After the Tang Dynasty fell, rival warlords divided China into separate kingdoms. In 960, an able general named Taizu reunited China and made himself the first Song emperor. This dynasty lasted for three centuries (960-1279). The Song empire was much smaller than the Han or Tang dynasties, but it remained stable and powerful, as well as prosperous. After 751, Song armies were not able to regain the norhtern lands lost to the nomadic tribes during the Tang decline. The Song tried to buy peace with their enemies in the north, by sending them silver, silk, and tea. This ultimately failed to stop the threat from the north.

 

In the early 1100s, a Manchurian person called the Jurchen, conquered nrothern China. They established the Jin Empire and forced the Song to retreat south across the Huang He. After 1127, the Song emperors ruled only southern China. The Song rulers established a new capital at Hangzhou, a city on the coast of the Chiang Jiang. The dynasty, despite its military troubles, saw a major economic growth. The southern part of China had become the economic heartland. Merchants from the southern cities grew wealthy from trading with the Chinese in the north, as well as nomads from Central Asia and Europe. The population of China during this dynasty rose to over one million. Foreign trade flourished as well, and after the Tang decline, there were no trading routes, so merchants relied on the ocean trade for most of their supplies. Chinese advances were in sailing technology, including the invention of the magnetic compass, which made the trading areas expand.  The mechanical clock, which is a clock regualts the movements of machinery, was a successful invention of the time. Paper money also contributed to the rise of the Song empire, because it was a part of the development of the large-scale commercial economy of China. Explosive powder was first used as a fun thing to use fireworks with, but soon turned into a helpful piece of weapons, such as guns. Trade goods were carried all the way to Japan as well as Korea. Artistic abilities was also a rise to success in the Song. Chinese painting reached higher levels of beauty during that time, and showed many Daoist influences. The art emphasized the beauty of the outdoors and how one detail makes the world beautiful. Social change was also occuring during this period.

 

The society became more mobile, and populations of cities became bigger. The avenue that made all of this occur was the social advancement of the civil service system. The power of aristocratic families began to fade during this time as well. A larger upper class, made up of powerful scholar-officials rose, called the gentry. They kept their status through education and the civil service positions. Women had always been considered lower then men, and were continuing to during this period. Even though the Song were prosperous, another group was becoming strong in the north, the Mongols. The fall of the Song was due to the fact that they lowered taxes for their people, and the military was dependent on getting the tax money, which made the military weak, and eventually defeated by Mongols.