MMW 12 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Song Dynasty, Sima Guang, Wang Anshi
3 Mar 2017
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Mmw 12 lecture 21 the rise and fall of the song dynasty: pros and cons of civilian. Song taizu reunites most of china, cannot conquer the khitan liao dynasty of northern nomads. Civilian administration: by bureaucrats chosen by imperial exam, bypassing aristocrats and warlords. Compare to debate on salt and iron. Many of the ideas were new, and confucians do not like change. Iron and steel industries important for making weapons, wanted them under control of the government. Especially getting a high score on the exam: exams still very important in china and east asian countries today. In the song and later dynasties, wealthy merchants rivaled scholar-offiials in wealth and power: confucians didn"t like this because they worked hard to study and get their prestige, whereas they saw being a merchant as a dirty practice. Farmland expanded due to reclaiming barren land, expanded irrigation systems. New seeds, farming tools lead agricultural production to triple, farmers have surplus to sell.
