Respond to one of the following questions, then add 2–3 sentences to another student’s post.
- Do you think “All Along the River During the Qingming Festival” showcases the Northern Song capital at Kaifeng? Does it match the reading “Recollections of the Northern Song Capital”? What visual evidence can you see from the painting to support that conclusion? What else strikes you in the painting?
- Remembering our class on the Three Kingdoms, open up Su Shi’s rhapsodies on Red Cliff. How do you read these essays? Why did Red Cliff still matter nearly 1,000 years after the famous battle? Why do you think it mattered to Su Shi?
- Choose a landscape painting from the Song Dynasty (besides “All Along the River…”) and analyze it! Who painted it and why? If you choose this option, make sure you attach a copy of the painting to your response.
- What do you make of the argument that China’s “Modern Era” begins in the Song? How do we even define “modernity”? Select one of the primary source readings to make your argument for/against.
- Are the disagreements between Wang Anshi and Sima Guang best understood in light of past political debates such as the Han Dynasty’s Debate over Salt and Iron—or is it something that we haven’t seen before?
- Why do you think discussions of the Song Dynasty’s coal usage are so important to historians of both China and global history?
- What were the cultural, political, and economic consequences of the Song’s losing the north?
- Choose a detail from “All Along the River…” that we did not discuss in class and introduce it.
