Wang Guowei pointed out: "In the Song Dynasty, academics made the greatest progress in many aspects." . The most obvious sign of the new peak of China's ancient academic thought is the birth of Neo-Confucianism-Neo-Confucianism. As a master of Neo-Confucianism, Zhu is the most outstanding Confucian scholar since Confucius and Mencius. The Southern Song Dynasty kept the scene of a hundred schools of thought contending for nearly a hundred years, which formed the second grand occasion of "a hundred schools of thought contending" in China history after the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The Southern Song Dynasty was the heyday of China's ancient literature and art. Wang Guowei thought: "Tianshui once had many aspects of human intellectual activities and culture, which were beyond the reach of the pre-Han and Tang Dynasties and the post-Yuan and Ming Dynasties." Song Ci reached its peak in the Southern Song Dynasty, with famous poets such as Xin Qiji, Li Qingzhao and Lu You. With the prosperity of Song poetry, Song poetry found a new way after Tang poetry and opened up a new realm of Song poetry, and its influence lasted until the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. The appearance of vernacular novels in the Southern Song Dynasty marked a new stage in the development of China's novels. The appearance of drama in the Southern Song Dynasty marked the maturity of China's ancient drama art and laid a solid foundation for the development of China's drama. Song Dynasty is the heyday of China's painting history, which marks the peak of China's painting in the Middle Ages. Some researchers think: "My China painting method began in the Song Dynasty." The Southern Song Dynasty was a prosperous period of ancient culture and education in China. The rulers of the Song Dynasty regarded "running a school by worshipping Confucian classics" as the foundation of the country. During the Southern Song Dynasty, both official and private schools flourished, completely breaking the long-term monopoly of gentry and landlords on education. Central official schools, local official schools, academies and private schools all developed vigorously in the Southern Song Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty was a prosperous period of ancient historiography in China. Mr. Chen Yinque pointed out: "China historiography flourished in the Song Dynasty." Famous works include Yuan Shu, a historian of Southern Song Dynasty, History as a Mirror, Zhuzi Jianlue, Luo Yi and so on. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the idea of "applying the world to practice" was put forward for the first time in history, which has great enlightenment and reference significance for later historians.
The integration of academic thoughts and national cultures between the Southern Song Dynasty and East Asian countries still has an important impact on the politics, economy, ideology and culture, social life and family relations of modern East Asian society.
The most influential culture in the north of the Southern Song Dynasty is the characteristic culture of the Southern Song Dynasty-Neo-Confucianism. In the era, Zhu's Daoism (also known as Neo-Confucianism) flourished. Before and after the Jubilee of the Southern Song Dynasty, that is, before and after Jin moved the capital to Bianjing, Neo-Confucianism works were introduced to the north, such as The Analects of Confucius, Biography of the Spring and Autumn Annals by Hu Anguo, The Analects of Confucius by Zhang Jiucheng, The Complete Interpretation of Shangshu by Lin, The Interpretation of Keshan Books by Xia, and Zhu's Notes on Four Books. Zhao Bingwen and Ma Jiuchou even "claimed Taoism ...".
Neo-Confucianism works in the Southern Song Dynasty directly promoted the rise and development of Neo-Confucianism in the North. On the one hand, the northern literati arranged and reprinted the works of Neo-Confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty. For example, Fu Qi edited Zhang Jiucheng's The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, The Doctrine of the Mean and The Way of University, and compiled a book The Origin of Taoism, which was widely circulated. Zhao Bingwen and Wang Ruoxu introduced and prefaced the Origin of Taoism respectively. Zhao Bingwen himself wrote ten volumes of The Analects of Confucius and Mencius. On the other hand, some northern scholars began to write books about Neo-Confucianism, showing their own thinking. For example, Ma Jiuchou lived in seclusion in the western hills of Suiping, and devoted himself to the study of the Book of Changes and the Spring and Autumn Annals, which once enjoyed a high reputation. Zhao Bingwen wrote various works to illustrate his understanding of Tao, but unfortunately these works have been lost. Neo-Confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty was popular in the north for a period of time because it adapted to the needs of Jin and Yuan dynasties. The interpretation of Confucian classics such as The Analects of Confucius and Mencius by Neo-Confucianists in the Southern Song Dynasty is relatively weak in political reality, which is basically consistent with the idea that rulers in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties respected and advocated Confucian classics. For example, Jin Shizong asked people to translate the Five Classics, so that jurchen could "know where virtue lies", while Jin Xizong himself "read The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Shangshu and Chunqiu Zuozhuan". In this context, Neo-Confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty was naturally unimpeded.
