0:00:02 > 0:00:07In the tenth century, China almost broke apart forever in civil war.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19The soldier poet Wang Renyu witnessed
0:00:19 > 0:00:21the destruction of his country.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28"The barbarians have overthrown the Tang Dynasty," he wrote.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33"Our cities have been abandoned. Our temple courtyards lie in ruin.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42"China has entered a truly dark time.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47"But things cannot go on like this forever.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55"The way surely has not been finally lost. I believe heaven will
0:00:55 > 0:00:57"soon announce a new dynasty."
0:00:57 > 0:01:00And in around the year 960,
0:01:00 > 0:01:02it did.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38In the West, we see history as the rise
0:01:38 > 0:01:42and fall of different civilisations.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45In China, there's one civilisation, which has gone through
0:01:45 > 0:01:47cycles of order and disorder.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54And in the Middle Ages, like Europe after the Second World War,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57the Chinese set out to build a brave new world.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05In the story of China, we've reached the Song Dynasty.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13We're in the city of Kaifeng in the middle of China.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17MAN SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE Mushroom!
0:02:17 > 0:02:20Mushroom, yeah, yeah, yeah, OK.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23A thousand years ago, this was the greatest
0:02:23 > 0:02:26and most exciting place on Earth.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29Its creativity and inventiveness surpassed
0:02:29 > 0:02:32and of course preceded the European Renaissance.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41In the Song Renaissance, the Chinese set out to make the most
0:02:41 > 0:02:43enlightened society on Earth,
0:02:43 > 0:02:45with the best governance,
0:02:45 > 0:02:47housing and food,
0:02:47 > 0:02:49the best education and science.
0:02:49 > 0:02:50And this is their story.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55Since the great age of the Tang Dynasty,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58China had shrunk dramatically.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02After 907, it fragmented into 16 dynasties
0:03:02 > 0:03:04in a little over 50 years,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07warlords fighting each other for the Empire.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14CEREMONIAL CRY
0:03:14 > 0:03:17At this point, there was no certainty
0:03:17 > 0:03:19that China would ever be reunited.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28But as it says in China's famous novel,
0:03:28 > 0:03:30The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33"It is a truth universally acknowledged
0:03:33 > 0:03:37"that everything long united will fall apart
0:03:37 > 0:03:41"and everything long divided will come back together again."
0:03:45 > 0:03:49The Song would transform Kaifeng
0:03:49 > 0:03:53from a provincial backwater into the greatest city on Earth.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00And now it's rebuilding again.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03After the struggles of the 20th century,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07today's Chinese people are fascinated by the spectacle
0:04:07 > 0:04:09of what their ancestors achieved
0:04:09 > 0:04:12and they want to touch that time again.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17And as always in Chinese history,
0:04:17 > 0:04:23great events were foretold by signs and omens.
0:04:23 > 0:04:28Here in Kaifeng, the most famous tells of the birth of two brothers
0:04:28 > 0:04:30who, like Romulus and Remus,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33would become the first emperors of the new dynasty.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40Story goes like this -
0:04:40 > 0:04:44at the time of chaos and war and destruction,
0:04:44 > 0:04:46after the fall of the Tang Dynasty,
0:04:46 > 0:04:50a man called Chen Tuan fled to the sacred mountain Huashan,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53where he lived in a cave and became a hermit.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57And he acquired prophetic visionary powers.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01And one day he came off the mountain
0:05:01 > 0:05:04and in the road he met a crowd of refugees
0:05:04 > 0:05:07and there was a poor man carrying two baskets
0:05:07 > 0:05:09on a pole on his shoulders.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12And when the hermit looked into the basket,
0:05:12 > 0:05:14there were two baby boys,
0:05:14 > 0:05:17but the hermit saw dragons
0:05:17 > 0:05:20and he roared out with laughter.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24And everybody said, "Why are you laughing?" and he said,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28"I never expected that the Mandate of Heaven
0:05:28 > 0:05:31"would come back to earth so quickly."
0:06:40 > 0:06:43Ah, great.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45Ah, fantastic.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58There's the surviving dragon,
0:06:58 > 0:07:01the last dragon of Twin Dragon Alley.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07Any day now, Twin Dragon Alley will be redeveloped
0:07:07 > 0:07:10and soon only the memory will remain.
0:07:13 > 0:07:18But that's Kaifeng for you, China's city of memory.
0:07:18 > 0:07:25In 960, the older brother, Taizu, announced the new dynasty, the Song.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29And he made the capital here a vast new metropolis of wood
0:07:29 > 0:07:33and brick, thrown up in a feverish construction boom.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37This is Song building manual,
0:07:37 > 0:07:39commissioned in the early 12th century.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46If you are of a certain social status
0:07:46 > 0:07:48and if you can afford it
0:07:48 > 0:07:53you can build your house according to these...styles.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00So this tells you how to build a city, almost, doesn't it?
0:08:00 > 0:08:03Well, for a city of over a million people you would need
0:08:03 > 0:08:05lots of buildings.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Biggest city in the world, perhaps, at that point?
0:08:08 > 0:08:10Yes, definitely, at that time.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12'And to go with the new buildings
0:08:12 > 0:08:14'was a whole new conception of city life.'
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Kaifeng was a much more open city,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22the lifestyle much more vibrant than the Tang Chang'an.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27All sorts of shops, all sorts of restaurants, even fast food,
0:08:27 > 0:08:28there's mention of fast food.
