Diminished Empire and Nomadic Challengers 73
self-consciously condescending toward their nomadic neighbors than
their Tang predecessors had been. Many of them scorned the martial
values they saw in their nomadic neighbors. Whereas horseback riding
and archery had been considered perfectly respectable pastimes for the
Tang aristocracy, the scholar-offi cial class in Song times became much
more concerned with Confucian scholarship, literature, and the arts.
One reason for this cultural shift was the changing nature of Chinese
society in the Song period. In the Tang, powerful aristocrats often inher-
ited their offi cial positions, but in the Song, the Chinese elite became
much more dependent on the civil service examinations to win positions
in government. Consequently, families who wanted to maintain their
elite status in society had to provide an extensive classical education for
their sons. Examinations were very diffi cult, requiring years of intense
study in preparation, and only a small percentage of candidates could
pass them and win offi cial appointments. The invention of printing in
the Tang and its spread in the Song made more books available to more
families, greatly intensifying the competition for civil service examina-
tion degrees and offi cial appointments. Confucian scholar-offi cials came
to see their main task as intellectual and cultural—to master the best of
Chinese culture in art, literature, and philosophy.
In self-conscious contrast to the uncivilized “barbarians” of the north,
Chinese offi cials looked to men of genius like Su Dongpo for reassurance
that China’s was after all a far superior culture. In the strong negative
reaction to the reform attempts of Wang Anshi, Song Confucian scholars
made a clear choice to reject his aggressive moves to build a strong state.
Instead, they opted for a more idealistic form of Confucianism that put
less emphasis on governmental institutions and more emphasis on what
we might call China’s moral and spiritual rearmament.
Convinced by Mencius that moral goodness is ultimately the most
powerful force in the world, Neo-Confucian scholars called for indi-
vidual self-cultivation and rectifi cation of moral faults through study of
the Confucian classics and “quiet sitting,” a Buddhist-infl uenced form
of meditation and self-refl ection. The most important Neo-Confucian
scholar was Zhu Xi (1130–1200), who synthesized the work of many
Neo-Confucians into one great philosophical system. He wrote commen-
taries on and edited all the early Confucian classics. His interpretations
became the only accepted answers in the civil service examinations from
late Song times until the examination system was abolished in 1905.
Another consequence of the growing concern in Song times to differ-
entiate China from its nomadic neighbors was a change in gender rela-
tions and gender ideals. As noted, Tang court women were often very