It’s not the Song brothers, but the Zhao. Although Song is the dynastic name, Zhao is the family name of the Song emperors. Also, Taizu, Taizong etc are regnal names which identify the emperor and their reigns when they ascended the throne. Their given names are another matter. So Song Taizu, for example, was actually named Zhao Kuangyin. And if that’s not confusing enough, just remember Chinese names have the surname (or family name) in front, followed by their given (or first) name.
@@boxerrebellion1509 My preference is actually the Warring States period, precisely because there are so many geopolitical lessons and also because I think it is the true start of what became Chinese culture.
@@boxerrebellion1509 I can understand your preference of Han and Tang because of the military and cultural achievements they accomplished!! However, it would be a hard time to live during those times. I wonder if you can do time travel, would you like to travel to those times and live there?
Well known invention & innovations of Song: use of rudders & bulkheads, compass (naval navigation), moveable types (printing press), gunpowder weapons (hand cannons), use of paper money (bank notes).
@@jonaspeteJapan and Korea did model themselves after China, which was modelled by the Qin and Han dynasty. Also I think you are forgetting a certain Khan from Mongolia.
Very interesting. You acknowledge this is not your area of expertise, yet this was very well prepared, and presented. I learn something from everyone of your videos.
Actually, the rise of the Tanguts were the key highlights in the 1020s China. After the peace treaty with Liao in 1004, Song adopted a more inward looking policy, which aided the growth of the Tanguts, which was their governors in the northwest. The worst is that the Tanguts were gifted with 3 successive great rulers, Li Jiqian (ruled 982 - 1004, causing much headache to the Song), Li Deming (1004 - 1032, who seized the opportunity to conquer the entire Hexi Corridor, which dominated the silk road) and culminating in the independence and formation of Western Xia dynasty in 1038 by Li Yuanhao.
Rise of Tangut Xia dynasty is one of the most overlooked piece in east asian history. But I'd say the rise of Jin dynasty is the most interesting/important event in all of Chinese history. Their descendants somehow managed to conquer the most powerful civilisation with lightning speed.
the goat returns 🔥 just a quick correction: the brothers who established the Song were actually the Zhao brothers - "taizu" and "taizong" are mainly honorifics conferred to founders/2nd generation founders of Chinese dynasties, so it would be more accurate to state that the "Zhao brothers" or the "Taizu and Taizong Emperors" founded the Song dynasty love your vids as always!
ALSO one thing I think is worthy for a future deep dive is how impactful and significant Song literati culture was - the birth of Neo-Confucianism, Song Poetry, philosophical/poetic legends such as Su Shi and Ouyang Xiu, etc
@@studiumhistoriae Thanks for providing interesting insights on the Song's accomplisments in maintaining social stability and enhancing economic prosperity. Before watching this video, we were often taught about the Song Dynasty as one which was politically and militarily weak, often defeated and humiliated by nomadic neighbors. I think this negative conception about the Song Empire is partly true, as the empire was not able to match the glory of Han and Tang; but still, it is very important to have a more balanced view on the Song successes and failures; and your video did a good job in providing information for this comprehensive knowledge.
“TaiZu” and “TaiZong” are temple titles （庙号）. Tai（太）means sovereign, and Zu（祖）means the first ancestor.Zong in TaiZong（太宗）means respectable people.All of the temple titles of emperors are granted by inheritors after the death of the last emperor. And you can also find this character Zong （宗）in other emperors´ temple titles in Song dynasty or even in other dynasties（like Tang TaiZong）. btw 宗 is also my family name. And it's a rare family name in China.
Do you know that Taizong was likely to have murdered his brother to usurp the throne? Taizu's death was very hushed up after his visit to his younger brother one night. The latter emerged in the morning declaring that Taizu had passed away and took over the throne, pretty much very smoothly. The line of descendent from then on passed down Taizong's line until Gaozong of the Southern Song period. Gaozong (reign 1127-1162) had no sons so the line of descendent was passed back to Taizu's line.
Having a stressful day today, so seeing this video pop up is a very welcome development. Keep up the good work man I love your stuff and you deserve ten-times the subscribers you have right now!
