Page "Song Dynasty" Paragraph 27

Due to China's enormous population growth and the body of its appointed scholar-officials being accepted in limited size ( about 20, 000 active officials during the Song period ), the larger scholarly gentry class would now take over grassroots affairs on the vast local level.

Excluding the scholar-officials in office, this elite social class consisted of exam candidates, examination degree-holders not yet assigned to an official post, local tutors, and retired officials.

These learned men, degree-holders, and local elites supervised local affairs and sponsored necessary facilities of local communities ; any local magistrate appointed to his office by the government relied upon the cooperation of the few or many local gentry elites in the area.

For example, the Song government — excluding the educational-reformist government under Emperor Huizong — spared little amount of state revenue to maintain prefectural and county schools ; instead, the bulk of the funds for schools was drawn from private financing.

This limited role of government officials was a departure from the earlier Tang Dynasty ( 618 – 907 ), when the government strictly regulated commercial markets and local affairs ; now the government withdrew heavily from regulating commerce and relied upon a mass of local gentry to perform necessary duties in local communities.