East Asia · Fragmentation, Song and the conquest dynasties
Northern Song
960–1127
The Northern Song (960–1127), founded by Zhao Kuangyin (Emperor Taizu), reunified most of China proper, capital Kaifeng. It curbed military governors, expanded the examination system and civil bureaucracy, and presided over a commercial and technological revolution (printing, gunpowder, the compass, paper money).
- Existed
- 960–1127
- Shown on the map
- AD 961–1027
- Peak area
- 2.8M km²
- Region
- East Asia
Overview
The Northern Song (960–1127), founded by Zhao Kuangyin (Emperor Taizu), reunified most of China proper, capital Kaifeng. It curbed military governors, expanded the examination system and civil bureaucracy, and presided over a commercial and technological revolution (printing, gunpowder, the compass, paper money). It faced the Liao and Western Xia, paying tribute for peace. It fell in the Jingkang Incident (1127), when the Jurchen Jin sacked Kaifeng and captured Emperors Huizong and Qinzong.
Common questions
- What was Northern Song?
- The Northern Song (960–1127), founded by Zhao Kuangyin (Emperor Taizu), reunified most of China proper, capital Kaifeng. It curbed military governors, expanded the examination system and civil bureaucracy, and presided over a commercial and technological revolution (printing, gunpowder, the compass, paper money).
- When did Northern Song exist?
- Northern Song existed 960–1127. On this map it is drawn AD 961–1027.
- How large was Northern Song?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Northern Song covered about 2.8 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Song dynasty en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_dynasty
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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