Download song engagement with the outside world

THE SONG ECONOMIC REVOLUTION
From Copper Coins to Paper Notes
Helping to grease the wheels of trade during the Song was the world’s first paper money.
For centuries, the basic unit of currency in China was the bronze or copper coin with a hole in the center for stringing.
Large transactions were calculated in terms of strings of coins, but given their weight these were cumbersome to carry
long distances.
As trade increased, demand for money grew enormously, so the government minted more and more coins. By 1085 the
output of coins had increased tenfold since Tang times to more than 6 billion coins a year.
The use of paper currency was initiated by merchants. To avoid having to carry thousands of strings of coins long
distances, merchants in late Tang times (c. 900 CE) started trading receipts from deposit shops where they had left
money or goods. The early Song authorities awarded a small set of shops a monopoly on the issuing of these certificates
of deposit, and in the 1120s the government took over the system, producing the world’s first government-issued paper
money.
According to Marco Polo
Marco Polo astonished the Western world when he described the use of paper currency throughout Khubilai Khan’s
Yuan dynasty:
“With these pieces of paper, made as I have described, he [Khubilai Khan] causes all payments on his own account to be
made; and he makes them to pass current universally over all his kingdoms and provinces and territories, and
whithersoever his power and sovereignty extends. And nobody, however important he may think himself, dares to
refuse them on pain of death. And indeed everybody takes them readily, for wheresoever a person may go throughout
the Great Kaan’s dominions he shall find these pieces of paper current, and shall be able to transact all sales and
purchases of goods by means of them just as well as if they were coins of pure gold. And all the while they are so light
that ten bezants’ worth does not weigh one golden bezant.
“Furthermore all merchants arriving from India or other countries, and bringing with them gold or silver or gems and
pearls, are prohibited from selling to any one but the Emperor. He has twelve experts chosen for this business, men of
shrewdness and experience in such affairs; these appraise the articles, and the Emperor then pays a liberal price for
them in those pieces of paper. The merchants accept his price readily, for in the first place they would not get so good a
one from anybody else, and secondly they are paid without any delay. And with this paper-money they can buy what
they like anywhere over the Empire, whilst it is also vastly lighter to carry about on their journeys. And it is a truth that
the merchants will several times in the year bring wares to the amount of 400,000 bezants, and the Grand Sire pays for
all in that paper. So he buys such a quantity of those precious things every year that his treasure is endless, whilst all the
time the money he pays away costs him nothing at all. Moreover, several times in the year proclamation is made
through the city that anyone who may have gold or silver or gems or pearls, by taking them to the Mint shall get a
handsome price for them. And the owners are glad to do this, because they would find no other purchaser give so large
a price. Thus the quantity they bring in is marvellous, though these who do not choose to do so may let it alone. Still, in
this way, nearly all the valuables in the country come into the Kaan’s possession.”
How did the introduction of paper money impact societies or the economy?
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion and Interaction of Communication and Exchange Networks
Key Concept 3.3: Increased Economic Productive Capacity and Its Consequences
AP World History
SONG CONFUCIAN REVIVAL
“Neo-Confucianism”
There was a vigorous revival of Confucianism in the Song period. Confucian teachings were central to the civil service
examination system, the identity of the scholar-official class, the family system, and political discourse.
Confucianism had naturally changed over the centuries since the time of Confucius (ca. 500 BCE). Confucius’s own
teachings, recorded by his followers in the Analects, were still a central element, as were the texts that came to be
called the Confucian classics, which included early poetry, historical records, moral and ritual injunctions, and a
divination manual. But the issues stressed by Confucian teachers changed as Confucianism became closely associated
with the state from about 100 BCE on, and as it had to face competition from Buddhism, from the second century CE
onward. Confucian teachers responded to the challenge of Buddhist metaphysics by developing their own account of
the natural and human world.
With roots in the late Tang dynasty, the Confucian revival flourished in the Northern and Southern Song periods and
continued in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties that followed. The revived Confucianism of the Song period (often
called Neo-Confucianism) emphasized self-cultivation as a path not only to self-fulfillment but to the formation of a
virtuous and harmonious society and state.
The revival of Confucianism in Song times was accomplished by teachers and scholar-officials who gave Confucian
teachings new relevance. Scholar-officials of the Song such as Fan Zhongyan (989-1052) and Sima Guang (10191086) provided compelling examples of the man who put service to the state above his personal interest.
The Southern Song philosopher Zhu Xi (1130-1200) is known for his synthesis of Neo-Confucian philosophy. Zhu Xi wrote
commentaries to the Four Books of the Confucian tradition, which he extolled as central to the education of scholars.
Zhu Xi was also active in the theory and practice of education and in the compiling of a practical manual of family ritual.
The Centrality of the Family in Confucian Teaching
In Confucian teaching, the family is the most basic unit of society. Everyone should respect and obey his or her parents
and put the interests of the family before personal interests. This attitude of “filial piety” extended also to ancestors. It
was considered essential that everyone marry, so that family lines would continue and male heirs make offerings of food
and drink to their deceased ancestors.
The Status of Women
Girls left their families when they married. So long as they gave birth to sons, they would eventually gain a respected
place in their family of marriage, and would be treated as ancestors by their sons and sons’ sons. Mothers and
grandmothers had important and respected places in their families.
