history of the Song Dynasty

ANCIENT
3 Sovereigns and 5 Emperors
Xia Dynasty 2070–1600 BCE
Shang Dynasty 1600–1046 BCE
Zhou Dynasty 1122–256 BCE
Western Zhou
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Spring and Autumn Period
Warring States Period
IMPERIAL
Qin Dynasty 221 BCE–206 BCE
Han Dynasty 206 BCE–220 CE
Western Han
Xin Dynasty
Eastern Han
Three Kingdoms 220–280 CE
Wei, Shu & Wu
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Western Jin
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Sui Dynasty 581–619 CE
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5 Dynasties & 10 Kingdoms 907–960 CE	Liao Dynasty 907–1125 CE
Song Dynasty 960–1279 CE
Northern Song		W. Xia Dyn.
Southern Song	Jin Dyn.
Yuan Dynasty 1271–1368 CE
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Republic of China 1911–1949
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The Song Dynasty (Chinese: 宋朝; pinyin: Sòng cháo; 960-1279) of China was a ruling dynasty that controlled China proper and southern China from the middle of the 10th century into the last quarter of the 13th century. This period is considered a height of classical Chinese innovation in science and technology, with figures such as Shen Kuo and Su Song, and revolutionary new use of gunpowder weapons (catapult-projected bombs, firearms, cannons, flamethrowers). However, it was also a period of political and military turmoil. There were opposing and often aggressive political factions formed at court, which in many ways impeded progress. There was also an enormous military defeat at the hands of invading Jurchens from the north in 1127, forcing the remnants of the Song court to flee south and establish a new capital. It was there that new naval strength was built to combat the Jurchen's Jin Dynasty formed in the north. Although the Song Dynasty was able to defeat further Jurchen invasions, the Mongols led by Genghis Khan, Ögedei Khan, Möngke Khan, and finally Kublai Khan gradually conquered China, until the fall of the Song Dynasty in 1279.

Founding of the Song

Further information: List of Song Emperors

A porcelain teapot in the Qingbai style, from Jingdezhen, Song Dynasty.

The Later Zhou Dynasty was the last of the Five Dynasties that had controlled northern China after the fall of the Tang Dynasty in 907. Zhao Kuangyin, later known as Emperor Taizu (r. 960–976), usurped the throne with the support of military commanders, initiating the Song Dynasty. Upon taking the throne in 960, his first goal was the reunification of China after half a century of political division. This included the conquests of Nanping, Wu-Yue, Southern Han, Later Shu, and Southern Tang in the south as well as the Northern Han and the Sixteen Prefectures in the north. With capable military officers such as Yang Ye (d. 986), Liu Tingrang (929—987), Cao Bin (931—999) and Huyan Zan (d. 1000), the early Song military became the dominant force in China.

Consolidation in the south was completed in 978 with the conquest of Wu-Yue. Song military forces then turned north in a campaign to conquer the Northern Han, which fell to Song forces in 979. However, efforts to take the Sixteen Prefectures was never accomplished, as they were incorporated earlier into the Liao state based in Manchuria to the immediate north.^[1] To the far northwest, the Tanguts had been in power over northern Shaanxi since 881 CE. This came about when the earlier Tang court appointed a Tangut chief as a military governor (jiedushi) over the region, a seat that became hereditary (forming the Xi-Xia Dynasty).^[2] Although the Song state would find its military match with the Liao Dynasty, the Song gained significant military victories against the Western Xia (who would eventually fall to the Mongol conquest of Ghengis Khan in 1227).^[3]

After political consolidation through military conquest, Emperor Taizu held a famous banquet inviting the many high-ranking military officers that had served him in Song's various conquests. As his military officers drank wine and feasted with Taizu, he spoke to them about the potential of a military coup against him like seen in the previous era. His military officers protested against this notion, and that none were as qualified as him to lead the country. The passage of this account in the Song Shi follows as such:

Porcelain, lacquerware, and stoneware from the Song Dynasty.

Emperor 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. In the early 11th century, there was some 30,000 men who took the prefectural exams (see imperial examination), which steadily increased to roughly 80,000 by the end of the century, and to a whopping 400,000 exam takers during the 13th century.^[5] Although new municipal governments were often established, the same number of prefectures and provinces were in place. This meant that although more people were taking exams, roughly the same number were being accepted into the government as in previous periods, making the civil service exams very competitive amongst aspiring students and scholars. There were also other benefits of Taizu's scholarly, merit-driven system of exam graduates staffed in and maintaining the central, provincial, and local bureaucracies.

