Chapter 13 Chapter 12 West Lake and Southern Song Dynasty

Hangzhou (Lin'an) had lost its reputation in the Sui Dynasty.After the opening of the North-South Grand Canal, it is the southern terminus.It differs from Kaifeng, which is largely a consumer city, with purchasing power in the hands of government officials and their families and entourages.Hangzhou, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, was a manufacturing center.Shipbuilding, silk weaving, and the manufacture of porcelain and paper especially advanced by leaps and bounds in the Southern Song Dynasty. For modern tourists, the West Lake, which is close to Hangzhou, is a must-visit resort for tourists. At first, it was a part of Hangzhou Bay, and it was still like this until the early 7th century AD. Later, the side near the Qiantang River was blocked. As time went on, the salt water in the lake turned into fresh water and became today's West Lake.

West Lake is only slightly smaller than Hangzhou City in terms of area.The two embankments shorten the distance between the winding lake shores in the west and northwest.Bai Causeway, named after Bai Juyi, leads directly to Gushan.Su Causeway began with Su Dongpo, a poet, painter and prose writer who fought fiercely against Wang Anshi's reforms in the 11th century.Although there are nearly 300 years between him and Bai Juyi, they both served as magistrates in Hangzhou and dredged the lake successively.The two causeways are the remnants of their work.From this point of view, the traditional Chinese government uses talents with artistic concepts as bureaucrats, which has the mystery of its careful design. Although it is a coincidence that the two people left their names in the West Lake together, their emphasis on environmental maintenance and ecology has surpassed General officials.

A Chinese opera called "Legend of the White Snake", with the West Lake as the background, has recently become all the rage in the United States.When it was unveiled, the audience faced the lakeshore.The two snake elves, one white and the other green, have turned into two beautiful women named "Bai Suzhen" and "Xiaoqing".They met a young man, Xu Xian, on the Bai Causeway.Suzhen fell in love with him at first sight, and after they became husband and wife, they had a son, and Xiaoqing took care of them in their home.But Fahai, the abbot of Jinshan Temple, discovered the origin of Suzhen's evildoer, so he covered her with a Dharma bowl and built a Leifeng Pagoda on the bowl.According to this myth, as long as the Leifeng Pagoda exists, Bai Suzhen will inevitably be buried under thousands of tons of bricks.Fortunately, Xiaoqing escaped when the catastrophe was approaching that day, and when he came back, he had led a large number of shrimp soldiers and crab generals, and the son born to Xu Xian and Suzhen had also grown up and joined the battle.Their liberation war finally brought Bai Suzhen back to freedom.In the future, no one will follow, but the Leifeng Pagoda lives up to its name, and it collapsed in 1924, and only its traces remain today.

Even in folklore, the Chinese maintain the traditional view that a marriage resulting from a romantic encounter must be very inauspicious.It is not the snake that seduces the woman, but the woman herself is the snake and scorpion.But the ending of this story shows that the vitality full of life can finally overcome the authority, because the latter can only sacrifice humanism to cater to common habits, and the audience can also see the difference between the big tradition and the small tradition.High-level culture cannot be separated from intellectuals, and small traditions are advertised as farmers and fishermen. If that is not enough, the introduction of shrimp soldiers and crabs will serve as a foil.

Tourists pass by the Xileng Bridge and lead to Su Causeway, and there is Yue Tomb nearby.Yue Fei, who was buried in the tomb, was also an outstanding figure in the Song Dynasty. He was born in the army, promoted to a junior officer, and eventually became the most famous general in the Song Dynasty.In 1141 AD, he was framed by Prime Minister Qin Hui and died in prison for disobedience.At that time, Qin Hui worked closely with Emperor Zhao Gou to negotiate peace with the invading Jurchens.The Jurchens have organized a Sinicized dynasty called Jin, and they are driving straight in, forcing the Song Dynasty to retreat southward.Yue Fei's crime was that he was able to restrain his subordinates during this internal and external chaos, gain the support of the people, suppress the bandits, and use infantry tactics to defeat the invading Jin soldiers.He was only 39 years old at the time, and if he was allowed to survive, not only would the peace talks that had just begun to come to fruition after a few setbacks and negotiations might change their minds, but also the dynasty was running north and south, and it itself would feel threatened by being around.

