What are two factors or innovations that led to the economic development of the Song dynasty?

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AP World History 🌍
Economic Development

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AP World History 🌍

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The Sui and Tang Dynasties were able to reunite China after centuries of war. The Song Dynasty, starting in 960, was able to build on this stability and help advance the government of China.

A bureaucracy is made up of all the people who work for the government. The Chinese government was unique for the era, as its large bureaucracy was based on merit. Meritocracies are formed based on the abilities of the people versus their wealth and nobility. To help build this large bureaucracy, many took the Civil Service Exam.

The Civil Service Exam system started under the Han Dynasty and reemerged under the Tang and Song. Chinese men would spend years learning the Chinese classics like The Analects by the famous Chinese philosopher Confucius. Based on their abilities, they would take a series of exams that would award them greater power and influence. A person who passed any one level of these exams entered a new social class: the scholar gentry. This approach to governing lasted until around 1900!

Chinese Scholar Gentry. Image Credit: Wikipedia

Economic Development

The stability of the Tang and Song Dynasties allowed for the Chinese to economically develop. A lot of this development was based on their new technologies, regional trade, and their growing dominance.

Below are a series of new developments that helped the Chinese to have the strongest economy between 1200-1450.

Grand Canal 🌅	This canal linked southern China’s Yangtze River with northern China’s Yellow River, thus promoting interregional trade
Gunpowder 💣	The Chinese invention of gunpowder led to the development of guns and trade along the Silk Road
Champa Rice 🍚	Champa is a region of Vietnam. Its rice allowed for multiple harvests per year. With more harvests came more food and, once it was imported to China, a growing population.
Coal ⛏	The vast coal reserves of China allowed for the increased production of iron goods. With more iron came more construction
Artisan 🍶	An artisan is a person who specializes in the making of items like porcelain and silk. China had an emerging artisan class.
Public Works 🛣	The Chinese government built roads and canals due to its wealth, food, and workers, which led to more interregional trade.
Tribute System 💰	The Chinese government was paid a tax, known as a tribute, by foreign powers. Japan, Korea, and Vietnam all paid China in money, food, materials, and even workers rather than have to go to war with the superpower!
Paper 📜	The Chinese development and use of paper allowed for its government to be more efficient, the arts to thrive, and for paper money to be used around the dynasty.

The social structure of China has been extremely stable since the Han Dynasty. This is because it is very hierarchical. A hierarchy is a system in which people or groups are ranked according to their status.

China's social hierarchy circa. Han Dynasty

Part of this hierarchy is the fact that China is a patriarchal society where men dominate most systems of power. Though women were charged with raising the children, they rarely were given political or economic roles. This is exemplified in the process of foot binding. Much like modern-day cosmetics, foot binding was done to make women more desirable for men as well as a sign of wealth. 🎥Watch: WHAP - China in the Global Middle Ages

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A core society impacts the societies in its periphery. Much like how the US impacts nations around it and New York City impacts communities around it, China has had a long-lasting impact on the development of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam:

Post-Classical Japan, Korea, and Vietnam

Japan

This archipelago (series of islands) region has unique elements to it like the religion of Shintoism, stories like The Tale of Genji, and a unique feudal hierarchy. The Emperor and Shogun (military leader) would rule over various Daimyo (landowners) who would all hire Samurai to protect their land. The Samurai would practice a unique brand of chivalry called the Bushido Code. Though feudal and largely decentralized, Japan was able to develop its own unique society.

Though Buddhism did spread to Japan, the Japanese government did not embrace the civil service system nor did the society accept Confucianism.

Korea

Korea has been the most influenced by China, adopting Confucianism, Buddhism, and the civil service system. However, the aristocracy in Korea did not allow for social mobility or true unity of the Korean peninsula.

Vietnam

Vietnam has tried very hard to maintain its own independence from China. Though closely translating to ‘southern people’, the Vietnamese do not think of themselves as Chinese. They do not have as a hierarchical society; rather life is dominated by villages and smaller nuclear families. Though Confucianism and Buddhism spread there, the impact of Confucianism is limited.