Emperor Taizu also found other ways to consolidate and strengthen his power, including updated map-making (cartography) so that his central administration could easily discern how to handle affairs in the provinces. In 971 CE, he ordered Lu Duosun to update and 're-write all the Tu Jing [maps] in the world', which would seem to be a daunting task for one individual. Nonetheless, he was sent out and traveled throughout the provinces to collect texts and as much data as possible.^[6] With the aid of Song Zhun, the massive work was completed in 1010, with some 1566 chapters.^[6] The later Song Shi historical text stated (Wade-Giles spelling):

Taizu also displayed a venerable interest in science and technology. He employed the Imperial Workshop to support such projects as Zhang Sixun's hydraulic-powered armillary sphere (for astronomical observation and time-keeping) that used liquid mercury instead of water to operate it (due to the fact that liquid mercury would not freeze during winter).^[7] Emperor Taizu was also quite open-minded in his affairs, especially with those perceived as foreigners, since he appointed the Arab Muslim Ma Yize (910-1005) as the chief astronomer of the Song court. For receiving envoys from the Korean kingdom of Goryeo alone, the Song court had roughly 1,500 volumes written about the nuanced rules, regulations, and guidelines for their reception.^[8]

Relations with the Liao

Further information: Liao Dynasty

A Liao Dynasty polychrome wood-carved statue of Guan Yin, Shanxi Province, China, (907–1125 )

During the first couple decades of rule, relations between the Song and Liao (led by the Khitans) were relatively peaceful, the two outstanding issues of the Northern Han and Sixteen Prefectures notwithstanding. In 974, the two began exchanging embassies on New Years Day. However, this peace was an illusion as the Song was more concerned with consolidating the south. In 979, the Song moved against the Northern Han, long under the protection of the Liao Dynasty. The Song emperor succeeded in bringing the Northern Han into the fold, but when marching on the Liao Southern Capital (present-day Beijing,) in the Sixteen Prefectures, Song forces were defeated at the Battle of the Gaoliang River.^[9]

Relations between the two remained tense and hostile. In 986 the Song sent three armies against the Liao in an effort to take advantage of an infant emperor, yet the Khitans successfully repulsed all three armies sent against them. Following this, diplomatic relations were resumed.^[9]

However, relations between the two worsened in the 990s. In 999 the Liao began annual attacks on Song positions, though with no breakthrough victories. Yet in 1004 Liao forces managed to march deep into Song territory, camping out in Shanyuan, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the Song capital of Kaifeng. The following negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Shanyuan, signed in January 1005 (some sources cite 1004 due to the Chinese Lunar Calendar.) The treaty required annual tribute payments to the Liao and recognition of Liao equality with the Song.^[10] The tribute consisted of 283 kg (100,000 oz) of silver along with 200 thousand bolts of silk, with an increased amount to 500 thousand units by 1042.^[1] However, even with the increase in tribute by 1042, the Song Dynasty economy was not damaged extensively. The bullion holding of the Liao Dynasty did not increase with the tribute bearing, since the Song exported many goods annually to the Liao Dynasty, which usually dwarfed the amount of imports that Song purchased from Liao.^[1] This meant that much of the silver sent to Liao as tribute was used to pay for Song Chinese goods, hence the silver wound up back into the hands of Chinese merchants and the Song government.

The Northern Song, Liao, and Xia dynasties.

Until the Song Dynasty took advantage of a large rebellion within the Liao Kingdom in 1125, the Liao Dynasty had to be dealt with somewhat cordially. Skilled ambassadors were sent on missions to court the Liao Dynasty and maintain peace, ambassadors such as the renowned horologist, engineer, and state minister Su Song.^[11] The Song also prepared for armed conflict if necessary, increasing the overall size of the armed forces to 1 million soldiers by 1022.^[1] By that time, however, the military was consuming three-quarters of the tax revenues gathered by the state, compared to a mere 2 or 3 percent of state income that would be consumed by just providing the Liao with tribute.^[1] Due to these circumstances, intense political rivalries would later arise in the Song court over how to handle these issues and others.

