This is a timeline of the Song dynasty (960–1279). The Song dynasty was founded by Zhao Kuangyin, posthumously known as Emperor Taizu of Song, who ended the period of division known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Song dynasty is commonly separated into two historical periods, the Northern Song (960–1127) and the Southern Song (1127–1278), divided by the loss of the north to the Jurchen Jin dynasty (1115–1234). In 1279, the MongolYuan dynasty conquered the Song.
Song dynasty introduces the appointment by protection system, which allows high officials to nominate their sons, grandsons, and nephews for the civil service[2]
Emperor Taizu of Song tries to convince Pugui of the Mu'ege Kingdom situated in northwest, central, east, and southeast Guizhou to acquiesce to Song overlordship[11]
Song dynasty modifies the appointment by protection system by requiring candidates to study at the Directorate of Education and sit the examination, which passes at least 50 percent of them[2]
Song dynasty establishes a Bureau for Exchange Bills in Chengdu after craftsmen, artisans, and farmers reject the replacement of the smaller copper coins with heavy iron coins[23]
Song dynasty starts circulating exchange bills, each worth 1,256,340 strings of cash per 3-year circulation period[38]
The School of Four Gates opens - it provides students with a 500-day education, stipends, meals, a place in the dormitory, and exemption from the prefectural examinations[52]
Ou Xifan of the Ou clan rebels to the northwest of Yizhou in Guangnan West Circuit. Ou Xifan declares the Great Tang and wages war on the Song. He is caught a year later and executed by vivisection.[10][44]
The chemical formula for gunpowder appears in the military manual Wujing Zongyao, also known as the Complete Essentials for the Military Classics.[54][55]
Shen Kuo describes the process of making steel using repeated forging under a cold blast for "partial decarbonization", considered by some historians to be a direct predecessor of the Bessemer process[77]
Annual iron production in the Song dynasty reaches 125,000 tons and becomes the largest iron industry in the world, an achievement that lasts until 1796 during the industrial revolution in England and Wales;[80][81] per capita iron production reaches 3.1 pound, the world's highest per capita iron production until 1700 in Western Europe[81]
Song-Xia War (1081–1085): Song dynasty invades Western Xia with initial success, but the odd failure to bring siege weapons and extreme supply problems cause widespread mutiny and the invasion turns into a massive rout[84]
Song and the Lý of Đại Việt finalize their border agreement, which with minor changes throughout the centuries, is basically the same as the modern China–Vietnam border[89]
The Song court mandates the construction of Security and Relief clinics in every prefecture[98]
Cai Jing suggests that the best graduates of the Taixue should be selected for appointment without having to take the imperial examinations and that the examinations themselves should be replaced by a reformed education system; his ideas are ultimately rejected[52]
Song court mandates public cemeteries for the destitute[104]
The Taixue allows enrollment from poor families for an admission fee of 2,000 cash, roughly 4 months of income for a low wage farmer, or 15 percent of monthly salary for a low official[105]
The Song army puts on a firework display for the emperor including a spectacle which opened with "a noise like thunder" and explosives that light up the night. Considered by some to be the first mention of gunpowder fireworks.[109]
Zhang Jue rebels in Ping Prefecture and defects to the Song dynasty but the Jin dynasty immediately retaliates and crushes his army; Zhang Jue is executed by the Song as reconciliation towards the Jin[117]
Jin dynasty invades Shaanxi but is repelled, in particular by a volley fire tactic implemented by general Wu Jie (吳 玠) and his younger brother Wu Lin (吳璘)[130]
Gunpowder is referred to specifically for its military applications for the first time and is known as "fire bomb medicine" rather than "fire medicine".[127]
Firecrackers using gunpowder are mentioned for the first time.[136]
Song and Jin agree to the Treaty of Shaoxing which stipulates that the Song must pay Jin an annual indemnity; the Huai River is settled as the boundary between the two states[144][141]
Emperor Xiaozong of Song creates a new office called the Policy Deliberation Hall (Yishi tang) to train his son Zhao Dun for his eventual accession[158]
Casual references to foot binding become more common; foot binding is no longer associated with dancing nor is the practice confined to entertainers[102]
Large bombs requiring several hundred men to hurl using trebuchets are employed by Mongols in the siege of Anfeng (modern Shouxian, Anhui Province).[192]
Issues of huizi to subsidize rising expenditures and declining revenues reach a value of 650,000,000 strings of cash, an increase by a factor of 25 over half a century[197][198]
Möngke Khan dies from dysentery or a wound inflicted by a Song trebuchet, forcing Mongol forces to withdraw from Song territory[210]
September
Kublai Khan's forces cross the Yangtze and lays siege to Ezhou, however he receives news of Möngke Khan's death and Ariq Böke's mobilization, forcing hm to withdraw and deal with his brother[211]
The History of Song describes a "fire-emitting lance" employing a pellet wad projectile which occludes the barrel. Some consider this to be the first bullet.[205][206]
The city of Qingzhou produces one to two thousand iron cased bomb shells a month and sends them in deliveries of ten to twenty thousand at a time to Xiangyang and Yingzhou.[212]
^Hartwell, Robert (March 1966). "Markets, Technology, and the Structure of Enterprise in the Development of the Eleventh-Century Chinese Iron and Steel Industry". The Journal of Economic History. 26 (1): 54. doi:10.1017/S0022050700061842. ISSN0022-0507. JSTOR2116001. S2CID154556274.
^Xu Ji 徐積 《詠蔡家婦》: 「但知勒四支,不知裹两足。」(translation: "knowing about arranging the four limbs, but not about binding her two feet); Su Shi 蘇軾 《菩薩蠻》:「塗香莫惜蓮承步,長愁羅襪凌波去;只見舞回風,都無行處踪。偷穿宮樣穩,並立雙趺困,纖妙說應難,須從掌上看。」
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