introduction

China is the first country in the world to discover and use coal, at the latest in the Neolithic Age, China has recognized the carvability of coal, with jet jade (also called coal essence, is a dense and hard coal) to carve into a variety of decorative arts. In recent years, 46 pieces of jet carvings have been unearthed at the Xinle site in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, and their raw materials were extracted from the coalfields in the western part of present-day Fushun [1]. A number of jet carvings from the Western Zhou Dynasty have also been unearthed in Baoji, Shaanxi Province [2].

As far as the flammability function of coal is concerned, China has known the use of coal as fuel almost since the Han Dynasty. The excavation of the iron-smelting site in Guxing Town, Henan Province during the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, "found that cinders and briquettes were found in the fire pool of a kiln, which may have used coal as fuel." [3] Raw coal blocks, coal cakes, and cinders have also been found in the iron smelting site of the two Han Dynasty in Tieshenggou, Gongxian County, Henan Province [4]. From the perspective of ancient documents, the "Notes on the Water Classic" quotes the "Records of the Two Domains of the Shi Family" as saying: "There is a mountain 200 miles north of Quci, and the night is fire, and the day is smoke, and people take this mountain of coal and smelt this mountain iron" (coal is coal) [5]. Liu Zhao in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty quoted the Yuzhang Ji as saying: "The county has Ge Township, and there are two acres of coal, which can be burned to plan"[6] and there are still some records of China's coal use during this period. According to Liang Qichao and Cen Zhongmian, "The Records of the Western Regions of the Shi Family" was written by Shi Dao'an of the Eastern Jin Dynasty [7]. The Yuzhang Ji was written by Lei Cizong, a native of the Liu and Song dynasties of the Southern Dynasty [8]. If only the age of the above two books is calculated, then China has a clear record of using coal to make iron and cook at the beginning of the two Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties at the latest. However, in the hundreds of years from then until the Song Dynasty, there have been very few records of coal use in China. As for the archaeological research, except for the discovery of the ruins of coal used for iron smelting in the Han Dynasty, no other coal-related relics have been found in the period from the Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty. Of course, in the future, using archaeological and ancient documents, we will definitely find some cases of coal use in China during this period, or earlier. However, we can say that there is no doubt that the Song Dynasty was the era of widespread use of coal in China. Why did China already know about the use of coal as fuel after BC, and it was not until the Song Dynasty after the second half of the tenth century that coal began to be widely used in the field of social production? This is one of the questions that will be explored in this article. This paper mainly analyzes and studies the production and application of carbon coal in the Northern Song Dynasty in China from the surface to the point.

1. The crisis of traditional fuels

Firewood and charcoal have been traditional fuels for thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years in ancient times, and they originate from the forest resources on the earth. Although trees can be replanted, they are not valued by the ancients. And artificial tree planting is far from keeping up with the speed of human deforestation. Initially, when the flat land around the settlement was cut down, the felling would be pushed far away, or in the valley; And when such medium-range logging is also a problem, the only way to do it is to cut remotely across regions, even in the most remote mountainous areas. In the Song Dynasty, forest resources were even more reduced. At that time, Shen Kuo sighed for this: "Today, the pine forests of Qi and Lujian are exhausted, and gradually to Taihang, Jingxi, and Jiangnan, and most of Songshan are children" [9]. Even the supreme ruler felt the difficulty of "cutting timber and harvesting timber, deepening the valley, and causing labor", and issued an edict that "it is advisable to inspect it"[10]. The decline in forest resources will inevitably affect the use of fuel in the Song Dynasty. History: "The benefits of silkworm raising in Heshuo and Shandong are more than the crops. The villagers stole mulberry branches in the cold moon and thought that they were firewood, which was very harmful" [11]. The sericulture industry in the Yellow River basin began to decline since the Northern Song Dynasty, which seems to be inseparable from this stupid thing of digging up meat and mending sores. And this phenomenon of cutting mulberry dates for firewood was still very serious at the beginning of the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, so Taizu Jianlong had an edict of "prohibiting people from cutting mulberry dates for salary" in the third year of Jianlong [12]. And the punishment for those who violate this prohibition is very severe, and the "Continuation of the Zhitongjian Long Edition" says: "When the ancestors were heavy on stealing and peeling mulberry trees, the dry ones were counted in rulers, and the accumulation of forty-two feet was one merit, and more than three merits were worth death" [13]. Although the imperial court sentenced them severely, they often "lost every time, and the estimated stolen goods were not much, and the light punishment was not enough to quit." If you want to be imprisoned and suffer, you will be afraid of the prisoners"[14]. Obviously, there are too many people who are paid for mulberry and jujubes, and there is a tendency that the prisoners are overcrowded and the law does not control the public, so the government will have the fear of "being afraid of the prisoners". Even in the army, there is a phenomenon of "going into villages to cut mulberry dates for salary"[15]. Later, some people simply "cut mulberry and jujube hair for salary" [16]. Mulberry and jujube trees have also entered the market as firewood, which shows that this prohibited phenomenon is not only widespread, but also publicized. It not only reflected the severity of the traditional fuel crisis in the northern region during the Northern Song Dynasty, but also contributed to the decline of the sericulture industry in this region, which had to be replaced by the later southern sericulture industry. Judging from the record of "Hebei is rare to find firewood" [17], Hebei Road was the area with the most serious firewood crisis in the Northern Song Dynasty.

