Life in the Song Dynasty

If you think “Golden Week” is a modern invention,

if you think the Lantern Festival Gala is unique to today,

if you think fast-food delivery is something new,

if you think only Tang women dared to show off their “assets,”

if you think Japan alone has the risqué spectacle of “female sumo,”

if you think professional fire brigades exist only in modern China,

if you think only modern Western countries have a system of resigning to take responsibility,

if you think “state compensation” is a modern concept...

Then I’m afraid these are all just things you assume.

Song society already had all these customs and institutions. Don’t believe it? Open this book, Living in the Song Dynasty.

This book isn’t here to tell you a few bits of historical trivia, long dead and forgotten. The author wants to retell the story of three centuries of prosperity in Song China, rediscover China’s civilizational traditions, dispel people’s preconceptions and prejudices about the Song, and bring a “living” age back to life.

Every story and subject in this book takes place in the Song Dynasty, eight hundred years ago, yet each strikes a chord with the society we live in today, making it easy to feel transported across time.

Clearly, this is a work rich in historical sources, lively in style, persuasive, and a pleasure to read. It’s more reliable than the “Things About the X Dynasty” books and livelier than a serious academic study.

This new work by Wu Gou, a columnist for Tencent Dajia, features a heartfelt preface by Ma Boyong, the renowned maverick of history and literature known as “Prince Ma.” Living in the Song Dynasty presents a Song empire that is very different from the one you imagined.