I am too!! The poorer npeople lived in cheap houses,sometimes with other families, were farmers.middle class people lived in in-town homes that were nice. high class people lived in palaces or were part of the goverment.

On rural life, we'll have to start with some background information.

China is always experiencing natural disasters throughout history, so a responsible government would always be needed to minister inter-regional resource allocation, lest social unrest of certain regions spill unto others.

China's population is composed mostly of farmers, but due to their fragile nature, cannot and should not be taxed heavily.

Han dynasty taxes were about 3%

Tang dynasty taxes were about 2%

In the Song dynasty, it was 4%, but only because advances in farming techniques yielded a huge 50% agricultural surplus. The advance freed up extra manpower to go into industry and therefore work on stuff like the ceramics you talked about.

The population census never exceeded 60 million before Song, but exploded to 120 million in the 13th century Song dynasty, sowere living standards good? I would reckon it pretty good compared to earlier Chinese times and with feudalistic Europe at that time.

On Ceramics, the Song dynasty is most renowned for its "qingbai"(which means white) ceramics, said to be "White like jade, sheen of a mirror, thin as paper, tone like Shin(a musical instrument)"