ABSTRACT
The latter half of imperial Chinese history has generally been distinguished by the centrality of an elite of government officials and their families selected and promoted through the civil service examination system. This received view has frequently been coupled with an assertion of military weakness in the truly 'Chinese', dynasties, that is to say those with racially Han Chinese imperial families. The received wisdom concerning civil-military relations during the Song dynasty is often expressed in the phrase: 'Zhongwen Qingwu', that is, emphasise the civil, de-emphasise the military. This expression encapsulates the idea that, during the Song, all things civil—officials, culture, society—were raised above their equivalent military counterparts as a deliberate government policy. The written record for matters concerning the military's place in Song society is decidedly poor. Almost all materials concerning the private lives of people in the Song were written by civil officials, men trying to be civil officials, or their family members.
