Urban Literature and the Fall of the Southern Song

Urban Development During The Southern Song

During the late Northern Song there was a tremendous growth of cities, with one city - Bianliang (Kaifeng) - with a population of one million people, about 30 cities had a population of 40,000 - 100,000 or more each, sixty cities with a population of around 15,000, and approximately 400 county capitals with populations ranging from 4,000 to 5,000 each. A conservative estimate of 5% of China's total population were living in urban environments. The capital of Southern Song, Hangzhou, had a population of 1,500,000. Other cities, especially those port cities were equally important due to trade.(533)

Although most of the population resided within urban areas, their relationship with rural life was still crucial. Often, Chinese cities contained elements of rural life and there may be small urban groupings in outlying areas. People were free to travel as they wished between these two worlds. Everyone lived in accordance with the agrarian lunar calendar, which set the festivals and holidays throughout the year. (534) Of those, the major festivals were New Year, The Clear And Bright (Qingming), which occurred on the third day of the third month for people to sweep graves of their ancestors and relatives, the Double Fifth (Duanwu), when boat races were held, The Ghost Festival, when the Buddhist and Daoist temples performed services for the ghosts on the fifteen of the seventh month, and so on. On these major holidays, special foods were prepared and specific activities were carried out. People would come from the countryside to sell the special foods and necessary products for celebration. This pattern of openness between urban and rural areas, established during Song times, continued into subsequent dynasties. (534)

Urban Life In Literature

The growth and importance of cities is reflected in the works of lyrics and poems:

A supreme spot in the southeast,

The metropolis in all of the Wu region,
Qiantang has flourished from old.
Misty Willows and painted bridges,
Green curtains and windscreens -
There are a hundred thousand households of all sizes.
....
In the Markets, pearls are displayed,
Houses brimming with silks,

Vying with each other for extravagance.
****

Wugui's a romantic place -
The houses are exquisite,
High and low, built by water's edge and on hilltop;
With jade terraces and crimson gates,
This could be Fairy Hill.
With a myriad wells, a thousand alleys, and a rich populace,
It surpasses all thirteen provinces.
Everywhere you see black-browed girls in painted boats,

And rouged and powdered women in red mansions.
- Liu Yong

(Qiantang was the old name of Hangzhou, and Wugui refers to the city of Suzhou.) These pieces by Liu Yong describe the cities as flourishing, grandiose places of irresistible attraction. During the Southern Song, "urban life became far more extravagant and ostentatious." (535) Some people were critical of the decadent behavior witnessed around them, of course, but generally the poetry of the day reflected a beautiful, dreamlike quality:

Hills beyond hills, and mansions beyond mansions,

Singing and dancing on West Lake - when will they ever end?
The warm breeze fumes revelers till they are drunk,

Simply taking Hangzhou as the capital Bianliang.
- Lin Sheng

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