In addition to cutting mulberry dates for salary, another problem that caused the Northern Song Dynasty government the most headache was that the so-called miracles of the sages and sages, temples and the forests in the mausoleum areas of emperors and heroes of previous dynasties were constantly collected by people for salary. In this regard, the Northern Song Dynasty repeatedly banned it. For example, when Song Taizu had an order of "the sage Qiu Yong and forbidding wood mining" [18]. Zhenzong's edict: "The tombs of the emperors of the past dynasties have banned the collection of wood, and the lawsuit where the offender is located will be punished for his crime" [19]. And such prohibitions, according to the statistics of the "Continuation of the Capital and Governance of Tongjian" alone, there were four in the time of Taizu and ten in the time of Zhenzong [20]. Despite repeated orders from the government, it cannot be banned. When Xining was ten years old, "(Tang Taizong) Zhaoling, the wood has been cut down. Xining Order: The mausoleum of the previous emperor and the prohibition of wood mining" [21]. Because human survival cannot be without fuel. Therefore, in order to find fuel, the Song people did not scruple about anything.

In the south, because the economic development was much later than in the north, the distribution of traditional fuels was much better in the Song Dynasty than in the north. It was only at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty and the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty regime that the problem of fuel crisis arose in some places. For example: "Now stationed in Wu and Yue, the mountains and forests are so wide that they are not enough to supply Qiao Su." Although the flowers are beautiful and the bamboos are beautiful, the pine trees of the graves. In the course of time, it has become a red land. The roots are small. The pouting is all over the place, and the buds and tillers are no longer reborn. Thinking about the benefits of carboniferous but not obtainable". [22] This was the scene of the fuel crisis in the Yangtze River Delta region when Song Gaozong fled south, and it was no less than that in the north. Not only are the mountains and forests going to be cut down, but also the trees of beautiful flowers, beautiful bamboos, and town tombs have also been cut down to the point of digging the bottom and digging roots, and even the opportunity for regeneration of plants and trees has been lost. Here, the ornamental value of beautiful flowers and bamboos is far less valuable for people trapped in a desperate fuel crisis than sending them directly to the stove. As for felling mulberry and jujube as salary, what a pity to pick the forests in the scenic spots!

In this crisis, the shortage of wages is more serious than Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. With millions of people concentrated in one settlement, the supply of fuel is already a problem, and in the era of the firewood crisis, the problem of energy consumption for their living and production is even more prominent. Although the Northern Song Dynasty had often given duty-free preferential treatment to firewood, grass, salaries, and charcoal brought into Kaifeng since the founding of the country[23], in order to increase Kaifeng's fuel source. However, the whip is too long to reach. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the fuel shortage in Kaifeng was not alleviated. In the winter of the fifth year of Dazhong Xiangfu, "the folk lack charcoal, and its price is very expensive, and each scale can reach 200 Wen." Although the Kaifeng Prefecture does not live in the treaty, it is like a peddler seeking profits, and only grows" [24]. In order to help the residents in the cold, "the three divisions paid 400,000 yuan for half the price and the poor" [25]. The citizens who saw the charcoal in the snow rushed to buy, and finally caused the tragic casualties of "embracing and committing to the dead"[26]. In the following years, the three divisions had to follow the usual system of liquidation, "in addition to the annual expenditure, do not count 500,000 scales to Beijing in order to help the people"[27]. In the eighth year of Dazhong Xiangfu, "the three divisions sold it at a reduced price of 100,000 charcoal scales to help the poor", "since the livestock were hidden, the charcoal family could not invite huge profits and the small people were helped"[28], and the fuel shortage in Kaifeng seemed to have eased. However, the good times did not last long, and in the first month of the fourth year of Qingli, "the capital was covered with snow, and the people were frozen, so the three divisions sold rice and charcoal at a reduced price to help them" [29]. And the winter of Jiayou's third year to the spring of the following year can be regarded as the most terrible year in the era of salary shortage in Kaifeng. History: "Since last year, the rain and snow have not stopped, and the people have died of hunger and cold"; "Since the beginning of spring, it has been cold, rainy and snowy, the small people are unemployed, the market is lonely, the people who are freezing have died a lot, and the price of charcoal and food has doubled"; "There are people who throw themselves into wells and rivers, and those who do not die are said to be poor and seek a place to die, and today there is a woman who froze to death and hanged herself, and she is in the alleys, and there are countless people who have lost their places" [30]. In the face of this shocking tragedy, Emperor Renzong could not help but eat and reduce his diet to show his heart of "fearing the sky and worrying about the people", and the most grand and lively Lantern Festival in the Song Dynasty had to be temporarily stopped in the midst of the snow and the miserable wind [31]. In the winter of the first year of Yuanfu, Kaifeng "has a high price of coal in the city, and the people do not give it in the cold winter." Wu Juhoucuo, the Imperial Commissioner, sold the charcoal in Beijing"[32]. In this crisis of traditional fuels, the coal did bring a lot of turnarounds to the fuel use of Kaifeng in the late Northern Song Dynasty. It is no wonder that Zhuang Sui, a native of the Southern Song Dynasty, said: "In the past, there were millions of families in Biandu, and they all relied on coal" [33]. However, at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the shadow of salary shortage always shrouded Kaifeng. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the household department still said: "The capital is so big, the teeth are numerous, and the people are very anxious for the use of salary and charcoal," and "those who pray for the cold in the harsh winter" [34].