The Song is often seen as a time when the status of women declined. Compared to Tang times, women were less active
in politics and less commonly seen on the streets. Song Confucian teachers argued against widows remarrying, and
footbinding began in Song times. On the other hand, women’s rights to property were relatively secure in Song times,
and older women were often very powerful within their families.
To what extent is Neo-Confucianism similar to Confucianism?
Why is the Song period often seen as a time when the status of women declined?
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion and Interaction of Communication and Exchange Networks
Key Concept 3.3: Increased Economic Productive Capacity and Its Consequences
AP World History
SONG ENGAGEMENT WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD
International Trade, Overland
The camels in the Beijing qingming scroll may well have been bringing wares from beyond China’s borders.
Trade between the Song dynasty and its northern neighbors was stimulated by the payments Song made to them. The
Song set up supervised markets along the border to encourage this trade. Chinese goods that flowed north in large
quantities included tea, silk, copper coins (widely used as a currency outside of China), paper and printed books,
porcelain, lacquerware, jewelry, rice and other grains, ginger and other spices. The return flow includedsome of the
silver that had originated with the Song and the horses that Song desperately needed for its armies, but also other
animals such as camel and sheep, as well as goods that had traveled across the Silk Road, including fine Indian and
Persian cotton cloth, precious gems, incense, and perfumes.
International Trade, Maritime
There was also vigorous sea trade with Korea, Japan, and lands to the south and southwest. From great coastal cities
such as Quanzhou boats carrying Chinese goods plied the oceans from Japan to east Africa. (The major port of Quanzhou
that dominated trade in the Song dynasty is not to be confused with Guangzhou. Guangzhou, located further south on
the Chinese coast, did not become an important port until the Qing dynasty, when it was known to European traders as
“Canton.”)
During Song times maritime trade for the first time exceeded overland foreign trade. The Song government sent
missions to Southeast Asian countries to encourage their traders to come to China. Chinese ships were seen all
throughout the Indian Ocean and began to displace Indian and Arab merchants in the South Seas. Shards of Song
Chinese porcelain have been found as far away as eastern Africa.
Chinese ships were larger than the ships of most of their competitors, such as the Indians or Arabs, and in many ways
were technologically quite advanced. In 1225 the superintendent of customs at Quanzhou, named Zhao Rukua (Zhao
Rugua or Chao Ju-kua, 1170-1231), wrote an account of the countries with which Chinese merchants traded and the
goods they offered for sale. Zhao's book, Zhufan Zhi (commonly translated as "Description of the Barbarians"), includes
sketches of major trading cities from Srivijaya (modern Indonesia) to Malabar, Cairo, and Baghdad. Pearls were said to
come from the Persian Gulf, ivory from Aden, myrrh from Somalia, pepper from Java and Sumatra, cotton from the
various kingdoms of India, and so on.
Much money could be made from the sea trade, but there were also great risks, so investors usually divided their
investment among many ships, and each ship had many investors behind it. In 1973 a Song-era ship was excavated off
the south China coast. It had been shipwrecked in 1277. Seventy-eight feet long and 29 feet wide, the ship had twelve
bulkheads and still held the evidence of some of the luxury objects that these Song merchants were importing: more
than 5,000 pounds of fragrant wood from Southeast Asia, pepper, betel nut, cowries, tortoiseshell, cinnabar, and
ambergris from Somalia.
According to Marco Polo
Marco Polo a few decades later wrote glowingly of the Chinese pepper trade, saying that for each load of pepper sent to
Christendom, a hundred were sent to China. On his own travels home via the sea route, he reported seeing many
merchants from southern China plying a thriving trade:
“Now when you quit Fuju and cross the River, you travel for five days south-east through a fine country, meeting with a
constant succession of flourishing cities, towns, and villages, rich in every product. ... When you have accomplished
those five days' journey you arrive at the very great and noble city of ZAYTON [or Zaitun, now Quanzhou], which is also
subject to Fuju.
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion and Interaction of Communication and Exchange Networks
Key Concept 3.3: Increased Economic Productive Capacity and Its Consequences
AP World History
“At this city you must know is the Haven of Zayton, frequented by all the ships of India, which bring thither spicery and
all other kinds of costly wares. It is the port also that is frequented by all the merchants of Manzi [southern China], for
hither is imported the most astonishing quantity of goods and of precious stones and pearls, and from this they are
distributed all over Manzi. And I assure you that for one shipload of pepper that goes to Alexandria or elsewhere,
destined for Christendom, there come a hundred such, aye and more too, to this haven of Zayton; for it is one of the two
greatest havens in the world for commerce.
...
“When you sail from Chamba [Champa, Vietnam], 1500 miles in a course between south and south-east, you come to a
great Island called Java. And the experienced mariners of those Islands who know the matter well, say that it is the
greatest Island in the world, and has a compass of more than 3000 miles. ... The Island is of surpassing wealth, producing
black pepper, nutmegs, spikenard, galingale, cubebs, cloves, and all other kinds of spices.”
This Island is also frequented by a vast amount of shipping, and by merchants who buy and sell costly goods from which
they reap great profit. Indeed the treasure of this Island is so great as to be past telling. ... The merchants of Zayton and
Manzi draw annually great returns from this country.
Why and how did the Song increase efforts in regional trade?
How would you describe the tone of Marco Polo’s account?
How do documents like the accounts of Marco Polo help historians gain insight into history?
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion and Interaction of Communication and Exchange Networks
Key Concept 3.3: Increased Economic Productive Capacity and Its Consequences
AP World History