The community structure and social life of the market towns in the Tai Lake valley in the Southern Song Dynasty——Study on the market towns in the Tai Lake Valley in the Song Dynasty(IV)

In the Song Dynasty,centres of towns and market towns of larger size in the Tai Lake valley reached or surpassed county cities and showed similar distribution features of the community structure and blocks of county and prefecture cities.In social administration,there gradually formed systems different from those of common rural areas order,census register,military service law,etc.In the meantime,the culture and education of market towns became more and more developed;the social life was rich and colorful;ideas of valuing trade and seeking wealth prevailed,luxurious and vain practice was quite common.