0:08:31 > 0:08:37And there was no curfew. That was, er, very important.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41Before this, residents in the city, these urban dwellers,
0:08:41 > 0:08:45were supposed to stay in their own wards after the bell.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51But in Kaifeng they were allowed to just flock to the markets
0:08:51 > 0:08:52and...enjoy their time.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56So all the pleasures of city life really start to unfold at this time.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58Yes.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04So a new capital for a new age.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10The largest city anywhere on Earth until the 19th century.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12And just like today's China,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15the city became a magnet for people flooding in.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20In a few years, it went from one square mile to 16.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29Only a few ancient buildings survive today above ground.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36One of them is the famous Iron Pagoda,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39so called because of the metallic sheen of its tiles.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45We're out in the northeast corner of the old city here.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50The Iron Pagoda is on a bit of raised ground in this corner.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53The Emperor had built this artificial mountain
0:09:53 > 0:09:54called the Hill of Longevity.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57Wonderful, these Chinese names, aren't they?
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Compared with Rome or Constantinople,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06very little survives from Kaifeng's golden age.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09And you can see why when you look below the ground.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16Down here is evidence of 20 devastating floods
0:10:16 > 0:10:19of the Yellow River since the Song Dynasty.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24This pit is a metaphor for the story of the city.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29I've called Kaifeng the city of memory,
0:10:29 > 0:10:31China's capital of memory.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35And in this pit underneath the West Gate you can see why!
0:10:36 > 0:10:39That is the Qing Dynasty city wall,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43the 18th and 19th-century Qing Dynasty city wall.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48And this smaller brickwork here, the Ming Dynasty wall,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51Tudor period - part of it carries on down.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54And the Song Dynasty city wall...
0:10:54 > 0:10:58maybe 20 feet below the floor level here.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00It's an amazing thought, isn't it?
0:11:00 > 0:11:01And the reason why?
0:11:02 > 0:11:06That huge deposit of Yellow River mud,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09which is only a few miles from the city.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11These floods have been incredibly destructive all the way
0:11:11 > 0:11:14through Chinese history, sweeping through the whole city,
0:11:14 > 0:11:20destroying almost everything, even in recent times - 1842, for example.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25No wonder, then, that city has been memorialised, if you like,
0:11:25 > 0:11:29not in stone, not in great buildings,
0:11:29 > 0:11:31but in words and in paintings.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45"A million people thronged these streets," said a Song poet.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48"There were restaurants as far as the eye could see.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51"Everywhere there was music in the air.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57"What would we give to see that age again?"
0:12:03 > 0:12:08But we CAN still see Song Kaifeng...
0:12:08 > 0:12:11in China's most famous work of art.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16As historical sources go,
0:12:16 > 0:12:21this is one of the most fabulous that exists in the world.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25It's a scroll. It's nearly 20 feet long.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28I'd need to unroll it across the middle of the street
0:12:28 > 0:12:31if we were going to do that.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35It's simply a depiction of the city as it was just before 1127
0:12:35 > 0:12:39by a court painter, and it's the life of the ordinary people.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42There is nothing like this in the whole of history.
0:12:44 > 0:12:50It gives you the streets, the alleyways, the hutongs, the shops.
0:12:51 > 0:12:56The taverns and restaurants, and all of them real places.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Mr Wang's house,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03the Spice Shop,
0:13:03 > 0:13:06Shenyang's Licensed Tavern.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10Physician Zhou's Residence,
0:13:10 > 0:13:13the Sugar Cane Shop,
0:13:13 > 0:13:15Dr Yang's Clinic.
0:13:18 > 0:13:26An amazing image of the sheer vitality of Song Dynasty China.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32Here, 400 years before the European Renaissance
0:13:32 > 0:13:36with its commitment to human values, was a city dedicated to
0:13:36 > 0:13:40the prosperity and wellbeing of its people.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43A city for the many, not just the few.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Not kings or warriors or the Church,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51but the lives of ordinary people.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59It's an image of themselves the Chinese have loved ever since.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03So much so that they couldn't resist bringing it back to life.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08A journey back into a golden age,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11as one citizen recalled.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14"They were such happy times.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18"So many people and an abundance of things in the shops.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21"The wonderful festivals.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24"So many sights for the eye to enjoy.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28"Above all, I remember the humane and congenial character of
0:14:28 > 0:14:31"the citizens, always ready to help a stranger."
0:14:34 > 0:14:37A good time to live, do you think? SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
0:14:37 > 0:14:41"The lamp-lit nights, the sounds of music from the myriad taverns
0:14:41 > 0:14:43"and wine bars.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47"But you see then, this was a time of peace."
0:15:01 > 0:15:05There are many legacies of the Song in today's China.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09And one that's become celebrated across the world
0:15:09 > 0:15:11is Chinese cuisine.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17The Song thought that people should be well-fed
0:15:17 > 0:15:22and eating became the great social ritual it is today.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25Chinese cooking, of course, is one of the great
0:15:25 > 0:15:28cuisines of the world and the oldest cuisine in the world.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33But the beginnings lie in poor people's food.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37'Here they fed both the posh and the working man.'
0:15:38 > 0:15:41People have had to get used to making the best
0:15:41 > 0:15:46out of whatever food source they could lay their hands on
0:15:46 > 0:15:48and to make it palatable.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51But by the time of the Song Dynasty, it's, well,
0:15:51 > 0:15:55the first great restaurant culture of the world.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58The Chinese people by then are the best-fed people
0:15:58 > 0:16:02in the world, probably the best-fed that had ever been in history.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08And there's wonderful accounts of the restaurant culture
0:16:08 > 0:16:12of the time - 70 great restaurants here in Kaifeng,
0:16:12 > 0:16:16the waiters rushing from table to table, taking the orders,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18and rushing back from the hatch,
0:16:18 > 0:16:23with three dishes of food down one arm and 20 bowls down the other.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27And never making a mistake, says one contemporary.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30And that restaurant culture brings you etiquette,
0:16:30 > 0:16:32how to behave at table,
0:16:32 > 0:16:35how to be considerate to your fellow diners,
0:16:35 > 0:16:39not to rush, not to chew loudly, to be careful
0:16:39 > 0:16:43when you're all eating from the same bowl.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47And that in turn, of course, brings you a kind of foodie culture.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50They've got cookbooks back in the Song Dynasty.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55One of them has been reprinted ever since, the last time in 2004.
