Economic centre moves south
Before the Song the busiest lands were in the north, near the Yellow River. This changed.
- Better farming: a quick-ripening rice (Champa rice) spread from about 1012. In the warm south some farmers took two crops a year. Wet fields, canals and new tools gave more grain.
- People move: more food meant more people. After the Jin took the north in 1127, the court and many northern families moved south. The south now held most of the people.
- Crafts and trade: silk, porcelain, tea and books were made and sold. Ports such as Quanzhou and Guangzhou sent goods by sea to many countries. Cities like Kaifeng and Hangzhou were among the largest in the world, with night markets and shops.
- Money: carrying heavy copper coins was hard, so merchants in Sichuan used paper notes (jiaozi); from 1023 the government issued them.
Society: scholar-officials chosen by exam stood at the top, then farmers, craftsmen and merchants. Merchants grew rich and powerful.
Neo-Confucianism
Buddhism and Daoism asked deep questions about the world and the mind. Confucian scholars of the Song answered with a new, deeper Confucianism, called Neo-Confucianism.
- Thinkers: Zhou Dunyi, the Cheng brothers and above all Zhu Xi (1130 to 1200).
- Big idea: everything has a principle (li) that makes it what it is. We can understand principle by studying things and by correcting our own heart.
- Four Books: Zhu Xi chose the Analects, Mencius, the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean. From 1313 under the Yuan, exams were based on them, so they shaped education for centuries (also in Korea and Japan).
Song ci and science
Ci poetry: a ci is a poem written to a set tune pattern; each tune name fixes the length of the lines. It began as song words. Su Shi (Su Dongpo) wrote bold, wide-hearted ci; Li Qingzhao, a woman poet, wrote about love, loss and her times; Xin Qiji wrote of fighting for the lost north.
Science and tools:
- Movable type: Bi Sheng (about 1040s) made clay letters you could reuse.
- Compass: the magnetic needle was used on ships; Shen Kuo noted that it does not point exactly to true north.
- Gunpowder weapons: fire arrows and bombs.
- Clock tower: Su Song's water-driven tower (1088).
These came with a rich life of books, schools and trade.
Try it: paper money and type
1. In step 3 slide the price to 20 strings. How many kilograms of coins is that? Would you carry it?
2. At home: cut 6 small potato or eraser stamps with letters of your name. Ink them, set them in a row, print. Take them apart and print a friend's name. This is movable type.
Key formulas and definitions
- Key terms: Champa rice = quick-ripening rice; jiaozi = paper notes
- Economic centre moves south: after 1127 the south has most people and trade
- Neo-Confucianism: Zhu Xi; principle (li); Four Books
- Ci = poem on a set tune pattern; Su Shi, Li Qingzhao, Xin Qiji
- Movable type (Bi Sheng, 1040s); Su Song clock tower, 1088
Worked examples
1. A farmer gets 2 harvests of 3 tonnes each per year. A farmer with the old way gets 1 harvest of 3 tonnes. How much more grain does the first one get?
Step 1: first farmer = 2 x 3 = 6 tonnes. Step 2: second = 3 tonnes. Step 3: 6 - 3 = 3 tonnes more, twice as much.
2. A merchant must pay 15 strings of coins. About how much would the coins weigh (4 kg per string)?
Step 1: weight per string = 4 kg. Step 2: 15 x 4 = 60 kg. Step 3: that is like carrying a big sack, so a paper note is much easier.
3. In the tune pattern 7, 7, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, how many characters are in the whole poem?
Step 1: 7 + 7 = 14. Step 2: six lines of 5 = 30. Step 3: 14 + 30 = 44 characters.
Common mistakes
- Thinking the south was always the richer half. Until the Tang the north was the centre.
- Saying paper money was invented to cheat people. It was invented to make big trade easier.
- Mixing Confucius and Neo-Confucianism. Neo-Confucianism (Song) added ideas such as principle (li).
- Thinking movable type replaced block printing in China at once. Block printing remained very common.