Shipbuilding Industry and Social Life in the Song Dynasty

This chapter discusses the composition and livelihood of inland river boatmen, southerners’ daily life, officials’ and civilians’ water travel, sacrificing ceremonies, the evolution of people’s worships and water deities, ferry management, as well as requisition and recruitment of the civilian boats. The author of this book finds out that a minimum of 100,000 boatmen were engaged in various cargo transportation roles, with an additional requirement of over 300,000 boatmen for functions beyond grain transportation. The boatmen’s distinctive way of life and psychological world are also presented based on the historical records. Many waterfront dwellers made a living by boats. Whether along the Yangtze River and major inland rivers, around major lakes, or in coastal areas, many residents were engaged in fishing. Coastal residents also developed seasonal fishery production rules. Water travelers acquired boats in four main ways: official dispatch, rental, passenger boat, and chartering a boat. The first was mainly for officials when they went to or left from their postings or traveled on official business. The last three were commonly used by both officials and civilians. The new changes in the beliefs of water deities during the Song Dynasty were mainly manifested in two ways: first, the new changes occurred in the original system if beliefs. This was reflected, firstly, in the enhancement of the original functions and status of the deities, and then, apart from the safeguarding navigation by original deities, they were added new functions. Secondly, the new beliefs were created by people to meet their needs of safe navigation during the Song Dynasty, reflecting the new features of its historical development. In addition to the public ferries operated by the government in the Song Dynasty, there were another two kinds of ferries: privately contracted ferries and private ferries. Inferior ferries which suffered few customers and poor income were mostly contracted by the private sector. There were two types of major taxes on civilian boats in the Song Dynasty: ship tax and cargo tax. The local governments extensively recruited civilian boats for coastal defense and grain transportation. The registration and shift-system were mainly implemented in coastal areas such as Fujian and Liangzhe East Provinces, and requisitioned ships were dispatched mainly to the important coastal defense areas, such as Liangzhe West Province and Mingzhou for defending the capital city Lin’an.