, with China probably being the most politically complex state in the world at the time. But this complexity allowed for such a massive state to function. The shi class was highly stratified, with grades which determined what offices one could hold. One's placement in the exam determined what grade you started in, and various successes, as well as the passage of time, could lead to promotions. You could also get in by imperial decree if you were related to an official, something that actually happened quite often in the early Song, though this started you off at a fairly low grade and tended to limit your prospects for officeholding and promotion. Now, the emperor was the font of all power, and the whole of the imperial bureaucracy's legitimacy and right to function was based on its appointment by him. As I mentioned, Taizu had made it so that the army answered only to him, and the emperor always personally appointed his councillors, the officials holding the uppermost positions. He could also dismiss anyone he wanted. But in practice, the emperor couldn't be everywhere, and the bureaucracy was in many ways self-governing, with decisions merely getting the emperor's formal assent at court. In fact, by the 1020s, the bureaucracy was starting to get so large that officials were given more and more room to rule on certain things without the need for imperial approval at all, and the relationship between the emperor and his councillors became more distant. This also coincided with an increased emphasis on proper procedure, with written edicts passing through the right hands in the right order and, significantly, creating a record, so that if anything did go wrong or someone tried to take advantage of the position at the expense of the it could be traced. It even got to the point where imperial commands had to be issued by the emperor in writing, as wills, and proceed through the proper channels before it would be enforced, and these wills could even be returned to the emperor with recommended changes before going through. The bureaucracy was seen as an extension of the emperor, and ruling through it, as well as listening to the advice of his top officials, was seen as a necessity for the state to be healthy and even capable of functioning. It would be both inaccurate and anachronistic to call this a constitutional monarchy, but it's also a far cry from the tyrannical absolutism that imperial China often gets painted with. As usual, the reality is a lot more complicated. Now, the third Song emperor, Chen Song, was the first to really start delegating a lot of authority to his officials, and this is partially due to the fact that after the Chenyuan Treaty, he was the first to rule an empire at peace, which was increasingly focused on civil affairs. Chen Song died in 1022, but by that point he had been ill for quite a while, and his wife, Empress Liu, had been acting as regent since around 1020. In fact, Empress Liu would be regent throughout the 1020s, since the next emperor, Ren Song, was only 12 at the time of his father's death, who declared that Liu would be the one to make decisions, with the advice of his senior officials, until the boy was mature. Empress Liu's regency gives us an interesting look at the relationship between the monarch and the bureaucracy, in part because of its exceptionality, though Liu was hardly the only dowager regent of the Song. The regency was controversial, since Liu wasn't Ren Song's biological mother, and she was also the daughter of a silversmith. But she was Chen Song's favourite wife, and so she was declared Empress Dowager and adopted the future emperor as her son, something the boy didn't actually know until after her death. For most of the 1020s, she had to contend with officials who disapproved of her and wanted her to step down or be replaced. Despite this, however, the empire remained rather stable. This is in part because neither side really tried to overreach. Empress Liu largely governed palace affairs and didn't try to with her attending court behind a screen and giving her approval to decisions made. Those officials who opposed her also never tried to overthrow her illegitimately, instead trying to get more power into the hands of the boy emperor, especially once he was in his later teens. But the empress continued to have enough support from alliances with other councillors to hold on to her post. Once her main rivals had died or could be justifiably fired, however, which happened in 1029, she replaced them with more loyal men and took on a more involved role in government, even dressing herself in imperial robes like the infamous Tang-era Empress Wu Xieqian, though Liu made it clear that she had no intention of overthrowing her son as Xieqian had done. In any case, she continued to rule in this fashion until her death in 1033, by which time Ren Song was 23. But Song China was more than just the imperial court and bureaucracy. In the 1020s, it was a massive empire with a population in the 50 million range. And, as with most societies in the 11th century, the majority of the population were rural farmers. The early Song period saw an important regional shift towards the hilly but fertile south, where tea plantations were established in the slopes and marshy basins were drained for rice cultivation. Although rice may be synonymous with Chinese culture today, previous empires focused more on the drier northern plains around the Yellow River, tended to rely more on millet, wheat, and barley. But with the Song, the relatively peaceful south saw a great deal of immigration and development, and by the 1020s, its population was getting close to eclipsing that of the north. The increase in agricultural development was integral in supporting the empire's overall population growth, which would reach 100 million by the end of the century. As, again, in most societies, land ownership was not equal. You had some families which owned lots of land and some who owned little. Although, based on the census data which has survived to us, it seems like most households did own at least some land. That said, the land was not always enough on its own to support a family, and so many also rented lands from landlords. The rights of landlords over their tenants varied both regionally and within each region. In the more productive areas like the southeast, the relationship tended to be more transactional, with tenants allowed to end their lease whenever they wanted, and some were even landlords themselves. But further west and in the north, tenants could be closer to hereditary serfs, legally bound to work certain lands for