Chapter 78 Song

Brief history: The Song Dynasty was a monarchy established after a military coup by general Zhao Kuangyin and his generals in the Later Zhou Dynasty.The official founding of the country was on the fifth day of the first month of the first year of Jianlong.The country is located in the eastern part of World Island, between 40 degrees north latitude and the equator.When the country was first founded, its land area was mainly limited to the Yellow River Basin. After decades of hard work, it barely recovered the traditional local territory since the Han and Tang Dynasties.But in the north, the Song Dynasty’s efforts to regain the traditional land were hindered by the Liao Kingdom established by the Khitan people, and failed to recover the strategically important Youji states. disadvantage.During the reign of the second emperor, a rebellion by the leader of the Dangxiang tribe lasted for three generations. During the reign of the fourth emperor, the Song Dynasty was forced to officially declare the loss of Hexi, Hexi, Hetao area.This setback not only caused the Song Dynasty to lose hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land, lost its northwest fortress, almost interrupted the Silk Road with Western civilizations, and made the hinterland of Guanzhong the front line. Unfortunately, the Song Dynasty lost its last horse farm.From then on, the Song Dynasty could only obtain a limited amount of the most important strategic material at that time-war horses through trade.

It is fair to say that this country was founded by a group of worthy soldiers. These soldiers have a deep understanding of the dangers of military coups and warlord dictatorships, and they have enough courage to correct everything.Therefore, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the country quickly and decisively began to restore the civilian government with separation of powers and checks and balances, and the country was mainly governed by civilian officials.For the first time in their history, they were close to perfecting the professional army system, and strictly stipulated that the army and generals must obey the leadership of the civilian government.But the civil servants seemed to have failed the good intentions of the founding fathers.The imperial civil servants quickly grew arrogant and abused their leadership.In the next hundred years, almost none of the civil servants tried to improve the quality of professional soldiers, but instead adopted a discriminatory attitude towards them.

Discrimination among the civil service against the military hurts the country almost more than the loss of a horse farm.However, it cannot be judged arbitrarily that this country values ​​culture over military and does not think about progress.In fact, this country treats its professional soldiers with the best treatment--except in spirit.They are also committed to developing new types of weapons and equipment-everything from offensive warfare to logistical supplies. It is especially commendable that they have had the foresight to develop and apply a large number of early firearms in the army.It can be said that the professional soldiers of the Song Dynasty enjoyed the best salary in the world at that time and were equipped with the most advanced weapons at that time.

The aggressive ambitions of the monarchs and civil governments of the past dynasties have never really disappeared.The country was built on the ashes of a brutal warlord dictatorship, and as such has unfortunately inherited a host of thorny sociopolitical problems to resolve.Obviously, the founders and successors lacked the wisdom beyond history, and almost had no historical experience to draw on. Therefore, the political system they designed did not achieve an ideal balance between power checks and balances and governance efficiency.Unfortunately, the civilian government spends most of its energy on domestic political issues with extremely low efficiency.On military issues, out of wariness and discrimination, they were unwilling to truly cooperate with professional soldiers on an equal basis, and instead adopted an even more oppressive attitude.

Therefore, although the civilian government repelled the aggressive Liao army during the reign of the third emperor and achieved a strategic balance with the Liao State; Balance of power, but that's all.The objective strategic situation forced them to transform their enterprising spirit into a collective subconscious.To make matters worse, although the covenant signed by the Song Dynasty with Liao and Xia took care of the Song Dynasty's face in terms of words, the silver and silk delivered to Liao and Xia each year was more like a kind of trade compensation, and the total amount was less than that of Song and Xia. After the war, the Song Dynasty increased military expenditure by one-fiftieth every year, which was only slightly equivalent to one-twentieth of the expenditure for a suburban sacrifice, but it seriously hurt the self-esteem of civil officials.

Civil servants are finally trying to find change. Civilian governments began to respond subconsciously to the challenges posed by historical changes.Although on the surface, the content of the reform lacks new ideas, but hidden behind these old reform propositions is a historical turning point.What they actually want to solve are almost all the problems encountered by all human civilizations for the first time: how the civilian government gets along with the professional army; the power checks and balances among the civil servants and the efficiency of governance; how the government faces the unprecedentedly active commercial economy... …

The first initiative to seek change occurred during the reign of the fourth emperor.History records that it failed.The second active change occurred during the reign of the sixth emperor, 109 years after the founding of the country.A politician named Wang Anshi took the lead on the stage of history; then, a man named Shi Yue... Great Song. The fifth day of the first month of the first year of Jianlong. King Huode, Shang Chi. The Song Dynasty was located in the east of the World Island, between 40 degrees north latitude and the equator.After several drastic changes in the land area, by the end of Xining, the mainland area of ​​the Song Dynasty was about 3 million square kilometers.It borders the sea in the southeast, the Liao Kingdom in the north, the Xia Kingdom in the northwest, the divided Tubo tribes nominally attached to the Song Dynasty in the west, and the Dali and Dayue Kingdoms in the southwest.The territorial sea includes the East China Sea and the South China Sea.

