--- title: "The Song Dynasty (960–1279): History and Ceramics" url: https://realrareantiques.com/song-dynasty/ language: en description: "The Song Dynasty (960–1279): its founding, economy and inventions, the loss of the north, painting, and the Ru, Ding, Guan and celadon wares." alternates: zh-Hant: https://realrareantiques.com/zh-hant/song-dynasty/ zh-Hans: https://realrareantiques.com/zh-hans/song-dynasty/ --- 960–1279 # The Song Dynasty The Song never matched the military reach of the Tang, but for three centuries it was the richest, most populous and most inventive state in the world. For collectors it is above all the classic age of Chinese ceramics. This page covers the dynasty's history, its achievements and the wares it is known for. **Dates:** 960–1279 **Founded by:** Zhao Kuangyin (Emperor Taizu) **Capital:** Kaifeng, then Lin'an (Hangzhou) **Emperors:** 18 **Known for:** Landscape painting, printing, Neo-Confucianism **Key wares:** Ru, Guan, Ding, Jun, Longquan celadon, qingbai ## Founding and reunification *The Yunyan Pagoda at Tiger Hill, Suzhou, completed in 961, when Suzhou still belonged to the kingdom of Wuyue.* After the fall of the [Tang](https://realrareantiques.com/tang-dynasty/) in 907, northern China passed through five short-lived dynasties while the south split into a series of regional kingdoms. In 960 Zhao Kuangyin, commander of the palace army of the Later Zhou, was proclaimed emperor by his troops at Chenqiao, near the capital Kaifeng. The young Zhou emperor abdicated, and Zhao became the first Song ruler, [Emperor Taizu](https://realrareantiques.com/song-dynasty-emperors/emperor-taizu/). Having come to power through a military coup, Taizu made sure no general could repeat it. He persuaded his senior commanders to retire with generous rewards, rotated officers between posts, and placed the army under civil officials. Over the next two decades he and his brother, Emperor Taizong, absorbed the southern kingdoms. The northern frontier, however, stayed in the hands of the Khitan Liao state and later the Tangut Xi Xia. ## Scholars, examinations and a growing population The Song was governed by scholar-officials. The civil service examinations, which had existed since the Sui, were greatly expanded, and most senior officials now owed their posts to success in them rather than to family background. This learned class revived Confucian thought. Philosophers culminating in Zhu Xi (1130–1200) combined the classics with ideas about the underlying order of the universe, creating what Western scholars call Neo-Confucianism. His commentaries later became the basis of the examinations for centuries. Farming changed too. Early-ripening rice from Champa, in present-day Vietnam, was spread by the government in the early eleventh century and allowed two harvests a year in the south. A census of 1102 recorded about 20 million households, and historians estimate the population passed 100 million. ## Cities, trade and invention *A hoard of bronze cash coins in the lower part of a broken jar.* Kaifeng, the Northern Song capital, was a crowded commercial city of perhaps a million people, with markets and entertainment quarters open late into the night. Iron production grew sharply, fuelled in part by coal. Commerce outgrew coinage. Merchants in Sichuan used paper certificates of deposit, and in 1024 the government began issuing the *jiaozi*, one of the first government-backed paper currencies. Printing spread widely, and in the 1040s a commoner named Bi Sheng made movable type from fired clay. The scholar Shen Kuo recorded his method, along with an early description of the magnetic needle compass. A military manual of 1044 contains some of the earliest known formulas for gunpowder. Seaborne trade flourished through ports such as Guangzhou and Quanzhou, where communities of Arab, Persian and other foreign merchants settled. Silk and ceramics were shipped across Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. ## The loss of the north In the early twelfth century the Jurchen people of Manchuria rose against the Liao and founded their own Jin dynasty in 1115. The Song allied with them to recover lost northern territory, but its own campaigns went badly. Once the Liao had fallen in 1125, the Jin turned on the Song. Jin armies took Kaifeng, and in 1127 they carried off the retired [Emperor Huizong](https://realrareantiques.com/song-dynasty-emperors/huizong-emperor/), his son Emperor Qinzong and thousands of members of the court. This disaster is known as the Jingkang Incident. Huizong's son Zhao Gou escaped and was enthroned in 1127 as [Emperor Gaozong](https://realrareantiques.com/song-dynasty-emperors/emperor-gaozong/), beginning the Southern Song. After years of retreat he settled the court at Lin'an, present-day Hangzhou, formally named the capital in 1138. Peace with the Jin in 1141 fixed the border along the Huai River and required the Song to pay an annual tribute. The south was fertile and well connected by rivers and sea, and the Southern Song economy remained strong despite the loss of the north. ## Painting, poetry and learning *A moulded ceramic votive plaque with a seated Buddhist figure.