The Song also came into conflict with the Tanguts of the Western Xia Dynasty. After the Tangut leader Li Jiqian died in 1004, the Tanguts under his successor Li Deming sought peaceful relations with Song that in turn fostered economic benefits until 1038.^[12] The new successor Yuanhao pursued open warfare with the Song, which yielded little result by its end in the year 1045 and gained no territory for the Western Xia.^[13] In the 1070s the Song gained considerable success in capturing Tangut territory. The brilliant scientist and statesman Shen Kuo (1031-1095) was sent to Yanzhou (now Yan'an, Shaanxi Province) in 1080 to stave off Tangut military invasion.^[14] He successfully defended his fortified position, yet the new Grand Councillor Cai Que held him responsible for the death of a rival Song military officer and the decimation of his forces; hence, Shen Kuo was ousted from office and the state abandoned the projected land that Shen was able to defend.^[15]

When Empress Dowager Gao died in 1093, Emperor Zhezong of Song asserted himself at court by ousting the political conservatives led by Sima Guang, reinstating Wang Anshi's reforms, and halting all negotiations with the Tanguts of the Western Xia. This resulted in the continued armed conflict between the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia.

Partisans and factions, reformers and conservatives

A portrait painting of Chancellor Wang Anshi

After students passed the often difficult, bureaucratic, and heavily-demanding Imperial Exams, as they became officials, they did not always see eye to eye with others that had passed the same examination. Even though they were fully-fledged graduates ready for government service, there was always the factor of competition with other officials. Promotion to a higher post, higher salary, additional honors, and selection for choice assignment responsibilities were often uncertain, as young new officials often needed higher-ranking officials to recommend them for service.^[16] Once an official would rise to the upper echelons of central administration based in the capital, they would often compete with others over influence of the emperor's official adoption of state policies. Officials with different opinions on how to approach administrative affairs often sought out other officials for support, leading to pacts of rivaling officials lining up political allies at court to sway the emperor against the faction they disagreed with.

Factional strife at court first became apparent during the 1040s, with a new state reform initiated by Fan Zhongyan (989–1052). Fan was a capable military leader (with successful battles in his record against the Tanguts of Xi-Xia) but as a minister of state he was known as an idealist, once saying that a well-minded official should be one that was "first in worrying about the world's troubles and last in enjoying its pleasures".^[16] When Fan rose to the seat of chancellor, there was a growing opposition to him within the older and more conservative crowd. They disliked his pushing for reforms for the recruitment system, higher pay for minor local officials to discourage against corruption, and wider sponsorship programs to ensure that officials were drafted more on the basis of their intellect and character. However, his Qingli Reforms were cancelled within a year's time (with Fan replaced as chancellor), since many older officials halfway through their careers were not keen on making changes that could affect their comfortably-set positions.^[16]

After Fan Zhongyan, there was Chancellor Wang Anshi (1021–1086). The new nineteen-year-old Emperor Shenzong of Song had an instant liking of Wang Anshi when he submitted a long memorial to the throne that criticized the practices of state schools and the examination system itself. With Wang as his new chancellor, he quickly implemented Wang's New Policies, which evoked some heated reaction from the conservative base. Along with the Baojia system, the New Policies included:

• Low-cost loans for farmers and replaced the labor service with a tax instead, hoping this would ultimately help the workings of the entire economy and state (as he directly linked state income to the level of prosperity of rural peasants who owned farms, produced goods for the market, and paid the land tax).^[17]
• Government monopolies on tea, salt, and wine in order to raise state revenues (although this would now limit the merchant class).^[17]
• Instituting a more up-to-date land survey system in order to properly assess the land tax.^[17]
• Introduction of a local militia in order to lessen the budget of expenses paid for upholding the official standing army, which had grown dramatically to roughly 1 million soldiers by 1022.^[17]
• Introduction of the Finance Planning Commission, created in mind to speed up the reform process so that dissident Conservatives would have less time to react and oppose reforms.^[17]
• The poetry requirement of the civil service examination (introduced during the earlier Tang Dynasty) was scrapped in order to seek out men with more practical experience and knowledge.^[17]

A contemporary Song Dynasty portrait painting of Su Shi (1037-1101)

