The Song Dynasty (Chinese: 宋朝; 960–1279 AD) provided some of the most prolific technological advancements in Chinese history, much of which came from talented statesmen drafted by the government through imperial examinations.
The ingenuity of advanced mechanical engineering had a long tradition in China. The Song Dynasty engineer Su Song admitted that he and his contemporaries were building upon the achievements of the ancients such as Zhang Heng (張衡; 78–139), an astronomer, inventor, and early master of mechanical gears. The application of movable type printing advanced the already widespread use of woodblock printing to educate and amuse Confucian students and the masses. The application of new weapons employing the use of gunpowder enabled the Song Dynasty to ward off its militant enemies until its collapse to the Mongol forces of Kublai Khan, late in the 13th century.
Notable advancements in civil engineering, nautics, and metallurgy were made in Song China, as well as the introduction of the windmill to China during the 13th century. These advancements, along with the introduction of paper-printed money, helped revolutionize and sustain the economy of the Song Dynasty.

Polymaths and mechanical engineering
Polymath personalities such as Shen Kuo (沈括; 1031–1095) and Su Song (苏颂; 1020–1101) embodied the spirit of early empirical science and technology in the age of the Song Dynasty. Shen Kuo was most famous for discovering the concept of true north, magnetic declination towards the North Pole, by calculating a more accurate measurement of the astronomical meridian, and fixed the calculated position of the pole star that had shifted over the centuries.

Polymaths
There were many other important figures in the Song era besides Shen Kuo and Su Song, many of whom contributed greatly to the technological innovations of the time period. Although the mechanically-driven mile-marking device of the carriage-drawn odometer had been known in China since the ancient Han Dynasty, the Song Shi (compiled in 1345) provides a much greater description and more in-depth view of the device than earlier Chinese sources. The Song Shi states:
What follows is a long dissertation made by the Chief Chamberlain Lu Daolong on the ranging measurements and sizes of wheels and gears. The Song Shi text records that it was the engineer Wu Deren who combined the South Pointing Chariot and odometer in the year 1107:
The text then went on to describe in full detail the intricate mechanical design for the two devices combined into one (refer to the article on the South Pointing Chariot).

Odometer and South Pointing Chariot
Besides clockwork, hydraulic-powered armillary spheres, odometers, and mechanical compass vehicles, there were other impressive devices of mechanical engineering found during the Song Dynasty. Although literary references for mechanical revolving repositories and book cases of Buddhist temples trace back to at least 823 during the Tang Dynasty, A later Muslim traveler Shah Rukh (son of the Turco-Mongol warlord Timur) came to Ming Dynasty China in 1420 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor, and described a revolving repository in Ganzhou of Gansu province that he called a 'kiosque':

Revolving repositories
In the field of manufacturing textiles, the Chinese invented the quilling-wheel by the 12th century,

Textile machinery

Main article: Movable type Movable type printing
Advances in military technology aided the Song Dynasty in its defense against hostile neighbors to the north. The flamethrower found its origins in Byzantine-era Greece, employing Greek fire (a chemically-complex, highly flammable petrol fluid) in a device with a siphon hose by the 7th century.

Gunpowder warfare
In ancient China, the sluice gate, the canal lock, and flash lock had been known since at least the 1st century BC (as sources then alluded that they were not new innovations), during the ancient Han Dynasty (202 BC–220). However, agricultural and transportation needs had the potential to conflict with one another. This is best represented in the Dongpo Zhilin of the governmental official and famous poet Su Shi (苏轼; 1037–1101), who wrote about two decades before Shen Kuo in 1060:
Although the drydock had been known in Ptolemaic Egypt since the late 3rd century BC (by a Phoenician; not used again until Henry VII of England in 1495), the scientist and statesman Shen Kuo wrote of its use in China to repair boats during the 11th century. In his Dream Pool Essays (1088), Shen Kuo wrote:

Civil engineering

Nautics
The Chinese of the Song Dynasty were adept maritime sailors who traveled to ports of call as far away as Fatimid Egypt. They were well equipped for their journeys abroad, in large seagoing vessels steered by stern-post rudders and guided by the directional compass. Even before Shen Kuo and Zhu Yu had described the mariner's magnetic needle compass, the earlier military treatise of the Wujing Zongyao in 1044 had also described a thermoremanence compass.

Literature
During the Song Dynasty there was also great amount of attention given to the building of efficient automotive vessels known as paddle wheel craft. The latter had been known in China perhaps since the 5th century,

Paddle-wheel ships
The art of metallurgy during the Song Dynasty built upon the efforts of earlier Chinese dynasties, while new methods were incorporated. The Chinese of the ancient Han Dynasty (202 BC–220) figured out how to create steel by smelting together the carbon intermediary of wrought iron and cast iron by the 1st century BC.

Metallurgy
The effect of wind power was appreciated in China long before the introduction of the windmill during the Song period. It is uncertain when the ancient Chinese used their very first inflatable bellows as wind-blowing machines for kilns and furnaces. They existed perhaps as far back as the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC–1050 BC), due to the intricate bronze casting technology of the period. They were certainly used since the advent of the blast furnace in China from the 6th century BC onwards, since cast iron farm tools and weapons were widespread by the 5th century BC.

Wind power

History of science and technology in China
Architecture of the Song Dynasty
Culture of the Song Dynasty
Economy of the Song Dynasty
History of the Song Dynasty
Society of the Song Dynasty
List of Chinese inventions Notes

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