Medieval Economic Revolution (Chinese Studies)

Introduction

In China’s historical context, the term “medieval” was unmistakably borrowed from European history in as late as the 20th century. It has, however, remained questionable whether this Eurocentric unilinear logic really ever conveniently suited China. Even so, a serious historian may still make do with the term to capture what was going on in China from the Sui until the early Ming, from 581 to c. 1500 across a span close to a millennium, or anything in between. The beginning was marked by the construction of the Grand Canal, over one thousand miles long, during the Sui (581–618), which linked for the first time China’s three major river systems, and hence the three most productive regions, together: the Yellow, Huai, and Yangzi valleys. During the early Ming, China maintained an undisputed first-class sea power in the world. It was a period when private education, secular literature, meritocratic bureaucracy, novel technology and new production, degrees and commercialization, urbanization, and so forth reached an unprecedented height on the East Asian mainland. During this long period, the importance of Tang-Song growth and development loomed large. So much so, the Song period was coined in the 1980s by the world economic historian Eric L. Jones, in his book The European Miracle, as the first recorded intensive growth in Eurasian history. However, the term “revolution” was first used by Shiba Yoshinobu (斯波義信), the Japanese historian of China, to describe commercial growth under the Song, in his 1970 monograph Commerce and Society in Sung China. In reality, what happed was not just economic. It was a wide range of new achievements in institutions, science and technology, production, and market exchanges. Most unfortunately, however, Song growth and development, remarkable as it was, was brutally interrupted by the invading Mongols in the 13th century, who ran sociopolitical and economic systems that were distinctively different from those of the Song. The Mongol rule of China was very short, but the damage was done. Although during the following Ming period (1368–1644) some residual effects of the Song revolution were still detectable, it was marked by a quite different growth trajectory along the line of physiocracy. China’s medieval economic revolution never repeated itself. Such turns and twists in China’s fortunes through history underlie the Great Divergence debate.

Overviews of the Song Economy

The nature, significance, and multitude of the Song growth have been subject of debate. From moribund Eurocentric ideologies, such as the Marxian “Asiatic Mode of Production” and the Weberian “Protestant ethic,” to the hypothesis of “capitalist sprout in the Ming-Qing period” (明清资本主义萌芽), along the official line of the Chinese Communist Party, an intensive growth like that of the Song that led the rest of Eurasia could have never occurred. Evidently, however, not only did growth occur in China (Elvin 1973), but it also continued (Feuerwerker 1982, Maddison 1998). China’s growth engine during the Song was in the South (Pomeranz 2000). Then, there is a question of how Song growth affected the daily lives of the ordinary people (Gernet 1962). In addition, there is the issue of how to view the Song growth performance and why it was not repeated in China until the 19th century (Jones 1990, Jones 2000). A more provocative question, discussed in Hobson 2004, is why all the good things began in the East (where the Song period played a huge part) but fully blossomed only in the West.

Elvin, Mark. The Pattern of the Chinese Past: A Social and Economic Interpretation. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1973.
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A reading on China’s growth pattern, of which the Tang-Song era loomed large.
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Feuerwerker, Albert, ed. Chinese Social and Economic History from the Song to 1900: Report of the American Delegation to a Sino-American Symposium, Beijing, 26 October–1 November 1980. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1982.
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Also a general reading of Chinese growth and development, which begins with Song growth to give us a sense of continuity.
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Gernet, Jacques. Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250–1276. Translated by H. M. Wright. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1962.
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Reveals the Song material life of affluence, which was compatible with Song growth before the Song national defense was broken by the invading Mongols.
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Hobson, John M. The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511489013Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author takes the Song economic growth as the antithesis of the “British First” hypothesis regarding the Industrial Revolution.
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Jones, Eric L. “The Real Question about China: Why Was the Song Economic Achievement Not Repeated?” Australian Economic History Review 30.2 (1990): 5–22.
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Tackles the intriguing issue of the one-off nature of the Song economic revolution.
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Jones, Eric L. Growth Recurring: Economic Change in World History. 2d ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000.
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A follow-up to his European Miracle (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1981), questioning why economic growth during the Song did not repeat in history, a question that still stands out as one of the toughest for world historians. Originally published in 1988 (Oxford: Clarendon).
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Maddison, Angus. Chinese Economic Performance in the Long Run. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1998.
DOI: 10.1787/9789264163553-enSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Looks at China’s economic performance in the long run, with the Song period being recognized as a peak.
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Pomeranz, Kenneth. The Great Divergence: Europe, China, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
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Argues that China’s traditional economy since the Song was very efficient for its own purpose of supporting a decent living standard in rice-farming regions of South China.
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Source Materials

To a great extent, the Song period departed from some early political and economic institutions. To understand the changes, the question of what happened previously during the Tang served as a reference point (Liu 1975). The range of the Song official accounts per se is rather narrow, as can be seen in Song 1975, Xu 1957, and Tuo 1999. Hong 1985 is a much-cited private account that serves as a supplement. Apart from statecraft, warfare and farming of the Song period received much attention by works such as Zeng 1959 and Wang 1981 because of the period’s geopolitical and climatic situations.

