THE SONG DYNASTY [summary here; full account here, map below here]
Note: The green, or for some titles red, text is the original Wikipedia timeline, frequently corrected by me for grammar and spelling errors. The blue text is my gradual development of the timeline into a fuller history and commentary (with follow-up notes in amber). Because I am interested in the positives of human history, and can only find negatives in most of the politics, I have reduced most of the political history from green to grey, so it is still there, and you are obviously free to follow the links and find out more, but I honestly cannot imagine why you would want to.
961 CE: The Huqiu Tower was built
[2nd largest leaning tower in the world; info here, oil
painting of it here]
963 CE: The Song dynasty conquered and annexed Jingnan
965 CE: 23 February: The Later Shu emperor Meng Chang surrendered to the
Song army at his capital Chengdu
969 CE: 12 March: Muzong was murdered by his servants on a hunting trip [who
was he? there is a Muzong under 820 CE, emperor of the Tang dynasty, died 824
CE, so this can’t be him]
13 March: Shizong's son Jingzong became emperor of the Liao dynasty
971 CE: Southern Han was conquered and annexed by the Song dynasty
974 CE: Song troops constructed a floating pontoon bridge across the
Yangtze River in order to secure supply lines while fighting against the
Southern Tang [standard military strategy; Arik Sharon
did the same over the Suez Canal in the 1973 Yom Kippur War]
976 CE: 1 January: Song forces conquered and annexed Southern Tang
14 November: Taizu died [see 960 CE; once again this is confusing because we are learning about five different histories concurrently, each a different part of China, but without any clarification of which on each occasion]
15 November: Taizu's brother Taizong became emperor of the Song dynasty
The Yuelu Academy was founded [where? and what was it? now the Hunan Institute of Higher Learning: click here]
977 CE: The pagoda of the Longhua Temple was built. [where? Shanghai; click here]
978 CE: The Taiping Guangji was completed [what was it? "a large collection of stories about supernatural events throughout ancient history", here]
The Wuyue king Qian Chu surrendered his territory to Taizong
979 CE: The Northern Han emperor
Liu Jiyuan surrendered to Song [which tells me again
that we aren’t doing the whole of Chinese history; as if we thought we were
doing British history, but Wales, Scotland and Ireland get mentioned when they
have to be, on occasions like this one, and this is in fact centralised
propaganda, and not full history at all; there have been repeated hints of
this, but now we have it unequivocally]
981 CE: Battle of Bạch Đằng: A Song naval invasion of the Early Lê
dynasty via the Bạch Đằng River was aborted after the land invasion was stalled
982 CE: 13 October: Jingzong died
14 October: Jingzong's young son Shengzong of Liao became emperor, with his widow Empress Xiao Yanyan acting as regent
983 CE: The Taiping Yulan was
completed [what was it? goes with the Taiping Guangji, above: click here]
984 CE: Qiao Weiyo invented the canal pound lock [needs explaining in detail; is this the same thing we still use on locks today? apparently it is: click here for the pound lock, here for a load of old Bow Locks]
986 CE: The Wenyuan Yinghua was completed [what was it? a major anthology of Chinese literature: click here for the PhD explanation; is this the same book by a different dialect of Chinese?]
990 CE: Fan Kuan was born [who was he? JMW Turner with a Bei-Jing accent: click here]. The painting left is titled "Autumn Forests"
993 CE: November: First conflict in the Goryeo–Khitan War: Liao forces
invaded Goryeo
997 CE: The Longkan Shoujian was completed [what was it? another dictionary, but a rather different type of dictionary "with words arranged in mixed system of character radicals and phonetic value": click here]
8 May:
Taizong
died. He was succeeded by his son Zhenzong
1000 CE: The Chinese first used
coke in place of charcoal for blast furnaces [first
use, or 1st recorded use? and what is the difference anyway? click here]
1005 CE: Song signed the Chanyuan Treaty, under which it agreed to
pay Liao an annual tribute in silk and silver
1008 CE: The Guangyun was completed [what was it? or rather: in what way was this different from the Longkan Shoujian, above. Both focus on rhyme... click here]
1010 CE: Second conflict in the Goryeo–Khitan War: Liao captured the Goryeo general Kang Cho and burned the capital Kaesong
An atlas of China was completed [it would be very interesting to see this, in relation to my comment under 979 CE]
1013 CE: Cefu Yuangui was completed [what was it? an encyclopedia this time, rather than a dictionary: click here]
1018 CE: Third conflict in the Goryeo–Khitan War: Liao invaded Goryeo
Fascinating set of alternate listings here, these past several (remember I am using the Wikipedia timeline throughout, leaving out nothing, adding nothing but commentary and detail): the houyhnhnm choir behind the rood screen singing dictionaries and encyclopedia and painted landscapes and poetry... the yobs on the terrorists (sorry, that should have read “terraces”) chanting “We Are The Super-Id”, and heading straight for the yahoos on the other terrace. Simultaneous and concurrent: two human worlds, one creating, the other destroying, as it always has been.
