Dynastic periodization has traditionally structured the chronological ordering of China’s history. The period from 900 to 1350 encompasses two major dynasties, Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1279–1367). Historians in China and elsewhere typically saw the Song as culturally vibrant and militarily weak, and the Yuan as a conquest dynasty that briefly interrupted the narrative flow of Chinese history until the restoration of “native” rule in the following Ming (1368–1644). Twentieth-century national politics recast China’s history along a linear (ancient, medieval, modern) timeline rather than a dynastic cyclical one, placing the Song and Yuan in a medieval-to-modern transition. The high degree of commercialization and monetization of the Song economy led scholars to view the Song as experiencing an economic transformation that fostered dramatic changes in Song society. Recent interest in cultural diversity as well as political concerns with the role of minority peoples – in both the People’s Republic of China and elsewhere – have drawn new attention to the Khitan Liao, Tangut Xi Xia, and Jurchen Jin empires that rose on the Song borders, as well as the Mongol conquest and rule of China as the Yuan dynasty. Middle-period China encompasses processes of political unification, social and economic transformations, and profound cultural achievements.

“The linguistic history of Italian is an interesting case study for reflecting upon the concept of a standard language and its nature, diffusion and impact. Whereas in other European countries the process of linguistic standardization was predominantly related to political or religious factors, in Italy, in the absence of a unified country (until 1861) and of a commonly spoken language, the standardization of Italian was founded on literature. The elitist norm that prevailed was based on archaic literary models, notably on Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, which raised long-lasting issues concerning the homogeneity/heterogeneity and rigidity/flexibility of the standard, as well as questions related to its share-ability and incisiveness. It is only from the twentieth century onwards, when the process of Italianization reached completion and Italian became the language of all Italians, that we can speak of the norm as an ‘average of individual realizations’; that is, as a norm that comes mainly from below. Certain phenomena previously considered ‘substandard’, many of which derive from a new relationship of give and take between written and spoken language, have finally been accepted, hence the configuration of a neo-standard which is at least partly different with respect to the ‘historical’ one.”