Hong Mai 洪邁. Yijian zhi (夷堅志). 4 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985.
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Contains unofficial data on the anecdotes of the Song Dynasty, to complement official ones. Originally published in c. 1202. Republished as recently as 2009.
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Li Xinchuan 李心傳. Jianyan yilai xinian yaolu (建炎以來繫年要錄). Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1936.
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Contains data for the turning point in Song history, when the North Song were brutally defeated by nomad invaders and the Southern Song had just begun. Originally published in c. 1202. Republished in book form as recently as 1992 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe).
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Liu Xu (刘昫). Jiu Tang shu (旧唐书). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975.
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Represents the Song official view of the Tang performance in all sectors and aspects. Originally published in 1945; many reprints exist.
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Song Shou 宋绶. Song huiyao (宋会要). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975.
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Contains original government records and served as the source of information for Song huiyao jigao (Edited records of the Song dynasty). Originally published in 1242.
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Tuo Tuo 脱脱. Song shi (宋史). Reprint. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1999.
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Represents the Yuan Mongol official view of the Song performance in all sectors and aspects. Many reprints exist. Originally published in 1345.
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Wang Zhen 王祯. Wang Zhen Nongshu (王祯农书). Beijing: Nongye chubanshe, 1981.
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Similar to Tiangong kaiwu 天工开物 (Exploitation of the works of nature), containing technological information on Chinese agriculture, which is commonly believed to be of Song origin. The most-cited technologies are hydropowered machines and moveable types. Originally published in 1304. Republished in book form as recently as 1999 (e-book published in 2009).
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Xu Song 徐松. Song huiyao jigao (宋会要辑稿). 8 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1957.
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This is a multivolume compilation by a Qing scholar who selected records from Song Huiyao Gao (Administrative statutes of the Song dynasty) and produced a self-standing source book. It has become a classic for Song studies. Originally published in 1809, there exist many reprints (as recent as 2009).
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Zeng Gongliang 曾公亮. Wujing zongyao (武经总要). 8 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1959.
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Contains valuable information on Song military tactics and technology in fortification, weaponry, shipbuilding, navigation, and command and logistics systems. It is the official document that confirms China’s inventions and applications of gunpowder and the compass. Originally published in 1044.
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Values

The Song period, especially the Northern Song, was marked by some aggressive government interference in the economy (Hymes and Schirokauer 1993), which resulted in the appearance of a wealthy class without any political privilege (Lin 2011). On the other hand, the Southern Song period witnessed the emergence of Neo-Confucianism in the hands of Zhu Xi (朱熹， b. 1130–d. 1200), who played down the importance of heaven (tian 天) but injected the Taoist ideas of vital force (qi 气), principle (li 理), and the supreme ultimate (taiji 太极) into the post-Han mainstream philosophy in China, which had been the state philosophy for the empire since Dong Zhongshu’s (董仲舒) pathbreaking promotion of Confucianism in 134 CE (Munro 1988, Chan 1989, Hymes 2002). The slowing down and decline in China’s growth in the Ming period is often attributed to the rise of Neo-Confucianism (1368–1644).

Chan, Wing-tsit. Chu hsi: New Studies. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1989.
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Explains the Song movement of “new studies.” This new branch of Confucianism emphasizes the tension between the ultimate behavioral canon of the Heavenly Truth (tianli 天理) vis-à-vis the earthly sin of human desires (renyu 人欲). It campaigns for a more inward-looking attitude, known as the purification of one’s soul by following the former and stifling the latter (cun tianli, qu renyu 存天理，去人欲).
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Hymes, Robert P. Way and Byway: Taoism, Local Religion, and Models of Divinity in Sung and Modern China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520207585.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Studies the role of Taoism in society during the Song and how it has survived in modern Hong Kong and Taiwan.
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Hymes, Robert P., and Conrad Schirokauer, eds. Ordering the World: Approaches to State and Society in Sung Dynasty China. Papers presented at the Conference on Sung Dynasty Statecraft in Thought and Action, held in Scottsdale, Arizona, in January 1986. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
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Reveals the new state philosophy regarding the economy and society.
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Lin Wenxun 林文勋. Tang Song shehui biange lungang (唐宋社会变革论纲). Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2011.
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Develops the notion that there was a rise of the wealthy middle class in Song society.
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Munro, Donald J. Images of Human Nature: A Sung Portrait. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.
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Analyzes the concept of “human nature” in Neo-Confucianism of the Song.
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Institutions

