Genius remembers in a second [Aishang Novel Network biquge.info] to provide you with wonderful novels to read.

Encyclopedia business card

The Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) was a dynasty in Chinese history, known together with the Southern Song Dynasty as the Song Dynasty, also known as the "Two Song Dynasty". It was built in Bianliang (now Kaifeng City, Henan) in the north, and was called the Northern Song Dynasty in history for being different from the Southern Song Dynasty. The Northern Song Dynasty was started by Emperor Chan Zhao Kuangyin on the weekend. After Taizu ascended the throne, he deprived the military generals who held heavy troops and local officials, entrusted them with vacant posts, and changed them to civilian officials to lead the army, and concentrated all military power and financial power in the central government. Avoid the situation of the Tang Dynasty's feudal towns. However, this also led to the defeat of the Song dynasty in the wars against the Liao and Western Xia. In the first year of Jingkang (1126), the Jin soldiers invaded Kaifeng and perished the following year. A total of 9 emperors, 167 years. The Song Dynasty was the most prosperous era in ancient Chinese history, with the country's GDP accounting for 60% of the world's total. The largest ruling area of the Northern Song Dynasty was bounded by the present-day Haihe River, Bazhou in Hebei, and Yanmen Pass in Shanxi Province in the north, intersecting with Liao; Northwest by Shaanxi Hengshan, eastern Gansu, Qinghai Huangshui and Xixia junction; In the southwest, Minshan and Dadu River are bordered by the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Dali, and Guangxi is bordered by Vietnam. In the fifth year of the Taiping Rejuvenation (980), there were 6,499,145 million households in the country.

Brief introduction

In the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD), Emperor Chai Zongxun Chan was located in Zhao Kuangyin and established the Northern Song Dynasty. It is bounded by the present-day Haihe River, Hebei Bazhou, and Shanxi Yanmen Pass in the north and intersects with Liao; Northwest by Shaanxi Hengshan, eastern Gansu, Qinghai Huangshui and Xixia junction; In the southwest, Minshan and Dadu River are bordered by the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Dali, and Guangxi is bordered by Vietnam. According to the Taiping Huanyu Ji, there were 6,499,145 households in the country in the fifth year of the Taiping Rejuvenation (980). The Northern Song Dynasty confronted Liao, Jin, and Western Xia. In the first year of Jingkang (1126), the Jin soldiers invaded Kaifeng and perished the following year. There were nine emperors in total, a total of 167 years.

The Song Dynasty was the most prosperous era in ancient Chinese history in terms of economy, culture and education. According to research, the GDP of the Northern Song Dynasty was US$26.55 billion, accounting for 60% of the world's total economy, while the Qing Dynasty's GDP in 1820, before the Opium War, was US$228.6 billion, accounting for 32.9% of the world's total economy. It shows that the Northern Song Dynasty is the highest peak of China's GDP accounting for the world's share.

The per capita GDP of Chinese in the Northern Song Dynasty was US$2,280, while the per capita GDP of Western Europe was US$427, while in 1820, the per capita GDP of the Qing Dynasty was US$600, and the per capita GDP of the United Kingdom, which had completed the first industrial revolution, was US$1,250. [1]

history

The rise of the Zhao family

Later Zhou Taizu Guo Wei became the founding emperor of the Later Zhou Dynasty, and Zhao Kuangyin played an important role in the support, so he was promoted to the head of the Eastern and Western Classes and became an officer of the forbidden army. In 953 AD, Guo Wei sent Zhao Kuangyin to Huazhou as a deputy commander. At this time, it was just in time for Guo Wei's adopted son Chai Rong (Guo Wei's wife Chai's nephew) to be crowned King of Jin and serve as the Yin of Kaifeng Prefecture. Chai Rong and Zhao Kuangyin had been in the military for several years, and they knew that Zhao Kuangyin was heroic and clever, so they kept Zhao Kuangyin by his side and asked him to be reappointed as the envoy of the Kaifeng Prefecture.

