Song, 960–1126

Song dynasty also had its beautiful poems, although of different forms from Tang's. They are not made up of sentences of equal length, but have to fit into particular forms. They tend to be more romantic, dealing with the tragedy of love lost. Song suffered from invasions by people from the north, leading to the move of its capital city to the Southern city of Hangzhou along the Yangtze River. Song has its share of poets, scholars, calligraphers, painters, and statesmen. Song is also known for its highly developed market economy.

When I teach a course on the Chinese economy at Princeton I sometimes show how developed the Song economy was by showing a well-known painting "Along the River during the Qingming Festival." There are different versions of this painting, or similar paintings of this title. All show economic activities along the river. In the painting one can find restaurants, shops, and transportation by carts and boats, as well as people working, having leisure activities and trading. One can call the economy of Song a capitalist economy, although it differs from a modern capitalist economy as it lacks modern technology. An interesting question is why science and technology did not develop during the Song period. China had much scientific knowledge during that period, including mathematics and astronomy in particular. The state of scientific developments is documented by Joseph Needham (1956).

A plausible explanation can be found in China's social and economic structure. Scholars well versed in Chinese classics and government officials were accorded the highest position and commanded the highest respect in ancient Chinese society. Official positions were obtained by passing examinations on Chinese classics. Merchants and businessmen were not accorded a high social status in a Confucian society while money and wealth often came with government official positions. This social structure did not provide much incentive to study science, which was not taught to the children. Knowledge of Confucian classics and elegant calligraphy were more important. Furthermore, the economic advantage of technological innovation was limited because of the abundance of low-cost and high-quality labor. For an innovation to be economically viable it had to be capable of producing the same product at a lower cost than using labor. When an innovation was introduced the initial cost was high. It was only after much improvement and when the economy of large-scale production set in that the economic use of technology could replace China's cheap labor. The above two sets of considerations may explain partially why science and technology did not develop in China during the Song dynasty and later periods. They may not provide an entirely satisfactory explanation to some readers and even to me. The subject remains an interesting one for further study.