0:16:59 > 0:17:04Pure recipes from the Mountain House Cookbook.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06Oranges stuffed with crab meat.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13Bean curd steamed with hibiscus flowers.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16And each one of these recipes has got delightful
0:17:16 > 0:17:19notes by the author telling you where he first picked it up.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22Take this one,
0:17:22 > 0:17:25plum-blossom noodle-cake soup.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30"I picked up this recipe from an old scholar
0:17:30 > 0:17:35"in the Zimou Mountains on a beautiful snowy night,
0:17:35 > 0:17:39"and whenever I taste it
0:17:39 > 0:17:42"the exquisite moment comes flooding back to me."
0:17:50 > 0:17:52Let's just move some space.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56'In a restaurant in old Kaifeng, we asked the chef to make
0:17:56 > 0:18:00'one of these 11th-century recipes - adapted for the vegetarian.'
0:18:00 > 0:18:04HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
0:18:11 > 0:18:15There's a type of mushroom, pear, and lotus seed.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17- Lotus seeds?- Seeds, yeah.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22So you mix mushrooms and fruit? That's very interesting.
0:18:22 > 0:18:28Cos they have this function of, like, er...deflammation.
0:18:28 > 0:18:30Oh, wow.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36It's delicious. SHE TRANSLATES
0:18:39 > 0:18:41- He says it's his pleasure. - Thank you. Great.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44I'm going to finish this off, if that's all right.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46Is that all right?
0:18:47 > 0:18:49LAUGHTER
0:18:58 > 0:19:01The Mountain House Cookbook was one of thousands of books
0:19:01 > 0:19:04you could buy in Kaifeng.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06Publishing boomed.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11From vast imperial encyclopaedias to poetry, history and ritual.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13And self-help manuals
0:19:13 > 0:19:17for the literate man and woman in the street.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21The Chinese had invented woodblock printing back in the Tang,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24one of many great inventions with which they led the world.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30And now in the Song they devised moveable type too,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33although that never took off in the same way.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40The first mention of this is slightly after 1040 by a person
0:19:40 > 0:19:47called Bi Sheng, using clay to print with moveable typeset.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51So each one of these is a Chinese character
0:19:51 > 0:19:57- and they would form part of a page in a frame.- Yeah.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59But it wasn't...taken up?
0:19:59 > 0:20:00No.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03The Chinese made this invention, which has proved
0:20:03 > 0:20:08so useful to the rest of the world, but they didn't find it useful.
0:20:08 > 0:20:09Why?
0:20:09 > 0:20:14It has to do with the Chinese characters,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17because there are so many of them and, erm...
0:20:17 > 0:20:21Say if you look at this page, almost every character is
0:20:21 > 0:20:25a different one, so economically it wasn't viable, it wasn't efficient,
0:20:25 > 0:20:29especially compared to just using a single woodblock print.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33- Too cumbersome for such a vast range of characters?- Yes.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35'And you can see exactly why
0:20:35 > 0:20:39'when East met West in the 20th century, with the typewriter.'
0:20:39 > 0:20:44Each individual metal type is a Chinese character.
0:20:46 > 0:20:51You'd have to choose the right one, by...navigating this.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56And how many characters have they got for this machine, then?
0:20:56 > 0:20:57Probably about 2,000.
0:20:59 > 0:21:01So how many do you need to negotiate,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04say, a newspaper in modern China, then?
0:21:04 > 0:21:08About 3,000 or 4,000 for the average.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11So strangely enough, although this seems very cumbersome,
0:21:11 > 0:21:13to be carving woodblocks,
0:21:13 > 0:21:15it's actually much more efficient.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19'Especially if a book stays in print for centuries, as they do in China.'
0:21:20 > 0:21:24So tell us about the readership in the Song, then?
0:21:24 > 0:21:26Does reading percolate down into ordinary people?
0:21:26 > 0:21:31Well, of course there are the more elite classes who...
0:21:31 > 0:21:36who can read and who are expected to read.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39But definitely literacy is spreading in the Song.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44Even if they weren't able to read themselves,
0:21:44 > 0:21:50they would be easily able to find someone who can do that for them.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59One of the great things about the Song Dynasty is the attention
0:21:59 > 0:22:03to...what we would call, I suppose, civic values.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07They even publish books on old age.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10This... You're not going to believe this,
0:22:10 > 0:22:14but this is a book about... Well, it's called
0:22:14 > 0:22:21How To Help Old People Live Better, Longer And More Fulfilling Lives
0:22:21 > 0:22:24and it was written in 1085
0:22:24 > 0:22:29and it's gone through editions in every dynasty of China ever since
0:22:29 > 0:22:33and this is the latest 2013 printing.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35How about that?
0:22:35 > 0:22:38"Now, to care for old people,
0:22:38 > 0:22:41"you have to look at the nature of their whole life.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45"Everybody has things that they really like.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47"Things that make them glad.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51"Books and paintings, music.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54"There are millions of things that people like.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57"If a person frequently seeks out the things that they've loved
0:22:57 > 0:23:01"all their life and focuses on their essence
0:23:01 > 0:23:05"and has these things around them, it will give them endless joy
0:23:05 > 0:23:08"and pleasure and their days will be joyful."
