Both commerce and culture flourished during the Song dynasty.
Tips
history
两宋 'the two Songs' refers to 北宋 (Northern Song, capital 开封) and 南宋 (Southern Song, capital 临安, today's Hangzhou) as a single 319-year dynasty. The split happened in 1127 when the Jurchen captured the north.
culture
Despite political weakness, the Song produced gunpowder weapons, movable-type printing, Neo-Confucianism (朱熹), the Qingming Festival scroll, and arguably China's commercial and urban peak before modernity.
