The inheritance of the Northern Song Dynasty is the decline since the Middle Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. Its area is smaller than that of the Central Plains Dynasty, but it is roughly four and a half times that of France, the largest country in Europe except Russia. The land area in the Southern Song Dynasty was reduced by one third compared with that in the Northern Song Dynasty. Compared with the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty lost all the remote areas except the sixteen counties ceded by the Five Dynasties and the later Jin Dynasty, and basically retained the developed inland areas.

Some people think that the Tang Dynasty was the heyday of China's ancient culture. The most important representative of Tang civilization is Tang poetry, which is recognized as the peak of the development of ancient poetry. Tang poetry is better than Song poetry. However, the civilization of the Song Dynasty is superior to that of the Tang Dynasty in education, Confucian classics, science and technology, history, Song Ci and prose. Generally speaking, Song civilization is superior to Tang civilization. Song Dynasty continued to be at the leading level in the world in education and science.

People often say that the Song Dynasty was poor and weak. In fact, the manpower of the Northern Song Dynasty surpassed that of the Tang Dynasty, and the material resources, financial resources and government revenue were much more than those of the Tang Dynasty. However, the rich fiscal revenue is difficult to bear the expenses of redundant soldiers and officials, and the indiscriminate apportionment has aggravated the poverty of the people. This is poverty accumulation. Military affairs are nothing more than the combination of objective strength and subjective strength. The comprehensive national strength of Song Dynasty is undoubtedly stronger than that of Liao Dynasty, Xixia Dynasty and Jin Dynasty, but due to various factors, the level of strength application is poor, which is a weakness. The Song Dynasty passively accepted the lessons of the Middle Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, focusing on the implementation of civilian politics, respecting the people and restraining the army. Its military system is at the expense of military efficiency, which fetters the talents of military commanders and reduces their status and quality. Song dynasty inherited the reality that the horse-raising area in the middle Tang dynasty fell. Lack of horse resources and neglect of cavalry construction. But the ancient cavalry, like the tanks in World War II, mainly used infantry against the cavalry of Liao Dynasty, Xixia, Jin Dynasty and Yuan Meng, and was in a weak position. In addition, since the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, the military tradition has been to be strong inside and weak outside, and passive defense. Gradually formed, so the military strength weakened, and the martial spirit of the whole era decreased. Gradually, civil servants and eunuchs unified the army. Until the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was no chance for the whole country to resist aggression.