宋代城市发达, 很多词人作词对宋代的繁华都市和市井民生进行了描述, 词人柳永目睹了北宋都市的繁荣盛景, 从承平盛景、应制颂圣、帝京情结、盛世红颜四个方面描绘都市盛景和市井风情, 多方位反映了北宋都市繁华的社会现实.
Many poets, who lived in the highly developed cities of Song Dynasty, composed poems to depict the urban prosperity and civic lives of those city dwellers.Liu Yong, a poet, witnessed the prosperity of the city in the Northern Song Dynasty, describing the prosperity of the city and the customs of the city from four aspects:the stability and prosperity of the society, the adaption to the times and the praise of emperors, imperial capital complex, and the beauties of prosperous cities, and thereby reflecting the prosperous social reality of the city in many ways.