Northern Song (960-1126)
Southern Song(1127-1279)

After the Tang and Five Dynasties period, a time full of unrest and wars, the Song Dynasty was a time of consolidation for Chinese culture. The traditional state of civil administration fully developed and brought up a revival of Confucian thought - the so-called "Neo-Confucianism", with many scholars commenting the traditional books, but also developing a more metaphysical worldview of the rather state-oriented "old" Confucianism. The Song time is often called a "Chinese Renaissance" because - similar to the European renaissance - progress in technology and inventions, the upcoming of new philosophical interpretations of the old texts meant a renewal of the old and the creation of new streamings. The Song period is marked by a revival of old Confucian traditions after the Tang age of Buddhism, and the prevailing position of civil scholars over the military age of Tang and Five Dynasties. But Song culture was also a culmination of the heritage of two thousand years of culture, and from this point of crystallization on, Chinese thinking became orthodox, culture became sterile as if it had been unchanged since thousands of years.
A power balance with the northern empires of Liao and Jin made it possible for the Song rulers to peacefully develop a blooming urban economy with new technical instruments. Trade now oriented more to the sea because the traditional trade routes to Inner Asia had been cut off.