In addition, Wang Anshi had his own commentaries on Confucian classics made into a standard and required reading for students hoping to pass the state examinations. This and other reforms of Wang's were too much for some officials to bear idly, as there were many administrative disagreements, along with many personal interests at stake. In any case, the rising Conservative faction against the Reformer Wang Anshi branded him as an inferior-intellect who was not up to par with their principles of governance (likewise, the Reformers branded Conservatives in the same labeled fashion). Reminded of the earlier Fan Zhongyan, Wang was not about to allow ministers who opposed his reforms to have sway at court, and with his prowess (and perceived arrogance) was known as 'the bullheaded premier'.^[18] He gathered to his side ministers who were loyal to his policies and cause, an elite social coalition known as the New Policies Group (新法, Xin Fa).^[19] He had many able and powerful supporters, such as the scientist and statesman Shen Kuo. Ministers of state who were seen as obstructive to the implementation of Wang's reforms were not all dismissed from the capital to other places (since the emperor needed some critical feedback), but many were. A more extreme example would be "obstructionist" officials sent far to the south to administer regions that were largely tropical, keeping in mind that northern Chinese were often susceptible to malaria found in the deep south of China.^[17] The worst-case scenario of persecution, though, came with Su Shi in 1079, where he was arrested and forced into five weeks of interrogation. Finally, he confessed under guarded watch that he had slandered the emperor in his poems. One of them read:

An old man of seventy, sickle at his waist,

Feels guilty the spring mountain bamboo

and bracken are sweet.

It's not that the music of Shao has made

him lose his sense of taste.

It's just that he's eaten his food for three

months without salt.^[17]

A drawing of Sima Guang.

This poem can be interpreted as a criticizing of the failure of the salt monopoly established by Wang Anshi, embodied in the persona of a hard-working old man who was cruelly denied his means to flavor his food, with the severity of the laws and the only salt available being charged at rates that were too expensive. After his confession, Su Shi was found guilty in court, and was summarily exiled to Hubei Province. More than thirty of his associates were also given minor punishments for not reporting his slanderous poems to authorities before they were widely circulated to the educated public.^[17]

Emperor Shenzong died in 1085, an abrupt death since he was in his mid 30s. His successor Emperor Zhezong of Song was only ten years old when he ascended to the throne, so his powerful grandmother served as regent over him. She disliked Wang's reforms from the beginning, and sought to appoint more Conservative officials at court who would agree to oppose the Reformists. She found her greatest political ally to be Sima Guang, who was made the next Chancellor. Undoing what Wang had implemented, Sima dismissed the New Policies, and forced the same treatment upon Reformers that Wang had earlier meted out to his opponents: dismissal to lower or frontier posts of governance, or even exile. However, there was still mounted opposition to Sima Guang, as many had favored some of the New Policies, including the substitution of tax instead of forced labor service to the state. Sure enough, when Emperor Zhezong's grandmother died in 1093, Zhezong was quick to sponsor the Reformists like his predecessor Shenzong had done. The Conservatives once more were ousted from political dominance at court. When Zhezong suddenly died in his twenties, his younger brother Emperor Huizong of Song (r. 1100–1125) succeeded him, and also supported the Reformers at court. Huizong banned the writing of Sima Guang and his lackeys while elevating Wang Anshi to near revered status, having a statue of Wang erected in a Confucian temple alongside a statue of Mencius.^[20] To further this image of Wang as a great and honorable statesman, printed and painted pictures of him were circulated throughout the country.^[20] Yet this cycle of revenge and partisanship continued after Zhezong and Huizong, as Reformers and Conservatives continued their infighting. Huizong's successor, Emperor Gaozong of Song, abolished once more the New Policies, and favored ministers of the Conservative faction at court.

From Northern Song to Southern Song

Official court portrait painting of Emperor Huizong of Song.

Before the arrival of the Jurchens the Song Dynasty was for centuries 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 for the purpose of 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.

During the reign of Huizong, the Jurchen tribe to the north (once subordinates to the Liao), revolted against their Khitan masters. The Jurchen community already had a reputation of great economic clout in their own region of the Liao and Sungari rivers. They were positioned in an ideal location for horse raising, and were known to muster ten thousand horses a year to sell annually to the Khitans of the Liao Dynasty.^[20] They even had a martial history of being pirates, in the 1019 Toi invasion of the Heian Japanese islands in modern-day Iki Province, Tsushima Province, and Hakata Bay. From the Jurchen Wanyan clan, a prominent leader Wanyan Aguda (1068–1123) challenged Liao authority, establishing their own Jin Dynasty (or 'Golden Dynasty') in 1115.^[20] The Song government took notice of the political dissidence of the Jurchens in Liao's territory, as Council of State Tong Guan (1054–1126) suggested to the emperor that a military alliance with the Jurchens would be favorable in crushing the Liao once and for all.^[20] In a secret alliance and mission of envoys across the borders, an agreement was reached between the Jurchens and the Song government to divide Liao's territory (while the Song would ultimately obtain their coveted prize: the Sixteen Prefectures).

