Song Emperor Taizu
“In the twelfth year of his reign, to regulate foreign trade, Song Emperor Taizu [972 c. e.] decided to appoint a superintendent of maritime trade in the southern port city of Guangzhou, and afterward other superintendents in the ports of Hangzhou and Mingzhou as well. The emperor then appointed another superintendent to oversee the activities of all Arab, Sumatran, Javanese, Bornean, Philippine, and mainland Southeast Asian barbarians whose trade passed through China. These maritime merchants, both Chinese and barbarian, would usually take from China the following goods: gold, silver, strings of coins, lead, tin, many-colored silk, and porcelain. They would usually bring into China spices and aromatics, rhinoceros horn, ivory, coral, embers, pearls, fine steel, sea-turtle leather, tortoise shell, gemstones, foreign cloth, ebony wood, and other such things”
History of the Song, official history of the Song dynasty, commissioned by the Mongol Chief
Minister of Emperor Shundi of the Yan (Mongol) dynasty, 1345
In your response, be sure to address all parts of the question. Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is NOT acceptable
Use the passage to answer all parts of the question that follows.
a) Identify ONE claim made in the passage about the policies of the Chinese rulers.
b) Identify ONE way the passage illustrates the economic development of China under the Song dynasty.
Sample Solution
a) One claim made in the passage about the policies of the Chinese rulers is that Emperor Taizu appointed superintendents to oversee foreign trade activities in several of China’s port cities. This shows his intention to regulate and manage relationships with non-Chinese people, as well as demonstrate his willingness to embrace commerce with foreign nations. (History Of The Song, n.d.)
b) One way the passage illustrates economic development under the Song dynasty is by describing what goods were typically being traded between China and other countries. The specific items listed such as gold , silver, strings of coins, lead, tin etc., illustrate a growing wealth within China since these commodities would have been valuable within international markets at this time (Zhang et al., 2017). Additionally ,the mention of spices and aromatics being brought into China from abroad suggests an increasingly sophisticated economy where goods previously unavailable can now be accessed due to greater exploration opportunities (Rawski & Xu , 2008).
This description further demonstrates how during this period Chinese traders had begun engaging in long-distance maritime trading networks which connected them with South East Asian states through open sea routes -further expanding their commercial reach even more(Schottenhammer 2020). All together these points suggest that there was significant economic growth occurring in Tang Dynasty during this time.
