Urbanization of the Northern and Southern Song dynasties are of its peak, especially that of the Southern Song dynasty. The most significant historical achievement of the Northern Song dynasty was the replacement of the block market by the street market while the most significant historical achieve⁃ment of the Southern Song dynasty then was the expansion of cities out of city walls which made urban and rural areas mingled. The number of cities and towns in the Southern Song dynasty exploded as urban population mounted to 13%-14%, which shows that the urbanization of the Southern Song dynasty sur⁃passed those of the Han and Tang dynasties and was not caught up by the Ming and Qing dynasties after⁃ward. The economic function of cities became prominent in that political and military cities and towns of the Middle Ages were turned into economic cities and towns in modern times with some manufacturing cit⁃ies and town emerging. The main incentive of urbanization of the Southern Song dynasty is the economic prosperity and market expansion which turned the farmers into small commodity producers, accelerated farmers’ migration into cities, adjusted the structure of state finance, changed people’ s ideas and thus was quite far⁃reaching.%两宋城市化进程，在中国传统社会中处于一个空前绝后的制高点上，尤以南宋时期表现得最为鲜明。如果说北宋的历史功绩主要表现在城墙之内的“坊市制”被临街设店的“街巷制”所取代，那么南宋的历史功绩主要表现在城区的扩展又突破了城墙的束缚，而使城郊和市区连成一片。南宋市镇数量激增，城市人口比重高达13％—14％，城市化率不仅远超汉唐，且为明清所不及。与此同时，城市的经济意义明显增长，中古时期的政治、军事型城镇开始向近世型经济城市转型，且有一批生产型城市侧身其间。促成南宋城市化进程加速推进的主要动力是商品经济的繁盛和市场的拓展。这个进程不仅使农民向小商品生产者加速转化，农村人口向城市加速转移，而且带来了国家财政结构的调整和人们思想观念的变化，影响深远。
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