One story can show how rich the common people were in Song Dynasty. There was a half-disabled ugly man named Wu Dalng, who suffered short body height of less than 5 feet. Yet he got a sudden fortune that he could marry the most beautiful woman in his prefecture called Pan Jinlian, because Ms. Pan, who was an adopted girl of a landlord family, was very disobedient and so the landlord decided to punish her by marrying her to the half-disabled man. As a result, many playboys and rogues felt so disgruntled and they came to his house daily yelling 'what a pity that a so good mutton would drop to the dog's mouth'. So, Mr. Wu Dalang decided to move to the neighboring prefecture, rented a house and made a living for both him and his beautiful wife by just vendoring steamed cakes on streets. Their life proceeded peacefully until his blood brother, Wu Song or Wu Erlang who was a great hero that could beat a tiger to death with bare hands. The later story went to a tragedy because, as one can easily imagine, Ms. Pan Jinlian fell in love with his brother in law but Wu Song rudely pushed away her love according to the moral norm at that time. Then Pan shifted her love to another rich man named Xi Menqing. Unfortunately their love affair got exposed and Pan Jinlian had to poisoned Wu Dalang to avoid punishment. Then, Wu Song returned home again and got to know all the truth about his brother's death. So he killed both his sister in law and Xi Menqing, the adulterer. The first half of the story shows how an easy life people in Song time had enjoyed and the tragedy part of the story explained why the story could be transmitted through 1000 years down to today.
Ai read that in the Water Margin Novel. This was such a sad story and I remember vividly how I was enraged by the murder of the poor steamed buns vendor. Also I want to note that the Water Margin was a story written more than a hundred years after the fall of the song dynasty.
This is nothing, at the same time in medieval Europe commoners had access to more luxury goods than at any other time in history. A short story will illustrate this point. A poor peasant boy name Jack went to market one day to buy food, and happened across a bean merchant. He bought magic beans from him, planted them, and then climbed into the clouds and fought and killed a giant, taking all his treasures and winning great renown. Clearly this was an era of great luxury and courage
There was also a small but vibrant Jewish community in the capital city Kaifeng. I guess they were already there during the Tang dynasty. They were called 一賜樂業 (It-su-lok-giap), which is likely a phonetic transliteration of Israel. A synagogue was built in Kaifeng in 1163 after Kaifeng had been sacked by the Jurchen. It remained active until 1850 when the last rabbi past away, and no one in the community could read Hebrew. In the temple stele, Adam was written as 盤古阿躭 (Phuân-kóo A-the), with 盤古 being the being that separated heaven and earth in the Chinese mythology. Eve was written as 女媧 (Ju-ua) which is the female goddess that created mankind out of mud in the Chinese mythology. The Hebrew word for Eve is Ḥawwāh, so some what similar. Abraham was written as 阿無羅漢 (A-bô-lô-hàn). Moses was written as 乜攝 (mih-siap). Mount Sinai was written as 昔那山 (Sik-na mountain). Isaac was written as 以思哈□ (I-su-ha-) with the last characters unrecognizable. Jacob was written as 雅呵厥勿 (Nga-ho-khuat-but). Aaron was written as 阿呵聯 (A-ho-lian). Joshua was written as 月束窩 (Gua̍t-sok-o). Ezra was written as 藹子喇 (Ái-tsú-la). There might be a deeper connection between Eve and 女媧, and it's pretty cool those early Jewish settlers recognized it.
Regarding the Song's relation with the South. The wars with Ngo and Ly dynasty of Vietnam resulted in the Vietnamese declaring their own empire. They even lost various provinces which they never regained. Yunnan also became a power in its own right at this time. From every direction the Song really were forced to recognize there were other players on the board.
The Kingdom of Dali that was in Yunnan. All these former Tang provinces civilized and became rulers of their own right, and with Song scared to death of another An Lu Shan and its economy shifting into a trading one rather than an expansionary one, they really could do nothing about it
I'm absolutely furious the algorithm just brought me to this channel! What a great way to sample it, though -- with a fascinating look at the Song. Definitely subscribed. Now I know what I'm doing during the next few days -- binging your content! Your voice & demeanor are perfect for a history channel; your research is excellent; and your presentation engaging! Glad to have found you & keep 'em coming!
It is so interesting you mentioned the censoring of books to be sold to outsiders. I happened to know that the first official who proposed the censorship about books was the younger brother of the great Song Dynasty poet Su Shi, Su Zhe!
A unified Song also never took northern Vietnam, which once belonged to Tang dynasty. Keep up the great work! It's rare to see contents regarding Chinese history before Qing dynasty.