Under the Song, Chinese institutions underwent some profound changes, including moving from farmers’ lease holding of state-granted land allotments under the Tang to full-fledged private freeholding of land and moving from privilege-weighted recruitment under the Tang to open competition among all candidates for official positions (Balazs 1972, McKnight 1992, Deng 1999, Walton 1999). Traces of command economy were systematically removed (Hymes and Schirokauer 1993), and sources of tax revenue became diversified (Wang 1995). State-run and privately sponsored education boomed, enhancing social mobility (Walton 1999, Eberhard 1962). Disaster relief became an institutionalized social safety net (Shi 2010).

Balazs, Etienne. Chinese Civilization and Bureaucracy: Variations on a Theme. Edited by Arthur W. Wright. Translated by H. M. Wright. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1972.
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Serves as good background reading on the formation of entrenchment of Confucian bureaucracy, especially after the Tang. Originally published in 1964; reprinted as recently as 1991.
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Deng, Gang. The Premodern Chinese Economy: Structural Equilibrium and Capitalist Sterility. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.
DOI: 10.4324/9780203031032Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Systematically reveals the dynamics and sophistication of the Chinese socioeconomic systems, their longevity, and their occasional deviation under the Song.
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Eberhard, Wolfram. Social Mobility in Traditional China. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1962.
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Surveys the formation, function, and evolution of social mobility as an institution of traditional China, the Tang-Song era included. Republished in 1984 (Taipei: Southern Materials Center).
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Hymes, Robert P., and Conrad Schirokauer, eds. Ordering the World: Approaches to State and Society in Sung Dynasty China. Papers presented at the Conference on Sung Dynasty Statecraft in Thought and Action, held in Scottsdale, Arizona, in January 1986. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
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Probes state behavior during the Song, across a wide spectrum.
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McKnight, Brian E. Law and Order in Sung China. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511529030Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Shows the Song state’s weakness both in national defense against the northern nomads and in internal governance regarding control of landholding concentration and official corruption.
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Shi Tao 石涛. Beisong shiqi ziran zaihai yu zhengfu guanli tixi yanjiu (北宋时期自然灾害与政府管理体系研究). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2010.
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Reveals the pattern of disasters during the Northern Song period and a proto-welfare system attempted by the Song state.
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Walton, Linda A. Academies and Society in Southern Sung China. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1999.
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Reveals that after the Song lost a third of China’s territory to the Tartar Liao, there was a rise in academies (shuyuan 书院) in the Southern Song, partly to escape the harsh reality of China’s historic defeat and partly to heal the wounded national pride. Not surprisingly, literature flourished from the Southern Song (1127–1279) through the Mongol Yuan (1271–1368) periods.
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Wang Shengduo 汪圣铎. Liangsong caizhengshi (两宋财政史). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1995.
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Surveys government finance of the Northern and Southern Song periods in general and during wars in particular.
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Technology

Growth and development of China’s traditional technology were intensified during the Tang and then crested under the Song. One can assemble a long list of achievements made under the Song, including new ways of reclaiming land (e.g., the use of dikes in low lands), multiple cropping, book printing, porcelain making at high temperatures (above 1200ºC), and development of firearms. Guo 1998 indicates that the Song knew several ways to produce iron and steel. They also discovered the extraction/electrowinning method (or SX-EW) to extract copper cheaply through a chemical agent (CuSO45H2O) from iron ore. A system of official standards for building construction was established, and a cheap way to build large ships, known as the clinker method, was commonplace. The use of the compass and star-watching devices such as the Tang Ruler (Tang Xiaochi) on ships helped the Song navigate on open sea in much of East and Southeast Asia, as an alternative to the traditional overland travel along the Silk Road, which was difficult because of interference by the nomads of the Liao (of the Khitans), Jin (of the Jurchens) and Xixia (of the Tanguts) kingdoms, which expanded from the steppe toward the south over China’s territories (Liao: 916–1125 CE; Jin: 1115–1234 CE; Xixia: 1038–1227 CE) at that time. Works such as Needham 1954–2008, Ronan 1978–1995, and Temple 1986 all mention that Song shipbuilding, sea routes, and seagoing activities laid the foundation for the better-known voyages of the Ming armada led by Admiral Zheng He in the early 15th century. Sung 1981 shows how forensic medicine began during the Song, which constituted yet another legacy.