The above is the situation of the people, and the government handicraft industry relies on political protection, so it stands to reason that there will be no shortage of wages. However, in the sixth year of Xianping, the household department also had to ask the emperor: "There is a shortage of firewood in the east and west kilns, and the begging market is closed" [35]. However, the capital is already short of firewood, and if the official buys it again, it will inevitably deepen this crisis. Therefore, Emperor Zhenzong had to "order the provincial department not to measure". [36] In the following four years, "the eastern and western kilns were abolished, and the salaries were distributed to the Zhubanzhi and the army"[37]. As far as the copper coin supervisor is concerned, "the official city of Raozhou cannot give charcoal, and the drum casting is distributed in Chizhou"[38]. In terms of iron money supervision, "Jia and Deng bought iron and charcoal at the rate as a disturbance, and stopped casting for ten years since the fourth year of Jiayou"[39]. Probably because there was less and less firewood in Dengzhou, the talents here invented burning giant bamboos into bamboo charcoal to make iron[40], replacing the shortage of firewood with bamboo firewood.

It is precisely because of the crisis of shortage of firewood and charcoal, a traditional fuel, that it provides an opportunity and a broad market for the in-depth excavation and wide application of coal in the Song Dynasty. Therefore, as early as the Han Dynasty, coal, which had been used as iron-making fuel in China, was not taken seriously for a long time before it was able to regain its new appearance in the Song Dynasty.

2. Mining development and fuels

The Song Dynasty was a golden age for the rapid development of metallurgical handicrafts in ancient China. In the first year of Yuanfeng, its copper output was as high as 14,605,969 catties [41], which was almost 55 times that of the 15th year of the Tang Dynasty [42]. The high amount of currency minted in the Song Dynasty was also unique in China's feudal society. "At the beginning of the dynasty, in the south of the Yangtze River, 70,000 yuan was minted every year, and it was slightly widened since then, and it was more than 1 million yuan in the heavenly sage, and it was 3 million yuan in Qingli; Six years after Xining, more than 6 million copper and iron coins were cast" [43]. Such a high coinage was not found in previous dynasties, and no dynasty after it could be better than the other. Iron production reached the highest level in the Song Dynasty during the Zhiping period, with an annual output of 8,241,001 catties [44]. It was almost four times that of the fifteenth year of the Tang Dynasty [45]. This yield, which today may seem insignificant, was considerable in the ancient agrarian societies of manual operations.

The Song Dynasty was also an era when China's porcelain industry shone brightly. After the Tang Dynasty laid the foundation of porcelain production, into the Song Dynasty began to achieve the great perfection, reached the realm of pure fire, porcelain kilns all over the country, its variety, output and technology are far beyond the Tang Dynasty. All kinds of fine coarse porcelain not only meet the needs of the country, but also sold overseas in large quantities, so that porcelain has become a bulk export commodity after the export of ancient silk. The Song people also said that at that time, foreign trade merchant ships were "full of goods and pottery"[46].

It is worth noting that both the rapid development of metallurgical handicrafts and the great strides of the porcelain industry are closely related to fuel. Without fuel, none of these industries will accomplish anything. Before coal was widely used, the fuel used by metallurgy and porcelain handicrafts was firewood and charcoal, the traditional energy source. The charcoal rate of wood is about 30%, and according to the volume proportion of 0.8 / 1 cubic meter, it takes more than four cubic meters of wood to burn one ton of charcoal. "In ancient times, it may have cost about four or five tons of charcoal for every ton of pig iron smelted" [47]. Others estimate the cost of seven tons of charcoal [48]. Let's take the middle of the two, to smelt a ton of iron and consume six tons of charcoal, assuming that all the pig iron in the Zhiping period is smelted with charcoal, then, a year of pig iron (more than 8 million catties) will consume about 120,000 cubic meters of wood (the weight in the conversion is according to Wu Chengluo's "History of Chinese Weights and Measures" in the Song Dynasty one catty is equal to 596. 82 grams). The pig iron obtained from the consumption of so much wood is still only a primary product, and how much charcoal will be burned to be burned by processing it into various utensils, weapons, agricultural implements, coinage, or steelmaking. It goes without saying that the same is true for the production of bronze and copper coinage. According to copper smelting in the Ming Dynasty, "one basket can obtain one pound of copper, and it is estimated that copper smelting consumes several times more fuel than iron smelting according to the proportion of 250 baskets of ore, 700 quintals of charcoal, and 1,700 sections of firewood per weight of copper and one material"[49]. In addition, ceramics, boiling salt, winemaking, gold, silver, lead, tin, alum mining and metallurgy, as well as people's daily energy and the production of various woodware, building materials, deforestation, etc., the annual consumption of wood will be tens of millions of cubic meters. For example, from 500,000 years ago, the Beijing ape man learned to use fire, and the cumulative amount of wood consumed in the Song Dynasty will be an astonishing astronomical amount, and this is based on the background of cutting down forest resources, until the Song Dynasty, the forest resources are few, and the energy required for production and life is urgent, and finally formed the above-mentioned traditional fuel crisis. The re-evaluation and extensive development and application of coal energy naturally fell on the Song people. China's coal reserves are abundant, which provides favorable conditions for widespread use. In places where coalfields are not easy to find, people will also find other firewood substitutes. For example, "Shu has bamboo charcoal, burning giant bamboo for it, flammable, smokeless, durable, and strange things." Qiongzhou produces iron, and cooking is conducive to bamboo charcoal, and all use ox carts to bring people to the city" [50]. This is the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty Lu Fangweng's observation, it can be seen that the use of bamboo charcoal, the Northern Song Dynasty has existed.