In 954 AD, Guo Wei, the Taizu of the Later Zhou Dynasty, died, and his adopted son Chai Rong

succeeded to the throne for Zhou Shizong. Liu Min, the lord of the Northern Han Dynasty, thought that the replacement of the Zhou lord was a golden opportunity to destroy Zhou Xinghan, so he begged for the Khitan and jointly invaded the Central Plains. Zhou Shizong received the news of the invasion of the Northern Han Dynasty and decided to personally lead the troops to defend against the enemy. When the news of the emperor's personal expedition came out, all the courtiers objected, and Zhou Shizong ignored these discussions and brought Zhao Kuangyin and other soldiers to the expedition. In March of that year, the two armies met at Gaoping, which opened the prelude to the great war. Liu Min, the lord of the Northern Han Dynasty, personally led the Chinese army, the general Zhang Yuanhui led the left army, and the Khitan general Yang Gon was the right army.

At the beginning of the war, the Zhou army was at a disadvantage because the follow-up troops did not arrive, and some of the generals were afraid in front of the enemy. Zhou Shizong did not show weakness, and immediately ordered the generals Bai Chongzan and Li Chongjin to be the left wing, Fan Aineng and He Hui to be the right wing, Xiang Xun and Shi Yanchao led the elite to ride in the center, and Zhao Kuangyin and the front of the palace checked Zhang Yongde to lead 1000 soldiers and Shizong Chai Rong to protect him. The Northern Han army began to attack, and the left army first attacked the right flank of the rear Zhou army, with fierce momentum. Later, Fan Aineng, the right-wing general of the Zhou army, and He Hui were intimidated by the large number of Han soldiers, and the number of confrontations was combined, so he led thousands of horsemen to flee to the south, and instigated the people, claiming that the war was a complete failure.

At this critical moment, Chai Rong hurriedly led his own troops to go into battle, fighting left and right, and trying to save the defeat. Zhao Kuangyin immediately jumped his horse and appeared in front of the battle, and Zhang Yongdejian, the general of the forbidden army with a higher status than him, said: "Now the thief is arrogant, the general's subordinates have always been able to shoot, and they can climb high from the west, and I will lead the cavalry to respond from the left flank, and attack from both sides, and we will definitely be able to achieve victory!" Zhao Kuangyin agreed. Zhang and Zhao each led their troops into battle. I saw Zhao Kuangyin commanding the soldiers and horses to quickly occupy the favorable terrain and stabilize the position, and on the other hand, he personally led the brave land to the right to rush and kill, and beheaded the Northern Han general Zhang Yuanhui. The Han soldiers lost their generals and retreated. The Khitan general Yang Gon was dissatisfied with Liu Min, and he also withdrew on his own when he saw this. The battle ended with the defeat of the Northern Han.

Chai Rong was a monarch with clear rewards and punishments, and after the Battle of Gaoping, he beheaded Fan, He and more than 70 of their subordinates. Zhao Kuangyin won the favor of Zhou Shizong because of his efforts to save the defeat at the critical moment, and also won the praise of Zhang Yongde and other forbidden army generals in front of the palace, and was appointed as the marquis of Yu in front of the palace, stepped into the ranks of senior generals of the forbidden army, and was responsible for the reorganization of the forbidden army. [4]

The founding of the Northern Song Dynasty

In June 959, Zhou Shizong Chai Rong died in Kaifeng. His son Zongxun, who was only 7 years old, succeeded to the throne, but he was still an ignorant child and could not handle any affairs, and the military affairs had to be decided by the minister.

At this time, Zhao Kuangyin had been in charge of the army for 6 years. He also brought some important generals to his side, and formed the "Ten Brothers of the Righteous Society" with Yang Guangyi, Shi Shouxin, Li Jixun, Wang Xianqi, Liu Qingyi, Han Chongzan, Liu Shouzhong, Liu Tingrang, Wang Zhengzhong, etc. Under his scenes, his younger brother Zhao Guangyi, staff Zhao Pu, Li Chuyun, etc.

