The Splendor of the Song Dynasty: The Outer and Inner Worlds of an Age of Perfection (Longitude and Latitude Series)

Where did the Song dynasty’s population boom come from? Where did the vast wealth of the court go? This book untangles the logic behind the golden age’s prosperity and shows what life was really like for ordinary people in the Song dynasty. A major new work by historian and author Chen Xubin, it takes a fresh look at both the Song dynasty’s public image and its inner workings.

The book is divided into three parts. The first examines why the total wealth of Song society increased. The second describes how Song governments in different periods extracted wealth, and how ordinary people struggled to survive. The third explains why the wealth accumulated during the Northern and Southern Song dynasties failed to become capital for reinvestment.

Chen Xubin’s writing challenges the top-down orthodox historical perspective found in most Song history books today, focusing instead on the lower classes who had no voice in the historical record and portraying their real, brutal living conditions. It exposes the true nature of the Northern and Southern Song’s “prosperity”: “ninety million poor and vulnerable people” supporting “ten million tax-consuming groups.” The book overturns the image of the Song era as a golden age of classical China and offers valuable insight into the dynasty’s system of rule.