Guo, Qinghua. “Yingzao Fashi: Twelfth-Century Chinese Building Manual.” Architectural History 41 (1998): 1–13.
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The Song manual represents the first recorded official technical standards for the construction sector.
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Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilisation in China. 7 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1954–2008.
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Systematically examines China’s science and technology from all facets. It is clear that the Song period was the second blossom of Chinese creativity after the Spring and Autumn period, over one and a half millennia earlier.
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Ronan, Colin A. The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China: An Abridgement of Joseph Needham’s Original Work. 4 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1978–1995.
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A boutique version of the multivolume Needham 1954–2008 on Chinese science and technology; easy to read.
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Sung Tz’u (Song Ci). The Washing Away of Wrongs: Forensic Medicine in Thirteenth-Century China. Translated by Brian E. McKnight. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1981.
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Shows off the skills of the height of Song forensic science, which was undisputedly the most advanced in East Asia at that time. It was the classic work on the subject matter in traditional China.
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Temple, Robert K. G. The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery, and Invention. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986.
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A concise survey of China’s achievements in premodern science and technology.
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Agriculture

Farming underpinned Tang-Song growth and development (Shiba 1988, Li 1998, Golas 1980). Bray 1984 sees the importance of a set of lightweight framing equipment that was invented to handle rice paddies, which were often of clayey soil and required water pumping. Under the Song, as Chen 1956 and Ho 1956 suggest, not only were migrant farmers exempt from land and poll taxes during their settlement period in the South, but a new, fast-ripening rice variety, called Zhancheng dao (Champa rice 占城稻, originally from central Vietnam), was aggressively introduced to a large number of farming households in the South. This later became the foundation of double cropping in South China. Cao 2000 pays much attention to how China’s demographic center shifted to the South for good. Liang 2006 argues, however, that Song agriculture declined in the end due to external invasion and conquest.

Bray, Francesca. Biology and Biological Terminology: Part 2, Agriculture. Vol. 6 of Science and Civilisation in China. Edited by Joseph Needham. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
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Systematically surveys China’s primary sources regarding technological growth and development over the very long term in China’s agriculture. Song growth can be found in this long-term context. It has useful illustrations and bibliography.
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Cao Shuji 曹树基. Zhongguo renkou shi (中国人口史). Vol. 3. Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe, 2000.
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Provides hitherto the most comprehensive study of China’s long-term population changes. Most data are collected on the county level. See chapters 2–4 in particular.
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Chen Fu 陈敷. Chenfu nongshu (陈敷农书). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1956.
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A snappy little pamphlet to teach people how to farm during the Song, written in an easy language for the less educated. It also refers to the new, fast-ripening rice Huanglü gu (黄绿谷). Originally published in 1149.
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Golas, Peter J. “Rural China in the Song.” Journal of Asian Studies 39.2 (1980): 291–325.
DOI: 10.2307/2054291Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines aspects of the rural sector of the Song economy.
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Ho, Ping-ti. “Early-Ripening Rice in Chinese History.” Economic History Review 9.2 (1956): 200–218.
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A pioneer work on the Song green revolution associated with the fast-ripening rice variant called the Champa rice (Zhancheng dao占城稻), which was purposely promoted by the highest level of the Song bureaucracy in 1012.
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Li Bozhong 李伯重. “Songmo zhi mingchu jiangnan nongmin jingyingde bianhua” (宋末明初江南农民经营的变化). Zhongguo nongshi (中国农史) 2 (1998): 30–39.
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Supports Shiba Yoshinobu’s old view (Shiba 1988) that the Song green revolution did not exist. But the author’s evidence is rather weak.
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Liang Gengyao 梁庚尧. Nansongde nongcun jingji (南宋的农村经济). Beijing: Xinxing chubanshe, 2006.
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Looks at the decline of the rural economy during the Southern Song, when China was under the imminent threat of nomadic conquest.
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Shiba Yoshinobu 斯波義信. Sō-dai Kōnan keizaishi no kenkyū (宋代江南経済史の研究). Tokyo: Tokyo daigaku tōyo bunka kenkyūjo, 1988.
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A pioneering work on the Song regional economy, with rather limited information; the author does not believe in the advent of a green revolution during the Song.
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Industry

Regarding mining and metallurgy, the Song really stood out from all the other periods in China’s history. Significant progress was made in mining coal, iron ore, and copper (Hartwell 1962, Hartwell 1967, Liu 1993, Wang 2005), and large quantities of iron rivets were produced for shipbuilding (Deng 1997). Porcelain production and porcelain art were well entrenched (Gugong bowuyuan 1962).