* Song painters raised landscape to the highest form of Chinese painting. Northern Song masters such as Li Cheng, Fan Kuan and Guo Xi painted vast, monumental mountain scenes. In the Southern Song, court painters such as Ma Yuan and Xia Gui preferred intimate compositions with large areas of mist and empty space. Emperor Huizong was himself a gifted painter and calligrapher who gathered a great imperial collection, and his taste shaped the court arts, including ceramics. In literature, Ouyang Xiu championed a plain, classical prose style, and Su Shi excelled as poet, calligrapher and painter. The *ci*, poems written to existing tunes, reached its peak with writers such as Su Shi and Li Qingzhao. Sima Guang completed his great chronicle of Chinese history, the *Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government*, in 1084. Buddhism remained a living faith, and brick and timber pagodas of the period still stand across China. ## Song ceramics *The Song ewer in our collection, with a tall plain neck, curved spout and loop handle.* Song taste favoured simple, refined shapes and subtle monochrome glazes, and Song wares are the benchmark against which later Chinese ceramics were judged. Later writers named Ru, Guan, Ge, Jun and Ding as the five great wares of the period. **Ding** ware from Hebei is a thin ivory-white porcelain, often carved or moulded, and from the late Northern Song often fired upside down so the rim is left unglazed. **Ru** ware, made for the Northern Song court, has a soft bluish-grey glaze with fine crackle and is extremely rare. **Jun** ware has a thick, opalescent blue glaze, sometimes splashed with purple from copper. In the south, the Southern Song official **Guan** kilns near Hangzhou made thickly glazed, crackled wares on a dark body. The **Longquan** kilns of Zhejiang produced celadons with a deep jade-green glaze that were exported across Asia. At Jingdezhen, potters made **qingbai**, a thin white porcelain under a pale blue-tinged glaze that pools in carved decoration. Plainer forms were made too, such as the [qingbai ewer](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/song-dynasty-ewer-with-a-pale-glaze/) in our collection, with its tall undecorated neck. Popular wares were just as inventive: Cizhou stonewares painted in black on white slip, Yaozhou celadons with crisp carving, and the dark tea bowls of Jian and Jizhou with streaked or "hare's fur" glazes. ## How Song wares are dated *A celadon plate with a fluted rim and a moulded floral centre.* Song ceramics are dated by comparing body, glaze, form and firing method with excavated kiln sites and tomb finds. The underside tells a great deal: how the foot is cut, what the exposed body looks like, and the marks left by kiln supports. Ru ware, for example, was fired on tiny spurs that leave small oval scars on the base. Song pieces were admired and copied long after the dynasty ended. The imperial kilns of the Ming and especially the Qing produced deliberate imitations of Ru, Guan and Ge, and modern copies of all the major wares are common. A convincing glaze colour alone proves little; a genuine piece should be consistent in every respect. You can browse the pieces we currently hold in our [Song dynasty porcelain](https://realrareantiques.com/product-category/antique-chinese-porcelain/song-dynasty-porcelain/) collection. ## The Mongol conquest and legacy The Mongols destroyed the Xi Xia and then, in 1234 and with Song help, the Jin. The Southern Song now faced the Mongols directly. Under Kublai Khan the decisive campaign began with the siege of Xiangyang on the Han River, which held out from 1268 until 1273 and fell only after counterweight trebuchets built by engineers from western Asia were brought in. Mongol armies then crossed the Yangzi. In 1276 Lin'an surrendered, and the child Emperor Gong was taken north with the empress dowager. Loyalists fought on in the south in the name of two young princes. In 1279 their fleet was destroyed at Yamen, in the Pearl River delta, and the last emperor, the child [Emperor Bing](https://realrareantiques.com/song-dynasty-emperors/emperor-bing/), died in the sea. The [Yuan dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/yuan-dynasty/) now ruled all of China. The Song's legacy is enormous: its approach to government, its Neo-Confucian thought, its painting and its ceramics set standards that later dynasties looked back to. **Looking for a piece from this period?** Ask for the price or more photographs; we reply personally within two business days. [Ask about a piece](https://realrareantiques.com/contact-us/)[Browse the collection](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/) ## Pieces from this period - Song Dynasty Porcelain [Ewer with a Pale Glaze and a Ridged Shoulder, Song Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/song-dynasty-ewer-with-a-pale-glaze/)Song DynastyPrice on request - Song Dynasty Porcelain [Celadon Vase with Two Loop Handles and Carved Lotus, Song Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/antique-song-dynasty-celadon-vase-elephant-shaped-handles/)Song DynastyPrice on request - Song Dynasty Porcelain [Celadon Jar with a Fluted Melon-Shaped Body, Song Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/antique-chinese-song-dynasty-celadon-jar/)Song DynastyPrice on request - Song Dynasty Porcelain [Celadon Vase with Carved Peony Medallions, Song to Yuan Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/v-rare-antique-chinese-porcelain-vase-song-yuan-dynasty/)Song to YuanPrice on request - Sold Song Dynasty Porcelain [Celadon Plate with a Fluted Well and Carved Flower, Song Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/song-dynasty-antique-celadon-plate/)Song DynastySold - Sold Antique Chinese Porcelain [Celadon Plate with a Moulded Qilin among Flowers, Song Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/antique-chinese-celadon-plate-song-dynasty-960-1279-a-d/)Song DynastySold - Sold Antique Chinese Porcelain [Large Celadon Vase with Carved Peonies, Song Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/antique-chinese-porcelain-vase-song-dynasty-celadon-glaze/)Song DynastySold