The practice of combining farming and reading has been followed in China since ancient times. Confucius and Mencius advocated for a separation between them, emphasizing that it was a noble person’s profession to study and serve as an official while it was a commoner’s profession to engage in farming. However, the practice had been adopted by common people, mostly by reclusive scholars and students. In the Song Dynasty (960–1279) which witnessed an economic and cultural boom, this practice became so common that the term “farming-reading” was coined. The most valuable implication of this term was the widespread reading fever among farmers, showing their genuine enthusiasm for education. For many farmers, literacy was a necessity of life, not necessarily for the imperial examination. This was something remarkable distinguishing Song from previous dynasties and a sign of the maturity of the farming-reading culture. Scholars viewed the farming reading practice as a source of joy in life, which contributed to the spread of the farming reading culture. Farming benefited scholars in fostering innovative thinking, acquiring new knowledge, and improving creative writing. More importantly, knowledge and intellectuals played a part in driving agricultural development. The most profound social impact was the promotion of literacy in rural households. The farming-reading culture became an integral part of Chinese culture, exerting a significant influence on people’s thinking and production activities in the dynasties following Song. It indeed enriched the traditional Chinese culture.
Dress and adornment are essential parts of daily life. In the hierarchical society of ancient China, they served not only the basic functions of protecting and adorning the body but also of maintaining hierarchy and upholding authority. This was also the case during the Song Dynasty. The court upheld dress and adornment system and imposed legal standards on the dress and adornment of different social strata with great strictness, employing ritual law to ensure a clear “hierarchy of social rank and dress and adornment.” However, such a rigid and uncompromising system often clashed with private interests and property, leading to its ultimate disruption. Dress and adornment would gradually evolve to become an individual expression of one’s taste, wealth, social status, and values, slowly breaking through the class barriers separating the noble and humble, and permeating various social strata of the Song Dynasty.
Social interaction was an important activity for literati outside the imperial court. Dongjing (the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, present-day Kaifeng) played a pivotal role in the social interactions among literati of the Northern Song Dynasty. Literati frequently visited each other and held elegant gatherings at their residences or in gardens. The residences of Su Shi, Fan Zhen, Wang Gong, Wang Shen, Wang Yu, and Su Shi’s six disciples were located in different parts of Dongjing. Despite their differences in birthplace, family background, and career history, these literati in Dongjing developed a shared identity through their visits and elegant gatherings. Their relationships were maintained and strengthened in this way, leading to the formation of a loosely structured but relatively stable social circle. Together, they created a socio-cultural atmosphere with distinctive features of their time and region.
During the Song Dynasty, the economy in the south experienced unprecedented development, with a significant population increase. Ships gradually shared a closer relationship with the livelihoods of the people. In inland rivers, lakes, and coastal areas, substantial groups of people “lived on ships,” relying almost entirely on ships for daily living. Many waterfront residents during the Song Dynasty took fishing as a crucial means of livelihood, with numerous individuals making a living from fisheries. Additionally, waterborne trade was an essential livelihood for many southern residents. In regions with long-term food shortages and during times of famine, rice boats were particularly vital for people to sustain themselves. Studying the relationship between ships, the most important transportation means of the time, and the livelihoods of southern inhabitants provides a crucial perspective for examining in what way and how an industry influences the socio economic landscape.
The custom of gifting food before and on the day of festivals was widespread during the Song Dynasty. The practice included gifts received from official and monastic institutions as well as exchanges between commoners, literati, and scholar-officials. In a sense, the circulation of food embodied the community support spirit. The attention people paid to food during the Song Dynasty, the correlation between food and social status, and the emotional value of “sharing joy” in the flow of food form the social foundation of “community support.” Festival food serves the additional functions of seeking good luck and warding off evil, plays an important role in sacrifice and blessing ceremonies, and celebrates joyful reunions, all of the cultural psychology underpinning “community support.” From the perspective of the literati and scholar-officials, the exchange of festival food in the Song Dynasty reflects the traditional ideal of “cultivating oneself, regulating the family, governing the state, and bringing peace to the world.” The literary depictions of Song Dynasty festival food reflect a vibrant, mysterious, secular, and elegant Song culture that echoes the spiritual essence and aesthetic charm that says: “In the world, light and dust mingle, while in the heart, clear distinctions are made.”