Scholars Enter the Common World: Transformation and Social Change in the Song and Yuan Dynasties

This book is an innovative contribution to the study of Song and Yuan history. Taking the “Song-Yuan transition” as its perspective, the author begins with the fortunes of the scholar-official elite at the turn of the dynasties. After passing the imperial examinations, they faced fierce competition and found advancement in officialdom increasingly difficult. Against this backdrop, many successful candidates underwent major changes in their outlook and career choices, leaving government service to become merchants, teachers, landowners, or monks. Their paths began to diversify.

Drawing on vivid case studies and well-documented historical sources, the book combines a broad historical overview with close examination of individual lives to reveal the many facets of social transformation during the Song-Yuan transition. It explores the foundations of regional and gentry society in the Ming and Qing, and, from a broad historical perspective, links the Tang-Song transition with the Song-Yuan transition. It traces the course of Chinese society from the Southern Song through the Yuan, into the Ming and Qing, and toward the modern era.