Book Summary- Daily Life In China 1250-1276

Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion- Book Summary
The book starts off with The City; it refers to the city of Hangchow, China’s former capital.   The reason that the Chinese chose Hangchow was because it was a provincial town, and the city fit well with what they needed it for by its lay-out.   It begins by telling us about the nomad invasions and how they captured cities upon cities, because there warfare skills were a lot better than the average Chinese man. It did not matter if the cities were walled, the Chinese did not stand a chance. They could not hold off the invasion anywhere else except for Hangchow.   The Emperor stopped many nomad attempted invasions. The reason being is because Hangchow was surrounded by obstacles such as lakes and muddy fields and the nomads could not make a good invasion through the rough terrain. After the fighting finally came to a close, China became split: Barbarians North- Chinese South. As time went on the inner city of Hangchow began prospering and growing bigger than the Chinese expected. It became one of the most beautiful cities in the world and a huge tourist attraction. They had extremely nice boats at the harbor all of the time. They also had nice boats to just through parties on.   Hangchow used sail boats to sail along the banks of the sea and river, and they vitalized the use of transportation boats to transport people in and out of the city. Marco Polo called it ‘the most noble city and the best that is in the world’.
The Society in the thirteenth century became the beginning in China of the modern times. It became much more complex than it once was in the eleventh century.   It evolved from a small elite with all uniformed ideas, into bigger more diverse elite with many different ideas and backgrounds. Merchants began climbing up the ranks, and before this time they were never even involved with the elite. Now they are becoming socially relevant with the massive growth of Hangchow. Peasant...