generations. But landholding wasn't the only way to make a living at the time. The early 11th century was also a time of growing markets and trade. There'd always, of course, been markets in towns across the empire. But in the Song era, markets became more important and trade a bigger part of everyday life, with regional goods more and more available in all corners of the empire. Areas which had once been considered backwaters now had thriving market towns where cash flowed. And it wasn't just internal markets, either. One of the reasons why the south became more important at this time was also because of the development of port cities on the coast. International trade with China had traditionally relied on the famous Silk Road through Central Asia. But by the time of the Song, the Silk Road was starting to waver. Part of the reason for this is that the Song had very little control of the roads to Central Asia, with Yao and especially the Tanguts of Xie making it difficult for the Song to hold a dominant position over trade. At the same time, traders from Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean had started coming to the nascent port cities of southeastern China, and this would gradually start to replace the Silk Road as the most important venue for international trade. Many of these foreign traders were Persians and Arabs, and we even see mosques being built in some of these coastal cities. But you also had others, including, as I mentioned in my video on the Sholas, Indians. This was the very beginning of what would become the massive Indian Ocean trade which would be so important in later centuries. The Song imported, amongst other things, precious stones, spices, aromatics like incense, and slaves. As for their exports, these were especially in manufactured goods, namely silk, ceramics, paper, and books. Fine silk had long been the most prized export coming out of China, and this was still the case in the 1020s, but only barely as it was gradually being eclipsed by Chinese ceramics, especially porcelain. The Song saw a great increase in porcelain production, and Song ceramics are often considered some of the best. Porcelain production at the time was so great that it was no longer only the elite who could own it, but commoners as well. The export of porcelain, especially to the Arab world, would also become so valuable that some workshops even began specializing in dishes with popular Arab-inspired imagery, like date palms, specifically with that Arab market in mind. As for the sale of books, this was tied to the growing print culture in China. Woodblock printing had existed since the Tang, but its scope was far more limited. Under the Song, however, print exploded, especially at government print shops. One of the more important offerings were official, government-sanctioned editions of the Confucian classics, which made study for the civil service exams easier, especially since many print shops were attached to public libraries and schools. But there were also plenty of other works being printed and circulated as well. The growing literati elite were major producers as well as consumers of printed works, and their growth also saw the growth of the print industry alongside it. But they weren't alone. Although it's hard to know exactly how far down the social ladder print culture extended, the increased availability of cheaper reading does seem to have brought about an overall growth in literacy levels, at least in urban areas. There's mention in Song sources of popular newsprint, handbills, and pamphlets, which speaks to a population where literacy went beyond just the elite. And we know that the print industry was already quite significant in the 1020s, because in 1027, there were some in the government who wanted to ban the sale of books outside of China, especially to Liao, unless they were explicitly approved, worrying that books written by officials about history and diplomacy might provide valuable intelligence to the empire's enemies. Though the historian Robert Himes notes that the fact that edicts like this were regularly repeated throughout the years likely implies that those that were implemented were largely ineffective. Religious texts were also popular. In fact, in the Tang era, printing was almost exclusive to Buddhist works. But by the 1020s, they were shared beyond the monasteries, and were also joined by Taoist writings. Both Taoism and Buddhism had clergy who played an important role in religious ceremonies throughout people's lives, officiating during sacrifices and praying for those who supported them through donations. But lay religion was also very important at the time. Charms, amulets, and other religious items were increasingly available at markets across the empire. And according to historian Mark Halperin, the availability of religious texts helped the literati elite start to see themselves as religious experts in their own right, who could interpret and develop their own rituals and sacrifices. Overall, the religious landscape of 11th century China was diverse and complex, with various traditions, some literary, others popular, some local, and others more universal, blending and existing side by side throughout the empire. Religion was also closely tied to the state. As with most cultures at the time, the separation of the two would have seemed incredibly artificial. In the case of the Song, this happened in a few ways. Not only did the government support the construction and maintenance of temples and shrines, but Buddhist monks and Taoist priests were certified through exams similar to that for the civil service. The emperor was also seen as being central to religious life. Starting with Qiansong, the Song dynasty were presented as being descendants of the Yellow Emperor, a founding deity in Taoism. The emperor was also the central officiant of several large important religious ceremonies, and, of course, was considered the son of heaven, meaning his authority over the whole world was divinely mandated by the highest deity, an idea with a, by then, long-standing tradition. As with every part of the world that we've discussed so far in this series, Song China is incredibly fascinating. Its society and its people are intricate and complex, and there's so much more than I could ever hope to cover in a single video. But I hope that this brief look at medieval China has been as interesting for you as it was for me researching it. I always love to dig my claws into bits of history that I only know a little bit about. In any case, as always, I thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you next time.