On the first day of the first month of the first month of 960 A.D., under the instruction of Zhao Kuangyin, the history of Zhenzhou and Dingzhou sent personnel into Kaifeng to send an urgent war report to the imperial court, falsely claiming that the Khitan and the Northern Han combined army plundered the territory, and asked the imperial court to send troops to resist the enemy. Prime Minister Fan Zhen and Wang Pu did not verify the military situation, and hastily dispatched Zhao Kuangyin to lead the Suwei Forbidden Army to resist. [5]

In 960 A.D., Zhao Kuangyin, the capital of the Later Zhou regime, planned to add a yellow robe to the Northern Expedition, forced Chai Zongxun to abdicate, and established the Song Dynasty, known as the "Northern Song Dynasty" in history, which is the famous "Chenqiaoyi Mutiny". Zhao Kuangyin is "Song Taizu". At that time, in addition to the newly established Song Dynasty, there were also separatist forces such as the Later Shu, Southern Han, Southern Tang, Wu Yue, and Northern Han.

So since the founding of the Song Dynasty, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin began his struggle to unify the whole country. In 964, 965, and 970 AD, the Northern Song Dynasty successively eliminated Jingxiang, Houshu, and Southern Han, and defeated the relatively powerful Southern Tang in 975. After that, Wu Yue and local forces in Fujian, Zhangquan and other places "accepted land" in the Song Dynasty, so that the chaotic situation gradually ended.

The sound of the candle shadow axe

According to records, on the night of October 19 in the ninth year of Kaibao (976), Zhao Kuangyin summoned his younger brother Zhao Guangyi, the king of Yin Jin in Kaifeng Prefecture, to enter the palace to drink. The eunuchs and palace maids were all dismissed and left, and Zhao Guangyi took care of the imperial brother himself. Everyone only saw what Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi said from a distance, and then the light and shadow of the candle swayed, it seemed that Zhao Guangyi left the table and retreated, and then heard the sound of the jade axe poking the snow, and heard Zhao Kuangyin say loudly: "Good for it, good for it." When it was almost dawn, Zhao Guangyi hurriedly called people and called the prince to come, saying that Zhao Kuangyin had passed away. On the morning of the 21st, Zhao Guangyi ascended the throne in front of the coffin, and contrary to the practice of changing the yuan the following year, he immediately changed the yuan to rejuvenate the country. [6] (This claim is disputed).

The Alliance of the Abyss

In the Later Jin Dynasty of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Later Jin Emperor Shi Jingjiao once ceded the sixteen states of Youyun in the north to the Liao State established by the Khitans. In order to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, the Northern Song Dynasty fought a long war with the Liao State. Since Zhao Guangyi, Taizong of the Song Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty has fought with Liao many times, but has not been able to recover the lost territory. In the first year of Song Zhenzong's Jingde, Song defeated Liao, but instead concluded the "Lanyuan Alliance", Song Zhenzong and Liao made an armistice and peace in Lanzhou, and agreed to Song

Liao is a state of brothers (Song is the brother, Liao is the brother), and the Song Dynasty is required to give Liao 100,000 taels of silver and 200,000 horses of silk every year.

In the second year of Renzong's celebration, he added 100,000 taels of silver and 100,000 horses of silk, and changed "gift" to "acceptance". The Northern Song Dynasty paid the "New Year's coin" to Liao every year, and the two sides did not invade each other. Since then, there has been a little tranquility in northern China, and this alliance between Song and Liao was called the "Alliance of the Yuan" by later generations. After this alliance, the Northern Song Dynasty made great strides in domestic economic development due to the lifting of the border war crisis. Later, when Shenzong was in power, he cut 700 miles east of the river.

The Lanyuan Alliance was an alliance concluded between the Northern Song Dynasty and the Liao after many wars. For the Northern Song Dynasty, the "Lanyuan Alliance" was an equal contract, and the insignificant annual currency was exchanged for peace in the Youyan region of the Northern Song Dynasty. It was also a very suitable treaty for Liao, and there was an undercurrent surging in Liao at that time, and it was wise to get out of the entanglement of the Song regime in the south in time. Judging from the history of the development of the Chinese nation as a whole, the alliance has its positive side: it has put an end to the decades-long war between the Liao-Song and Song dynasties, and has kept the Liao-Song border in a state of relative peace for a long time, which is conducive to the production and development of the border areas, and in the long run, to the development and reunification of China's multi-ethnic country.