0:23:10 > 0:23:14And today's citizens still follow the Song's self-help message.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42Yeah, yeah, yeah, so dancing is very good.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50'So in its ideas about the good life
0:23:50 > 0:23:53'the Song went beyond any earlier civilisation -
0:23:53 > 0:23:55'even the ancient Greeks.'
0:23:58 > 0:24:03And in science, the list of their inventions is incredible.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07From gunpowder and blast furnaces
0:24:07 > 0:24:09to the magnetic compass
0:24:09 > 0:24:12and evolution theory.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19The most famous scientist came from a village down in Fujian
0:24:19 > 0:24:21on the south coast.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24Su Song. There he is.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26One of the great polymaths of the Song Dynasty,
0:24:26 > 0:24:29and they don't come much more poly than him.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33He was an engineer, astronomer, scholar and poet
0:24:33 > 0:24:38but he also wrote treatises on mineralogy and zoology and pharmacology.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41It's real left-brain/right-brain stuff, isn't it?
0:24:41 > 0:24:45But their education enabled them to be both artistic
0:24:45 > 0:24:50and scientific, endlessly creative and endlessly curious.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52He reminds you of some of the great
0:24:52 > 0:24:55figures of the Renaissance in Europe.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59I suppose you could say that he's the Chinese Leonardo,
0:24:59 > 0:25:04but to put it more correctly, Leonardo is the Western Su Song.
0:25:14 > 0:25:19This is Su Song's pet project, an astronomical clock.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26His proud hometown has just rebuilt a working replica.
0:25:26 > 0:25:3145 feet high, its mechanism a water clock,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34driven by an endless chain drive.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54Inside the clock, there had to be a clock captain
0:25:54 > 0:26:00standing like the captain on the bridge of a boat 24 hours a day
0:26:00 > 0:26:03and periodically topping the water level up in the tanks.
0:26:03 > 0:26:04CLUNK
0:26:04 > 0:26:07WATER CASCADES There you go.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10Wonderful imagining this in the middle of Kaifeng,
0:26:10 > 0:26:14ringing out the hours 24 hours a day for the citizens
0:26:14 > 0:26:16as they go about their business.
0:26:16 > 0:26:17BELL CHIMES
0:26:17 > 0:26:21It's like the Song Dynasty's Big Ben.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24Scientific exploration thrived in the Song,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28in part because there was no theological straitjacket
0:26:28 > 0:26:33holding back speculation on the nature of time and the universe.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35Look at this.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41You see the goddess of mercy. It's a real women's cult here.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46Isn't this fantastic? It's a people's temple, this.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50Taoism and Buddhism were the official cults of the Song Empire,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53but religion wasn't an area where the government
0:26:53 > 0:26:55intruded into people's lives.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00Though always watchful of foreigners,
0:27:00 > 0:27:03the Song, just like the Tang, had many Muslim
0:27:03 > 0:27:06and Christian communities, which still survive.
0:27:09 > 0:27:14And in Kaifeng so do the last of the Chinese Jews.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16MAN BLOWS SHOFAR
0:27:16 > 0:27:19This is Chinese Rosh Hashanah.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25Under the Song, the population of China doubled.
0:27:27 > 0:27:33100 million in the year 1000, it was 200 million by the late 1200s,
0:27:33 > 0:27:37more than a third of the world's people.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39And with a huge urban population,
0:27:39 > 0:27:43just like the British in the 19th century, the Chinese invented
0:27:43 > 0:27:48many games and sports, including what they called "kick-ball".
0:27:48 > 0:27:51We British, of course, pride ourselves on having invented
0:27:51 > 0:27:53the world's greatest game
0:27:53 > 0:27:56and in the sense that the rules of modern football
0:27:56 > 0:27:57were established in Britain -
0:27:57 > 0:28:01in Sheffield, to be precise, in the 1860s - that's true,
0:28:01 > 0:28:05but as usual in this story, the Chinese got there first.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09Football was massive in the Song Dynasty, a thousand years ago.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
0:28:11 > 0:28:14So I suppose you could say, as the Chinese would,
0:28:14 > 0:28:18"Zuqiu hui jia le" - football's coming home.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21CROWD ROARS
0:28:30 > 0:28:34It wasn't a mass sport, of course. There was no such thing then.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37But football in the Song was a spectator sport
0:28:37 > 0:28:40with clubs, handbooks, rules, and fans.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45STIRRING MUSIC PLAYS
0:28:47 > 0:28:49The Emperor's not arrived yet!
0:28:58 > 0:29:00WHISTLE BLOWS
0:29:06 > 0:29:09COMMENTARY IN CHINESE LANGUAGE
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Oh, wow!
0:29:16 > 0:29:19Different ways of playing the game in the Song Dynasty.
0:29:19 > 0:29:24The favourite one, the goals were posts about ten metres high,
0:29:24 > 0:29:27coloured net hung between them
0:29:27 > 0:29:30with a hole through which you had to shoot the ball.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37And of course, being China, ethical conduct was vital.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41In Song football, it was play up and play the game.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46Abusing the referee was un-Confucian,
0:29:46 > 0:29:48and professional fouls unthinkable.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50WHISTLE BLOWS
0:29:50 > 0:29:52Well, almost!
0:30:14 > 0:30:17And football wasn't just for the elite.