The total population is about 100 million.Among them, the number of registered families is about 10 million, and the official registered taxpayer population is about 30 million.The Song Dynasty was a multi-ethnic country with the Han nationality as the main body.Chinese is the national language.Buddhism is the largest religion. The Song Dynasty implemented a multinational capital system.Kaifeng Mansion in Tokyo, Henan Mansion in Xijing, Yingtian Mansion in Nanjing, and Daming Mansion in Beijing.Its actual administrative capital is Kaifeng Prefecture, Tokyo, also known as Bianjing, with a population of about one million.

Adopt the three-level administrative division system of "road-fu, state, army, supervisor-county, county-level army, county-level supervisor".Before the Xining new system, the "road" was between the administrative area and the supervisory area; after the Xining new system, the road became an administrative entity.In the Song Dynasty, separate "armies" were set up in areas with a small population but important strategic positions; separate "supervision" was set up in areas with a small population but important minerals. A total of 17 roads: Jingdong, Jingxi, Hebei, Shaanxi, Hedong, Huainan East and West, Liangzhe, Jiangnan East and West, Jinghu Lake North and North, Yizhou, Qianzhou, Fujian, Guangnan East and West.

monarchy.Before and after the restructuring of Xining, its political system has undergone major changes.Before Xining's restructuring, the government of Zhongshumen and the Privy Council were in charge of the military. There were also three envoys in charge of the country's financial planning. The Shangshu Province almost existed in name only.Tongzhong Shumenxia Pingzhangshi is the prime minister, and Shen Zhizhengshi is the deputy prime minister.After the restructuring, the Shangshu Province merged the functions of Zhongshumenxia and the three divisions, with the left and right servants as the prime ministers, and the Chanzhizhengshi (six ministers, important temples, and supervisors) formed the Zhengshitang, which was in charge of the national government affairs.The Privy Council is the highest military order body in the country.In addition, the more important institutions are: Yushitai, Hanlin Academy, Menxia Housheng, Sanya, etc.

The Song Dynasty was a big agricultural country.The agricultural technology is advanced, and the yield per mu has been greatly improved compared with the Tang Dynasty.Before the reform in Xining, there were more than 30 million hectares of farmland nationwide, including 4.4 million hectares of registered farmland.After the reform, the number of reclaimed farmland across the country increased sharply again, but the phenomenon of hidden farmland continued unabated, with about 8 million hectares of registered farmland.National tax revenue is heavily dependent on industry and commerce.The handicraft industry and mining industry were developed in the Song Dynasty, but before the Xining reform, the important handicraft industry and mining industry were all monopolized by the state.After the reform, except for a few key sectors, the state gradually withdrew from direct management, and the proportion of handicraft industry in the national economy gradually expanded and occupied an important position.Commerce was one of the most important sources of income for the state treasury in the Song Dynasty. Before the reform, the national commercial tax revenue was about 8 million yuan, but it relied heavily on the government monopoly system of salt, iron, and tea.After the reform, the monopoly system was relaxed or abolished, but business became more prosperous, and business tax accounted for about one-third of the national tax revenue. The Song Dynasty culture was very developed.Before the reform in Xining, although government schools had insufficient funds, private academies, private lectures, and private education such as private schools were very developed.The literacy rate has been greatly improved, the monopoly of knowledge has been completely broken, and academics have moved downward.After the founding of the Song Dynasty, after decades of recuperation, it ushered in another era after the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, when there were many schools of thought and a hundred schools of thought contended.Before the Xining reform, the larger schools included Confucianism (Zhou Dunyi, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi), Guan Xue (Zhang Zai), Xin Xue (Wang Anshi), Shu Xue (Su Shi), etc., and each school had small divisions ; In addition, there are countless small schools and divisions.Various academic factions compete fiercely for the right to reinterpret cowards.It is worth noting that the people of the Song Dynasty proposed the concept of the "Four Books": Scholars in the Song Dynasty generally praised Mencius, who advocated the original meaning of democracy and had a view of the contract between monarch and subject. In an era, they are not very popular.Corresponding to this kind of ideological emancipation was the ancient prose movement launched in the literary world.Creating new culture and new ideas in the name of retro is a major feature of Song Dynasty culture. The technology of the Song Dynasty was also very advanced. Three of the "Four Great Inventions" are attributed to the Song Dynasty.This seems to be a blowout period of invention and creation. In almost all technical fields, Song people are leading the world. After the reform in Xining, school education became more developed.The government school system has gradually improved, and private schools have become more prosperous.Stone science occupies a considerable position in the world of thought.Through the efforts of several generations of scholars, Song Dynasty scholars began to come into contact with the ideas of different civilizations. Famous schools include: Baishuitan Academy, Jinling Academy, West Lake Academy, Songyang Academy, Hengqu Academy, Yuelu Academy, and Yingtian Academy. The Song Dynasty was the birthplace of the world newspaper industry.The newspapers in the Song Dynasty were mainly private.Before the reform in Xining, there were informal tabloids; after the reform, formal newspapers appeared.The main newspapers include "Bianjing News", "Xijing Review", "Maritime Business Daily", "Qin Bao" and so on.