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The Song Golden Age

The Post-Classical and Medieval World

The Song Golden Age refers to the Northern Song period, when technology, science, philosophy, mathematics and engineering flourished, the government issued the world's first paper money and established China's first permanent standing navy, and the economy grew to a scale unmatched anywhere else in the contemporary world. The era ended in 1127 when the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty captured the capital Kaifeng and the imperial court in the Jingkang Incident, forcing the Song court to retreat south and found the Southern Song.

Facts
Start Year
960 1
End Year
1127 1
1127 marks the Jingkang Incident and the fall of northern China to the Jin dynasty, the conventional end of the Northern Song; economic and cultural achievement continued in reduced form under the Southern Song.
Geographic Scope
Northern Song China, centered on the capital Bianjing (Kaifeng). 1
The Song Golden Age
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FAQs

Where did the Song court go after the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty took the north?

The court retreated south of the Yangtze and made Lin'an (now Hangzhou) its capital.

After the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty conquered the north in the Jin-Song Wars, the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze and established its capital at Lin'an, now Hangzhou. The dynasty lost the traditional Chinese heartlands around the Yellow River, and its southern phase is known as the Southern Song, which is why the Golden Age described here is tied to the earlier Northern Song.
Connections

Associated With

Taizu founded the Song dynasty

The Song Dynasty, Polities

The golden age is the Song dynasty's flourishing

In Era

Includes

Source Zhu Xi (Wikipedia)

Preceded By

The Tang Golden Age, Eras

Sequence of periods following the standard historical periodization

Succeeded By

The Yuan Dynasty Period, Eras

Why this is disputed. Period boundaries and the exact sequence are debated among historians.

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Found In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Song Dynasty
Wikipedia
  • Society, philosophy and religion section
    Technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, and engineering flourished during the Song era. The Song dynasty was the first in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy.
  • Lead section
    The Song dynasty...was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279.
  • Jin-Song Wars section
    In the Jingkang Incident during the latter invasion, the Jurchens captured not only the capital, but the retired Emperor Huizong, his successor Emperor Qinzong, and most of the Imperial court.
  • Northern Song section
    The dynasty's history is divided into two periods: during the Northern Song (北宋; 960-1127), the capital was in the northern city of Bianjing (now Kaifeng) and the dynasty controlled most of what is now East China.
  • In Group: Eras Beginning from 960 to 1250 CE, Article text
    The Song dynasty ( SUUNG) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279.
View the Source
Zhu Xi (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Zhu Xi, lead, first sentence
Quote, Includes: Zhu Xi, lead, first sentence
was a Chinese philosopher, historian, politician, poet, and calligrapher of the Southern Song dynasty.
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