In the famous long scroll Along the River During the Qingming Festival painted by Zhang Zeduan ( 1085 – 1145 AD ) during the Song Dynasty ( 960 – 1297 AD ), a suanpan is clearly seen lying beside an account book and doctor's prescriptions on the counter of an apothecary's ( Feibao ).

Early descriptions of the production process and glazing techniques used for bricks can be found in the Song Dynasty carpenter's manual Yingzao Fashi, published in 1103 by the government official Li Jie, who was put in charge of overseeing public works for the central government's construction agency.

Native Chinese astronomy flourished during the Song Dynasty, and during the Yuan Dynasty became increasingly influenced by medieval Islamic astronomy.

References to cannibalizing the enemy has also been seen in poetry written in the Song Dynasty, ( for example, in Man Jiang Hong ) although the cannibalizing is perhaps poetic symbolism, expressing hatred towards the enemy.

This economic phenomenon was a slow and gradual process that took place from the late Tang Dynasty ( 618 – 907 ) into the Song Dynasty ( 960 – 1279 ).

In the 10th century, the Song Dynasty government began circulating these notes amongst the traders in their monopolized salt industry.

Song Dynasty Jiaozi, the world's earliest paper money

The Song Dynasty was the first to issue generally circulating paper currency, while the Yuan Dynasty was the first to use notes as the predominant circulating medium.

Capitals: of the Song Dynasty, Kaifeng and Lin ' an ; of the Liao Dynasty, Shangjing, Nanjing, and Tokmok ; of the Jin Dynasty, Shangjing, Zhongdu, and Kaifeng ; of the Western Xia Dynasty, Yinchuan

In 960, the Song Dynasty gained power over most of China and established its capital in Kaifeng ( later known as Bianjing ), starting a period of economic prosperity, while the Khitan Liao Dynasty ruled over Manchuria, present-day Mongolia, and parts of Northern China.

The Jin Dynasty took power over northern China and Kaifeng from the Song Dynasty, which moved its capital to Hangzhou ( 杭州 ).

The Southern Song Dynasty also suffered the humiliation of having to acknowledge the Jin Dynasty as formal overlords.

In the ensuing years, China was divided between the Song Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty and the Tangut Western Xia.

This included the use of gunpowder weapons, which played a large role in the Song Dynasty naval victories against the Jin in the Battle of Tangdao and Battle of Caishi on the Yangtze River in 1161.

The Song Dynasty is considered by many to be classical China's high point in science and technology, with innovative scholar-officials such as Su Song ( 1020 – 1101 ) and Shen Kuo ( 1031 – 1095 ).

References to Chinese domino tiles can be traced to writings from the Song Dynasty ( AD 1120 ).

Chinese music composer Hwang Yau-tai wrote the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Song.

In the book of the Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, published in 1092 by the Chinese scientist Su Song, a star map on the equidistant cylindrical projection.

Handscroll detail of a China | Chinese percussionist playing a drum for a dancing woman, from a 12th century remake of Gu Hongzhong's 10th century originals, Song Dynasty.

* 1983 – Liu Song, Chinese snooker player

There were many great encyclopedists throughout Chinese history, including the scientist and statesman Shen Kuo ( 1031 – 1095 ) with his Dream Pool Essays of 1088, the statesman, inventor, and agronomist Wang Zhen ( active 1290 – 1333 ) with his Nong Shu of 1313, and the written Tiangong Kaiwu of Song Yingxing ( 1587 – 1666 ), the latter of whom was termed the " Diderot of China " by British historian Joseph Needham.

This would have been a king of Japan ( referred to as Wa by contemporary Chinese scholars ) who is said to have sent messengers to the Song Dynasty at least twice, in 443 and 451.

King Bu, supposed to be Yūryaku, sent an envoy to the emperor of Liu Song, a minor Chinese dynasty, in 478.

Chinese women playing flutes, from the 12th-century Song Dynasty remake of the Night Revels of Han Xizai, originally by Gu Hongzhong ( 10th century )

Critical analysis of these Chinese texts reveals that certain chapters in the Book of Wei had been copied from the Bei-Xi by Song editors, including the chapter on the Xiongnu.