The Liao Dynasty was ultimately crushed by Jin and Song forces in 1125. However, the Jurchens discovered weaknesses about the Song military based in the north (as the Chinese for so long had been sending tribute to the Liao Dynasty instead of actually fighting them). Banking on the possibility that the Song were weak enough to be destroyed, the Jurchens made a sudden and unprovoked attack against the Song Dynasty in the north. Soon enough, even the capital at Kaifeng was under siege by Jin forces, only staved off when an enormous bribe was handed over to them. There was also an effective use of Song Chinese war machines in the defense of Kaifeng in 1126, as it was recorded that 500 catapults hurling debris were used.^[21]

Southern Song in 1142.

However, the Jin returned soon after, this time with enough siege machinery to scale the city's layer of walls and penetrate the heart of the central government to topple the entire empire. Three thousand members of the Emperor's court were taken as captives,^[22] including Huizong and many of his relatives, craftsmen, engineers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, blacksmiths, weavers and tailors, Daoist priests, and female entertainers to label some.^[20][23] The brilliant mechanical clocktower designed by Su Song and ereceted in 1090 was also disassembled and its components carted back north, along with many clock-making millwrights and maintenance engineers that would cause a set-back in technical advances for the Song court.^[23] After capturing Kaifeng, the Jurchens went on to conquer the rest of northern China, while the Song Chinese court fled south. They took up temporary residence at Nanjing, where a surviving prince was named Emperor Qinzong of Song in 1127.^[22] The eunuch general and statesman Tong Guan, who had initially urged for an alliance with the Jurchens, was executed by Emperor Qinzong (seen as a better fate for a military man than being carted off into captivity by the Jurchens).^[24] Afterwards, the court designated the site at Hangzhou (known then as Lin'an) to be the new capital. Hangzhou was chosen not only for its natural scenic beauty, but for the surrounding topographic barriers of lakes and muddy rice-fields that gave it defensive potential against northern armies comprised mostly of cavalry.^[25]

This new triangular arrangement between the Southern Song, Jin, and Western Xia continued the age of conflict. The Southern Song deployed several military commanders, among them Yue Fei and Han Shizhong, to resist the Jin as well as recapture territory, which proved successful at times. Yue Fei in particular had been preparing to recapture Kaifeng (or Bianjing as the city was known during the Song period), 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 Kuai. The reason for this 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. With the treaty of Shaoxing, hostilities ceased between the Jin and Song dynasties for the next two decades.^[26]

Decades after Yue's death, the later Emperor Xiaozong of Song honored Yue Fei as a national hero in 1162, providing him proper burial and memorial of a shrine.^[27] As a means to shame those who had pressed for his execution (Qin Hui and his wife), iron statues of them were crafted to kneel before the tomb of Yue Fei, located at the West Lake in Hangzhou.

China's first standing navy

A Song era junk ship, 13th century; Chinese ships of the Song period featured hulls with watertight compartments.

