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The Song Dynasty () was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279 AD. It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms era, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue paper money and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy.
Between the 10th and 11th centuries, the population of China doubled in size. This growth came about through expanded rice cultivation in central and southern China, along with the production of abundant food surpluses. Within its borders, the Northern Song Dynasty had a population of some 100 million people.
The Song dynasty is divided into two distinct periods: the Northern Song and Southern Song. During the Northern Song (, 960–1127), the Song capital was in the northern city of Kaifeng and the dynasty controlled most of inner China. The Southern Song (, 1127–1279) refers to the period after the Song lost control of northern China to the Jin dynasty. During this time, the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze River and established their capital at Hangzhou. Although weakened, the Southern Song Dynasty built considerable naval strength to defend its waters, land borders, and conduct maritime missions abroad. To repel the Jin (and then the Mongols), the Song developed revolutionary new military technology enhanced by the use of gunpowder. In 1234, the Jin Dynasty was conquered by the Mongols, who subsequently took control of northern China and maintained uneasy relations with the Southern Song. After the death of the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, Mongke Khan, his successor Kublai Khan recalled the Mongol armies from the Middle East, and conquered the Song Dynasty in 1279. China was once again unified, but this time as part of the vast Mongol Empire.
The Song Dynasty was a culturally rich period in China for the arts, philosophy, and social life. Landscape art and portrait paintings were brought to new levels of maturity and complexity since the Tang Dynasty, and social elites gathered to view art, share their own, and make trades of precious artworks. Philosophers such as Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi reinvigorated Confucianism with new commentary, infused Buddhist ideals, and emphasis on new organization of classic texts that brought about the core doctrine of Neo-Confucianism. During the Song period, people enjoyed a vibrant social and domestic life. They enjoyed public festivals such as the Lantern Festival or Qingming Festival. There were entertainment quarters in the city, such as in Hangzhou, with a constant array of puppeteers, acrobats, storytellers, singers, prostitutes, and places to relax such as tea houses, restaurants, and organized banquets. They attended social clubs in large numbers, such as tea clubs, horse-loving clubs, poetry clubs, music clubs, etc. At home they enjoyed activities such as the xiangqi board game.