Twenty years after Yue Fei's death, he was rehabilitated by the Southern Song court. Because of the habit of worshiping fallen heroes, the Chinese revered him second only to Guan Yu.However, Yue Fei is different from Guan Yu. He is proficient in writing and ink, and he develops the traditional concept of loyalty and filial piety and his upbringing at the same time.Today, a temple has been built next to Yue Fei's tomb, which is 14 feet high, and his statue and all his armor are enshrined inside.In fact, Yue Fei has played a role in inspiring the thinking of the Chinese nation in recent decades.In front of his statue, there are four statues kneeling to him, namely the prime minister Qin Hui and his wife and two accomplices.In the 1930s, it was not easy for the local police to prevent tourists from drowning in the Qin Hui statue.There are also people who use rough objects, including gun handles, to pound the head of Qin Hui's statue.Only Wang Jingwei, who surrendered to Japan during World War II, dared to say that Yue Fei was an uncontrollable warlord.

Yue Fei is not a warlord, in fact he can control.Otherwise, after defeating the Jinren in Central China, Qin Hui would not have died because Qin Hui called him back south in the name of the emperor, that is, stopped fighting the Jurchen.In fact, when confronting the enemy, it was a habit of the Song Dynasty court to hesitate between war and peace. This indecisive attitude can be traced back to the Northern Song Dynasty (the capital of the country was still in Kaifeng at that time).The Song Dynasty could not keep its policy consistent for a long time on the way of war and peace, and the damage it caused to itself far exceeded Qin Hui's tricks.

This war of misfortune began with Zhao Ji, the eighth emperor of the Song Dynasty.If he hadn't been arranged by fate to be a ninety-five-year-old man, he could have drawn illustrations on books or devoted himself to collecting art and lived a more graceful life. Being an emperor is not what he is good at.During his Yuyu period, there were not only Wang Anshi's disputes, but also the prosperity of the Jurchens.Jurchen originated from the upper reaches of the Songhua River in the northeast, and its language belongs to the Tungusic (Tungusic) family, and it is also connected with the Manchurians in the future.In 1113 AD, they rebelled against the suzerain Liao and became independent. One year later, they called themselves "Jin".In 1118 AD, Zhao Ji's court, dazzled by the success of the Jin people, formed an alliance with them to attack the Liao Dynasty, hoping to take advantage of the success of the military operation to recover the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun and fulfill the dynasty's long-cherished wish.Jin's attack on the Liao Dynasty was like destroying the dead, without any effort. In 1125, Liao was destroyed without the aid of the Song Dynasty.In the following year, these fighters in the far north felt that they could take advantage of the new victory to deal with the Northern Song Dynasty, so they invaded southward on a large scale.At the last moment, Zhao Ji was passed on to the eldest son.The Jin people immediately invaded Kaifeng, captured the current emperor of the Song Dynasty and the Supreme Emperor, and sent them to the northeast. Their father and son never returned to the south, and the Northern Song Dynasty perished in the same year (1126).

Zhao Ji's ninth son, Zhao Gou, established himself as emperor and became the master of Yue Fei and Qin Hui, which was called the Southern Song Dynasty in history.But just as Zhao Gou made a salute, he was about to flee for his life.In the next four years, he was chased by Jin people from central China to the south of the Yangtze River, and then fled from Hangzhou to Ningbo. In 1132, when the Jin people went north, he returned to Hangzhou (called Lin'an at that time). In 1138, Hangzhou became the capital of the country, but it is still called "Xingzai", because Kaifeng is the tomb of the ancestors of the royal family of Zhao and Song Dynasties, so it cannot be justifiably abandoned.

