Every dynasty is founded on a leader of prestige and competence who controls a strong and combat-ready military force, otherwise it will not be able to defeat many rivals in battle, and it will not be able to force various forces to accept its rule by force. So in the early days of the dynasty, the relationship of military violence was the decisive factor in maintaining the rule.

Subsequently, with the change of leaders, the changes in the quality of the leaders themselves, and the gradual dimming of military relations, there must be an ideology to maintain the legitimacy and authority of the central power, and it is this legitimacy and authority that makes a large number of intellectual elites in the country loyal to the maintenance of the rule. This was a decisive factor in maintaining the rule of the system in the middle of the dynasty.

By the end of the dynasty, the high development of the commodity economy began to disintegrate ideology, intensify social contradictions, and corrode administrative capacity, resulting in the inability of the state to perform normal functions (such as providing relief to disaster victims and resisting foreign enemies), and finally the entire society collapsed and disintegrated in turmoil.

Therefore, the fate of a dynasty in Chinese history (a regime based on large-scale national oppression is not considered) is essentially determined by the relationship between military, ideological, and commercial power. When military force plays a decisive role, a country can break the conventional pattern of interests, maximize the use of material and human resources of the whole society, build many large-scale projects, launch foreign wars, and implement many economic and political reforms that are difficult to do in normal times. But military power is not sustainable, it itself depends on the personal qualities, personal abilities, military experience, prestige of the ruler. However, the rulers of a dynasty are constantly changing, and if they rely on military violence to maintain the system, once the ruler's ability does not meet the strict requirements, the rule will be in crisis and the society will collapse.

Therefore, the short-cycle dynasties in Chinese history are basically dynasties in which military power is not smoothly transformed into ideological power, and this is true of the Qin Dynasty and the same is true of the Sui Dynasty.

When military power is transformed into ideological power, that is to say, under the deterrence of military force, the ideological indoctrination carried out, coupled with the policies of the dynasty itself, establishes the legitimacy and rationality of the rule, then the dynasty enters a long-term cycle. Once it enters a long cycle, to a large extent, the fate of the dynasty does not depend on the quality of one or two emperors themselves, but on the laws of the economic and political development of the whole society itself, more precisely, the impact of the development of the commodity economy on society, and the social collapse caused by this development when it cannot rise to capitalism. At this time, the whole society seems to go through a process from prosperity to collapse along the established track, and the personal qualities of the rulers can only cause some small fluctuations in this track, but cannot change the overall trajectory!

Sun Hui knew that the demise of a dynasty was, of course, the result of the joint efforts of various groups of people and various groups. Because in any case, different interest groups and different ideological groups of course act according to their own views of interests and right and wrong, as was the case at the beginning of the dynasty and the end of the dynasty. So the question is not that different groups and strata act according to their own ideas of right and wrong or the interests that should be defended, but what kind of historical circumstances have pushed these groups forward, and when they act according to what they think is the right interests, they have led to the destruction of the country and the opposite of their original intentions. This is the deeper reason.

Before the Song Dynasty, the disintegration of society by commercial development was caused by the polarization and antagonism between the rich and the poor caused by commercial development, which undermined the management of the grassroots, and at the same time undermined the rule of the upper strata through the disintegration of ideology, and the destruction of the upper and lower levels by joint efforts. It is at this time that the role of business development is to destroy but not build. The old consciousness is disintegrated by the spark consciousness generated by the changing economic base, but the new dominant consciousness cannot be constructed. The political superstructure is in a state of gradual collapse and fragmentation, unable to form a new superstructure for effective rule over the country.

Therefore, the scene of the long-cycle imperial dynasty before the Song Dynasty at the end of the dynasty was that the emperor's power fell and became a puppet, or manipulated in the hands of eunuchs or powerful ministers. Whether it is the eunuchs, the powerful ministers themselves can effectively rule over the local officials, and there are local divisions and warlords everywhere.

But unlike any previous long-cycle dynasty, the Song dynasty was on the verge of disintegration as it approached the end of the dynasty. There was no specific minister or eunuch who could really override the emperor. The authority of the central government over the localities has not been lost, and there has been no situation of local secession and warlord secession. On the contrary, the central government still has absolute authority over the local governments, and the entire civil service system still operates according to the wishes of the civil servants themselves. The role of commercial power is not merely dismantling and destructive, but on the contrary, it is itself constructive.

However, the development of national strength in the Song Dynasty was a typical model of "the country is rich and the people are poor", which greatly exacerbated the disintegration of commercial forces on society at the end of the dynasty.

The Song Dynasty was one of the dynasties with the most tax titles in Chinese history. The Song Dynasty's "positive tax" refers to the "two taxes" (referring to the summer tax and autumn tax) system, which was inherited from the Tang Dynasty, and the tax regulations are the same, but in fact they are not high. However, the two taxes of the Tang Dynasty were handed over to the central government, and the local government could retain the part, and the local government could propose to spend it in the event of local wars and disasters. The Song Dynasty demanded that all local taxes be released to the central government, and the local governments had no accumulation. At the beginning, Zhao Kuangyin, Taizu of the Song Dynasty, had another intention in this move, he set up a "sealing pile warehouse" in the central government, saving money and cloth, hoping to redeem the sixteen states of Yanyun from the Liao State in the future or use it as military expenses to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun. Later, because he died early, his reign was not realized, and his successor Zhao Guangyi of Song Taizong also failed to realize Song Taizu's wishes, but the tax policy did not change. Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, almost all of the regular taxes were concentrated in the central treasury, and the local government had no right to financial expenditure, so when there was an invasion by foreign enemies, the local government had no money or food to organize resistance, so it could only sit and wait for the central government to rescue, and the local government could hardly maintain its operation.

In addition to regular taxes, the local governments of the Song Dynasty often "increased taxes" in various ways and names, trying their best to extract from the common people. There are different forms of tax increases in various places, roughly including: branch transfer, conversion, additional consumption, righteousness, additional taxes, banknotes and zero consolidation, big buckets and small buckets, bucket noodles, samples, advance loans, heavy reminders, abnormal tax omissions and so on.