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.

Drawing on the postscript by Cai Jing on the scroll of A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains as direct evidence, and the activities of Cai Jing and Emperor Huizong as indirect evidence, supplemented by the physical materials of the imperial silk fabrics Emperor Huizong favored his subjects with, this paper preliminarily investigates Wang Ximeng’s life experience amid the political turmoil of the late-Northern Song Dynasty. His admission to the Imperial Painting Academy, his service in the Imperial Archives, and his learning of painting under Emperor Huizong were all influenced to some extent by Cai Jing’s manipulations and operations. An analysis of the scenes depicted in the Scroll indicates that Wang Ximeng was well acquainted with the natural and cultural landscapes of various regions, including Xianyou in Fujian, Mount Lu and Poyang Lake in Jiangxi, Suzhou, Kaifeng, and other places. Furthermore, under the instruction of Emperor Huizong, Wang Ximeng broadened his vision of panoramic depiction of grand mountains and vast rivers and mastered refined artistic expression of grand blue-and-green landscape painting. He visualized in his painting the poetic sentiment of “Viewing Mount Lu from Pengli Lake” by Meng Haoran, thereby expressing the aesthetic ideology of “Abundance, Prosperity, Joy and Grandeur” that was prevalent in the late-Northern Song Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty was an era of introspection, with a tendency for refinement and thriving civilian culture. At the same time, its culture was relatively closed and introverted, and elegant. Under such a background, the tea culture of the Song Dynasty was gentle, soft, and clear. During this period, the tea ceremony focused on simplicity and valued aspirations. Due to the increasing demand for high-quality tea from the ruling class, the tribute tea system gradually improved, and the tea-whisking method became popular with a focus on cleanliness, simplicity, and elegance. Besides, the use of tea utensils was also quite meticulous. Tea held a unique position in politics, diplomacy, daily life, and etiquette at the Song imperial palace. Additionally, tea was also endowed with many spiritual connotations, permeating into the cultural entertainment life of emperors and officials in the imperial palace, thus giving birth to many elegant tea-drinking techniques and cultural masterpieces. The Song imperial tea culture led the new trend of the times in the promoting and popularizing of tea-drinking customs among the people.

The literati of the Tang and Song dynasties expressed their yearning and love for the natural beauty of landscape by extolling the natural aesthetics of tea. They reveled in the joys of the mountains and forests by drinking spring water and savoring tea, transcending the constraints of fame and status. Tea became a sanctuary for their soul. Compared to the Tang literati, the literati of the Song Dynasty preferred leisurely tea drinking, reflecting a view about the silent enjoyment of life. The tea poetries of the Song Dynasty presented three approaches to the enjoyment of life: the Confucian notion of being content with a simple but virtuous life, the Daoist idea of embracing rejoice in complying with Heaven and knowing its mandate, and the Zen Buddhist principle of ultimate tranquility and desirelessness. Tea drinking activities also served as a means for the Tang and Song literati to contemplate the principles of the universe and life. The Song literati showed a more rational aspect in their poems about tea. They derived insights about the ups and downs of life from the experience of drinking tea; they also compared the essence of tea with human nature, using this analogy to clarify their philosophical beliefs and motivate themselves, which showcased their high-heartedness and unworldliness. For the Tang and Song literati, tea drinking was an exceedingly decorous cultural activity. The profound connotations of literati tea in the Tang and Song dynasties constitute a crucial component of Chinese tea culture.

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 sources of porcelains in the Song Dynasty court were diverse. As porcelains began to play an ever-significant role for monarchs and officials, the capital established kilns for porcelain production in the late-Northern Song. Some porcelain products entered the court as items produced by government-run workshops directly under central authority. This shift was of great significance as, to some extent, the Jingdezhen imperial kiln factory of the Ming and Qing dynasties was an elevated version of the Song Dynasty’s official kilns model. During Emperor Huizong’s reign, a series of favorable conditions led to the establishment of official kilns, which also reflected the aesthetic preferences of the emperor.