Deng, Gang. Chinese Maritime Activities and Socioeconomic Development, c. 2100 B.C.–1900 A.D. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1997.
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Reveals China’s shipbuilding and shipping activities, which experienced a sudden growth during the Song period. See chapters 3–4.
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Gugong bowuyuan 故宫博物院, ed. Gugong cangci-ruyao (故宮藏瓷, 汝窑). Beijing: Gugong bowuyuan, 1962.
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Reveals the fashion and style of the Ru Kiln porcelain products of the Song, in which period China invented porcelain.
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Hartwell, Robert. “A Revolution in the Chinese Iron and Coal Industries during the Northern Sung, 960–1126 A.D.” Journal of Asian Studies 21.2 (1962): 153–162.
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A pioneering, and the most influential, study of Song heavy industry, with estimates of China’s iron outputs based on government taxation records. It underpins the notion of China’s ability to become industrialized many centuries ahead of western Europe.
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Hartwell, Robert. “Markets, Technology, and the Structure of Enterprise in the Development of the Eleventh-Century Chinese Iron and Steel Industry.” Journal of Economic History 26.1 (1966): 29–58.
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Deals with backward and forward linkages of the Song iron and steel industry.
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Hartwell, Robert. “A Cycle of Economic Change in Imperial China: Coal and Iron in Northwest China, 750–1350.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 10.1 (1967): 102–159.
DOI: 10.1163/156852067X00109Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Traces the beginning of Song mining and metallurgy and examines its ending. The author’s optimistic estimates are not always shared by others—the main criticism is that Hartwell’s estimates are based exclusively on a fixed rate of government taxes. Because these rates increased from time to time, these estimates may well be too high. See, for example, Wang 2005.
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Liu Sen 刘森. “Songdaide tieqian yu tie chanliang” (宋代铁钱与铁产量). Zhongguo jingjishi yanjiu (中国经济史研究) 2 (1993): 86–90.
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Recalculates the Song iron production capacity and challenges Hartwell’s claims.
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Wagner, Donald B. “The Administration of the Iron Industry in Eleventh-Century China.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 44.2 (2001): 175–197.
DOI: 10.1163/156852001753731033Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Reveals how the Song state viewed and managed the iron industry.
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Wang Lingling 王菱菱. Songdai kuangye ye yanjiu (宋代矿冶业研究). Shijiazhuang, China: Hebei daxue chubanshe, 2005.
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Carefully reassesses the traditional view on the growth in Song mining and metallurgy. The estimated iron output is lower than Hartwell’s estimate, by half.
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Communication

After the Tang period, communication was enhanced by printing and travel. Both Twitchett 1983 and Tsien 1985 survey China’s achievements in papermaking and book printing, for which the Tang and Song periods were famous. Zhao 1983 indicates that it was under the later Southern Song or Yuan that the idea of printing with movable types was first attempted, although block printing remained the dominant technology until the Qing period (Tsien 1985). Internally, the Song postal services helped the flow of information. Zhao 1956 and Wang 1981 also show that travel by sea became common during the Song, after China’s traditional overland trade routes, the Silk Roads, were lost to the nomads. Zhou 1993 shows that an open attitude toward foreign lands emerged as well.

Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin. Chemistry and Chemical Technology: Part 1, Paper and Printing. Vol. 5 of Science and Civilisation in China. Edited by Joseph Needham. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
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Studies China’s long love affair with paper and printing to record and circulate events and ideas. It stands out as one of the most comprehensive works on this subject.
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Twitchett, Denis. Printing and Publishing in Medieval China. New York: Frederic C. Beil, 1983.
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Highlights development of printing in China, with evidence from Dunhuang religious scripts (Dunhuang canjuan 敦煌残卷), and explains why and how block printing remained unchallenged in China for so long.
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Wang Dayuan 汪大渊. Daoyi zhilue jiaoshi (岛夷志略校釋). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981.
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Builds on the geographic knowledge of the Song, with rather limited new findings made under the Yuan Mongols. Originally published in 1349.
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Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rushi) 赵汝适. Zhufan zhi (诸蕃志). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1956.
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Contains geographic knowledge of East and Southeast Asia accumulated by the early 13th century, including Ryukyu, Korea, Japan, Ceylon, Langkasuka, Mait, Samboja, Borneo, Kelantan, Champa, Chenla, Bengtrao, Java, India, Calicut, Lambri, Bengal, Kurum, Gujara, Mecca, Egypt, Iraq, Aman, Sicily, Morocco, Tanzania, and Somalia, laying the foundation for the Ming voyages led by the eunuch Admiral Zheng He centuries later. Originally published in 1225. Translated in 1911 by Friedrich Hirth and William W. Rockhill (St. Petersburg, Russia: Imperial Academy of Sciences). Republished as recently as 2002 (Chengdu, China: Sichuan minzu chubanshe).
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Zhao Xiaoxuan 赵宣效. Songdai yizhan zhidu (宋代驿站制度). Taibei: Lianjing chuban shiye gongsi, 1983.
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Examines government communication during the Song, mainly for war.
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Zhou Qufei 周去非. Lingwai daida (岭外代答). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1993.
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Surveys regions in South China and Southeast Asia. Originally published in 1178; republished as recently as 2003 (Lanzhou, China: Lanzhou daxue chubanshe).
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Commerce and Monetization