During the 1070's the Song-Ly war resulted in the sack of Nanning. As well as the loss of Cao Bang and Langson permanently defining Vietnams northern border.
@@AssasiCraftYogUscus Taizu really axed the military hard, and the military elite never got the attention and support it needed to project Song authority nearly as well as the previous dynasties did (Han, Tang). It's such a tragedy that Tang was mortally wounded to An Lu Shan's betrayal that butchered half the population, and Song was mortally wounded because Taizu weakened the military so much that the dynasty even didn't live til its first military rebellion before it was already conquered by northern tribes in 1127. I love that Chinese dynasties is just 'taking the lessons of the previous dynasty too seriously to the point that I become another lesson', in which Song served as a lesson to the Ming, which the latter took it too far AGAIN.
You fart, Song Taizu period of the Song Dynasty army is very strong, the strength of the Song Dynasty army is Song Taizu, Taizu weakened soldiers are not afraid of Liao invasion?😅@@ttq3661
The Ming Dynasty is my favorite dynasty because my name is Ming Jeong a decedent of Jeong Fee a member of the three brothers he was an archer his blood brothers are user of a sword and brother Quan used a spear.
I read an article some time ago where it was theorized that china had a "malthusian trap" because the rigid mountains were hard to make arable. I would really like to see a video where, although Malthus was not medieval anymore, some thoughts of modern interpretation and classicism and the reception of malthusian thought.
I have a fun fact regarding electing officials via the imperial exam, The Imperial exam which was started in the Han Dynasty survived till the last dynasty. for the most part, those attaining the Jinshi degree(which is the highest degree you can get) are the creme de la creme with less than 1% of the entire batch to be chosen to receive this degree. yet this elite scholars largely couldn't run their office personally as their entire education is based on classical Confucianism and not the Qing legal code, so much so that they hire something equivalent to legal assistant from their own pocket to bridge the divide and this happens on all level of the bureaucracy from simple county court all the way to ministry affairs.
Btw the other name for BianJing (Kaifeng) is the Eastern Capital 东京. If you read this in Japanese it would be Tokyo, which also means the Eastern Capital
North Song is considered to be the most prosperity with a very long painting as evidence. Song Yan Emporer is the most reasonable administration, with very famous officials. The products of the period are highly praised by artists
The signing of treaties with Liao lay peace period for a long time. Song was highly troubled by the hunting neighbors . Despite of tough national defense, Song was finally intruded to the Yuan, grandson of Mongolian Ghenghis Khan. Yuan Dynasty is short-lived for less than 92 yrs China is returned to the rule of Chinese under Ming Dynasty.
good job man, your narrative is very precise. song is one of the fascinating dynasties in Chinese history, it's weak in military but prosperous in civilization and culture. just one thing i think it could be discussed. Shi doesnt exactly correspond to literati in europe. although most Shi are well educated man of letters. but they more emphasis on the value and courages. even an illiterate if his behavior conform to the principles of Shi, he can also be called a Shi.
The Song Dynasty's fighting power was not actually very bad, mainly because the Han Chinese horse-producing areas were occupied by the Western Xia and Liao. With almost no cavalry, the Song Dynasty was the only country that could defeat Mongolia and recover lost territory during the Mongolian heyday (the first 20 years of the Mongolian-Song war), and killed the third Mongolian emperor. In the later period, the Mongolians were constantly compressed strategically. The Mongolians occupied Dali and Tibet and strategically surrounded the Song Dynasty. During the entire 45-year war with Mongolia.
@@user-lx5qf3rd2hThe end of the Southern Song Dynasty was not as good as the period of Song Taizu. To tell you the truth, the Song army was very good at fighting in the period of Song Taizu.
Who was the most powerful man in Song China? Confucius! His writings colonized the brains of the elite class. Combine an atheist rationalist moralist with an authoritarian centralist government and we can see how China was set up for adoption of Communism almost a thousand years later. The power of bureaucracy was another pillar of Communism present in the governance model. Song is so interesting as a Dynasty because it marked a clear break with the brash militarist all-powerful Emperor model of prior dynasties. Notice how bland are the garments of the Song Emperors. Their clothes seem to say 'Don't pay attention to me. I'm just the figurehead. My power has been delegated to the Supreme Committee of the Socialist Republic.'
Hi, I am a product of hundreds of years of attempted inbreeding of the song royal blood line near Southern China Yamen. Thank you for doing this piece on my ancestors!