In the Song Dynasty, ancient Chinese night markets broke free from the constraints of nighttime curfews and, for the first time, gained official recognition, becoming a formal part of the market system. These markets were widely distributed across towns in north China, southeast China, Sichuan-Chongqing (Sichuan-Shaanxi) region, Jinghu region, and Fujian-Guangdong region. Song Dynasty night markets transcended traditional forms such as taverns, teahouses, singing halls, and brothels, which mainly extended daytime markets into the night. Instead, goulan and washe, market streets, and street vendors became prominent alongside traditional night market forms. This period marked the transformation of night markets from closed to open forms and from single-purpose to comprehensive types.Cultural and entertainment-oriented night markets evolved from secondary and amateur ones to main and specific businesses. The consumer base of night markets shifted from being relatively singular and aristocratic to diverse and commoner-oriented. This transformation created night market forms and scenes like those of the modern time, establishing the Song Dynasty as a crucial period in developing ancient Chinese night markets.

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.”

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.

The “Southern Song development path” is the economic model formed during the flourishing development of industry and commerce civilization in the South of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River during the Southern Song Dynasty. It has three characteristics: “equal emphasis on agriculture and commerce,” “overseas trade,” and “Smithian Growth.” This economic model was formed with the support of several historical conditions, such as the strong industrial foundation, convenient transportation, remarkable technological progress, and rich human resource in that time. This model indicates that the operating mechanism of ancient China’s economy had undergone significant changes, especially from relying mainly on agriculture to both agriculture and handicrafts and commerce, since then, market mechanisms played an increasingly important role. It also shows the primary path and ideal direction of China’s economy in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Therefore, it is of great historic significance.

The population of the Song Dynasty increased on a larger scale than that of the previous dynasties, and the Song government reformed the imperial examination system. As a result, the size of participants in the imperial examination and educated populations expanded rapidly. The overall cultural level of the Song Dynasty had been greatly improved. Both the literati and the general public had specific reading skills. The demand for books was constantly increasing. With the popularization of woodblock printing, the Song people could meet the increasing social and cultural needs. Book consumption demand and book production tended to be coordinated. The first genuinely large-scale book publishing market was thus formed.

As important infrastructure, bridges are public resources that the government should provide. The view that the “government is in charge of bridges and roads” was clearly put forward in the Song Dynasty. In the practice of primary-level social governance in the Song Dynasty, however, local finances were generally tight under the impact of the trend of financial centralization. As a result, the construction funds for many public infrastructure projects, including bridges and roads, were mainly raised from the private sector. Especially in the southern water towns where there were many bridges, private wealth was the most important source of bridge construction funds. Private funds were incorporated into the construction funds mainly by three means: officials soliciting donations, monks collecting donations, and donations from wealthy families. It was with the integration and support of private wealth that the bridge construction in the southern water towns maintained a good development momentum for a long time in the Song Dynasty.

The fiscal planning system in the early Northern Song Dynasty was managed by the Three Bureaus. It was built on the system of the previous dynasty and came into being as a result of the centralism of financial power at the central government and the control over local governments in the early Song Dynasty. How the system worked and evolved was closely associated with the changes in the tax structure and management system in the transition from the Tang to the Song Dynasty. In the early Song Dynasty, the Three Bureaus made financial plans for prefecture- and county-level governments based on the financial records submitted by them and then allocated tax collections to fund public expenditures. However, the excessively centralized financial planning and auditing power of the Three Bureaus led to a huge backlog of financial records to be audited due to practical difficulties and its limited administrative capacity. This impaired the normal functioning of the fiscal planning system. The collection and allocation of taxes and other tribute resources became quantified during Emperor Zhenzong’s reign. The Three Bureaus no longer directly controlled over the fiscal planning and taxation activities of prefecture- and county-level governments. Instead, it specified the contributions made by circuit-level governments based on which fiscal resources were allocated. Moreover, the Tax Transport Bureaus gained more autonomy. The fiscal planning system functioned more efficiently and effectively, which significantly impacted the basic structure of government revenue and expenditure in the Song Dynasty.

Round fan paintings of flowers and birds thrived in the Song Dynasty benefited from the prosperous in the fan-making industry and the prevalence of sketch painting across all social stratums. As people’s aesthetic standards improved, the designs of round fans diversified and the compositions of round fan paintings grew in variety, reflecting unique features of the time. This paper classifies the development of round fan paintings of flowers and birds in the Song Dynasty into three phases: early-Northern Song, mid- and late- Northern Song, and Southern Song, and discusses the evolutionary patterns and influencing factors of round fan paintings of flowers and birds in different stages. It is concluded that the Song Dynasty attained a high level of accomplishment in terms of the design and cultural connotations of round fan paintings of flowers and birds which had a profound influence on the development of such paintings thereafter.