It is worth noting that the northern scholars' comments on Neo-Confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty are not simply following or echoing, but more thinking about Neo-Confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty. During the Southern Song Dynasty, only Zheng Hou and others criticized Neo-Confucianism. His eclecticism rejected Mencius, and he was deviant, and was denounced as a "heresy" by Zhu and others (Volume 123). In the north, Li Chunfu preached the theory of Zheng Hou, claiming to be the descendant of Zheng Hou, claiming that "since Zhuang Zhou, there were only Wang Ji, Jie Yuan, Zheng Hou and me". He believed in Buddhism, and in order to criticize Neo-Confucianism, he wrote a book "Ming Dow Collection" specially for the Southern Song Dynasty. "What Yichuan, Hengqu and Huiweng earned was not borrowed by Shang Lue at all, but they hated each other at the same time" (Volume 4 of Zhongzhou Ji), so there are often some extreme theories.
Apart from Li Chunfu, Wang Ruoxu is a man who challenges easily. His Five Classics, Analects of Confucius and Mencius are mainly aimed at Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, especially Neo-Confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty. Zhang Jiucheng, Zhu, Hu Anguo, Ye Shi and others are all objects of his refutation. However, he is more orthodox than Zheng Hou and Li Chunfu, and his cross-examination is more pertinent and accurate. As for Zheng Hou, like most Song people, he criticized Zheng Hou for being biased and inappropriate: "Zheng Hou is a boy who dares to speak without fear. As far as Mencius is concerned, Tang Wu and Zhouyi are both wrong and even reviled. To the disciples of Xiaocao Pingbo, the ancestor of the Han nationality, they respectfully call them sages and eagerly call them. After that, they regarded Ou Gong's illness as a thin disease. What is the reason for killing their husbands? " Different from Song Confucianism, he was able to get rid of the unrealistic or far-fetched theories of Song people, re-examine Song Confucianism's views from the perspective of human nature, show a more pragmatic tendency, and achieved outstanding results.
The Analects of Confucius and The Chapter of the Rural Party mainly record the daily life of Confucius, but Zhang Jiucheng's works such as The Analects of Confucius and The Interpretation of the Analects of Confucius dig their great significance and exaggerate them, thinking that the rural party can be compared with the Spring and Autumn Annals, and that "if you don't learn from the rural party, you don't know the use of the Spring and Autumn Annals; Without studying the Spring and Autumn Annals, we can't know the God of Bitter Hometown (The Theory of Bitter Hometown, Volume 4 of Hengpuji). Wang Ruoxu severely criticized him for being cunning and boastful. His criticism of Song Confucianism, as mentioned in the Summary of Siku, "is enough to break the imprisonment of Song people".
Washe is a popular folk art performance place in Goulan area of Song Dynasty. It is an important cultural phenomenon in the history of drama and has a unique position. According to various historical records, there were 24 tile houses in Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, which did not include "Dugou Lanwa City", that is, there was only one entertainment place in the tile house. Most tile houses have multiple hooks, and the number of hooks in each tile house is different. "Numerous Victory Records of Old People in West Lake" records: "Only the north tile is big, and there are thirteen goulan."
In addition, Lin 'an also has the kind of "Dugou Lanwa Market, which is a little far away, doing night shows in tea shops". Each tick can accommodate different numbers of people. Volume II of Dream in Tokyo records that Bianjing "has the largest lotus shed, peony shed, Riwazi hag shed and elephant shed, which can accommodate thousands of people". And every performance of Goulan is from morning till night, from spring to winter, without rest all year round.