The peace agreement in 1141 A.D. made Zhao Gou’s mother (who was also captured by the Jin people before) go south to reunite her mother and son. The Southern Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty took the Huaihe River as the boundary. Both are in today's Beijing.Since the Southern Song Dynasty was a vassal, 500,000 yuan was paid to gold every year, half of which was silver and half was silk. Jurchen Zhijin claimed that it had become the suzerain of the Goryeo, Huihe and Xixia people due to the tribute, so it followed the Chinese tradition and declared it a great empire of Qu Yu's family.Before the envoys of the Song Dynasty presented the tribute, the Jin Dynasty had already started the imperial examination to select scholars, and the grades of civil servants had also been promulgated. The benefactor personally saluted.

At that time, the most powerful argument of the Song court against the peace talks was: it is a matter of great disrespect for the monarch to perform the courtesy of his ministers to foreigners.However, opposing the peace agreement also prevented the mother of the monarch from returning to the south, which inevitably violated the traditional concept of loyalty and filial piety.Many historians have overlooked a fact here: At this time, most of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River were occupied by bandits, and the Jin Dynasty was preparing to set up a buffer state in it, and had sent surrendered Han Chinese to infiltrate the front of the Song Dynasty.What was even more difficult to deal with was that at the time of the war with Jin, the finances in the south were still in chaos, and it was difficult to recruit troops. Even if the armies were formed in a hurry, the government-in-exile in Lin'an did not have confidence in its own existence. In 1161 AD, that is, the year Yue Fei was rehabilitated, the Jin people were ready to go south to attack the Song Dynasty, but the battle was inconclusive, and the peace talks between the two sides were postponed for 4 years.After several twists and turns, the Jin people allowed the Southern Song Dynasty to not be a vassal from then on, and the annual coins were also reduced by 100,000. In the last few years of the 12th century, Han Tuozhou was a power minister in the Southern Song Dynasty, and tried to overthrow the peace.His father was brother-in-law with the emperor Zhao Gou, and Han himself married the empress's niece.He is not only the prime minister but also in charge of the affairs of the Privy Council, and he also holds the title of Grand Master, so he can decide peace and war alone.It's just that he was extremely unpopular in the Southern Song Dynasty, and he was also known for being extravagant in his private life.Therefore, when he planned the Northern Expedition in 1206 AD but failed, few people sympathized with him.What's more, 1206 was a difficult year. In Mongolia in the north, Temujin called himself "Genghis Khan" at this time. In Mongolian, this is equivalent to the emperor of China. Something else.At this moment, the Zejin people gained power on the battlefield and dared to ask the Southern Song Dynasty for the head of Han Tuozhou, but they did get what they wanted (a minister of rites murdered the grand master, and the court announced his crimes after the incident was completed, and the head was sent to gold after the coffin was dissected).However, despite this, some historians complained about Han, saying that the crimes against him were too fictitious, and his ignorance and ignorance could not change the fact that Han Tuozhou sacrificed his life for a purpose.In short, this time the peace negotiation was successful, and the Song Zhisui currency increased to 600,000. The Song Lord also called himself "Nephew Emperor" and the Gold Lord "Uncle Emperor" in the document. Within a few years the situation changed drastically.In 1214 A.D., when the Song court took advantage of the Jurchen gold and was forced by the Mongols to have no time to pay attention to others, it stopped paying the old coins. In 1232, there was another better opportunity for the Southern Song court to avenge the old grievances. This was the Mongolian envoy sent to Hangzhou, suggesting to attack the Jin people.At this time, some courtiers still remembered that in 114, Emperor Zhao Ji made an appointment with Jin to attack Liao under similar circumstances, and the court almost fell into the tragic situation of collapse.However, the people of Song Dynasty hated Jin deeply, and it lasted for a long time, and they could no longer tolerate cautious warnings, so the alliance was successful.Unexpectedly, Mongolia's extermination of Jin was like Jin's extermination of Liao in the past. It only took two years, and it did not rely on Song's help at all.Since they had destroyed Xixia in 1227, the descendants of Genghis Khan could concentrate on dealing with the only remaining dynasty in China since then.In this regard, the actions of the Southern Song Dynasty were slightly better than that of the Jin people, and they still survived for 45 years in a precarious situation. From