Sung Dynasty

The first part of the Sung dynasty is called the Northern Sung. In 960 AD, one of the generals of the declining T'ang Dynasty managed to reunify China under his control. This general's name was Chao K'uang-yin, but once became emperor he renamed himself Sung T'ai Tsu. Sung T'ai Tsu was a strong emperor who kept the army firmly under his control, but after Sung T'ai Tsu died, his successors did not do as well, and China's defenses became weak. The Sung Dynasty never controlled as large an empire as the T'ang had. In 1004 AD, the Sung made peace with the Khitans in the north-east, and in 1044 they made peace with the Western Hsia in the north-west. The emperors had to pay heaps of gold to these people every year in order to keep them from attacking China.

On the other hand, the old Han Dynasty examinations became more and more important to Chinese government, and from the Sung dynasty on, these examinations were really the only way to get political power in China. But paying out the gold meant that poor people had to pay high taxes, and everyone was unhappy. Some people wanted to keep making the payments anyway, and other people thought it would be better to try to fight the northern invaders off. These two groups kept fighting with each other. First one would get into power and then the other.

Then about 1110 AD, the Sung emperor made an alliance with the Juchens of Manchuria to fight the Khitans and get them out of China. It worked great! But once the Khitans were out, in 1115, the Juchens took over the Sung capital of Kaifeng. The Juchens took the emperor and his son prisoner.

The second part of the Sung dynasty is called the Southern Sung. Another son of the Sung emperor ran away to southern China and in 1126 he started a new Sung Dynasty with its capital at Hangzhou. He took the name Kao Tsung. Kao Tsung and his successors were not very strong militarily, and could not take back northern China from the Juchen. But they did develope thriving trade. Because the Juchen had cut off their traditional route along the Silk Road, traders began sailing to South-East Asia and to India. Paper money helped to create growth in the economy.

But in 1279 AD the Mongols invaded from the north and killed the last of the Sung emperors.

To find out more about the Sung dynasty in China, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:

Eyewitness: Ancient China, by Arthur Cotterell, Alan Hills, and Geoff Brightling (2000). For kids, with lots of excellent pictures.

China (History of Nations), by Greenhaven Press (2002). For middle schoolers. The negative review on Amazon is actually for a different book - don't be alarmed!

Daily Life in China, on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276, by Jacques Gernet (1962).

The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period, by Patricia Buckley Ebrey (1993).

Mongol empire
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