Chapter 12
GOverment setup: After the fall of the Tang China split up into four different parts. In 960 Taizu a general of the time took control. He controlled a much smaller land than the Tang however his empire still prospered. They moved from their original capital to Hangzhou. This allowed them to trade with the silk roads. There was a downside to the location of the capital however. They were surrounded by people who wanted to conquer them and had the means to do so. This left them in a tough situation. They eventually had to use bribery to ward off neighboring empires but it certainly came with a cost. During this time aristocracy came to a halt, there was a birth of a new upper class called the gentry. The difference between aristocrats and members of the gentry is the gentry gains status by political affiliations rather than land ownership. The role of woman in Chinese society continued to decline. While they were always considered less than compared to men of the time, they engaged in foot binding which displays a new extreme woman had to go to be considered conventionally beautiful and high status.
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Rise to power: As mentioned before the capital being moved to Hangzhou actually benefitted the empire because it gave them more access to silk roads. They also came to be able to trade by sea. This came about by them being able to navigate by them using the stars. Using the stars they made compasses and clocks. They also printed paper money making trade even more convenient. They traded many goods including but not limited to porcelain, gun powder, silver, silk and tea. Around this time moveable type was also created making documents even easier to mass produce. In this truly innovative time the middle class grew dramatically. Even rice growth was up 200%.
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Decline: For a while the song dynasty was striving, however, this wasn’t always the case. From the beginning they had a problem with their neighbors. They had to constantly bribe them to keep them from attacking. This didn’t work forever though. The large amount of silver, silk and tea had to be paid for somehow. Their way of paying for it was rising taxes. This didn't make the people happy, they started rebelling.The government was already incredibly unstable so when the Mongols decided they were not getting enough of what they wanted and attacked the Song dynasty fell.