a macro standpoint, the issue of peace and war in the Southern Song Dynasty has a coherent relationship with Wang Anshi's new law in the Northern Song Dynasty.This dynasty cannot break through economically, and its military is weak and weak as far as its influence is concerned. When Zhao Kuangyin first came to the throne in 960 AD, the power of local taxation was still in the hands of soldiers, and the high-level and low-level agencies of the country could still maintain appropriate connections.After the centralization of power in Kaifeng, this bond gradually disappeared.Although the resources that this empire can control are huge, it lacks proper service businesses to make them turn around legally and reasonably.As far as the weakness is concerned, its damage exceeds the failure and hesitation of the whole dynasty's 319 years of peace and war. Moreover, when referring to this period of historical facts, there is still a problem of historical terms to consider.We cannot ignore the saying that during the Zhao and Song Dynasties, a kind of "commercial revolution" and "Renaissance" unfolded in China.These titles were first initiated by a few Japanese scholars, and gradually followed by Western and Chinese historians.A revolution is a social movement, and once launched, it cannot be reversed.When the commercial revolution occurred in the West, it affected many public organizations, and the legal system was based on commercial customs. However, there was no such institutional change in the early modern history of China. However, the Song Dynasty was indeed able to use its statistics and the watercolor paintings it left behind to make future readers appreciate its dazzling brilliance.In terms of painting, Zhang Zeduan's "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" is second to none.This map depicts Kaifeng at its peak, probably a few years before the Jin invasion in 1126.The full frame measures 18 feet long and presents a sort of country-to-town panorama, with sections at different times.At the right end of it, there are villagers driving donkeys loaded with vegetables to the market, and the morning fog is still on the top of the tree.The left end of the painting shows that dusk is approaching, and the passers-by are already tired. They are folding their parasols and packing up their belongings, with a lazy expression.Between these two ends are city gates, cross streets, streets and alleys, and the banks of the Bian River. There is also an arch bridge in the center of the city. There are awnings on the doors and windows of the cabin, which are obviously used for private leisure; there are vendors selling snacks and knives and scissors on the street. , All places where wine is sold hang a kind of flag with three straight lines on it, which looks like a modern trademark. It may even be because the brewing of the day is patented by the state, and this flag is the license of the shop.Various baskets, bags and drums carried on ships, pack animals, camels, vehicles, and carts pulled by buffaloes prove that the capital had a large number of businesses at that time.The door signs of each store are drawn according to the actual objects, and the structures of ships and buildings are all realistic.The mechanical design of various items can be mutually confirmed with the narration of the people at that time. As a historical document, "A Picture of Shanghe During the Qingming Festival" is unparalleled in the world.The West can be compared with the picture, only Bayeux Tapestry (Bayeux Tapestry) can count.In terms of material life, China in the 12th century was undoubtedly ahead of other countries in the world.Zhang Zeduan's masterpiece confirms the prosperity of "Xingzai" (the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty) described by the Song people.Kaifeng is not a place of manufacture. Even if there is already such a business, the southern big city is more suitable geographically and has more resources. The highest point of economic development and one and a half centuries after the Zhangtu, its prosperity may actually exceed The depiction on the picture is far away.Thanks to the patience of the cartographer, everything was detailed, thus confirming what Marco Polo had recorded (despite the tourist's exaggerated character). But even so, there is still history to point out: this city life only serves a huge bureaucracy that is good at words.This is different from modern Europe in the future, the commerce of Song Dynasty China could not produce a kind of omnipotent exchange of goods (only this kind of character can produce new control methods).Zhang Zeduan's map clearly lacks credit bureaus, insurance brokers, and law firms—none of which were present that day.However, there is a doctor's residence in the "Surfing the River During the Qingming Festival". Departments cannot be the leading force in the daily lives of ordinary people.Dynastic opulence was, by the standards of the day, only to make life comfortable for the managers of a vast administrative apparatus.It is a passive thing, not a master of pacts, and therefore cannot be