10. Politics
• Song standing army = 1 m.; < 50% of government
revenue
• strong iron armor and weapons
• crouching tiger catapult
• crossbows
• flamethrowers
• incendiary bombs
• BUT lack of horses and trained horsemen ➔ vulnerable
to mounted nomadic invasions from the north
• scholar gentry = poor military strategy and tactics
• northern tribes bought off ➔ state financial distress
12. Technology
• agricultural improvements:
• irrigation ditches
• reservoirs
• dams
• terraces
• water wheels
• pumps
• manure
• oxen or water buffalo-
pulled heavy iron plows
13. Technology
• fast-growing Champa rice
two crops allowed two crops
per year
• rapid population growth
• 800 CE: 50 m.
• 1000 CE: 60 m.
• 1200 CE: 115 m.
15. Technology
• improved iron production through use of water wheel piston-driven bellows and coke (high
carbon coal with few impurities) ➔ 1000% increased production!
• used for plows, weapons, bridges, pagodas
27. Culture
• 646 CE: Xuanzang returned after
17 years at Nalanda, India with
Mahayana Buddhism
• Journey to the West (aka Monkey)
28. Culture
• dharma = Dao
• nirvana = wu wei
• 1100s: Zhu Xi - metaphysical Buddhism and Daoism + rational structured Confucianism =
Neo-Confucianism
• Buddhism + Daoism = Chan/Zen Buddhism based on meditation and direct experience
rather than scripture
• Pure Land Buddhism
29. Culture
• Middle Kingdom
• Sinification of East
Asia
• Chinese as lingua
franca of East Asia
• wood-block printing –
• calendars
• histories
• philosophies
• medical texts
• encyclopedia