1019 CE: 10 March: Battle of Kuju: Goryeo forces decisively defeated a
retreating Liao army at Kuju, near modern Kusong
1022 CE: 23 March: Zhenzong died
24 March: Zhenzong's son Renzong became emperor of the Song dynasty
1031 CE: 25 June: Shengzong died. He was succeeded by his son Xingzong
of Liao
1037 CE: The Jiyun was published
[what was it? yet another dictionary based on rhyme-groups;
click here]
1038 CE: 10 November: The Tangut chieftain Jingzong declared himself emperor of Western Xia
1041 CE: Bi Sheng invented moveable
type [is this the precursor of the Gutenberg Press? see 1298 CE and
click here for
the man, here for
the history]
1043 CE: Ouyang Xiu and the vice
chancellor Fan Zhongyan drafted the Qingli Reforms in Song [I
wonder if anyone has ever thought of setting the French Civic Codes or the 1886
Home Rule Bill? Eflat for the former, Csharp for the latter would be my
suggestion... oh, sorry, did I misunderstand: Song is a place... but that now
suggests that all the dynasties may have been named for places, and logically
that would be their home-base and serve as capital in their time: see my note
to 1063 CE, below - need to follow this up with research]
1044 CE: The Wujing Zongyao was
completed [what was it? “The Essentials of the Military Arts”, so you can
look it up for yourself if you want to know more]
1045 CE: The Lingxiao Pagoda was completed [where was it? west of the Xinglong Temple in Zhengding, Hebei Province, China: click here]
1048 CE: 19 January: Jingzong died. He was succeeded by his infant son
Yizong of Western Xia
1049 CE: The Iron Pagoda was
completed [where was it? click here]
all Chinese pagodas, like the spires of churches and the minarets of mosques, like all modern-secular skyscrapers (the Shard, Freedom Tower, et al), are simply male willies pointed into the womb of the sky, to demonstrate the establishment of the Earth by the Creator-god AlphaMale, the development of the Earth under the supervision of the Sustainer-god SuperId, and the rule of Earth by the demi-god Man. They are all pretty much alike and I have therefore not felt the necessity of posting pictures every time. The Iron Pagoda, however, is so unusually splendid as an exampler of the above statement...
1055 CE: The Liaodi Pagoda was
completed [where was it? click here]
28 August: Xingzong died. He was succeeded by his son Daozong of Liao
1056 CE: The Pagoda of Fogong Temple was completed [where was it? click here]
1060 CE: Ouyang Xiu completed the New Book of Tang [what was it? see 744 CE for Li Bai, who started it; then click here for the book; for Ouyang Xiu click here and here]
1063 CE: 30 April: Renzong died [I
think we’ve been in Xia for the last few entries but just switched back to
Song]
1 May:
Yingzong
became emperor of the Song dynasty
The Pizhi Pagoda was completed [where? I have a feeling that identifying the locations of these pagodas will tell us where the capital was, and thereby redraw the map of clerical and possibly secular power in China: the switch of clerical centrality from Winchester Abbey to Westminster Abbey seems to me a good English equivalent, or in the secular realm the moving of the palace from Kingston-upon-Thames to Kingsbury to Tower Hill to Richmond to Greenwich to Whitehall and finally to Westminster where it is now]
1067 CE: Yizong died. He was succeeded by his young son Huizong of
Western Xia
25 January: Yingzong died. He was succeeded by his son Shenzong of Song [I have thought this many times, but not bothered to mention it until now: but it does seem that every time the Wikipedia timeline tells us the successor was "young", it is immediately followed - just days sometimes, weeks at most - by that person's death: pure coincidence, and natural causes, obviously]
1068 CE: The dry dock was first used in China [as
opposed to “first used in the world”; the layout of the docks at Carthage, for
example, and the nature of the geography of Biblical Tsur and especially
Tsidon, suggest that the dry-dock had been around fully two thousand years: hypothesis
fingo! but hypothesis confirmatus here and here]
1069 CE: The Song chancellor Wang Anshi ordered an extensive government reform including the introduction of the baojia system of community-based law enforcement [would that include Fanshen? need an explanation of baojia: click here]
1070 CE The Song ambassador Su
Song published the Bencao Tujing [which is what? first
see 657 and 1587 CE for other Materia Medica; then click here for
this one; then read my novel "The Persian Fire" which shows the status of Arab-Moslem medicine at exactly the same epoch, and realise yet again just how far behind Europe had become because first the Romans destroyed the Greeks, and then Christians took over Rome]. And his name has come up before, for other significant scientific achievements, particularly the "Shuiyun Yixiang Tai", the "Water-Powered Armillary Sphere and Celestial Globe Tower," which was the world's first hydromechanical astronomical clock tower.