the link between the higher and lower institutions of the state. Whenever the existing books mention the Song Dynasty, it is always inseparable from the mention that the total national income in 1021 AD was 150 million, and each unit represented 1,000 copper coins.The original text comes from the accounting part of "Song History Shihuo Zhi", but the nature of this statistics is not mentioned in the text.However, according to the conversion rate of the day, the above total value of gold is between 15 million taels and 18 million taels. Roughly calculated based on today's US dollar 400 worth of gold one tael, the above figure is equivalent to 6 billion to 7 billion US dollars.At that time, there was no other place in the world where the wealth of the country was circulated in such a large quantity. While there is no conclusive evidence to make us question the above figures, we also know that there was a back-and-forth between the misrepresentation of the figures and the actual inflation.But at the very least, we can say that managers in the Song Dynasty were faced with a situation that could not be managed numerically.There are many reasons why the situation is confusing and disjointed. Sometimes, some warehouses are overstocked while others are short.In the financial report of the Song Dynasty, the stones of grain, the strings of copper coins, and the strings of silk were considered to be interchangeable.In fact, the prices of items vary greatly from place to place, and sometimes in the same place due to time and season.The official history admits that all rates of exchange were usually determined unilaterally by the tax-collector, leaving "the people with nothing to complain about."Nor can it be concluded that the tax should expand and contract according to the predetermined amount in each place, or according to the actual situation, when the tax-payer and the tax-collector are at loggerheads.Some taxpayers themselves allocate the money to expenses.Sometimes the amount receivable is confused with the item that has actually been accepted and released, and the lost and unexempted money and goods are not canceled.Before double-entry bookkeeping was widely used, this situation also appeared in the West, but it was not as shocking as the Song Dynasty. Because of the pressure from the upper echelons, it is a common phenomenon to report more with less.In the same situation, various units of the army also falsely reported the number of people in order to obtain more food and salaries. They knew that they would still have to discount when they were paid out, so they had to falsely report.This unit is the same, and the other unit is the same, otherwise you will have to suffer.At the beginning of this millennium, the total number of Song troops exceeded one million. The imperial court repeatedly sent personnel to investigate the "redundant soldiers", but there was no obvious effect. The army of the Song Dynasty was still selected at first, and in 1035 AD, the salary of soldiers also varied according to their height.After that year, this standard was abandoned, and there was no choice in recruiting soldiers into the army. The division of the army into three ranks has become a thing of the past.Sometimes recruits are paid for resettlement, so recruits included refugees, beggars, and criminals.On the one hand, the military expenditure was inflated, and on the other hand, there was an increasing shortage of soldiers capable of fighting. On the eve of the invasion of the Jin people in 1126 AD, the soldiers of the Song Dynasty even had to tattoo on their right arms to prevent them from fleeing. The state of the army is also a reflection of the state's finances, which should also be in harmony with the general state of life of the people.The Song system, though not intended to be so, violated this fundamental principle of organization.Its main problem is that on the one hand, there are peasant taxpayers, which it controls, and on the other hand, peasant soldiers, which it recruits. The distance between the two must be shortened.Its revenues, once claimed to be derived from "commercial sources"—mainly table salt, tea, spices, potash, yeast, wine vinegar (raw silk included in the land tax and sometimes in place of money) were in fact agricultural products and rural industries. product.Centralized control, however, does not shorten the above-mentioned distance, on the contrary, it prolongs the distance between the two, and because of bureaucratic abuse of power, it makes the relationship worse. Common people's understanding: Song Zhiqiang's strong enemy has the advantage of shepherds over farmers by virtue of their semi-nomadic background.However, what is less noticed is that once North China fell into their hands, they also recruited the Han people in the territory.The Liao organized most of the Han people into "transfer households" and assigned them to each "Ganruduo" (palace), so that each tribe, that is, the palace guards and excellent troops, had Han Chinese manpower to support the Khitan of soldiers.Jin mixed the Jurchens who participated in the