The Tang foreign trade was predominantly overland, marked by the large-scale tea-for-horses barter. Domestic trade was more diversified due to regional surpluses and specialties. River traffic was thriving, but maritime trade was still in its infancy. The Song broke that mode by sailing overseas on an unprecedented scale (Deng 1997, Hirth and Rockhill 1966). As a result, foreigners, including the most-famous “Keifeng Jews,” settled in China’s interior (Needle 1992). The Song also surpassed the Tang in the degree of monetization, including the unprecedented amount of coins issued in bronze or iron, as well as inventions of paper currencies (jiaozi 交子, huizi 会子) and securities such as salt licenses (Shiba 1970, Liu 1993, Von Glahn 1996, Gao 2000, Cheng 2009).

Cheng Mingsheng 程民生. Songdai wujia yanjiu (宋代物价研究). Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2009.
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Compiles a wide range of commodity prices by items and regions.
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Deng, Gang. Chinese Maritime Activities and Socioeconomic Development, c. 2100 B.C.–1900 A.D. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1997.
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Examines, in detail, growth and development in China’s shipping and maritime trade, especially during the Song period, and its long-term legacy in China and beyond. See chapters 4–6.
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Gao Congming 高聪明. Songdai huobi yu houbi liutong yanjiu (宋代货币与货币流通研究). Shijiazhuang, China: Hebei daxue chubanshe, 2000.
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Reveals the pattern of currencies of the Song and its changes. The issues of money shortage, invention of securities and paper currency, and inflation are systematically tackled.
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Hirth, Friedrich, and William W. Rockhill, eds. and trans. Chau Ju-Kua: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, Entitled Chu-fan-chï. New York: Paragon, 1966.
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Reveals China’s trading network in Asian waters during the end of the Song, from one of the Chinese classical travels by sailors. Originally published in 1911 (St. Petersburg, Russia: Imperial Academy of Sciences).
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Liu Sen 刘森. Songjin zhibishi (宋金纸币史). Beijing: Zhongguo jinrong chubanshe, 1993.
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Studies the first paper currencies in the world, invented by the Song Chinese and then adopted by the Jin Tartars.
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Needle, M. Patricia, ed. East Gate of Kaifeng: A Jewish World inside China. Minneapolis: China Center, University of Minnesota, 1992.
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Reveals the phenomenon known as the “Kaifeng Jews,” who can be traced back to the Song. It suggests that the Song capital city Kaifeng became as cosmopolitan as the great Tang capital city Chang-an.
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Shiba Yoshinobu. Commerce and Society in Sung China. Translated by Mark Elvin. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Center for Chinese Studies. 1970.
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The translator Mark Elvin has been responsible for popularizing Shiba’s work on Song commerce. This book has become a repertoire item regarding Song growth and development. A more recent version in Japanese is Sōdai shōgyōshi kenkyū (宋代商業史研究), published in 1979 (Tokyo: Kazama shobo).
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Von Glahn, Richard. Fountain of Fortune: Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1000–1700. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
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Examines money demand, supply, and policies from the Song onward.
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Urbanization

Although the Chinese Empire was known to have large cities, the rapid growth in urbanization occurred only during the Song period, when about 12–15 percent of China’s population lived in towns and cities; such rapid urbanization did not occur before or after the Song (Jones, et al. 1993). During the Ming-Qing period (1368–911), for example, China’s urbanization rate was a mere 5–6 percent. Three factors contributed to the Song urbanization: high degrees of commercialization, tenancy rate, and regional migration (Qi 1987, Shiba 1970).

