![]() This dramatic increase of population fomented an economic revolution in pre-modern China. It is estimated that the Northern Song had a population of 90 million people, and 200 million by the time of the Ming dynasty. The Northern Song census recorded 20 million households, double of the Han and Tang dynasties. This growth was made possible by expanded rice cultivation, use of early-ripening rice from Southeast and South Asia, and production of widespread food surpluses. China's population doubled in size between the 10th and 11th centuries. Economically, the Song dynasty was unparalleled with a gross domestic product three times larger than that of Europe during the 12th century. It also saw the first discernment of true north using a compass, first recorded description of the pound lock, and improved designs of astronomical clocks. This dynasty saw the first (surviving) recorded chemical formula of gunpowder, the invention of gunpowder weapons such as fire arrows, bombs, and the fire lance. The Song dynasty was the first in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. ![]() Technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, and engineering flourished during the Song era. After two decades of sporadic warfare, Kublai Khan's armies conquered the Song dynasty in 1279 after defeating the Southern Song in the Battle of Yamen, and reunited China under the Yuan dynasty. His younger brother Kublai Khan was proclaimed the new Great Khan and in 1271 founded the Yuan dynasty. Möngke Khan, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, died in 1259 while besieging the mountain castle Diaoyucheng, Chongqing. In 1234, the Jin dynasty was conquered by the Mongols, who took control of northern China, maintaining uneasy relations with the Southern Song. Although the Song dynasty had lost control of the traditional Chinese heartlands around the Yellow River, the Southern Song Empire contained a large population and productive agricultural land, sustaining a robust economy. At that time, the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze and established its capital at Lin'an (now Hangzhou). The Southern Song ( Chinese: 南宋 1127–1279) refers to the period after the Song lost control of its northern half to the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song Wars. During the Northern Song ( Chinese: 北宋 960–1127), the capital was in the northern city of Bianjing (now Kaifeng) and the dynasty controlled most of what is now Eastern China. The dynasty is divided into two periods: Northern Song and Southern Song. After retreating to southern China following attacks by the Jin dynasty, the Song was eventually conquered by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Song often came into conflict with the contemporaneous Liao, Western Xia and Jin dynasties in northern China. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Song dynasty ( / s ʊ ŋ/) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279.
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