military due to heredity into the Han household registration.Residents from 50 to 300 households form a "Muke", and 8 to 10 Moukes form a "Meng'an" (the actual number of households varies greatly from place to place). In principle, the heads of Mouke and Meng'an can only be Acted by the Jurchens.Therefore, taxation and collection are closely monitored by their professional warriors to achieve the highest administrative efficiency.And the flexibility of its mobilization is unmatched by the Song Dynasty, which had to maintain a huge standing army on a regular basis.Therefore, the military advantages of foreign or ethnic minorities have their own reasons. The place where the horses are manipulated also has a decisive relationship with the ups and downs of the combat power of both sides. "History of Liao Dynasty" made it very clear that horses and sheep were not allowed to leave the country when they traded with Song Dynasty.The same book also mentioned that it is very important not to lose the source of the horses in the decisive battle between Liao and Jin.This prohibition on horses going south can also be seen from Zhang Zeduan's "Along the River During the Qingming Festival". The large carts in Kaifeng on the painting are all pulled by cattle and buffaloes, which shows that there is an urgent shortage of horses.Originally, horses could also be bred in central China, but limited by the local agricultural economy, the cost was extremely difficult to maintain, and the horses bred in precision farming areas were generally relatively poor. Therefore, in the early years of the modern chapter of Chinese history, the explanation of the so-called "economic hub area" may not be consistent with the facts, but it can be seen that China can be divided into several zones due to different latitudes: the northernmost is the livestock zone; North China borders it and is an agricultural zone, but its content is still quite simple.In contrast, South China is the hometown of tea, rice and water transportation, but before industrialization, this area was already quite complicated.Based on the conclusions of this chapter, the above-mentioned differences in geographical environment formed the background for the long-term competition between the agricultural Han people and the semi-nomadic Mongolian and Tungusic peoples.From a long-distance perspective, it can be seen that after several peace and wars, a section of the area eventually allowed the ethnic minorities to mix with the Han people.It is obvious that the more developed it is to the modern age, the more cultural connotations the term "Han people" has, and it is no longer determined by blood relationship as before. The Song retreat southward at least gave the court a brief respite.The lakes, rivers, and canals of this region prevented the warriors from the north from fully utilizing their strengths.The Jin people invaded Jiangnan between 1129 and 1130 AD, and the Song army blocked their retreat with warships, causing them to almost encounter disaster.The freedom of action of the military commander in times of confusion also facilitates the deployment of operations.For example, Yue Fei's army was composed of peasant army, surrendered bandits, and Jurchen militia. He had the opportunity to choose soldiers and expand his army. However, the centralized system run by Emperor Zhao Gou and Prime Minister Qin Hui ruled out the tendency for soldiers to support themselves.Now that Kaifeng has fallen into the enemy, the military supply problem of the Southern Song court is extremely urgent.If Hangzhou has a commercial organization with actual strength at this time, it will be taken over without any problem, and it will be used as an army supply logistics organization.In fact, the imperial court can only solve the immediate problem by increasing taxes and temporarily embezzling. Such expedient measures have appeared again and again in a short period of time: the so-called "management of money" refers to the public funds handled by the managers who control the property along the way; "Monthly account money" is the balance of forced savings in monthly public expenses, and "board account money" can be said to be a special account compiled with various additions.In fact, there are few substantive differences between these items. All existing taxes are added according to the percentage, and the total amount is apportioned by various places.Administrative revenues, such as inflows and redemption, are also collected; other charges such as affidavit fees and license fees for prosecution are also similar.When these methods still cannot be supplied, it can only be dealt with by issuing additional banknotes. In the eyes of Marco Polo, the novel banknotes appeared in the Tang Dynasty.Originally known as "Flying Money", it was a money order chartered by the government, enabling merchants to sell items in Sichuan and exchange prices in other areas, avoiding the trouble of carrying a large amount of copper coins to and from.The Northern Song Dynasty began to print this kind of bills that can be transferred in 1024 AD.Although its