While looking for new fuel energy, the Song people also began to notice the significance of energy conservation. In the Gyeonggi Road liquor industry, someone invented a new type of energy-saving stove, called Liansanzao. History said: "There are three stoves in Jinai Distillery and other places, more than 400,000 catties of firewood in the province, and 320,000 catties in the province of Chenliu County, about 160,000 catties of firewood in Zhuzhou" [51], which shows that the invention and promotion of this new energy-saving stove has indeed saved a lot of fuel. Only one county in Chenliu can save 320,000 catties of firewood a year, which is considerable.

As will be mentioned below, the development of the mining and metallurgical handicraft industry in the Song Dynasty must promote the widespread use of coal; The wide application of coal greatly promoted the development of the mining and metallurgical industry in the Song Dynasty. Regarding this, Su Shi's "Stone Coal Poems" of the Song Dynasty gives the best explanation. The original poem solves the question cloud: Pengcheng has no coal in the past. In December of the first year of Yuanfeng, he sent people to visit the north of Baitu Town in the southwest of the state, and used iron smelting as a soldier, and was sharper than Changyun:

You don't see the rain and snow the year before last, and the residents of the city are torn apart.

Wet salary half a bundle of hugging robes, sunset knocks on the door and there is nowhere to change.

Unexpectedly, there are treasures in the mountains, which are as □ as thousands of charcoals.

No one knew about the ointment, and the fishy wind blew away.

The roots and seedlings are boundless, and thousands of people are inspired to see them.

The brighter the mud and water are splashed, and the jade is golden.

The chestnut forest in the south mountain can gradually rest, and the north mountain is stubborn and forged.

For the king to cast a hundred refining knives, to cut the long whale for ten thousand sections [52].

This poem reveals the dependence of the iron smelting handicraft industry on coal in the Northern Song Dynasty. Xuzhou is one of the important iron-producing areas of the Northern Song Dynasty, "since ancient times, it has been gathered by iron officials and merchants". "The land produces fine iron, and the people are good at forging it"[53]. But the crisis of firewood fuel, it has not been spared and is also dying. Later, Su Shi sent people to find coal in Baitu Town, Benzhou, which restored the vitality of Xuzhou, bringing a thriving scene of "the roots and seedlings are boundless, and thousands of people are inspired to see", and created a new situation of "shimmering jade flowing gold and seeing essence" for the iron smelting industry. The weapons made are also sharper than ever. Due to the availability of coal, in the following years, Xuzhou made all kinds of weapons and supplied simple iron "a vast number". Moreover, the new "Xuzhou Baofeng Prison was placed, and the annual mint money was 300,000 yuan" [54]. Coal has indeed pushed Xuzhou's iron smelting technology and production capacity to a new height.

3. Coal for handicraft production

Beijing Iron and Steel Institute has made laboratory analysis of the unearthed Song Dynasty pig iron, which identified that "pig iron generally has a high sulfur content, generally four to five times higher than that of the Han Dynasty, and some have a sulfur content as high as 1%. Except for a few cases that may have been smelted with special high-sulfur ores, most of them may have been smelted with coal"[55] and due to the sulfur content of coal (excluding coke) itself. Scientific identification has shown that the pig iron of the Song Dynasty was mostly made from coal, which is also reflected in the literature.

Let's first look at the Hedong Road in the Northern Song Dynasty (about most of Shanxi Province, one of China's coal bases today, with coalfields spread over more than two-thirds of the province's counties), Renzong's time, due to the use of troops in the northwest, used iron and coal resources to cast large and small iron coins on the spot in Jin, Ze, Shisanzhou, and Weisheng Army to help Shaanxi's military expenditure[56]. As a result, it caused private minting, and the currency of Hedong was in chaos for a while. At that time, Li Zhaoyu of Zhize Prefecture said: "The people of Hedong burn charcoal, and their families have the tools of smelting, and the thieves are not to blame" [57]. Because the private iron money in Hedong is also made of coal. At that time, Han Jiang, the governor of Taiyuan Prefecture, said: "The iron ore and charcoal on this road are enough to drum up public money" [58]. Moreover, judging from the situation that Li Zhaoyu said that "the people risked the mountains to transport coal and suffered their labor"[59], the coal used to mint money was often taken from the common people in the form of servitude. In the eighth year of Xining, Emperor Shenzong issued an edict that "Hedong minted 700,000 yuan of coin, and minted 300,000 small coins"[60]. It can be seen that there is a lot of coal and iron production here. It will also create a group of people who "live on the cold land and the people are poor, and live on coal" [61]. Without widespread social consumption, it would not have been possible for such a group of people to make a living from coal in Hedong. Coal is used to mint money in Hedong, and coal is also indispensable for ironmaking and other iron manufacturing. In many documents in the Song Dynasty that talk about iron smelting in Hedong, "iron and charcoal" are often mentioned together. For example, "Hedong iron and charcoal are the most prosperous" [62], which indicates that Hedong iron smelting industry has formed an indissoluble bond with coal.

Xuzhou, located in China's Huaibei coalfield belt, its iron smelting and weapons manufacturing industry relied on the discovery of coal to be rescued and developed, see "Carboniferous Poems" cited above. Let's look at North China, which has the richest coal reserves.