1072 CE: Guo Xi painted Early Spring [is it still seeable? yes, here]
1075 CE: The Song diplomat Shen
Kuo used court archives to reject Daozong's territorial claims [see my
note at 979 CE and also Henry V:1:2:10-101]
1076 CE: Wang resigned [see 1069 CE]
1077 CE: Su was sent on a mission
to Liao [who was he, and for what? see 1070 CE]
1080 CE: Shen was appointed to
defend Yan'an [why him? by whom? against what? see the next item!]
1081
CE: A
Song army was dealt some sixty thousand casualties defending Yan'an against an
attempted invasion of Song by Western Xia forces
Su published a 200-volume work on Song-Liao relations [how many pages does it take to make a volume?]
1084 CE: Sima Guang completed the
Zizhi Tongjian [which is what? click here, but how can we know if
it is “authentic” or “pseudo”?]
1084 CE: Li Qingzhao was born [who is she? click here and
add her to Woman-Blindness]
1085 CE: 1 April: Shenzong died. He was succeeded by his young son
Zhezong, with his widow Empress Xiang acting as regent
Xiang ousted the court faction affiliated with Wang's reforms at Sima's urging
1086 CE: Huizong died; Huizong's son
Chongzong became emperor of Western Xia [again we have moved from one kingdom to another without being told]
1088 CE: [Kuo] Shen published the
Dream Pool Essays [which are what? science: here, but
better here]
1090 CE: The earliest known description of the mechanical belt appeared [what is that? how was it powered? click here for the former; I can find nothing to explain the latter: wind perhaps? a hand turning a lever? maybe the same " chain-drive mechanism" that was "added to a water-powered clock" for the next item, below]
1094 CE: Su completed a clock tower in Kaifeng [more detail needed, on the clock and on the location: here]
The Dongpo Academy was established on Hainan [which
is what? a university? and if so, teaching what? Confucianism? Shinto? Buddhism
revived? Science? click here and here]
1100 CE: 23 February: Zhezong died. He was succeeded by his younger brother Huizong of Song
1101 CE: 12 February: Daozong was murdered. He was succeeded by his grandson Emperor Tianzuo of Liao [and again, the names are different, but the dates overlap, so these have to be two kings of two different kingdoms: why are we not told which?]
1103 CE: The Yingzao Fashi was published [which is what? click here - and then try to imagine what a book on architecture by someone in Norman England at that exact epoch would have contained: and Norman architecture was advanced and sophisticated, by European standards!]
1107 CE: Mi Fu died [who
was he? poet and painter: click here and here]
1111 CE: The Donglin Academy was founded [same question as in 1094; but note that the original was not where the present one is located: click here]
1115 CE: 28 January: The Wanyan chieftain Emperor Taizu of Jin declared himself emperor of the Jin dynasty [but the Jin dynasty ruled from 266-420 CE; is this an error by the timeline-writer, or was Taizo trying to revive it like Ach-Mousa after the Hyksos? or did this now operate in one part of China and the Song in another: kings of England and of Scotland at the same time, yet still we historicise it as Great Britain?]
August: Taizu conquered the Liao city of Huanglongfu [it does sound like we are in a
fairly perpetual state of civil war]
1119 CE: Zhu Yu published the Pingzhou Table Talks [which is what? it sounds like John Harrison’s Longitude, but most-of-a-millennium earlier: click here]
1120 CE: The pagoda of Tianning
Temple was completed [same question as all these
buildings: where especially, but on this occasion, now that I have read about
it, why did it take so long to complete? click here for
the question, here for
the answer]
1123: 19 September: Taizu died [again
we have to wonder why they don’t use numbers; this should be Taizu II – see 960
CE on the previous page, or 976 CE on this one]
27 September: Taizu's brother Taizong became emperor of the Jin
dynasty
1124 CE: The Liao general Yelü Dashi established the Khitan Qara
Khitai in the Liao northwest [which is what? have we just
added a king of Wales to those of England and Scotland: click here]
1125 CE: 26 March: Jin dynasty forces captured Tianzuo [it rerally does sound like we
are in a seriously multi-party civil war]
November: Jin-Song Wars: The Jin army invaded Song [why couldn’t the writer tell
us this from the outset: lists of facts without explanation are of no use
whatsoever to anybody!]
