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When scholars talk about an ancient Chinese "urban culture," they distinguish between the "citizens" of the time with the citizen class of medieval Europe, but their emphasis is often still on identifying the "freedom" and "modernity" made possible by "urban culture." This article treats Song-era urban residents as an aggregate group, to explore the characteristics of "urban culture" or "urban market culture" (shijing wenhua). On the surface, Song urban culture seems to feature the coexistence of elite and common culture. Deeper analysis shows that political, economic, and cultural capital became concentrated in urban areas as cities grew, making urban areas much more culturally influential relative to rural areas. Furthermore, because the scholar-gentry class wielded core political power, they continued to exert cultural hegemony. The key influencers of urban culture were public officials rather than private merchants. This was largely due to the popular imitation of upper-class culture by commoners. The urban cultural growth during the Tang and Song dynasties is politically significant because it continued and strengthened the phenomenon since the Tang dynasty of the dynastic state's increasingly unprecedented cultural control, as more scholar-gentry began living and concentrating cultural resources in cities. Thus, from the Song period on, the center of society and culture shifted firmly from rural to urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]