As the old man of the West Lake in the Southern Song Dynasty said in "The Record of Invincible Victory", the citizens of Lin 'an "have no social fire in Leng Yue in the middle of winter, and the tile market enjoys itself". "Tokyo Dream Record" said: "Don't meet people with wind and rain, the shed is like this every day." It is conceivable that there are about hundreds of goulan performances in more than 20 Vacherie in Lin 'an, and thousands or hundreds of spectators are watching the play in each goulan. Roughly speaking, there were 20,000 to 50,000 theater audiences in Hangzhou at that time, and the cumulative audience reached 7 million to 20 million a year.
Ci has always been regarded as a path because of its different nature from poetry, so it is relatively free. Although Xin Qiji's ci, which was born in the north, resisted the words of rejuvenating the country, it was loved by many people after being sent back to the north, and Xin Qiji's patriotic poems were widely circulated. In the second year after Kim's death, Liu Qi praised his literary works. Later, Yuan Haowen even held Xin Ci to a high position, saying that "Dongpo was the first in Yuefu and then in Xinjiaxuan". It should be said that Xin Ci had a substantial impact on the Ci circles at the end of Jin Dynasty headed by Yuan Haowen. Yuan Haowen's ci is considered as "enough to rival Jia Xuan" because of the irrigation of Jia Xuan's ci.
In various styles, the achievements of prose in the Southern Song Dynasty are lower than those in the Northern Song Dynasty. In addition, it is difficult for northerners to accept the strong national sentiment in prose, so it has little influence in the north. Wang Ruoxu once mentioned "Fu Xie fugue to be tabulated", which severely criticized it from the stylistic point of view, and came to the conclusion that "prose has been very harmful since crossing the river in Song Dynasty"
In addition to the above aspects, the political system, etiquette culture and art of the Southern Song Dynasty will also have a certain radiation effect on the North. The Southern Song Dynasty and the State of Jin were opposed for a long time, and the north and south were isolated. The cultures of the North and the South only communicate through narrow channels, such as private market transactions and the exchange of official envoys on the border between the two sides. Because the overall level of culture in the Southern Song Dynasty is higher than that in the North, this kind of communication is mainly manifested in the radiation of the Southern Song Dynasty culture to the northern culture, and the fields of Neo-Confucianism, literature and history in the north are all influenced by the Southern Song Dynasty culture to some extent.
Compass was widely used in navigation traffic in Song Dynasty. In the 3rd century, the compass was introduced to Arab and European countries. This guide has played a great role in the exchange and development of world economy and culture. At the same time, it also provided the necessary conditions for European navigators to discover America and sail around the world.
Gunpowder began to be used in the military in the late Tang Dynasty, and the Northern Song government set up a special institution in Tokyo to manufacture gunpowder and firearms. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the tubular firearm "flash gun" was invented. The appearance of tubular firearms opened a new stage in the history of human war. Gunpowder and firearms were introduced to Arabia in the middle of13rd century, and then to Europe.
The great contribution of the Southern Song Dynasty in the field of mathematics. Qin, an outstanding mathematician, wrote "Nine Chapters of Mathematics" and put forward the "positive and negative equalization method", which was more than 500 years earlier than the West. Another outstanding mathematician, Yang Hui, has compiled more than ten kinds of mathematical works, such as Detailed Explanation of Nine Chapters Algorithm and Yang Hui Algorithm, and collected many mathematical problems and algorithms in China's lost mathematical works.
The Southern Song Dynasty also made outstanding achievements in the medical field. The collection of unjust imprisonment, a song ci in the Southern Song Dynasty, is the first monograph on forensic medicine in the world, which is more than 350 years earlier than that in the West. It not only laid the foundation of ancient forensic medicine in China, but also was regarded as the "golden rule" of "litigation inspection" in ancient China, which had a wide influence on forensic medicine in the world.