0:30:17 > 0:30:21China was opening up socially,
0:30:21 > 0:30:23and that went for government too.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28There was definitely a lot of social mobility
0:30:28 > 0:30:31going on during the Song.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35The social classes were in flux in some sense.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38People from all sorts of backgrounds
0:30:38 > 0:30:40could engage more closely,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43who were more sensitive towards the social situation.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46They became involved in government too.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52New schools for learning opened up
0:30:52 > 0:30:56and...academies were established
0:30:56 > 0:31:00as well, that sought to teach the classics
0:31:00 > 0:31:03and also to...foster good character.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08It was the great age of Confucian social values
0:31:08 > 0:31:12and how they set about creating that ethos is startlingly modern.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18As you can see, it's freshers' week here in Henan University in Kaifeng.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21The story of universities goes back a long way in China,
0:31:21 > 0:31:23much further back than in the West.
0:31:24 > 0:31:29And, amazingly, here in Kaifeng in the 11th century
0:31:29 > 0:31:31there was a national university.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38In 1069, the Emperor expanded the student body from 1,000
0:31:38 > 0:31:40to more than 3,000.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43They had financial support and board and lodging.
0:31:43 > 0:31:47And the big idea was to draw in students from the provinces,
0:31:47 > 0:31:51talented youngsters perhaps even from middling or lower families,
0:31:51 > 0:31:54to come into the metropolis for the best education.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59And the goal, as the Emperor put it himself,
0:31:59 > 0:32:02for the morality of the culture.
0:32:02 > 0:32:04As educationalists say today,
0:32:04 > 0:32:06the ethos is the thing.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15For the examinations, the students studied literature, history
0:32:15 > 0:32:17and Confucian classics.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19The Emperor and his advisers were looking for
0:32:19 > 0:32:24tomorrow's administrators to govern a harmonious Confucian society.
0:32:27 > 0:32:32There was a new class of literati who previously, perhaps,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35didn't have the chance to sit through the examination system
0:32:35 > 0:32:36but now they had.
0:32:41 > 0:32:43Confucian teachings were really
0:32:43 > 0:32:46at the core of these civil examinations.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50And because they had such an important role to play
0:32:50 > 0:32:52in those examinations
0:32:52 > 0:32:55and that so many people took examinations,
0:32:55 > 0:32:59it meant that it was a way for Confucian ideas to really
0:32:59 > 0:33:01permeate into society.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06You could say that it was a meritocratic society
0:33:06 > 0:33:10where excellence in learning was really prized.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16Meritocratic, but not universal.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21Half of the population were excluded from this educational revolution.
0:33:21 > 0:33:22Women.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26But ironically, it's through the writings of a woman
0:33:26 > 0:33:29that we get one of the best insights into the world of the Song.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33These students are studying her work
0:33:33 > 0:33:36in today's university in Kaifeng.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38She's the poet Li Qingzhao.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37Li Qingzhao.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40She's one of China's greatest poets.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43Her father had encouraged her to write poetry from an early age
0:34:43 > 0:34:46and attend male poetic gatherings.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51And she was already famous and in print when she was 17,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55when she married a student from the university here in Kaifeng.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58And they spent a lot of time here in the great old Buddhist temple
0:34:58 > 0:35:00in the middle of town,
0:35:01 > 0:35:03wandering its courtyards,
0:35:03 > 0:35:06making rice-paper rubbings of its inscriptions.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11But recent feminist criticism here in China
0:35:11 > 0:35:14is giving us another view of her altogether.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19The strains within her marriage in a society dominated by men,
0:35:19 > 0:35:22the ambitions of a brilliant woman to find a voice
0:35:22 > 0:35:28that was not only interior and personal, but public and political.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35She was criticised by some at the time for saying things,
0:35:35 > 0:35:36for writing poetry.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39Women were not supposed to write poetry. This was a man thing.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44And poetry was one of the major ways of social interaction amongst men.
0:35:45 > 0:35:47You would go and drink a cup of wine
0:35:47 > 0:35:50and you would compose poetry with each other.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52You would say two lines of a poem
0:35:52 > 0:35:54and I would give you the next two lines.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57You would create new poetry in that way.
0:35:58 > 0:35:59Women could do this,
0:35:59 > 0:36:02but increasingly there were courtesans who did this.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06Respectable women didn't participate with men doing it.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10They still wrote, but we don't have very much surviving.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13- A lot of women wrote poetry, didn't they?- A lot of women did write poetry, yes.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17- Being published is a different matter, perhaps.- That's right, yes.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19Paradoxical period for women, isn't it, the Song?
0:36:19 > 0:36:21You know, so many social advances,
0:36:21 > 0:36:26women's voice appearing strongly, perhaps, for the first time.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30And yet, foot binding starting to become widespread.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34It's very mixed, because women become crucial to this political
0:36:34 > 0:36:38notion of loyalty, they have their equal part to play in that.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41But at the same time they are also being...
0:36:41 > 0:36:44Their rights that they have previously had,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48their economic rights, are being taken away from them.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51So women could be highly educated, but to play their part
0:36:51 > 0:36:56in male-led Confucian society, women were to cultivate loyalty
0:36:56 > 0:37:02to father, husband and state to ensure national cohesion.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06So wrote the leading conservative, the historian Sima Guang.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12But in the late 11th century, right up to the top,
0:37:12 > 0:37:15the old way of doing things was challenged.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21The leading light in the reformers was a man called Wang Anshi,
0:37:21 > 0:37:25a Southerner, who'd spent 20 years in local government.