As the once great Indian Ocean maritime power of the Chola Dynasty in medieval India had waned and declined, Chinese sailors and seafarers began to increase their own maritime activity in South East Asia and into the Indian Ocean. Even during the earlier Northern Song period, when it was written in Tamil inscriptions under the reign of Rajendra Chola I that Srivijaya had been completely taken in 1025 by Chola's naval strength, the succeeding king of Srivijaya managed to send tribute to the Chinese Northern Song court in 1028.^[28] Much later, in 1077, the Indian Chola ruler Kulothunga Chola I (who the Chinese called Ti-hua-kia-lo) sent a trade embassy to the court of Emperor Shenzong of Song, and made lucrative profits in selling goods to China.^[29] There were other tributary payers from other regions of the world as well. The Fatimid-era Egyptian sea captain Domiyat traveled to a Buddhist site of pilgrimage in Shandong in 1008 , where he presented the Chinese Emperor Zhenzong of Song with gifts from his ruling Imam Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, establishing diplomatic relations between Egypt and China that had been lost during the collapse of the Tang Dynasty in 907 (while the Fatimid state was established three years later in 910).^[30] During the Northern Song Dynasty, Quanzhou was already a bustling port of call visited by a plethora of different foreigers, from Muslim Arabs, Persians, Egyptians, Hindu Indians, Middle-Eastern Jews, Nestorian Christians from the Near East, etc. Muslims from foreign nations dominated the import and export industry (see Islam during the Song Dynasty).^[31] To regulate this enormous commercial center, in 1087 the Northern Song government established an office in Quanzhou for the sole purpose of handling maritime affairs and commercial transactions.^[32] In this multicultural environment there were many opportunities for subjects in the empire of foreign descent, such as the (Arab or Persian) Muslim Kuwabara (Chinese: Pu Shou-geng), the Commissioner of Merchant Shipping for Quanzhou between 1250 and 1275, who also wrote an elaborate monograph on the shipping industry and maritime economy of China's seaports.^[33] Quanzhou soon rivaled Guangzhou (the greatest maritime port of the earlier Tang Dynasty) as a major trading center during the late Northern Song. However, Guangzhou had not fully lost its importance. The medieval Arab maritime captain Abu Himyarite from Yemen toured Guangzhou in 993, and was an avid visitor to China.^[34] There were other notable international seaports in China during the Song period as well, including Xiamen (or Amoy).^[35]

When the Song capital was removed far south to Hangzhou, massive amounts of people from the north moved into the areas of the south. Southern China is a variable mountainous terrain with innumerable amounts of rivers. Unlike the flat plains of the north, this terrain type is largely a hindrance and inhospitable to widespread agriculture. Therefore, the Southern Song took on a unique maritime presence that was largely unseen in earlier dynasties, grown out of the need to secure importation of foreign resources. Commercial cities (located along the coast and by internal rivers), backed by patronage of the state, dramatically increased shipbuilding activity (funding harbor improvements, warehouse construction, and navigation beacons).^[36] Navigation at sea was made easier by the invention of the compass and Shen Kuo's treatise of the 11th century on the concept of true north (with magnetic declination towards the North Pole).^[37] With military defense and economic policy in mind, the Southern Song Dynasty established China's first standing navy. China had a long naval history before that point (example, Battle of Chibi in 208), and even during the Northern Song era there were concerns with naval matters, as seen in examples such as the Chinese official Huang Huaixin of the Xining Reign (1068–1077) outlining a plan of employing a drydock for repair of 'imperial dragon boats' (see Technology section below).^[38] Already during the Northern Song Dynasty, the Chinese had established fortified trade bases in the Philippines, a noted interest of the court to expand China's military power and economic influence abroad.^[39] However, it was still the Southern Song court that was the first to create a large, permanent naval institution for China in 1132.^[36] The new headquarters of the Southern Song Chinese admiralty was based at Dinghai, the office labeled as the Yan Hai Zhi-Zhi Shi-Si (Imperial Commissariat for the Control and Organization of Coastal Areas).^[40]

An Song Dynasty illustration from the Wujing Zongyao manuscript of 1044, showing a rivership with a Xuanfeng traction trebuchet catapult mounted on the top deck.

Capturing the essence of the day, the Song era writer Zhang Yi once wrote in 1131 that China must regard the Sea and the River as her Great Wall, and substitute warships for watchtowers.^[40] Indeed, the court administration at Hangzhou lived up to this ideal, and were successful for a time in employing their navy to defend their interests against an often hostile neighbor to the north. In his Science and Civilization in China series, Joseph Needham writes:

During the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Song, the Chinese increased the amount of trade missions that would dock at ports throughout the Indian Ocean, where Arab and Hindu influence was once predominant. The Chinese sailed regularly to Korea and Japan in the Far East, westwards towards India and Sri Lanka, and into the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea.^[41] The Chinese were keen to import goods such as rare woods, precious metals, gems, spices, and ivory, while exporting goods such as silk, ceramics, lacquer-ware, copper cash, dyes, and even books.^[42] In 1178, the Guangzhou customs officer Zhou Qufei wrote of an island far west in the Indian Ocean (possibly Madagascar), from where people with skin "as black as lacquer" and with frizzy hair were captured and purchased as slaves by Arab merchants.^[43] As an important maritime trader, China appeared also on geographical maps of the Islamic world. In 1154 the Moroccan geographer Al-Idrisi published his Geography, where he described the Chinese seagoing vessels as having aboard goods such as iron, swords, leather, silk, velvet, along with textiles from Aden (modern-day Yemen), the Indus River region, and Euphrates River region (modern-day Iraq).^[41] He also commended the silk manufactured at Quanzhou as being unparalleled in the world for its quality, while the Chinese capital at Hangzhou was best known throughout the Islamic world for being a major producer of glass wares.^[41] By at least the 13th century, the Chinese were even familiar with the story of the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria.^[44]

Kaifeng as the Jin capital

Games in the Jinming Pool, by Zhang Zerui, depicting the imperial gardens of Kaifeng, Northern Song Dynasty.

