Another name inseparably connected with the history of the Sungs is that of Wang An-shih who has been styled “The Innovator” from the gigantic administrative changes or innovations he labored ineffectually to introduce. The chief of these were a universal system of militia under which the whole body of citizens were liable to military drill and to be called out for service in time of need; and a system of state loans to agriculturists in order to supply capital for more extensive and more remunerative farming operations. His schemes were ultimately set aside through the opposition of a statesman whose name is connected even more closely with literature than with politics. Ssu-ma Kuang spent nineteen years of his life in the compilation of “The Mirror of History,” a history of China in two hundred and ninety-four books, from the earliest times of the Chow dynasty down to the accession of the house of Sung.
CHINESE ARCHERS.
A century later this lengthy production was recast in a greatly condensed form under the superintendence of Chu Hsi, the latter work at once taking rank as the standard history of China to that date. Chu Hsi himself played in other ways by far the most important part among all the literary giants of the Sungs. Besides holding, during a large portion of his life, high official position, with an almost unqualified success, his writings are more extensive and more varied in character than those of any other Chinese author; and the complete collection of his great philosophical works, published in 1713, fills no fewer than sixty-six books. He introduced interpretations of the Confucian classics, either wholly or partially at variance with those which had been put forth by the scholars of the Han dynasty and received as infallible ever since, thus modifying to a certain extent the prevailing standard of political and social morality. His principle was simply one of consistency. He refused to interpret certain words in a given passage in one sense and the same words occurring elsewhere in another sense. And this principle recommended itself at once to the highly logical mind of the Chinese. Chu Hsi’s commentaries were received to the exclusion of all others and still form the only authorized interpretation of the classical books, upon a knowledge of which all success at the great competitive examination for literary degrees may be said to entirely depend.
CHINESE WRITER.
It would be a lengthy task to merely enumerate the names in the great phalanx of writers who flourished under the Sungs and who formed an Augustan Age of Chinese literature. Exception must however be made in favor of Ou-Yang Hsiu, who besides being an eminent statesman, was a voluminous historian of the immediately preceding dynasties, an essayist of rare ability, and a poet; and of Su Tung-p'o whose name next to that of Chu Hsi fills the largest place in Chinese memorials of this period. A vigorous opponent of “The Innovator,” he suffered banishment for his opposition; and again, after his rival’s fall, he was similarly punished for further crossing the imperial will. His exile was shared by the beautiful and accomplished girl “Morning Clouds,” to whose inspiration we owe many of the elaborate poems and other productions in the composition of which the banished poet beguiled his time; and whose untimely death of consumption, on the banks of their favorite lake, hastened the poet’s end, which occurred shortly after his recall from banishment.
Buddhism and Taoism had by this time made advances toward tacit terms of mutual toleration. They wisely agreed to share rather than to quarrel over the carcass which lay at their feet; and from that date they have flourished together without prejudice.
The system of competitive examinations and literary degrees had been still more fully elaborated, and the famous child’s primer, the “Three Character Classic,” which is even now the first stepping stone to knowledge, had been placed in the hands of school boys. The surnames of the people were collected to the number of four hundred and thirty-eight in all; and although this was admittedly not complete, the great majority of those names which were omitted, once perhaps in common use, have altogether disappeared. It is comparatively rare nowadays to meet with a person whose family name is not to be found within the limits of this small collection. Administration of justice is said to have flourished under the incorrupt officials of this dynasty. The functions of magistrates were more fully defined; while the study of medical jurisprudence was stimulated by the publication of a volume which, although combining the maximum of superstition with the minimum of scientific research, is still the officially recognized text book on all subjects connected with murder, suicide and accidental death. Medicine and the art of healing came in for a considerable share of attention at the hands of the Sungs and many voluminous works on therapeutics have come down to us from this period. Inoculation for small-pox has been known to the Chinese at least since the early years of this dynasty if not earlier.
The irruption of the Mongols under Genghis Khan, and the comparatively short dynasty which was later on actually established under Kublai Khan, may be regarded as the period of transition from the epoch of the Sungs to the epoch of the Mings. For the first eighty years after the nominal accession of Genghis Khan the empire was more or less in a state of siege and martial law from one end to the other; and then in less than one hundred years afterwards the Mongol dynasty had passed away. The story of Ser Marco Polo and his wonderful travels, familiar to most readers, gives us a valuable insight into this period of brilliant courts, thronged marts, fine cities, and great national wealth.