3East Asia 1220-1450

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3 East Asia 1220 to 1450

Merry Wiesner-Hanks

The life of scholar-officials in Song China involved

more than study and official duties. They were

expected to appreciate and even produce literature,

music, and art. Some scholars promoted

Confucianism, the philosophical system based on the

ideas of the fifth century B.C.E thinker Confucius.

One outstanding scholar, Zhu Xi (1130 to 1200 C.E),

brought together Confucian writings into what

became the official version and the basis of

examinations from then on. Confucian writings

emphasized the importance of social hierarchies,

including ruler/subject, husband/wife, and father/

son, all of which reflected the cosmic relationship

between Heaven and Earth. Women's proper realm

was believed to be the household, not the world

beyond. Still some girls learned to read beside their

brothers, and domestic tasks could include

producing things such as silk that supported the

family, not simply housework.

In the 1270s, the Mongols conquered southern

China, ending the Song dynasty and establishing

their own dynasty, known as the Yuan (1279 to 1368

C.E). They maintained a separation between Mongols

and Chinese, though Chinese men did serve in the

Mongol army and government. In the fourteenth

century, drought, disease, rebellions, and ineffective

leadership led to disorder. Taizu, a brilliant Chinese

general who had begun life as a penniless orphan,

defeated many rivals for power. He led armies

against the Mongols, and founded a new dynasty,

the Ming, which would last for three hundred years

(1368 to 1644 C.E).

Economic innovation and expansion

Rulers depend on taxes and required labor for their power, so the emperors of the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties

were always interested in economic expansion. But many ordinary people also led important innovations, including

the expansion of wet-field rice culture in central and southern China. In this system, villagers leveled forests,

swamps, and coastal plains, transforming them into irrigated rice paddies that were less dependent on irregular

rainfall. To reap two harvests a year, they grew rice seedlings in a seed bed and then transplanted the seedlings into

a flooded field, an extremely labor-intensive process involving every family member. This system helped expand the

food supply, which allowed the Chinese population to grow from about 50 million in the eighth century to about 100

million in the twelfth.

Villagers also grew cash crops such as sugar, tea, mulberry leaves (for silkworms to eat), and cotton. Women in

village households raised silkworms, spun silk thread, and wove textiles. Profits from these household enterprises

paid their rents and taxes, and bought charcoal, tea, oil, pottery, and other consumer goods. Trade was carried outThis Ming Dynasty painting shows Song Dynasty officials in the city

of Kaifeng reading and discussing student exams. Success could lead

to an important government position, and failure could bring shame.

Getty Images.

4 East Asia 1220 to 1450

Merry Wiesner-Hanks

in coins, or in paper money, invented by Chinese merchants. In the 1120s the Song government itself began issuing

money, producing the world's first government issued paper money. In addition to printing paper money, block and

movable printing technology allowed for the production of texts, such as Confucian manuals for aspiring bureaucrats

to study for their government exams. Manufacturing and trade also flourished during the Song, in particular with the

production of porcelain, including vessels to drink one of China's most important trade goods—tea!

Industry expanded as well, especially the production of iron, which grew six-fold in the ninth to twelfth centuries.

Most iron was used for military purposes, including for armor and high-quality steel for swords and spears.

Gunpowder had been invented in China in the ninth century, and it was used in the following centuries for weapons.

These first included bombs and land mines, then exploding-tip arrows shot by giant cross-bows, and then cannons

that shot projectiles.

Meanwhile, economic expansion was fueling the growth of cities. By 1200 the most urbanized part of the world was

eastern China, with at least six cities that had more than 100,000 residents each. Hangzhou, for example, began as

a rice-growing village in the fertile Yangzi River Delta, and grew steadily to become the largest city in China—and

perhaps the world. During the Tang dynasty the city became one of many cosmopolitan centers of learning, where

Nestorian Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Islam brought by foreign merchants joined various branches

of Buddhism and Confucianism. After 1132, Hangzhou had become the capital of the Song state. Immigrants poured

into the city from the surrounding countryside and the conquered north, and a century later its population may

have reached one million. The city was not only a center of trade and production, but also culture, entertainment,

and education. Visitors reported on the city's many markets, bathhouses, silk shops, and painted ships. After their

conquest of China, the Mongol Yuan dynasty moved the capital north to Dadu—now Beijing—but Hangzhou remained

an important port and a giant city.