1126 CE: 18 January: Huizong abdicated in favour of his son Qinzong
19 January: Qinzong became emperor of the Song dynasty
1127 CE: 9 January: Jingkang Incident: The Song capital Kaifeng fell to a
Jin siege. Huizong and Qinzong were captured with much of their court
12 June: Huizong's son Gaozong became emperor of the Song dynasty at
Lin'an City [where
were they based before this? is he now ruling by name only, and in exile; have
the Jin taken power? and if so, why have they not restored the dynastic name?]
1132 CE: Song established a standing navy headquartered at Dinghai in
modern Dinghai District
A fire destroyed some thirteen thousand homes in the Song capital Lin'an City
1135 CE: The Song general Yue Fei defeated the bandit Yang Yao at
Dongting Lake
9 February: Taizong died
10 February: Xizong of Jin became emperor of the Jin dynasty [so we are conveying two (? more?) separate histories simultaneously at this point of the timeline, and both are China]
1139 CE: Chongzong died [who was he? the
inference of the next entry is that he was the Song emperor; but the last name
we were given was Gaozong in 1126, so he must have died and been succeeded by
Chongzon, but the writer of this timeline skipped or missed it]
Chongzong's son Renzong
became emperor of Western Xia [or
maybe this isn’t Song, but Xia is yet another simultaneous history we are being
given: as if northern Ireland just got added to our England-Wales-Scotland
complexity, but without bothering to tell us]
1141 CE: Song signed the Treaty of Shaoxing, under which it
relinquished all claims to its former territories north of the Huai River, and agreed
to pay Jin an annual tribute in silk and silver
[confirmation that China is divided into multiple parts, and we
are mostly only being given the history of whatever the centre happens to be at
the time]
1142 CE: 27 January: Yue was executed on false charges of treason spurred
by the Song chancellor Qin Hui [who was he? “false
charges” is another of those terms that historians should only use if they are
also presenting the evidence; replacing “false” with “alleged” is the easiest
way to deal with this when the evidence or the space is lacking]
1150 CE: 9 January: Xizong was murdered in a coup by Wanyan Liang, who
succeeded him as emperor of Jin
00000000000000000000000000000000%01153 CE: The Jin capital was moved from Huining Prefecture to Zhongdu
1157 CE: The Jin capital was moved
to Kaifeng
[the last dozen and more entries need a shared map to locate and
explain them: this is the best I can find ("best" is not a criticism of the map, merely a noting that the map is dated 1120, and much has changed in the 37 years since then): use the link to enlarge it]
1161 CE: 27 October: Wanyan Liang's cousin Shizong was declared Emperor of
Jin in the capital Kaifeng
16 November: Battle of Tangdao: The Jin navy suffered heavy losses in an
attempted invasion of Song near the Shandong Peninsula
27 November: Battle of Caishi: Jin forces suffered as many as four
thousand casualties at the hands of the Song dynasty in a naval battle which
stalled their invasion across the Yangtze
15 December: Wanyan Liang was assassinated by one of his officers near
the Yangtze battlefront
The Yunjing was compiled [which is what? yet another dictionary: and other than Hebrew, was there any other people who investigated language through so many lenses, at such an early stage of human development? click here for this one, but go back to all the dictionaries etc listed above]
1162 CE: 24 July: Gaozong abdicated in favour of Xiaozong of Song
The Beisi Pagoda was completed [click here and here]