0:37:25 > 0:37:26Ni hao.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30Wang pushed reforms across the board.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33Fairer taxes, government loans for the poor,
0:37:33 > 0:37:36new degrees in law and science.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40Breaking down class barriers in the name of economic efficiency.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44With growing threats on its frontiers,
0:37:44 > 0:37:48the state had an enormous defence budget,
0:37:48 > 0:37:52and Wang thought a more open society would make the economy work better.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57The Confucian classics, the old way of doing things,
0:37:57 > 0:37:58were put in their place.
0:37:58 > 0:38:00They had to have practical application.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04And of course the old-fashioned Confucian bureaucrats were horrified.
0:38:04 > 0:38:06And they took their case to the Emperor,
0:38:06 > 0:38:09here in the palace in Kaifeng.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13The Emperor favoured the reformers,
0:38:14 > 0:38:18but the conservatives in his council saw root-and-branch reform
0:38:18 > 0:38:21as potentially destabilising in uncertain times.
0:38:26 > 0:38:31In the winter of 1070, the great conservative opponent
0:38:31 > 0:38:35of the reforms, Sima Guang, petitioned the Emperor.
0:38:35 > 0:38:37He said, "We don't need these new laws.
0:38:37 > 0:38:42"What we need are good men trained in the old ways."
0:38:43 > 0:38:48"Look at the last 1,500 years of Chinese history," said Sima Guang.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52"You'll see the periods of peace add up to only 300 years, if that.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55"This shows how hard it is to create order
0:38:55 > 0:38:59"and how hard you must work to keep it once you've got it."
0:39:00 > 0:39:03And he ended with this -
0:39:03 > 0:39:09"I fear, at the moment, that our house may not be able
0:39:09 > 0:39:12"to shelter our nation from the rains
0:39:12 > 0:39:14"and the storms that are to come."
0:39:22 > 0:39:25It's one of the great what-ifs of history.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27At this point, towards 1100,
0:39:27 > 0:39:31China could have become the first modern society,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34with the most egalitarian system of government anywhere
0:39:34 > 0:39:35before modern times.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38Why that didn't happen
0:39:38 > 0:39:40was due to events beyond their control
0:39:40 > 0:39:43which would eventually overwhelm them.
0:39:46 > 0:39:51The last 50 years of Song China saw climate change and famine
0:39:51 > 0:39:55and the incessant drumbeat of foreign armies on the frontiers.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05The Mandate of Heaven was not yet lost,
0:40:05 > 0:40:07but the harmony had gone.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34A contemporary wrote,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37"The problem was the wasting of national resources.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40"Public opinion wanted defence spending,
0:40:40 > 0:40:43"not grand building projects."
0:40:52 > 0:40:56The achievements of the Song Dynasty for 100 years were
0:40:56 > 0:41:01amazing across every field of human endeavour.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04TRADITIONAL CHINESE MUSIC IS PLAYED
0:41:06 > 0:41:09In 1101, the last great emperor of the united
0:41:09 > 0:41:12Northern and Southern Song came to the throne, Huizong.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24He was a Renaissance prince, surrounded himself
0:41:24 > 0:41:26with poets and thinkers.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28He was an accomplished painter.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32In his wonderful gardens, he listened to symphonies
0:41:32 > 0:41:34by Buddhist musicians.
0:41:34 > 0:41:37But as he plunged deeper into
0:41:37 > 0:41:41his introverted speculations
0:41:41 > 0:41:44about sacred kingship, he lost touch with reality.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49When much harder choices were needed,
0:41:49 > 0:41:53choices about military expenditure and defence budgets...
0:41:56 > 0:41:59..and deployment of armies,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02as the barbarian forces gathered on the frontier.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08And when the crisis came, as he himself admitted,
0:42:08 > 0:42:14"I myself was mediocre, and in the end I failed the nation."
0:42:21 > 0:42:26The Song shared the East Asian landmass with many other states,
0:42:26 > 0:42:31and in the 1120s Jurchen invaders swept down from the north.
0:42:36 > 0:42:40In 1127, the Siege of Kaifeng began.
0:42:54 > 0:42:55It's one of the greatest,
0:42:55 > 0:42:58most poignant tragedies in Chinese history.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00Just imagine the scene.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03Thick snow swirling down from the sky.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07On the horizon, the gate towers of the outer city are on fire
0:43:07 > 0:43:09and many of the houses are burning.
0:43:09 > 0:43:14And here inside the walls of the inner city are hundreds of thousands
0:43:14 > 0:43:20of terrified citizens of Kaifeng, still resisting, hopelessly.
0:43:20 > 0:43:22The food's run out, the markets are empty.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26There are rumours, even, that people are eating human flesh.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29And the government now try to buy off the invaders,
0:43:29 > 0:43:31but they've no cards left to play.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34When they give gold, the invaders want more.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37They want millions of ounces of gold and silver.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40They want precious silks and fine wines.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44They want antiques, temple bells and ritual vessels.
0:43:44 > 0:43:49They want the musical instruments played by the imperial orchestra.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53And they want people, they want craftsmen,
0:43:53 > 0:43:56but especially they want women.
0:43:56 > 0:44:01They want the ladies-in-waiting from the imperial palace,
0:44:01 > 0:44:04they want the 1,500 female musicians who used to
0:44:04 > 0:44:07play before the Emperor, they want the wives and daughters
0:44:07 > 0:44:11of the royal family and the courtiers and the leading citizens,
0:44:11 > 0:44:14all to be delivered to their great camps
0:44:14 > 0:44:16to the north and south of the city.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20And of course many of those women committed suicide rather than go.
0:44:21 > 0:44:26And so the city which symbolises the very best that civilisation
0:44:26 > 0:44:30had yet achieved on Earth was brought to nothing.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39In a bitter poem on the government's incompetence, Li Qingzhao
0:44:39 > 0:44:43reflected on the catastrophe.
