Song Dynasty · 960 — 1279
Song
The Song Dynasty · 960 — 1279
A golden age of Chinese civilization
Three hundred and nineteen years, eighteen emperors, two capitals of over a million people — and a state that lost its northern half, then held on for another century and a half. The Song gave China its first paper money and its first movable type, and an aesthetic of restraint that still defines Chinese taste. This scroll is the way in.
Northern Song · Palace Museum, Beijing · Public domain
Six Volumes
Explore the Song
history · society · arts · economy · thought · galleryEach volume stands on its own and is written for readers new to Chinese history. Read in order, they add up to a compact history of the dynasty.
History
宋朝史
Three hundred and nineteen years, two capitals, eighteen emperors.
Read →VOL.02Society & Daily Life
市井生活
In earlier Chinese cities, ordinary people lived behind walled wards that locked at night.
Read →VOL.03Arts & Culture
文学艺术
Song taste is the reason a plain celadon bowl can look more valuable than a gilded one.
Read →VOL.04Economy & Technology
经济科技
For a few centuries the Song economy was probably the largest and most commercialised on earth.
Read →VOL.05Thought & Scholarship
思想学术
In the Song, a group of thinkers set out to rebuild Confucian ethics on a metaphysical foundation — to explain not just how one should live, but what the world is made of and why that makes ethics necessary.
Read →VOL.06Gallery
图像志
This volume is about looking.
Read →The Reading Path
Read it straight through
Ten parts · about 80 minutes end to endThis English section is a self-contained path, not a translation of the Chinese site. Take it in order and each part hands you the next one; every page has a “previous / next” at the foot.
How to Read It
Two things worth knowing first
The scroll is read right to left
A Chinese handscroll is unrolled an arm’s length at a time, beginning at the right.Along the River During the Qingming Festival starts in countryside, crosses the canal, and ends inside the city walls — and it is designed to be looked at from inches away, not all at once.
Estimates are labelled as estimates
Population figures, economic output and even some attributions are contested. Where a number is a scholarly range rather than a record, this site says so — and where historians disagree, it gives you the disagreement instead of one side.
About this section
A note on language
songdynasty.cn is a non-commercial educational site. The Chinese edition is larger: under the same six volumes it carries some thirty-four further pages on individual subjects. This English section is a complete reading path of its own, written for English readers rather than translated — it does not assume any background in Chinese history, and it does not stop halfway.
All images are public-domain collection photographs (Palace Museum Beijing, National Palace Museum Taipei, Wikimedia Commons) and are credited per item. Corrections and licensing enquiries: 6686112@qq.com
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