The two states of Ci and Xiang on Hebei Road were one of the main iron-producing areas of the Song Dynasty. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, they set up offices and prisons here[63]. Shen Kuoyan said: "In the land of magnetism and Xing in Hebei today, iron and earth are half and a half" [64]. According to the "Song Hui Yao", Guzhen Metallurgical Affairs, Wu'an County, Cizhou, had an annual output of 1,814,261 catties of iron, and in the first year of Yuanfeng, the annual output reached 1,971,001,001 catties [65], accounting for more than 35.8% of the total iron output of 5,501,097 catties [66] in the Song Dynasty in the same year. It shows that Cizhou is rich in iron ore resources. In the eighth year of Xining, Shen Kuo visited Hebei and "went to the Cizhou forging mill to observe iron smelting and know the real steel" [67]. This is the "100 steel" that later became famous all over the world, and its unique tempering process went down in history because of Shen Kuo's memory, which is also related to the fact that Ci and Xiang Erzhou are located in China's important coalfields. More than 20 years ago, Chinese archaeologists excavated a large coal mine in the Song Dynasty in Hebi City [68], which originally belonged to Xiangzhou in the Song Dynasty, with a diameter of 2.5 meters at the mouth and a depth of 46 meters, of which the four longer tunnels were more than 500 meters long, and there was a complete drainage system underground, and the mining scale was similar to that of the Zhongxin Coal Mine in Hebi City today [69]. By ancient standards, the scale of its exploitation and the amount of production can be imagined. This major archaeological achievement also raises a series of new questions for us, asking what form was this large ancient coal mine operated at that time? Is its product on the market? What is the scope of the consumer market that is compatible with it? Is it used as fuel for handicrafts? Which artisanal industries use coal? Wait a minute. Here, this article preliminarily explores some of these questions. According to the record of October 27 in the fourth year of Tiansheng in the "Song Hui Yao": "Du Zhanyan, the transfer envoy of Shaanzhou West Road: If you want to beg for the charcoal produced by Ci and other states, in addition to the official support and sales in the future, Xu Ling will buy and sell it at will." from it" [70]. It can be seen that the right to buy and sell coal in Ci and Xiangzhou was monopolized by the government four years before Tiansheng. After that, the people were allowed to buy and sell trade at the request of the people. If there is no large consumer power to stimulate, it is impossible to form such a large mining regulation as the Hebi Ancient Coal Mine in Xiangzhou. A certain scale of production is compatible with a certain consumer market. This consumption stimulus comes from the developed iron-smelting handicraft industry in the magnetic and Xiangji prefectures in this region. As seen above, Cizhou and Xiangzhou were one of the main iron producing areas in the Northern Song Dynasty, and Xiangzhou was one of the four major iron supervisors in the early Song Dynasty[71], and Cizhou, which is close to Xiangzhou, has an annual iron output of nearly 2 million catties in Guzhen Metallurgical Affairs in Wu'an County, accounting for more than 1/3 of the total annual pig iron output of the Northern Song Dynasty. In ancient times, such a small place could only produce such a high iron yield by using the convenient local coal resources as a driving force. The production of iron from coal in Magsu and Sangju can also be seen in the coal consumption of the shipbuilding industry in the region. In the sixth year of Tiansheng (1028 AD), "Yang Qiaoyan, the transshipment envoy of western Beijing, said that there were forty-nine boats for the pontoon bridge in Lanzhou, and ....... Please cut wood from Qinlong Tongzhou, and take iron and coal from Ci and Xiangzhou to build ships in this state. from it" [72]. Judging from the records of the next ten years, that is, in the fourth year of Jingyu (1037 AD), "the shipbuilding of Xiangzhou was engaged in the Tianxiong Army"[73], before the year of Jingyu, Ci and Xiangzhou not only had shipbuilding handicraft industries, but also used coal to smelt the iron nails, iron anchors, iron chains and other iron tools needed for ships. This shows that the wooden ship manufacturing industry is also a small amount of iron tools made from coal, so it can be seen that the most developed iron smelting industry in the entire Cizhou and Xiangzhou, and the capital of the weapons manufacturing (such as the aforementioned Cizhou Forging Mill. The Xiangshu Metropolitan Institute was able to make 330,000 arrows at a time [74]. It is inevitable that coal will be used as a resource for production, because "firewood is rare in Hebei" (see op. cit. [17]). Xingzhou, like Cizhou, is "half iron and soil" and is rich in iron ore resources. The history records that the annual iron output of Xingzhou Licun Ye was 1, 716, 413 catties, and as high as 2, 173, and 201 catties in the first year of Yuanfeng [75]. The output is above that of the magnetic state. Does Xingzhou also use coal to make iron? According to the "Long Edition" volume 111 Ming Dao in September of the first year of the Ming Dao, it was recorded: "Abolish the Zhending Mansion Coal Affairs". How to scrap? It doesn't matter. But it shows that the Zhending Mansion produces coal, and the imperial court will have coal affairs. Today, Hebei's important Jingcheng Coal Mine belongs to the Zhending Mansion of the Song Dynasty. Its south is Xingzhou across Zhaozhou, where the economic geographical location of Xingzhou can be seen at a glance: it is the Zhending Mansion of coal production, and it is immediately connected to the coal mines of Ci and Xiangerzhou. For the iron-smelting handicraft industry in Xingzhou, which is rich in iron ore resources, it is the best geographical location for the upper and lower sides and the left and right. If you take coal to make iron nearby, why think about fuel supply elsewhere. It is no wonder that Xingzhou's iron production year is a step ahead of Gaocizhou. If we add up the iron production in the first year of Yuanfeng in the two states of Penal and Cizhou, they accounted for more than 75.3% of the total iron production in the Song Dynasty in the same year. This is a staggering ratio, but it is indeed the product of the combination of coal and iron that are unique to Xing and Cizhou. In the case of "rare firewood in Hebei", only coal can enable this small area to create this high-yield miracle in ancient times.

