ABSTRACT
During the first half of the eleventh century, officials of the Song Empire grew confident that they would discern in the city the immanent pattern that aligned human civilization with the moral cosmos. They saw the health of the body politic manifested in the health of urban populations, fed by predictable harvests and sustained by the efficient circulation of goods and money. The intellectual confidence of Song literati was defeated, however, by their inability to eliminate the budget deficit created by military expenditures. Irreconcilable debates about economic reforms, especially about the New Laws of Wang Anshi, caused a profound intellectual crisis. As a result, literati withdrew from the city to search for the immanent pattern within themselves and their community.
