The Song Dynasty (Chinese: 宋朝; Pinyin: Sòng Cháo; Wade-Giles: Sung Ch'ao) was a ruling dynasty in China between 960–1279 AD; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms era, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy.
The population of China doubled in size between the 10th and 11th centuries. This growth came through expanded rice cultivation in central and southern China and the production of abundant food surpluses. Within its borders, the Northern Song Dynasty had a population of some 100 million people.This dramatic increase of population fomented and fueled an economic revolution in premodern China.
The Song Dynasty is divided into two distinct periods: the Northern Song and Southern Song. During the Northern Song (Chinese: 北宋, 960–1127), the Song capital was in the northern city of Kaifeng and the dynasty controlled most of inner China. The Southern Song (Chinese: 南宋, 1127–1279) refers to the period after the Song lost control of northern China to the Jin Dynasty. During this time, the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze River and established their capital at Hangzhou. Although the Song had lost control of the traditional birthplace of Chinese civilization along the Yellow River, the Song economy was not in ruins, as the Southern Song contained 60 percent of China's population and a majority of the most productive agricultural land.The Southern Song Dynasty considerably bolstered naval strength to defend its waters and land borders and to conduct maritime missions abroad. To repel the Jin (and then the Mongols), the Song developed revolutionary new military technology augmented by the use of gunpowder. In 1234, the Jin Dynasty was conquered by the Mongols, who subsequently took control of northern China and maintained uneasy relations with the Southern Song. Mongke Khan, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, was killed in battle; his successor was Kublai Khan, was perceived both as the new Great Khan of the Mongols and as the Emperor of China. After years of war, Kublai Khan's armies conquered the Song Dynasty in 1279. China was once again unified, but this time as part of the vast Mongol Empire.
The Song Dynasty was a culturally rich period for the arts, philosophy, and social life. People wore clothes that befit their social class, where high scholar-officials drafted through the examination system and posted in governmental offices were destinguished by their lavish silken robes. From many surviving written sources, the daily diet and foods enjoyed by Song people from rich to poor has been well documented, even in surviving menus from medieval restaurants. Landscape art and portrait paintings reached new levels of maturity and complexity after the heights reached by the Tang Dynasty. The social life was vibrant; social elites gathered to view and trade precious artworks, the populace intermingled at public festivals and private clubs and cities had lively entertainment quarters. Philosophers such as Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi reinvigorated Confucianism with new commentary, infused with Buddhist ideals, and emphasized a new organization of classic texts that brought out the core doctrine of Neo-Confucianism. Although the institution of the civil service examinations had existed since the Sui Dynasty, it became much more prominent in the Song period, and was a leading factor in the shift of an aristocratic elite to a bureaucratic elite. Exam-drafted scholar-officials viewed themselves as the preeminent members of society, scorning any emphasis or favor shown to the growing merchant class and those of petty commercial vocations. Nonetheless, mercantilism was heavily embedded into Song culture and society. Independent, state-sponsored, and state-employed architects, engineers, carpenters, and craftsmen erected thousands of bridges, pagoda towers, temple halls, palace halls, ancestral shrines, shops and storefronts, and other buildings throughout the empire. Literature on architecture was widely distributed and read throughout China, while the central state agencies responsible for building and construction followed standards published in state-sponsored building manuals.
译文:
宋朝
宋朝，公元960-1279年统治中国，其上承五代，下启蒙元，是世界上第一个发行纸币的国家，也是中国历史上第一个建立正规海军（称为沿海制置司）的王朝。
整个10、11世纪，由于中国中、南部大面积水稻栽培技术的推广以及粮食产量的富足，人口数量翻了一番。北宋时期，人口约有1亿。人口的急剧增加引发了古代中国的一场经济革命。
宋朝分为北宋、南宋两个时期。北宋定都开封，控制中原；北方沦陷于金后，是为南宋，当此之时，宋人远遁长江以南，定都杭州。尽管此时宋朝丢掉了有着中华文明摇篮之称的黄河流域，可宋朝的经济却没有垮掉，毕竟南宋拥有全宋百分之六十的人口和绝大多数的膏腴之地。南宋大力扩充海上力量，用以维持水域和边境安定以及保护遣使团的安全。为了抵御金国（以及随后的蒙古），宋人革命性的发展了新式军事技术，并依靠火药的使用使其得到了加强。1234年，蒙古灭亡金国，继而占领了中国北方，并且与南宋形成了一种对峙关系。蒙古帝国的第四代大汗蒙哥汗战死沙场，继任者忽必烈汗不仅被认为是蒙古帝国的新汗，而且被认为是中国的皇帝。经过几年的战争，忽必烈汗于1279年灭亡了宋朝。中国虽然又一次实现了统一，但是此次却成了大蒙古帝国的一部分。
宋朝是一个艺术、哲学以及社会生活极尽繁荣的时代。人们穿着代表不同等级的衣服，通过科举考试被选拔并在政府部门任职的高级官员都衣着华丽的丝绸长袍。据大量史书记载，宋朝时期为各个阶层所喜爱的日常饮食和食物习惯都有案可查，甚至出现在了当时茶寮酒肆的菜谱里。风景画和人物素描的发展、完善在继唐朝的繁荣之后又达到一个新高度。社会生活生机勃发，有才识的人聚集在一起鉴赏并交换他们优秀的艺术作品，百姓在公共节日里聚集在一起一同庆祝。一些私人团体和城市都有充满活力的娱乐场所。程颐、朱熹等哲学家对儒家思想冠以新的解说使之得以复苏，提倡佛家思想，注重一种新的经典文本的组织性，从而给道学带来新的理论。尽管科举制度在隋朝开始建立，但是在宋朝的地位更加突出，成为由贵族阶层向官僚阶层转变的一个重要因素。通过科举考试被选拔出的官员自命清高，鄙视任何对日益增多的商人以及与其对应的商业活动的偏重和喜好行为。尽管如此，重商主义仍然深深的嵌入宋朝的文化和社会生活当中。独立的、政府资助的、由政府雇佣的建筑师、工程师、木匠和工匠在全国各地建造了数以千计的桥梁、宝塔、寺庙、宫殿、祭祀神龛、商店、街铺店面等其他建筑。建筑学在中国各地得到广泛流传和阅读，中央政府专门负责建筑行业的机构则依据标准把它们编入国家资助的建筑手册里。