Zhu Ben, a native of the Song Dynasty, once said when talking about coal: "It is everywhere in the northwest today"[76]. The northwest of the Northern Song Dynasty refers to the vast area of Shaanxi Road. During the Yuanfeng period, Shen Kuo worked in the Yan'an region of Shaanxi Province [77], and about the coal situation in this area, he said: "Coal (coal here refers to the soot used to make ink) people cover the benefits of unknown stone smoke, and the charcoal smoke is also large, and the ink people are clothed. The plain clothes are not old in winter, and the stone smoke is like Luoyang dust" [78]. At the end of the "Oil" section of the "Dream Creek Writings", these few sentences that have nothing to do with oil are not very noticeable, and some are mixed up with oil[79]; However, it is precisely not oil that is being spoken of here, but carboniferous. Here, Shen Kuo borrows the dust on Luoyang Road as a metaphor for the hazy coal smoke in the Yan'an area. Inspired by this smoke scene, he wanted to use coal smoke to make ink. This striking scene of soot in the Yan'an area was also noticed by other poets at the time. An anonymous poet is quoted as saying that there are also poems in Yanzhou: "There are three roads in the sandpile, and two cities in the coal smoke"[80]. The two cities loom in this thick cloud of soot, similar to the smoke of modern industrial and mining plants, reflecting the widespread use of coal in this area. It is difficult to form such a thick smoke scene with civilian cooking smoke alone, and there must be coal for the production of handicrafts. In the fifth year of Yuanfeng, the imperial court gave the place "4,000 workers, 50,000 catties of raw and wrought iron, and 10,000 pieces of cow and horse skins" [81]. Obviously, these are the craftsmen and raw materials that were sent here to make weapons. It is entirely understandable that 4,000 craftsmen started their furnaces here, causing the soot clouds described in the poem above.

More than 20 years ago, the ruins of a Song Dynasty Yaozhou porcelain kiln were discovered in Huangbao Town, southwest of Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province, and coal blocks were found in the fire chamber and ash pit of the site [82]. The archaeological community believes that the great development of Yaoci in the Northern Song Dynasty was closely related to the use of coal, and Tongchuan was an important coal-producing area, which solved the problem of fuel for the development of Yaoci at that time [83]. It should be added that Yaozhou was also the land of iron production in the Northern Song Dynasty [84].

Regarding the production of coal in the pottery and porcelain industry, in the seventh year of Xining, the "Song Hui Yao" also recorded this: "The survey committee worked in the Beijing kiln, and the maximum number of firewood in three years was increased to 600,000 bundles per year, and it was still used with charcoal" [85]. Firewood and coal are used together, which is the fuel structure produced by the Kaifeng government kiln in the late Northern Song Dynasty. Kaifeng kiln was an official industry specializing in the production of bricks, tiles, and reels for the imperial court [86]. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, one of the famous five major porcelain kilns, the official kiln, was developed. Is the development of the official porcelain kiln also related to coal like Yaoci? This remains to be studied.

Archaeology and literature have proved that individual pottery and porcelain industries in the Northern Song Dynasty were produced with coal. Then in other coal-producing and coal-using areas, such as the famous Cizhou kiln, the world-famous "magnetic" has almost replaced the name of "porcelain"; Huo kiln, Yuci kiln on Hedong Road, etc.; Dingyao, one of the five famous kilns, is close to the east side of Zhendingfu, a coal-producing area; In the case of insufficient firewood energy supply in the Northern Song Dynasty, did these porcelain kilns also make local use of the coal resources in the region, just like the iron-smelting handicraft industry? Further research is also needed. Judging from the above-mentioned situation that the Xuzhou iron smelting industry relied on the discovery of coal in Baitu Town to get rid of the firewood crisis and gain a new life, Xiao Yao, which is also in Baitu Town and famous for its white porcelain, has "more than 30 kilns and hundreds of potters"[87], and their rise and fall fate should probably be no different from that of Xuzhou iron smelting industry. And in the above-mentioned coal-producing areas, there are also some fuel-powered handicrafts, such as the important alum industry, salt industry, and other metal handicraft industries in Hedong, do they also use coal? All are subject to study.

Fourth, the distribution point of coal on the spatio-temporal coordinates

The Song and Song dynasties were not a dynasty that was good at managing money, but a government that was good at making money. All commodities, no matter how big or small, have the tax of "living" and "passing". The government has also taken advantage of the means of prohibition to include lucrative commodities in official sales, so as to monopolize profits. In the ancient documents about coal in the Song Dynasty, there are relatively more materials on coal tax and official sales than on coal production. This situation, on the one hand, shows that the coal of the Song Dynasty not only entered circulation as a commodity, but also the circulation was not small, and the profit was very high, otherwise the government would never disdain to sell it in the palace. On the other hand, relying on these records of taxes and official sales, we can find a rough outline of the production and use of coal in the Northern Song Dynasty in terms of time and space.