Qingli New Deal

During the period from the first year of Song Renzong's Kangding to the second year of Qingli (1040-1042), the Western Xia Emperor Yuan Hao launched several large-scale military attacks against the Song Dynasty, and both sides suffered heavy losses, resulting in a peace treaty concluded in 1044 (the fourth year of Qingli). The history is known as the Qingli Peace Conference. The peace agreement stipulated: Yuan Hao canceled the emperor title and accepted the canonization of the Song Dynasty; Song Fang gave Xixia 72,000 taels of silver, 153,000 horses of silk, and 30,000 catties of tea every year, which was called "New Year's Gift"; opening up border trade between the two sides, etc. After the Qingli Peace Conference was signed, the northwest frontier was calm for more than 20 years.

As early as the Song Taizong and Zhenzong periods, some people have put forward the idea of changing the law. In the third year of the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty (1025), Fan Zhongyan wrote to the imperial court and advocated the reform of the government. Two years later, when Fan Zhongyan was in charge of the academy in Yingtianfu, there was also a "Shangxiangfu Shu", which proposed the same proposal, but it was not adopted. During the Qingli period, Song Renzong was forced to ask Fan Zhongyan, the governor of the political affairs, and others to put forward suggestions for reform. In September of the third year of Qingli, Fan Zhongyan sent a letter to Renzong entitled "Answering the Edict of Chen Shishi", pointing out that the situation at that time was internal and external difficulties, and it was impossible not to carry out reforms, and put forward ten reform proposals, including rectifying the rule of officials, cultivating talents, developing production, and strengthening armaments.

He believed that with "virtuous" officials, they would be able to do a good job in government, so that the people would "enjoy peace and tranquility and not invite trouble," and alleviate social contradictions. In the same year, Renzong issued several edicts to promote the ideas of Fan Zhongyan and others, the so-called "Qingli New Deal". However, the idea of changing the law violated the interests of some bureaucrats and landlords, and aroused strong opposition from conservatives at the beginning, and in just about a year, Fan Zhongyan and others were forced to resign one after another, and the reform was aborted. By 1066 (the third year of the reign of peace), the Western Xia began to provoke again, and the war continued. The long-term war caused the peasants in the vast northern regions to suffer heavy persecution by the Song, Liao, and Western Xia rulers, and their production and livelihood were greatly affected.

Xining changed the law

The difficult situation at home and abroad led some of the more enlightened rulers to demand reform of the law. During the period of the Northern Song Dynasty, from Renzong, Yingzong to Shenzong, the society tended to be stable, the economic scale was unprecedented, and the culture was even more prosperous. In order to make the society develop, in 1067, Song Shenzong ascended the throne and decided to change the law. In 1068 (the first year of Xining), Wang Anshi was summoned to Kaifeng to preside over the reform of the law. In 1069 AD, Wang Anshi was appointed as the governor of the government and implemented the new law. The new policies of Zhao and Wang Anshi were implemented one after another in 1069 AD.

In the spring of 1069, the "Department of Regulations for the Establishment of the Three Divisions" was set up to discuss the change of the law. Generally speaking, the content of the new law can be broadly divided into two aspects, namely, "enriching the country" and "strengthening the army". On the Fuguo side, Wang Anshi promulgated the Green Seedlings Law. The local governments hold loans twice a year, listen to the voluntary loans of households, the first class households shall not borrow more than 15 times each time, the fifth class households and customers shall not exceed the same half, the loan period is half a year, and the interest rate is 2 cents. At that time, the interest rate of the private sector was very high, and it was often five cents a year, and even more than two to three times.