Jones, Eric L., Lionel Frost, and Colin White. Coming Full Circle: An Economic History of the Pacific Rim. Melbourne, Australia, and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
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Looks at global swings of economic center of gravity, with a reference to urbanization since the Tang-Song era.
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Qi Xia 漆侠. Songdai jingjishi (宋代经济史). Vol. 1. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1987.
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Serves as a general survey of the Song economic conditions and institutions that fueled urban growth.
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Shiba Yoshinobu. Commerce and Society in Sung China. Translated by Mark Elvin. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Center for Chinese Studies. 1970.
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More recent Japanese version available as Sōdai shōgyōshi kenkyū (宋代商業史研究), published in 1979 (Tokyo: Kazama shobo). Japanese scholars have long been interested in China around the period of the Mongol invasion. Shiba’s work sets new standards with its dense information and categorization of economic life under the Song. See chapters 3–4.
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Regional Economy

Regional differences and national integration have been one of the debating points in Song history. The traditional view is that China’s economic center of gravity shifted to the Yangzi and Pearl regions in the South during the Tang period (Zhang 1957, Shiba 1988, Wu 2000). By the Song period, the new pattern was fixed for the rest of the life span of the empire, until the 20th century. This view has been based on China’s demography. The view in Cheng 1999 challenges this assumption from the viewpoint of regional fiscal capacity of the South, which was insignificant during the Song. In addition, there has been a lasting tradition that views China as a perpetually divided continent geographically that was linked only by inland shipping and the need for irrigation (Chi 1970).

Cheng Minsheng 程民生. Songdai diyu jingji (宋代地域经济). 3d ed. Kaifeng, China: Henan daxue, 1999.
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Reveals the regional dynamics of the Song economy and argues with fiscal evidence that the North remained the center of economic gravity in the entire North Song period, contrasting the commonly shared view that by the previous mid-Tang period, the center had shifted to the South.
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Chi, Ch’ao-ting. Key Economic Areas in Chinese History: As Revealed in the Development of Public Works for Water-Control. New York: A. M. Kelley, 1970.
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Represents an early and influential study of China as a “hydraulic empire” of Oriental despotism from the Qin to the Qing.
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Shiba Yoshinobu 斯波義信. Sōdai Kōnan keizaishi no kenkyū (宋代江南経済史の研究). Tokyo: Tokyo daigaku toyo bunka kenkyujo, 1988.
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Studies the lower Yangzi regional economy in great detail.
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Wu Songdi 吴松弟. Zhongguo renkou shi, disan juan, Liao, Song, Jin, Yuan shiqi (中国人口史，第三卷,辽宋金元时期). Vol. 3. Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe, 2000.
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Examines regional population fluctuations under the Song. The decline of population during the Southern Song and the following Yuan is most valuable.
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Zhang Jiaju 张家驹. Liang-Song jingji zhongxinde nanyi (两宋经济重心的南移). Wuhan, China: Hubei renmin chubanshe, 1957.
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Coins the notion of a shift of economic center from the North to the South during the Song.
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Population

Prior to the Song, China’s population was well under 80 million. During the Northern Song (960–1127), China’s population reached for the first time the 100 million mark (Ho 1970, Hartwell 1982, Population Census Office and Institute of Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 1987). This was achieved when China’s territory was fixed and there were no large quantities of food imports from other economies. The sensible logic has to be that Song China managed to increase its total food supply internally, in the wake of a green revolution marked by the introduction of fast-ripening rice from Champa (hence, the Champa rice; see Agriculture). Population Census Office and Institute of Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 1987 surveys China’s long-term population movements, on the basis of Chinese historical records. Wu, et al. 2000 stands out as the best work on Song demography so far.

Chao, Kang. Man and Land in Chinese History: An Economic Analysis. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1986.
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Contains a new version of the Malthusian explanation of China’s long-term demography, in which the Song was a period of demographic leap forward.
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Hartwell, Robert M. “Demographic, Political, and Social Transformations of China, 750–1550.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 42.2 (1982): 365–442.
DOI: 10.2307/2718941Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Reveals the dynamics of China’s population growth since the Tang-Song era, with the emphasis on a shift in regional demographic redistribution.
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Ho, Ping-ti. “An Estimate of the Total Population of Sung-Chin China.” Études Song 1.1 (1970): 33–53.
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One of the early attempts to measure China’s population growth under the Song and Jin (Chin).
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Population Census Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, and the Institute of Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, eds. The Population Atlas of China. Hong Kong and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.
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Contains vital information on changes in China’s population distribution and density before, during, and after the Song.
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Wu Songdi 吴松弟. Zhongguo renkou shi, disan juan, Liao, Song, Jin, Yuan shiqi (中国人口史，第三卷, 辽宋金元时期). Vol. 3. Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe, 2000.
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Represents the most recent and most comprehensive dealing with China’s demographic history, on the basis of a very thorough investigation into a wide range of primary sources.
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Zhang Jiaju 张家驹. Liang-Song jingji zhongxinde nanyi (两宋经济重心的南移). Wuhan, China: Hubei renmin chubanshe, 1957.
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One of the early works on China’s internal migration and its consequence during the Song period.
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Material Life

The surveys in Benn 2002 and Gernet 1962 show that the standard of living among people during the Tang-Song period had improved. There was also a tendency for consumption (of food, for example) to be mixed with art forms, as West 1997 shows.