First of all, on Hedong Road, in October of the second year of Dazhong Xiangfu (1009 AD), the edict said: "If you hear that the people of the prefecture are depicting charcoal, you will be taxed ten catties per pack, and you will be divided from now on" [88]. It was only 50 years since the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Taiyuan area already had a history of coal tax, and Dazhong Xiangfu was exempted from it in the second year. Shortly thereafter, however, Chen Yaozuo "removed his taxes"[89]. Chen Yaozuo informed that the time of Hedong and the state was from the third year of Tiansheng (1025 AD) to the fifth year of Tiansheng [90]. That is to say, in the sixteen years after Dazhong Xiangfu was exempted from the state coal tax in the second year, the coal tax in Taiyuan was quickly restored, so Chen Yaozuo was exempted again. In addition, according to the first year of the Qingli calendar, Zhang Kang used the "stone coal cave in Jiaoshan, Fuzhou, the northwesternmost part of Hedong, to build the Dongsheng Fort"[91] to reject the Western Xia soldiers, Fuzhou (located in Fugu County, the northeasternmost part of present-day Shaanxi) was also the coal production area of Hedong Road. A carboniferous cavern is a mine or mining area where coal is mined. As a result, the coal-producing areas in Hedong that are clearly recorded include Taiyuan Prefecture, Fuzhou Prefecture, and the Jin, Ze, Shi Sanzhou and Weishengjun mentioned above. Judging from the historical map, there are coal-producing areas of the Northern Song Dynasty in the vast area from the northernmost part of Hedong Road to the middle and south of Jin. Of course, the actual situation may be much more than that, and when history books talk about coal here, they often use the generic term "Hedong".

The situation of Hebei West Road Ci and Xiangzhou can be seen in the archaeological results cited and the materials of the "Song Hui Yao". There are large ancient coal mine ruins in Hebi, with high coal output and large profits, and the imperial court adopts a monopoly form of operation. It was only after the fourth year of Tiansheng (1026 AD) that private people were allowed to intervene in the coal trade. It seems that the production of coal here and its entry into circulation also began in the early Northern Song Dynasty.

From Xiangzhou to the south, beyond Weizhou is Huaizhou, the southernmost part of Hebei West Road, where the Jiaozuo Coal Mine in Henan Province is located today, and it is located in the same coalfield area as the coal mines of Cizhou and Xiangzhou, and the coal in this coal area has been exploited and utilized in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the first year of Shenzong Xining, there was an edict saying: "Shi Tan will go to Beijing from his own arms, and he will not be levied" [92]. Probably because of the shortage of fuel in Kaifeng, the tax exemption was used to stimulate merchants to sell coal from Huaizhou to Bianjing. This edict not only reflects the coal tax from Huaizhou to Kaifeng, but also shows that Huaizhou is the supply place of Kaifeng's coal consumption. The Bianjing kiln firewood mentioned above is used with coal, and its coal comes from Huaizhou. The history of this incident is as follows: "Its coal was closed in Wude County, Jiudingdu, Huaizhou" [93]. Again, in the first year of Yuanfu, "Jingxi Pai'an Si said: Xihe Carboniferous Gang is owed, please follow the Xihe Carboniferous Gang owes the law." from it" [94]. Where does this West River Carboniferous come from? Judging from the situation that "Yongji and Yongfu Ercang, which were transported by Huai, Meng, and other prefectures, and were called Xihe"[95], the Xihe Carboniferous Gang should have come from Huaizhou and Mengzhou (the seat of governance is in present-day Mengxian County, Henan, which belongs to the present-day Xinxiang area with Jiaozuo City). However, according to the king of the Huimin River who was patrolled by the capital at that time, Keji said: "The water of the Huimin, Jing, and Suo rivers is shallow and small, and the origin originates from the boundary of Xijing, Zheng, and Xuzhou", and "the Beijing and Suo rivers are under the Xihe River and the Huhe River" [96]. There is also a specific West River here, which connects the Beijing and Suoer Rivers. The sixth volume of the "Historical Atlas of China" does not include this Xihe, and the Beijing and Suo Ershui marked are also too short, only in Zhengzhou. According to Wang, Keji originated from the boundary between Zheng and Xuzhou, and it seems that Beijing and Suoershui should also extend from Zhengzhou to the south into Xuzhou (later called Yingchang Mansion) and then converge on the West River. Today, the Pingdingshan Coal Mine in Henan Province is located here, and its north, east and south sides are almost surrounded by Xuzhou (Yingchang Mansion) (see Tan Gongxiang, ed., Volume 6 of the Historical Atlas of China). Is the Carboniferous of the Western River of the Northern Song Dynasty related to the coal here? I'm afraid this needs to be studied in depth. Today, the coal reserves of Henan Province rank among the top of all provinces and autonomous regions in the country, and the coalfields are distributed in the west of the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, from Hebi and Jiaozuo in the north to Pingxiang Mountain in the south. Now, back to the northernmost Zhending Mansion on Hebei West Road, it has been said before that in the first year of the Ming Dynasty (1032 AD), the Zhending Mansion was abolished. This shows that before 1032 A.D., the coal here was also monopolized by the government. Commodities that have the value of government monopoly are often those that are produced and consumed in large quantities. From this point of view, the coal output of Zhendingfu will not be less. Based on the above-mentioned situation of Hebei West Road, it can be seen that the Hebei West Road in the North China Coalfield District, from its northernmost Zhendingfu to the southernmost Huaizhou, this vast area of coalfields has been developed and utilized since the early Northern Song Dynasty.