1164 CE: Song and Jin concluded the Treaty of Longxing [thereby ending the civil war?]
1165 CE: The Liuhe Pagoda was completed [click here]
1179 CE: Zhu Xi rebuilt the White Deer Grotto Academy [why did it need rebuilding? and what was it? click here]
1189 CE: 20 January: Shizong died. He was succeeded by his grandson Zhangzong of Jin
18 February: Xiaozong abdicated in favour of his son Guangzong [unless
Changzong and Xiaozong are the same person, this is two different lands, each
with its own ruler: the evidence in the listings below confirms two, not one]
The Chengling Pagoda was built [and everything you could want to know about pagodas, let alone just this one, can be found here]
1193 CE: Renzong died
Renzong's son Huanzong became emperor of Western Xia
1194 CE: 24 July: Guangzong was forced to abdicate in favour of his son
Ningzong
1206 CE: Huanzong was overthrown in a coup
Xiangzong became emperor of Western Xia
1208 CE: 29 December: Zhangzong died. He was succeeded by his brother Wanyan
Yongji [and it
really isn’t helpful when the spelling of a person’s name is changed in
consecutive sentences. I am presuming this is the same Xiangzong. But then we
have what seems to be a third rendition in the next paragraph]
1211 CE: Emperor Shenzong of Western Xia deposed and replaced
Xiangzong as emperor of Western Xia [see my
note above]
August: Battle of Yehuling: The army of the Mongol Empire captured or killed over four hundred thousand Jin soldiers defending an important mountain pass at Zhangjiakou
1213 CE: 11 September: Wanyan Yongji was assassinated
22 September: Xuanzong became emperor of the Jin dynasty
1214 CE: The Jin dynasty
signed a treaty under which it became a vassal state paying tribute to the
Mongol Empire [but as
far as I can tell it stayed semi-autonomous until 1269, when Kublai Khan
finished the take-over and set up the Yuan Dynasty]
1215 CE: 1 June: Battle of Zhongdu: Mongol forces breached the walls of
Zhongdu and massacred its inhabitants
1217 CE: Jin-Song Wars: The Jin dynasty attacked the Song dynasty and
were defeated on their first campaign, but on their second campaign later in
the year captured Xihezhou
1223 CE: Shenzong abdicated in favour of his son Xianzong of Western
Xia
1224 CE: 14 January: Xuanzong died
15 January: Xuanzong's son Aizong of Jin became emperor of the Jin
dynasty
17 September: Ningzong died. He was succeeded as Emperor by Lizong
1226 CE: Xianzong died. Mozhu of Western Xia became
emperor of Western Xia
1227 CE: 18 August: The Mongol
khagan Genghis Khan died [we need to hear more about him
and just how far he had gotten on his western voyage: start here]
Mozhu surrendered to the
Mongol Empire during the siege of the Western Xia capital Zhongxing
1233 CE: 26 February: Mongol siege of Kaifeng: The Jin general in charge of
the defense of the capital Kaifeng surrendered to the besieging Mongol army.
Aizong had fled during the siege; his family members still in the city were
executed
1234 CE: 9 February: Siege of Caizhou: Aizong passed the throne to his
general Emperor Mo of Jin and hanged himself in the face of a Mongol siege of
Caizhou. The Mongols breached the city
10 February: Siege of Caizhou: Mo died fighting the Mongols at Caizhou
1247 CE: Qin Jiushao wrote the Mathematical Treatise in Nine Sections [more detail needed: click here]
1259 CE: 11 August: The Mongol khagan Möngke Khan died during a siege of Diaoyu Fortress
1260 CE: Toluid Civil War: Möngke's brother Ariq Böke declared
himself khagan of the Mongol Empire
5 May:
Toluid
Civil War: Kublai Khan, brother to Möngke and to Ariq Böke, was crowned khagan
of the Mongol Empire [are Khan and Khagan actually
the same word, just differently pronounced in their eastern and western
dialects? or at least the same root]
Kublai appointed the
Sakya lama Drogön Chögyal Phagpa Imperial Preceptor [which
means what? answer here]
“Yang Hui (楊輝, c.
1238 – 1298) was a Chinese mathematician and writer during the Song dynasty. He
studied magic squares and magic circles, the binomial theorem, quadratic
equations, as well as Yang Hui’s triangle (known in Europe as Pascal’s
triangle). Yang also wrote geometric proofs, and was known for his ability to
manipulate decimal fractions.” That’s from here and it’s well worth
exploring the website for its brief bios but extensive timeline of mathematics.
And then there is Sierpiński’s version [click here for it]
1264 CE: 16 November: Lizong died. He was succeeded by his nephew Duzong
1265 CE: Mongol conquest of the
Song dynasty: The Mongol Empire invaded Song
1267 CE: Battle of Xiangyang: Kublai ordered his general Aju to take
Xiangyang
1270 CE: Sambyeolcho Rebellion: The Sambyeolcho rebelled against
Wonjong of Goryeo, the Mongol-allied king of Goryeo
1271 CE: Marco Polo left Venice [and how sad that this timeline-writer is so Eurocentric and so Christo-centric that Marco Polo gets a mention, but nothing on Benjamin of Tudela and nothing on ibn-Battuta)
Kublai declared himself emperor of the Yuan dynasty [click here]
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