In contrast, Europe’s Renaissance only began two centuries after the end of the Northern Song. The diffusion of books enabled by woodblock printing, the publication of large encyclopaedias, the growing number of candidates who entered the examination system for the civil service, the great progress made in mathematics (particularly the development of algebra) and the emergence of a gentry-scholar class marked China out as the most literate and numerate society in the world; only the Islamic world could compare, with Europe lagging well behind.