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The second unit in AP WORLD HISTORY: MODERN is all about the inter-connectivity of the 1200-1450. The world was about to become a true global network as different regions in the NEXT period (1450-1750) began to interact. However, in THIS period the AFRO-EURASIAN world was already pretty well connected by the Silk Roads, Trans-Saharan Trade Routes, and Indian Ocean Trade Routes. This unit focuses on the effects of these Networks of Exchange…

A deepening and widening of networks of human interaction within and across regions contributed to cultural, technological, and biological diffusion within and between various societies.

Improved commercial practices led to an increased volume of trade and expanded the geographical range of existing trade routes—including the Silk Roads, trans-Saharan trade network, and Indian Ocean—promoting the growth of powerful new trading cities.

The Indian Ocean trading network fostered the growth of states.
The growth of inter-regional trade in luxury goods was encouraged by innovations in previously existing transportation and commercial technologies, including the caravanserai, forms of credit, and the development of money economies as well as the use of the compass, the astrolabe and larger ship designs.
The economy of Song China flourished as a result of increased productive capacity, expanding trade networks, and innovations in agriculture and manufacturing.
The expansion of empires—including the Mongols—facilitated Afro-Eurasian trade and communication as new people were drawn into their conquerors’ economies and trade networks.
The expansion of empires—including Mali in West Africa—facilitated Afro-Eurasian trade and communication as new people were drawn into the economies and trade networks.
The expansion and intensification of long distance trade routes often depended on environmental knowledge, including advanced knowledge of the monsoon winds. The growth of inter-regional trade was encouraged by innovations in existing transportation technologies.
Muslim rule continued to expand to many parts of Afro-Eurasia due to military expansion, and Islam subsequently expanded through the activities of merchants, missionaries, and Sufis.
In key places along important trade routes, merchants set up diasporic communities where they introduced their own cultural traditions into the indigenous cultures and, in turn, indigenous cultures influenced merchant cultures.
As exchange networks intensified, an increasing number of travelers within Afro–Eurasia wrote about their travels. .
Increased cross-cultural interactions resulted in the diffusion of literary, artistic, and cultural traditions, as well as scientific and technological innovation.
- Chinese cultural traditions continued, and they influenced neighboring regions.
- Buddhism and its core beliefs continued to shape societies in Asia and included a variety of branches, schools, and practices.
- Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and the core beliefs and practices of these religions continued to shape societies in Africa and Asia.
- Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism, and their core beliefs and practices, continued to shape societies in South and Southeast Asia.
- Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the core beliefs and practices of these religions continued to shape societies in Europe.
There was continued diffusion of crops and pathogens, with epidemic diseases, including the Bubonic plague, along trade routes.

State formation and development demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity in various regions.

Abbasid Caliphate fragmented, new Islamic political entities emerged, most of which were dominated by Turkic peoples. These states demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity.

Empires and states in Afro-Eurasia and the Americas demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity in the 13th century. This included the Song Dynasty of China, which utilized traditional methods of Confucianism and an imperial bureaucracy to maintain and justify its rule.
State formation and development demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity, including the new Hindu and Buddhist states that emerged in South and Southeast Asia.
Europe was politically fragmented and characterized by decentralized monarchies, feudalism, and the manorial system.
Empires collapsed in different regions of the world and in some areas were replaced by new imperial states, including the Mongol khanates.
In the Americas and in Africa, as in Eurasia, state systems demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity, and expanded in scope and reach.
Muslim states and empires encouraged significant intellectual innovations and transfers.
Interregional contacts and conflicts between states and empires, including the Mongols, encouraged significant technological and cultural transfers, including during Chinese maritime activity led by Ming Admiral Zheng He.

Changes in trade networks resulted from and stimulated increasing productive capacity, with important implications for social and gender structures and environmental processes.

Demand for luxury goods increased in Afro–Eurasia. Chinese, Persian, and Indian artisans and merchants expanded their production of textiles and porcelains for export; manufacture of iron and steel expanded in China.
The fate of cities varied greatly, with periods of significant decline and periods of increased urbanization buoyed by rising productivity and expanding trade networks.
The economy of Song China became increasingly commercialized while continuing to depend on free peasant and artisanal labor.
Europe was largely an agricultural society dependent on free and coerced labor, including serfdom.