Image: Meister nach Chang Hsüan 001. jpg | Ladies making silk, a remake of an 8th-century original by Zhang Xuan by Emperor Huizong of Song, early 12th century, Chinese

File: Shenzong of Song. jpg | Court portrait of Emperor Shenzong of Song ( r. 1067-1085 ), Chinese

Image: Songhuizong4. jpg | Golden Pheasant and Cotton Rose, by Emperor Huizong of Song ( r. 1100-1126 AD ), Chinese

Image: Songhuizong8. jpg | Listening to the Guqin, by Emperor Huizong of Song ( 1100-1126 AD ), Chinese

Jahrhunderts ( II ) 001. jpg | Chinese, anonymous artist of the 12th century Song Dynasty

Medieval Song Dynasty painters such as Lin Tinggui and his Luohan Laundering ( housed in the Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art ) of the 12th century are excellent examples of Buddhist ideas fused into classical Chinese artwork.

During the Chinese Song Dynasty ( 960-1279 AD ), not only landscape art was improved upon, but portrait painting became more standardized and sophisticated than before ( for example, refer to Emperor Huizong of Song ), and reached its classical age maturity during the Ming Dynasty ( 1368-1644 AD ).

Although high level of stylization, mystical appeal, and surreal elegance were often preferred over realism ( such as in shan shui style ), beginning with the medieval Song Dynasty there were many Chinese painters then and afterwards who depicted scenes of nature that were vividly real.

Chinese dry-cured hams have been recorded in texts since prior to Song dynasty and used in myriad dishes.

* It was described at length in the Zhufan Zhi ( 諸蕃志, " Records of Foreign Peoples ") by Zhao Rugua ( 1170 – 1228 ), a Chinese customs inspector for the port city of Quanzhou during the Song Dynasty.

Explosive land mines were being used in 1277 AD by the Song Dynasty Chinese against an assault of the Mongols, who were besieging a city in southern China.

From the middle and late Eastern Han to the early Wei and Jin dynasties, the net growth of ancient Chinese science and technology experienced a peak ( second only to that of the Northern Song dynasty )... Han studies of the Confucian classics, which for a long time had hindered the socialization of science, were declining.

Shen's contemporary Su Song ( 1020 – 1101 ) was also a polymath and astronomer responsible for the creation of celestial atlas of star maps, as well for writing a pharmaceutical treatise with related subjects of botany, zoology, mineralogy, and metallurgy.

* The Song Dynasty Chinese polymath scientist and statesman Shen Kuo begins his defensive military campaign against the Tanguts of the Western Xia Kingdom, successfully defending the invasion route to Yan ' an.

* Shen Kuo, polymath Chinese scientist of Song Dynasty China

* The Chinese polymath statesman and scientist Su Song has the successful pilot model for his astronomical clock tower constructed in Kaifeng, China.

* Shen Kuo, renowned polymath scientist of the Song Dynasty in China ( d. 1095 )

* The Song Dynasty Chinese polymath scientist and statesman Shen Kuo solves a heated border dispute with the Liao Dynasty by dredging up old diplomatic records ; he refutes Emperor Daozong of Liao's bluffs point for point during a meeting at Mt.

The Song Dynasty managed to win several military victories over the Tanguts in the early 11th century, culminating in a campaign led by the polymath scientist, general, and statesman Shen Kuo ( 1031 – 1095 ).

They replaced earlier double slipways that had caused trouble and are mentioned by the Chinese polymath Shen Kuo ( 1031 – 1095 ) in his book Dream Pool Essays ( published in 1088 ), and fully described in the Chinese historical text Song Shi ( compiled in 1345 ):

Su Song (; style name: Zirong 子容 ) ( 1020 – 1101 AD ) was a renowned Chinese polymath who specialized himself as a statesman, astronomer, cartographer, horologist, pharmacologist, mineralogist, zoologist, botanist, mechanical and architectural engineer, poet, antiquarian, and ambassador of the Song Dynasty ( 960 – 1279 ).

Like his contemporary Shen Kuo ( 1031 – 1095 ), Su Song was a polymath.