In 1153, Jin Emperor Wányán Liàng (完顏亮) moved the empire's capital from Huining Fu in northern Manchuria (south of present-day Harbin) to Zhongdu (now Beijing).^[24] Four years later in 1157 he razed Beijing, including the nobles’ residences, and moved the Jurchen “southern” capital from Beijing to Kaifeng. It was here at the former seat of the Song Dynasty that he began a large project of reconstruction (since the siege against it in 1127).^[24][45]

Emperor Wanyan Liang established a military campaign against the Southern Song in 1161, with 70,000 naval troops aboard 600 warships facing a smaller Song fleet of only 120 warships and 3,000 men.^[46] At the Battle of Tangdao and the Battle of Caishi along the Yangtze River, Jin forces were defeated by the Southern Song navy. In these battles, the Jin navy was wiped out by the much smaller Song fleet because of their use of gunpowder bombs launched from trebuchet catapults (since explosive grenades and bombs had been known in China since the 10th century).^[47] Meanwhile, two simultaneous rebellions of Jurchen nobles, led by soon-to-be crowned Jin Emperor Wányán Yōng (完顏雍) and Khitan tribesman, erupted in Manchuria. This forced the reluctant court of the Jin Dynasty to withdraw its troops from southern China to quell these uprisings. In the end, Emperor Wányán Liàng failed in taking the Southern Song and was assassinated by his own generals in December of 1161.^[48] The Khitan uprising was not suppressed until 1164, while the Treaty of Lóngxīng (隆興和議) was signed in 1164 between Song and Jin, ushering in 4 decades of peace between the two.^[48]

In the years 1205 and 1209 the Jin state was under raid attacks by Mongols from the north, and in 1211 the major campaign led by Genghis Khan was launched.^[49] His army consisted of fifty thousand bowmen, while his three sons led armies of similar size.^[49] After a Jurchen general murdered the current Jin emperor in 1213 and placed another on the throne, a peace settlement was negotiated between Jin and the Mongol forces in 1214, where Genghis made the Jin a vassal state.^[50] However, when the Jin court moved from Beijing to Kaifeng, Genghis saw this move as a revolt,^[50] and moved upon the old Jin capital at Beijing in 1215, sacking and burning it.^[45] Although the now small Jin state attempted to defend against the Mongols and even fought battles with the Song in 1216 and 1223, the Jin were attacked by the Mongols again in 1229 with the ascension of Ögedei Khan.^[50] According to the account of 1232, written by the Jin commander Chizhan Hexi, the Jurchens led a valiant effort against the Mongols, whom they frigthened and demoralized in the siege of the capital by the use of 'thunder-crash-bombs' and fire lance flamethrowers.^[51] However, the capital at Kaifeng was captured by siege in 1233, and by 1234 the Jin Dynasty finally fell in defeat to the Mongols.^[45]

The Western Xia Dynasty met a similar fate, becoming an unreliable vassal to the Mongols by seeking to secure alliances with Jin and Song.^[50] Genghis Khan had died in 1227 during the 5 month siege of their capital city, and being held somewhat responsible for this, the last Xia ruler was hacked to death when he was persuaded to exit the gates of his city with a small entourage.^[50]

Mongol invasion and the end of the Song Dynasty

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 full of grain were sent to the Mongol army during the siege. Following the destruction of the Jurchens in 1234, 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. This breaking of alliance meant open warfare between the Mongols and the Song Chinese.

Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan Dynasty.

