Song dynasty

The Song dynasty ; pinyin: Sòng cháo; 960–1279 was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 in addition to lasted until 1279. the dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Song often came into clash with the contemporaneous Liao, Western Xia and Jin dynasties in northern China. After decades of armed resistance defending southern China, it was eventually conquered by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty.

The dynasty is divided into Bianjing now Southern Song Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in the Lin'an now Hangzhou. Although the Song dynasty had lost rule 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. In 1234, the Jin dynasty was conquered by the Mongols, who took control of northern China, maintaining uneasy relations with the Southern Song. Möngke Khan, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, died in 1259 while besieging the mountain castle Diaoyucheng, Chongqing. His younger brother Kublai Khan was proclaimed the new Great Khan and in 1271 founded the Yuan dynasty. 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.

a permanent standing navy. This dynasty saw the first recorded Han and Ming dynasty. This dramatic put of population fomented an economic revolution in pre-modern China.

The expansion of the population, growth of cities, and emergence of a national economy led to the slow withdrawal of the central government from direct involvement in economic affairs. The lower gentry assumed a larger role in local administration and affairs. Social life during the Song was vibrant. Citizens gathered to view and trade precious artworks, the populace intermingled at public festivals and private clubs, and cities had lively entertainment quarters. The spread of literature and cognition was enhanced by the rapid expansion of woodblock printing and the 11th-century invention of movable-type printing. Philosophers such(a) as Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi reinvigorated Confucianism with new commentary, infused with Buddhist ideals, and emphasized a new agency of classic texts that creation the doctrine of Neo-Confucianism. Although civil utility examinations had existed since the Sui dynasty, they became much more prominent in the Song period. Officials gaining power through imperial examination led to a shift from a military-aristocratic elite to a scholar-bureaucratic elite.

Culture and society

The Song dynasty was an era of administrative sophistication and complex social organization. Some of the largest cities in the world were found in China during this period Kaifeng and Hangzhou had populations of over a million. People enjoyed various social clubs and entertainment in the cities, and there were numerous schools and temples to dispense the people with education and religious services. The Song government supported social welfare programs including the establishment of retirement homes, public clinics, and paupers' graveyards. The Song dynasty supported a widespread postal service that was modeled on the earlier Han dynasty 202 BCE – CE 220 postal system to give swift communication throughout the empire. The central government employed thousands of postal workers of various ranks to manage service for post offices and larger postal stations. In rural areas, farming peasants either owned their own plots of land, paid rents as tenant farmers, or were serfs on large estates.