The Splendor of the Great Song

Unraveling the Dynamics of a Golden Age, Revealing the Lives of Ordinary People in the Song Dynasty理清黄金时代的繁华逻辑 展现宋朝百姓的生活实况This book is divided into three parts. The first part analyzes the reasons behind the growth of total social wealth in the Song Dynasty. The second part examines how the Song government extracted resources during different periods and how ordinary people maneuvered and struggled to survive. The third part explains why the increased wealth of the Northern and Southern Song dynasties failed to be transformed into capital for reinvestment.Shen Xubin’s work breaks with the top-down orthodox historical perspective that dominates most current scholarship on the Song Dynasty. Focusing on the marginalized groups who have no voice in conventional history, he reveals their real and often brutal living conditions, exposing the 'prosperous' essence of the two Song dynasties as 'ninety million poor and vulnerable sustaining ten million tax-consuming elites.' This subverts the image of the period as a classical golden age in Chinese history and offers insightful perspectives for a comprehensive understanding of the dynastic system of the Northern and Southern Song.本书分三个部分，第一部分剖析宋朝社会财富总量增加的原因；第二部分讲述不同时期的宋朝政府汲取的方式，以及百姓如何辗转腾挪求生存；第三部分则是解释了两宋增加的财富没能转化成再生产资本的原因。谌旭彬的写作打破了当前大多数宋史著作自上而下的正统史观，聚焦无法在历史中出声的底层群体，呈现他们真实而又残酷的生存状态，揭露了两宋'以九千万贫弱者，供养一千万食税群体'的'繁华'本质，颠覆了其所谓古典中国黄金时代的形象，对全面理解两宋的王朝体制富有启迪意义。Shen Xubin, who writes under the pen name Yan Jiulin, is a historical researcher and former editor-in-chief of Tencent’s History Channel. He has conducted in-depth research on history and developed unique insights into the field. His published works include the bestselling historical books Two Thousand Years of Qin-Style Autocracy: The Power Dynamics of Feudal Emperors, Living in the Hongwu Era: The Fate of Ordinary People Under Zhu Yuanzhang’s Rule, and The Great Transformation: Fifty Years of Reform in the Late Qing Dynasty.谌旭彬，笔名言九林，历史研究者，腾讯历史频道原主编，对历史有着深入的研究，颇有心得。曾出版历史畅销书《秦制两千年：封建帝王的权力规则》《活在洪武时代：朱元璋治下小人物的命运》《大变局：晚清改革五十年》等。