The Mongols eventually gained the upper hand under Mongke Khan, famed for his battles in Russia and Hungary in Eastern Europe, and ushered in the final destruction of the ruling Ch'oe family of Korea in 1258.^[52] Mongke sent Kublai with a force to take the Dali Kingdom of modern Yunnan province in the south by 1254.^[53] Mongke also sent a military campaign into northern Vietnam (which was a failure). Mongke sent his renowned general and brother Hulagu east to face Syria and Egypt, after he had sacked and razed medieval Baghdad to the ground in 1258 during the sack of Baghdad, bringing an end to the Abbasid Caliphate and the Islamic Golden Age. Meanwhile, Mongke infiltrated Song territory further, until he was killed in battle at Fishing Town, Chongqing.^[53] Mongke's death in battle led to the recall of the main Mongol armies led by Hulagu campaigning in the Middle East. In Hulagu's absence, the emboldened Mamluks of Egypt were ready to face the Mongols. Mongol forces under Christian Kitbuqa's command were defeated in a decisive blow at Ain Jalut. This marked the extent of Mongol conquests west, but in the east, the Song Dynasty had to be dealt with.

Mongke's successor Kublai established Dadu (Beijing) as his capital in 1264, catering to the likes of the Chinese with his advisor Liu Bingzhong and the naming of his dynasty with the Chinese word for "primal" ("Yuan"). After taking Xiangyang, Kublai appointed the Mongol general Bayan in 1273 to head out against Song with a force of 200,000 (mostly composed of Chinese),^[53] and the Mongols conquered nearly all of the Song's territory by 1276.^[45] Leading up to this, the Song court was mobilizing its populace for war and all available resources that could be rendered and drained into the war effort.^[54] In the mid 13th century, the Song government began confiscating portions of the estates owned by the rich in order to raise revenues.^[52] This had the negative effect of alienating the last aristocratic subjects of the collapsing empire, as wealthy landlords and merchants favored what they deemed the inevitable Mongol conquest and rule than the other alternative of paying higher taxes for continual, exhaustive warfare.^[54]

In that year of 1276, the Southern Song court fled to Guangdong by ship and boat. Emperor Gong of Song was left behind as the empress dowager submitted to the Mongols, horrified by reports of the total slaughter of Changzhou.^[55] Any hope of resistance was centered on two young princes, Emperor Gong's brothers. The older boy, Zhao Shi , who was nine years old, was declared emperor (端宗); and in 1277, the imperial court sought refuge in Silvermine Bay (Mui Wo) on Lantau Island (in later eras known as Kowloon City, Hong Kong; see also Sung Wong Toi). 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. A high official, Lu Xiufu, is said to have taken the boy emperor in his arms and jumped from a clifftop into the sea, drowning both of them.

With the death of the last remaining emperor, Song China was eliminated, while Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty over China and Korea. For nearly a century to follow, the Chinese would live under Mongol hegemony. However, a native Chinese dynasty would be established once more with the Ming Dynasty in 1368.

Historical literature

Zhu Xi (1130-1200), the Neo-Confucian philosopher who edited the Zizhi Tongjian historical text originally compiled by Sima Guang.

During the Song Dynasty, the Zizhi Tongjian (Chinese: 資治通鑒/资治通鉴; Wade-Giles: Tzu-chih t'ung-chien; literally "Comprehensive Mirror for/to Aid in Government") was an enormous work of Chinese historiography, a written approach to a universal history of China, compiled in the 11th century. The work was first ordered to be compiled by Emperor Yingzong of Song in 1065, the team of scholars headed by Sima Guang, who presented the completed work to Emperor Shenzong of Song in 1084. Its total length was 294 volumes containing roughly 3 million Chinese characters. The Zizhi Tongjian covers the people, places, and events of Chinese history from the beginning of the Warring States in 403 BC until the beginning of the Song Dynasty in 959. Its size, brevity, and scope has often been compared to the groundbreaking work of Chinese historiography compiled by the ancient historian Sima Qian (145 BC-90 BC), known as the Shiji. This historical work was later compiled and condensed into fifty nine different books by the Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi in 1189, yet his pupils had to complete the work shortly after his death in 1200.^[56] During the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the book was reprinted in 1708, while the European Jesuit Father Joseph Anne Maria de Moyriac de Mailla (1679-1748) translated it shortly after in 1737.^[56] It was later edited and published by the Jesuit Abbé, Jean Baptiste Gabriel Alexandre Grosier (1743-1823), in part with Le Roux des Hauterays, where a thirteenth volume and a title page were added.^[56] It was also translated and published by the Jesuit astronomer Antoine Gaubil in 1759, whose pupils founded a Russian school of sinology.^[56]

Another historical source was the enormous encyclopedia