use is becoming more and more extensive, its production and distribution are still only occasionally.This kind of paper currency is like a public bond. Each has its redemption date, usually three years, and the "boundary" is invalid after redemption.In the Southern Song Dynasty, the customs duties levied in the mainland were used as a guarantee; until 1247, this kind of banknotes were allowed to circulate permanently and were no longer accepted.And because of the lack of proper accumulation funds, its depreciation is getting worse and worse, which makes the people frown, and the devaluation of currency also increases the difficulties of the government itself.This is also a major reason for the decline of the Song Dynasty. It is worth noting that once the ethnic minorities ruled the Central Plains, they also imitated the central finance of the Song Dynasty, and also adopted financial control as a fashion.In this way, they lost the simplicity of agricultural society and also encountered technical difficulties.Jin, established by Jurchen, is outwardly the deadly enemy of the Zhao and Song Dynasties, but inwardly admires the Southern Dynasties deeply.From astronomical divination to the compilation of calendars and court music, they imitated it with all their heart.And when they printed paper money, they even set an unprecedented record: its depreciation was 60 million to 1. The Song Dynasty was an era of technological progress.Movable typesetting was proved in writing in 1086 AD; the astronomical clock was installed in Kaifeng between 1088 and 1092 AD; the use of magnetic needles to determine navigational directions was mentioned in a book, and the sequence in the book was marked as 1119 Years; Song Dynasty ships had four to six masts, 12 sails on top, and four decks on the ship; pumps on flame throwers appeared before 1044; ships powered by human pedals began with the bandit Yang Tai, He used it to fight Yue Fei in 1135 AD.Yue Nai threw rotten wood and weeds into the wheel to hinder its mechanism; in 1161 AD, a grenade-throwing crossbow machine appeared. The economy of the Song Dynasty could not be used to reform society. It is undeniable that this was the main reason why the above inventions could not be improved systematically.From the experience of the West, the above-mentioned breakthrough can only be discovered when the influence of commerce far exceeds the influence of agricultural production.In the early days of modern history, China was far from meeting the required level of preparation.Although the number of businesses in the Song Dynasty was huge by the standards of the world at that time, it was ineffective when spread over the heads of hundreds of millions of farmers.Since military operations are pushed from the frontier to the hinterland, both sides must control the agricultural land and the agricultural population, so quantity is more important than quality, uniformity is more important than different names and patterns, and persistence is much more useful than ephemeral intelligence.All these conditions are unhelpful to carry out various inventions to popularize the intentional design of its results. The majority of small farmers have kept China's traditional character for a long time.This was fully revealed during the dispute over Wang Anshi's new law, because even with a small business, agricultural wages were restricted and kept to a minimum.Furthermore, due to years of wars, a group of vagrants have emerged, and some of them will inevitably become slaves, so the above situation cannot be opened up.Even from Zhang Zeduan's diagram, it can be seen that there is a large amount of cheap labor.Therefore, Song people had the ability to solve technical problems, but they had no motivation to seek to save manpower. That being the case, their wisdom developed in another direction, and philosophical review became the greatest spiritual outlet for Song people.They formed a common tendency to put Confucian ethics on top of Buddhist and Taoist worldviews, and called it "Confucianism".Unlike the Han Dynasty who looked at the world from an artistic perspective, Song Confucianism believed that the composition of the universe included countless causal relationships, and that human beings can do good in accordance with the laws of nature (they called it the law of heaven).This statement creates a new social psychology: on the one hand, these philosophers talk freely about the nature and fate of individual perceptions, but on the other hand, they do not feel restrained in collective life.Of course, the state affairs of the Song Dynasty were related to this position.Judging from the "genealogy" of knowledge, Neo Confucianists in the Song Dynasty were all influenced by a Taoist named Huashan Chen Bo; personally speaking, they were all involved in the political disputes at that time.In the Northern Song Dynasty, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi and Zhou Dunyi either directly opposed Wang Anshi or indirectly approached those who opposed the new law; Xiangshan was impeached because of his boastful words to the