Hsiang-Yang 1268-1273

Abstract

Abstract The Sung dynasty in China began in 960, succeeding theT’ang dynasty. For a time, the Sung controlled territory stretching from the southern reaches of modern Manchuria to the northern borders of Vietnam, with their power extending westward 1,000 miles from the China Sea. In 1127, they lost their northern lands to the Jurchen Mongols and concentrated their authority in the richer southern China by building a new capital city at Hangchow, at the mouth of the Yangtze River. The Southern Sung dynasty came to be regarded as something of a golden age in China, with expanding trade routes bringing in immense wealth as well as from Annam a new type of rice, which led to improvements in agriculture. Culturally, they reintroduced an interest in Confucianism, which had gradually been losing popularity to Buddhism and Taoism; that in turn led to a new form of bureaucracy, with examinations on Confucian principles becoming the basis of gaining a position in the civil service, a practice that was maintained almost until the twentieth century.