Song Dynasty Essay

The Song Dynasty was a time period known for its unification of most of China under the military general Zhao Kunangyin. As Leader of the Song Dynasty he would put an end to the five separated dynasties and reunite them all. This Dynasty lasted from 960 to 1279 and was consisted of two sections, the Northern Song and the Southern song regions. This Dynasty had a major change at the beginning, “The regional governors of the Tang Dynasty, had many generals who exercised too much power. Zhao’s Generals agreed to retire, setting an important precedent” (Hansen and Curtis 319). This set up the role for power to be more within the grasps of the people, rather than military figures. It would also set up the need for reformers to reach out to the people

The Song Dynasty was a time for China’s lower class to change the cycle of wealth and reform the current land system. Within Sources of Chinese Traditions by William Theodore De Bary, Su Hsun’s audience is going to be the poorer classes, and for those seeking to put an end to the large land owning individuals. The reason for these reforms is the need to give the land back to the lower class in order for them to make a living for themselves. Those who work for the rich families do the cultivating and the harvesting and yet only get to keep half of what they all produce. The other half then goes to the rich families, who own the land, allowing them to gain even more wealth. The lower class workers are just being able to get by with the food they obtain without starving themselves to death. Su Hsun explains how if the old way of the well field system was set back into place then the rich would not be able to obtain so much land and only those who cultivate and harvest would produce food, making it an even match for all (Theodore 77). This would also make those people less resentful for having to pay taxes now that they own land