emperor.Therefore, without exception, they were all reported for their opinions on the current situation. The personal moral character they advocated contained a kind of "opposition" meaning, but they expressed it in a reserved manner and did not conduct public activities. Analyzing and comparing the theories of the above thinkers belongs to the scope of philosophy. Many Chinese, Japanese and Western scholars have been engaged in this aspect, and their research results have also been included in various books and periodicals.Historians have no way of denying that Neo Confucianists enhanced the integrity and firm attitude of later Chinese Confucian scholars.However, even though the scope of their discussions is extensive and their differences are numerous, their positions are still too simple today. farmers group.Under this premise, their main quietness and main respect are different from the perception of characters in the Western Renaissance.The development of the latter's free thinking coincided with the movement towards commercialization at the same time.Dante abandoned his fading aristocracy for plutocracy; Chaucer was employed by a London customs inspector; from Michelangelo to Rembrandt, their patronage People are either popes or businessmen.In contrast, the above-mentioned five Song Dynasty philosophers and their countless bureaucrats all wore the robes of Chinese officials, and they were bureaucratic teachers. However, China's lack of commercial revolution and the inability to produce the Renaissance are due to geographical environment and technological factors, not ideology.The 319-year struggle of the Song Dynasty only proved that although the south of China is rich, it still cannot be organized as a whole, so it is no match for the northern countries composed of simplicity and carelessness. The Mongols adopted a roundabout strategy for the Song War for the last time.The initial offensive to the south of today's Sichuan penetrated to Vietnam, and the second phase of the battle was aimed at Fancheng, Xiangyang. The siege of the city lasted more than 4 years, from the autumn of 1268 to the beginning of 1273.After the fall of the two cities facing each other across the Han River, Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty encountered no substantial difficulties, and his army marched all the way down the Yangtze River. The last important prime minister in the Southern Song Dynasty was Jia Sidao. He was a magnanimous and scheming figure, but he had neither the strength to fight nor the strength to make peace, so he had to keep the people from panic with a normal attitude.In the final stage of the dynasty, the problem of military supplies worsened, because the two methods of taxation and money printing were used to extremes. Jia finally adopted a method, that is, the government forced the purchase of private private land, and the purchased land was more than 200 to 300 mu per household. One-third of the foreign land is implemented in the six prefectures on the Yangtze River Delta. This is the most affluent area in the country, and it is also close at hand. It is still under the firm control of the Song Dynasty. The price only needs a small amount of cash. Others are mixed with various price coupons, which may not be much different from expropriation and confiscation.Although it was inconsistent with the general will, with the emperor's strong support, all plans to purchase land were still completed as planned.And this land income supported the Southern Song court for about 12 years.But in the end Jia Sidao still asked Kublai Khan for peace, but there was no response.In 1275, he personally went to the Yangtze River to supervise the division, but was dismissed due to the unfavorable war situation, and was finally murdered.The Yuan army entered Lin'an the next year.Three years later, the Yuan Navy and the Song Zhi Navy fought in the sea of ​​Yashan, Guangdong. At this time, the Lord Song was a young child, and because of the unfavorable battle situation, he was carried by his subordinates and jumped into the sea to die.So the Zhao Song Dynasty died in 1279 AD. At that time, many people did not understand the technical complexity, and some people tried their best to criticize Jia Sidao, as if the fall of the Song Dynasty was all the result of his treachery and wrong policies.Jia Sidao did hesitate when he was in charge of the country. In 1259, Kublai Khan’s brother, Mongol Lord Mengge, died in Hezhou, Sichuan.At this time, Jia Sidao bluffed and claimed that the Song army had won a great victory and took credit for it.Traditional historians have denounced him as a treacherous minister by this mistake and other minor incidents.Secondly, its despicableness is also raised.When Jia Sidao was young, he liked to have fun, and he held banquets with lanterns on the West Lake from time to time.Once the emperor saw the bright lights and candles on the lake, and said, it seems that Jia Sidao must be free and unrestrained.In fact, this was true, but this was before he was appointed to the highest official position in China's wealthiest dynasty.