In the sixth year of Tiansheng (1028 AD), Du Zhan, the transshipment director of Shaanxi West Road, asked for commercial taxes from all parts of the road, and asked for direct payment of military expenses from nearby state armies, among which the record of coal tax was: "Yongchang, Hancun, Qindian, Zuosheng, Honghe, Longanzhuang, Caogongzhuang, Fangling Village, and Li Village bought charcoal in Pizhou, and Zhang Village and Lingtou Village in Dingping County went to Ningzhou" [97]. These villages and towns are small, probably because they are located in remote places, the coal tax is scattered, and the tax officials are reluctant to go, so the imperial court simply collects the coal tax in the form of a merchant tax such as buying Pu. It is worth noting that Pizhou was also the place of iron production in the Northern Song Dynasty, and iron tools were very famous, and the fire tendons and scissors were listed as the top offerings [98]. Based on the above-mentioned Yan'an area and the Tongchuan coal mine where Yaoci coal is sourced, we can find that the coal consumption in these areas of Shaanxi Road in the Northern Song Dynasty is basically consistent with the distribution of coalfields in the northern part of Shaanxi Province and the north of Weishui, and the Tongchuan area is also the main coal base of Shaanxi Province today.

The area that used coal a little later in the Northern Song Dynasty was Xuzhou, which was located in the Huaibei coalfield area of China, and it began to use coal after finding coal in the first year of Yuanfeng as mentioned in the "Stone Coal Poem".

Although the coal tax and the official sale of coal in the Northern Song Dynasty were abolished from time to time, the general trend was to increase unabated. Especially since Huizong Chongning, "along the Bianzhou County to increase the town gate to make tax profits." The official sale of charcoal has increased by more than 20 fields, and the world has changed its business, and the charcoal is sold by the government itself" [99]. It shows that not only the coal tax collection points and more than 20 new government-sold coal yards have been added along the Bianhe River, but also that "the world is easy to do business, and the charcoal is sold by the officials themselves", and the official sale of coal is all over the country. On the one hand, this situation exposes the greedy nature of the ruling class's expropriation and extortion; On the other hand, it also shows that in the late Northern Song Dynasty, the consumption of coal also rose sharply, and the rulers felt that it was very profitable. On August 18 of the second year of Chonghe (1119 AD), when the Ministry of Officials "selected people to be appointed to the official positions in Beijing", they mentioned "the first to tenth coal fields in Henan, the first to tenth coal fields in Hebei, the soft charcoal fields in western Beijing, the coal fields in the west of Beijing, the coal fields in Fengji, and the new charcoal fields in Beijing"[100]. Judging from the fact that the officials were dispatching officials from the capital and that the Tokyo Menghualu also talked about the "Ten Coal Farms in the North and South of Henan"[101] when describing the Kaifeng storage warehouse, the distribution of the above-mentioned more than 20 government-sold coal yards should be in the Kaifeng or Gyeonggi areas. This shows that in the late Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng had become the largest consumption area of civil coal at that time. The aforementioned "along the fence of Chuangzeng Town in Bianzhou County to make tax profits, the official sells coal, and sells more than 20 fields", which is related to the coal consumption in Kaifeng. Therefore, the people of the Southern Song Dynasty said: "In the past, there were millions of families in Biandu, and all of them relied on coal, and there was no one who paid a salary" [102]. Although the "no family salary" here is an exaggeration, Kaifeng in the late Northern Song Dynasty did have the fact of "relying on coal".

The result of the imperial court's profit from the coal tax and the official sale of coal will inevitably affect the consumption interests of the majority of coal consumers. In the Yuanfu period of Zhezong, the people already had the reflection that "the coal in the near official mantle, the city increased rapidly, and it was not convenient for the people" [103]. At that time, the official sale of coal and the charcoal tax of the Zhezong Dynasty were far less bad than those of the later Huizong Dynasty "since Chongning", and they were still so disturbing to the people. Then, in the era of Huizong (1101-1124 AD), its bad consequences can be imagined. Although in the third year of Yuan Fu (1100 AD), the Song court had made a euphemistic explanation and a beautiful promise: "Shi Tan has been bought by the government in recent years, sold on the market, and later increased in the market price, which is really inconvenient for the people." In the future, the government will not buy or sell it" [104]. From this explanation, it is not difficult for us to see the essence of the plundering of coal sold at a low price and a high price. As for the promise that "in the future, the government will not buy or sell coal," it was debunked by the so-called "since Chongning" facts in less than two years, and it is nothing more than an empty phrase that cannot be fulfilled.

Conclusion

"Stone coal came out of Hebei, Shandong, and Shaanxi in this dynasty, and then reached Beijing. When Chen Yao was in the east of the Cao River, his taxes were removed. In the first year of Yuanfeng, Xuzhou started, and Dongpo wrote poems to remember it" [105]. This is a general summary of the use of coal in the Northern Song Dynasty by Zhu Yi of the Southern Song Dynasty, and it is basically consistent with the whole situation discussed in this article. Throughout the Northern Song Dynasty, the coal-producing and coal-using areas were basically in the distribution areas of some major coalfields north of the Qinling Mountains and Huaihe River in China. Coal was used not only as a civil fuel at the time, but also mainly as a handicraft fuel. It is clear that the handicrafts fueled by coal are: iron smelting, weapons manufacturing, iron coinage, ceramics, shipbuilding, etc. Among them, coal is the most widely used in the iron smelting industry. In addition, the land where coal is produced and used is often an important iron-producing area in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the southern region, when Gaozong fled south, the Jiangnan region was still in a situation where "the benefits of the coal were not available", and coal was not as widely used in the south as it was in the north during the Northern Song Dynasty [106]. At that time, the use of fuel in the Northern Song Dynasty was summarized by Lu You, that is, "there was more charcoal in the north, more charcoal in the south, and bamboo charcoal in Shu" [107]. This is the different structure and characteristics of fuel use in the north and south of the Northern Song Dynasty.

This article is an article of information, not written by me. It's a pity that the source is no longer available.