0:44:43 > 0:44:44WOMAN READS IN CHINESE LANGUAGE
0:44:44 > 0:44:47"An age of glory passed like a lightning flash.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52"The troops of the Northern Barbarians
0:44:52 > 0:44:54"appeared as if they had dropped from heaven.
0:44:56 > 0:45:01"Tatar horses paraded in front of your banqueting hall
0:45:01 > 0:45:05"and trampled pearls and emeralds into the fragrant dust.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15"What a waste of time it was
0:45:15 > 0:45:20"for great artists to carve your name into polished cliffs.
0:45:20 > 0:45:25"The Mandate of Heaven passed from you but you didn't see.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29"Times change and power passes.
0:45:30 > 0:45:32"It is the pity of the world."
0:45:43 > 0:45:45HE SPEAKS IN CHINESE LANGUAGE
0:45:48 > 0:45:51The Emperor, Huizong, and thousands of his courtiers were seized
0:45:51 > 0:45:55and taken north, where they died in captivity.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58But his brother fled beyond the reach of the invaders
0:45:58 > 0:46:03across the Yangtze river and vast numbers of refugees followed.
0:46:05 > 0:46:10You get a great sense of a Chinese medieval village from here, don't you?
0:46:10 > 0:46:12The big difference would be that today
0:46:12 > 0:46:15the houses are made out of brick and concrete.
0:46:15 > 0:46:19Then, they would have been wooden-framed, wooden-fronted houses
0:46:19 > 0:46:21like those old ones over there.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25And the people here were not scholars and bureaucrats -
0:46:25 > 0:46:29they were boatmen and dockers and warehousemen.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40And among the millions who fled south was the poet Li Qingzhao.
0:46:44 > 0:46:49"Those who lived in the west of the Yangtze river basin fled east.
0:46:49 > 0:46:51"Those in the north fled south.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58"Those in the hills fled to the cities.
0:46:58 > 0:47:00"Those in cities fled to the hills."
0:47:05 > 0:47:06Hello.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11"And in the end there was no-one who was not uprooted.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19"And I myself, Li Qingzhao, fled upstream,
0:47:19 > 0:47:23"crossed the river near the rapids and got to Jinhua.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28"There I found a place to live in the house of the Qin family.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33"There, after all the terror and all the hardship,
0:47:33 > 0:47:34"I found some peace of mind."
0:47:34 > 0:47:37MUSIC AND SINGING
0:47:47 > 0:47:50And so the patient and long-suffering Chinese people
0:47:50 > 0:47:54set out once more, as they have so often,
0:47:54 > 0:47:58to rebuild, refusing to give up on the Song dream.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03And it was here in the South in the 12th century that Chinese
0:48:03 > 0:48:07civilisation was reborn, in what we call the Southern Song.
0:48:11 > 0:48:13Up to this point, the South has been politically,
0:48:13 > 0:48:15and to some degree economically,
0:48:15 > 0:48:17somewhat more peripheral to the North,
0:48:17 > 0:48:19but now it's the moment when that completely changes.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28More and more people are settling in the South, more and more
0:48:28 > 0:48:33commerce and so on is developing in the South, and the economy booms.
0:48:35 > 0:48:37China is, in a sense, moving.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40It's moving from this very northern orientation,
0:48:40 > 0:48:44a northern east-west orientation, to a much more compact
0:48:44 > 0:48:48southeastern orientation that tends to be how we think of China now.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54The site they chose for the new capital
0:48:54 > 0:48:57was a then-unimportant place called Hangzhou,
0:48:57 > 0:48:59standing on the West Lake,
0:48:59 > 0:49:01one of China's loveliest spots.
0:49:04 > 0:49:06The Chinese have a proverb -
0:49:06 > 0:49:08in heaven there is paradise,
0:49:08 > 0:49:12but here on Earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15In fact, the story goes Hangzhou was chosen
0:49:15 > 0:49:17because of the beauty of its landscape.
0:49:17 > 0:49:23And here they set out to recreate the lost city of dreams.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26There's a wonderful Chinese description from that time,
0:49:26 > 0:49:29which gives you a sense of the landscape that has enchanted
0:49:29 > 0:49:33Chinese poets and painters for more than a thousand years.
0:49:33 > 0:49:37Like a camera panning along the horizon from the blue grey hills,
0:49:37 > 0:49:40across the tranquil surface of the lake,
0:49:40 > 0:49:42and there where the landscape flattens,
0:49:42 > 0:49:44glittering like fish scales,
0:49:44 > 0:49:48the brightly glazed tiles of a myriad rooftops.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55Here, there was every single conceivable amenity of civilisation.
0:50:02 > 0:50:07So in Hangzhou, Song civilisation was restored -
0:50:07 > 0:50:10from the people's culture to practical government.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12There were fire stations
0:50:12 > 0:50:16and hospitals, old people's homes - and even dance pavilions.
0:50:19 > 0:50:23When the Italian Marco Polo came here in the 13th century,
0:50:23 > 0:50:26he called it the best city on earth.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32There were shops selling beauty products, make-up and face cream,
0:50:32 > 0:50:33eyeliner, false hair.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39And if shopping in Hangzhou hadn't worn you out,
0:50:39 > 0:50:44you could repair to teashops or wine bars or storytelling houses
0:50:44 > 0:50:46or huge public theatres.
