ABSTRACT
Any account of China between 1000 and 1500 must begin with the superlatives. Especially when compared with the petty kingdoms and internecine struggles of Europe, Song China (960–1279) had much of which to boast: a centralized bureaucratic empire, the world’s largest standing army, an expanding population, huge cities, an active commerce, thriving manufactures, breakthroughs in the arts of peace (printing) and war (gunpowder), an increasingly open social order.