Benn, Charles. China’s Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
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Considers the Tang period as a golden age for Chinese consumption, with a touch of good taste. This was true mainly for the middle and upper classes, including the aristocrats, religious leaders, and intelligentsia. However, these well-to-do classes did lead the consumption fashion in society.
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Gernet, Jacques. Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250–1276. Translated by H. M. Wright Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1962.
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Reveals Song urban life in the capital city Hangzhou on the eve of the Mongol conquest of China. It covers an array of social classes and their consumption patterns in detail, and it begs the question of what Song China would eventually have become on this trajectory had the Mongols not invaded China. Reprinted as recently as 1995.
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West, Stephen H. “Playing With Food: Performance, Food, and the Aesthetics of Artificiality in the Sung and Yuan.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 57.1 (1997): 67–106.
DOI: 10.2307/2719361Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Reveals the role played by food provision, food cooking, food marketing, and food consumption in private and public spaces in Chinese society. It sheds light on the degree of material affluence the Song enjoyed.
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Legacy of the Revolution

Song growth was first systematically undermined by the Jin Tartars, who encouraged the Southern Song to migrate to Tartar-controlled territories to farm. Song growth was then brutally interrupted by the Mongol invaders. The industrial output of Kaifeng never recovered until the end of the Qing. However, the Song institution of open competition in the imperial examinations for bureaucratic recruits remained and became perfected, whereby China’s unique social mobility and meritocracy lived on (Deng 1999). In addition, some areas of Song technology continued. The most-shining examples were mining, metallurgy, the Compendium of Materia Medica, hydropowered water pumps and the ramie spinner, and large seagoing cargo ships with multiple masts, sails, and compartments, which ruled the waves of Asian waters (Fei 1954, Lo 1955, Li 1995, Song 1959, Ma 1970, Levathes 1994). In other words, Ming seagoing achievements did not come from out of the blue. Rather, all the key ingredients already existed during the Song. Lastly, the Song proto-welfare state became a tradition during the Ming-Qing period (Will and Wong 1991).

Deng, Gang. The Premodern Chinese Economy: Structural Equilibrium and Capitalist Sterility. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.
DOI: 10.4324/9780203031032Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Reveals systematically (in chapter 6 in particular) the reasons why Song economic growth was unique.
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Fei Xin 费信. Xingcha shenglan jiaozhu (星槎胜览校注). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1954.
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Fei was Admiral Zheng He’s aide; this book was his account of the Ming voyages. W. W. Rockhill published a piece titled “Note on the Relations and Trade of China with the Eastern Achipeligo and the Coasts of the Indian Ocean during the Fourteenth Century,” T’oung Pao 15 (1914): 419–447; 16 (1915): 6–159, 236–271, 374–392, 435–467, 604–626. First published in 1436.
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Levathes, Louise. When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405–1433. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
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Contains some detail on the Ming armada, led by the eunuch Admiral Zheng He, which patrolled the China Sea and the Indian Ocean for three decades, predating any of their European rivals. The Ming armada marked the finale of the Song economic revolution.
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Li Shizen 李时珍. Bencao gangmu (本草纲目). Beijing: Renmin weisheng chubanshe, 1995.
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Contains technological information that is commonly believed to be of Song origin and earlier. Originally published in 1596.
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Lo, Jung-Pang. “The Emergence of China as a Sea Power during the Late Sung and Early Yüan Periods.” In Special Issue: Chinese History and Society. Far Eastern Quarterly 14.4 (1955): 489–503.
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Stands out as a pioneering work on Ming sea power, demystifying to some extent the extensive voyages undertaken by the Ming armada, which was a singular seafaring achievement of the premodern world.
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Ma Huan 马欢. Yingya shenglan jiaozhu (瀛涯胜览校注). Translated by J. V. G. Mills. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
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This is the surviving record of the Ming voyages under Zheng He. Originally published in 1451.
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Song Yingxing 宋应星. Tiangong kaiwu (天工开物). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1959.
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Contains technological information that is commonly believed to be an achievement of the Song. Originally published in 1637; republished as recently as 2011 (Taibei: Taiwan shangwu yinshuguan).
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Will, Pierre-Etienne, and R. Bin Wong. Nourish the People: The State Civilian Granary System in China, 1650–1850. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Center for Chinese Studies, 1991.
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Shows a proto-welfare state in full swing. But the origin of the Ming-Qing system was the Song system.
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