0:50:46 > 0:50:48And if that wasn't enough,
0:50:48 > 0:50:51at the end of the evening you could go to fabulously appointed,
0:50:51 > 0:50:56exclusive hostess bars where the most famous courtesans of the time
0:50:56 > 0:51:00would serenade you with beautiful music - there was even a gay club!
0:51:08 > 0:51:11But to really understand the remaking of the Song world,
0:51:11 > 0:51:15you have to leave the glitter of Hangzhou behind.
0:51:15 > 0:51:16That's lovely.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23Out in the countryside, south of the river,
0:51:23 > 0:51:27the Southern Song planted hundreds of new towns and villages
0:51:27 > 0:51:31to supply the capital with food and coal and timber.
0:51:36 > 0:51:38And here, at the grassroots,
0:51:38 > 0:51:42they passed on the cultural ethos of the Song.
0:51:45 > 0:51:47Even now in the old county towns
0:51:47 > 0:51:50you can meet descendants of the governing class.
0:51:50 > 0:51:51Ni hao.
0:51:52 > 0:51:54Hello!
0:51:54 > 0:51:56Wow! Look at this.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59'This is Qishan town, an old Song trading place.'
0:52:01 > 0:52:05Here in Mr Xie's crumbling family house, the signboard proudly
0:52:05 > 0:52:09salutes his ancestors who passed the Song civil-service exams.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14Hello, hello, hello, hello! Hello, hello, hello, hello!
0:52:16 > 0:52:20Let me just ask you about the sign above - what does that say?
0:52:50 > 0:52:54And despite all the upheavals of the 20th century,
0:52:54 > 0:52:56the old ideals are still passed on.
0:53:00 > 0:53:02Upstairs in the altar room,
0:53:02 > 0:53:07wooden plaques name the ancestors stretching back a thousand years.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09How many ancestors are commemorated here?
0:53:13 > 0:53:17Wow! So it's one of the biggest family lineages in China?
0:53:31 > 0:53:32So touching.
0:53:32 > 0:53:37'Across the generations, the thread connecting the living with
0:53:37 > 0:53:43'the dead, the Song ethos of virtue, duty and Confucian morality.'
0:53:46 > 0:53:50In the 1100s, here in the South, great thinkers like Zhu Xi
0:53:50 > 0:53:53shaped the Confucian ethos of China until today.
0:53:55 > 0:54:01Zhu Xi wrote China's most influential book after Confucius,
0:54:01 > 0:54:03a handbook to family rituals.
0:54:04 > 0:54:06It was said you could find one in every home
0:54:06 > 0:54:08in China in the 19th century.
0:54:10 > 0:54:14It's about the mutual dependence of family and ancestors.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18As Zhu Xi said, part of the state's effort
0:54:18 > 0:54:20to guide and transform the people.
0:54:22 > 0:54:28But the old cycles of Chinese history now returned to haunt them.
0:54:32 > 0:54:37In the 13th century, the world was turned upside down by the Mongols.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41Led by Genghis Khan,
0:54:41 > 0:54:44their armies swept west as far as the walls of Vienna.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49They overran Northern China,
0:54:49 > 0:54:52creating the most extensive empire in history.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58And then they gradually spread their power into the lands
0:54:58 > 0:55:01of the Southern Song by land and sea...
0:55:03 > 0:55:06..until the last terrible battle.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13It was March 19th 1279.
0:55:16 > 0:55:18Dark day in the story of China.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24We're here almost exactly on the anniversary
0:55:24 > 0:55:28and it was a day just like this, with rain and drizzle.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32By the evening, you couldn't see the far shore.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36The Song commanders had not defended the narrows here,
0:55:36 > 0:55:40so the Mongol fleet was able to sail through into the lagoon.
0:55:41 > 0:55:43And there the Song navy faced them.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45They had about 1,000 ships
0:55:45 > 0:55:48lashed together to form a floating fortress...
0:55:50 > 0:55:54..their decks protected by wet mud to stop the effects
0:55:54 > 0:55:58of the fire projectiles from the Mongol catapults.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01When the battle began, an eyewitness says,
0:56:01 > 0:56:05"The air was full of fiery traces of the Mongol firebombs."
0:56:08 > 0:56:12But when the tide rose, the Mongols were able to encircle the Song fleet
0:56:12 > 0:56:17and in the end the battle was lost and the young Emperor was trapped.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24And then the Emperor's loyal minister, Lu Xiufu,
0:56:24 > 0:56:28made a famous speech to the little boy -
0:56:28 > 0:56:31"The affairs of our state have come to this,
0:56:31 > 0:56:34"but we must not disgrace the nation."
0:56:35 > 0:56:37And he took the boy in his arms
0:56:37 > 0:56:40and he jumped into the sea to commit suicide.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46The little boy's pet white parrot began to screech
0:56:46 > 0:56:50and flap its wings until it overbalanced the cage
0:56:50 > 0:56:52and fell into the water after its master.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57So ended the glory of the Song.
0:57:24 > 0:57:27So in the later 13th century China was defeated,
0:57:27 > 0:57:30under alien rule, shocked to the core.
0:57:36 > 0:57:41The Mandate of Heaven was suspended but it was not lost.
0:57:43 > 0:57:48For China's cycles of order and disorder will continue.
0:57:48 > 0:57:53Another great age will arise, as in China it always does.
0:57:54 > 0:57:59One of the great eras of high civilisation in world history.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06But they won't follow the brilliant experiments of the Song
0:58:06 > 0:58:08on the path to modernity.
0:58:08 > 0:58:13Instead, the experience of defeat will give birth
0:58:13 > 0:58:15to a new kind of despotism.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20The new dynasty will be the Bringers of Light...
0:58:25 > 0:58:26..the Ming.