Farmland Water Conservancy Law. It is stipulated that the construction of water conservancy projects in various localities shall be distributed by local residents according to the level of households. If it cannot be built by relying on the people's strength alone, the insufficient part can be borrowed from the government and the interest rate can be paid, and if one state or one county is not competent, it can be jointly responsible for several prefectures and counties. In the seven years since the promulgation of the decree, more than 10,000 water conservancy projects have been built across the country, irrigating more than 360,000 hectares of civilian farmland. Conscription Law. The original method of serving as a substitute for errand service in the main household was changed to the state and county governments paying for the recruitment of people for service. The cost of conscription shall be shared by the main household in the jurisdiction according to the level of the household. It turns out that the family paid by the family with the burden of errand is called "exempt money"; Official, temple-view households, fangguo households, female households, single-ding households, and non-commissioned households that originally enjoyed the privilege of exemption from military service also had to pay "service money" according to the household level, and the amount of the money was reduced by half compared with the exemption money.

Municipal Law. The government will contribute 1 million yuan to set up a "market service" in Kaifeng to buy goods that are not easy for traders to sell at a reasonable price, and then sell them when the market is out of stock. Traders can pay collateral to the city, and they can buy goods in government warehouses on credit in batches and sell them everywhere, with an interest rate of one cent for half a year. This new law was later implemented in Hangzhou, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Yangzhou and other cities. The law of change of the market is to use the power of the state to restrict the control and manipulation of big businessmen in the market, stabilize prices and adjust the demand of the market. The government also took a share of the profits of the big businessmen and increased the country's revenue.

Fangtian Average Tax Law. In order to ensure the fiscal revenue of the feudal state, it is necessary to solve the problem of uneven land tax burden, so the land is cleared. After the clearing, the number of acres of the field, the name of the owner, and the level of fertility of the land are registered, and they are divided into five grades according to the quality of the land, and the tax amount is determined. In the Qingzhang area, the homesteaders who used to pay taxes to the government have somewhat reduced their burden.

In terms of strengthening the army, a law on the placement of generals was promulgated. In view of the situation of "soldiers do not know their generals, and generals do not know their soldiers" caused by the change of military law, the forbidden army is fixed in a certain area under certain jurisdictions, and fixed generals are trained on the spot, so that "the soldiers know their generals and will train their soldiers." At that time, it was called "Zhijiang". The implementation of the Law of Placing Generals strengthened the border defense forces of the Northern Song Dynasty. Armor Protection Law. In this measure, rural households are compiled, with 10 households as one guarantee, five guarantees as one guarantee, and 10 guarantees as one guarantee. Where there are more than two dings in the family, one person should be appointed as a baoding, and a person who is "brave in the pipeline" among the landlords should be selected to serve as the chief of the bao, the chief of the chief of the landlords, and the chief of the capital, so as to strengthen the right of the landlord class to rule over the rural areas. At the same time, it is stipulated that Baoding should be gathered during the agricultural slack to practice martial arts; Each chief security officer was required to take turns to patrol at night to prevent the peasants from rebelling. At the same time, an ordnance superintendent was set up to comprehensively improve the quality of weapons and enhance the combat effectiveness of the Song army. In addition, Wang Anshi also compiled the "Three Classics and New Righteousness" and promulgated it all over the world. Tong Guò's re-annotations of the Confucian poems, books, and Zhou rites are the theoretical basis for the reform of the law.

However, due to the overpowering conservative forces, Wang Anshi twice implemented the new law, both of which ended in failure. During the reign of Emperor Zhezong, Empress Yingzong Gao's family completely abolished the new law, and the Song Dynasty reverted to its original way of rule. At this point, the Northern Song Dynasty began to decline.

The new law objectively conformed to the interests of the peasants and small and medium-sized landlords, and relatively suppressed the big bureaucrats, landlords, and wealthy businessmen. But the struggle ultimately failed. Later, it turned into a struggle for power by the bureaucracy, which completely lost the meaning of reform. The conflict between the old and new parties continued until the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Revolts everywhere

Song Huizong Zhao Ji succeeded to the throne, in the face of the Northern Song Dynasty, which had become the end of the strong crossbow, the newly enthroned Song Huizong first rectified the government, but a year later, the brutal nature of the absurd yin was revealed. The decay and incompetence of Song Huizong led to the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty.

In order to solve the financial difficulties, Huizong of the Song Dynasty set up the "Xicheng Kuotian Office" in 1111 to collect people's wealth. The peasants and fishermen of Liangshanbo could not afford to pay heavy taxes, as long as they resisted rent and taxes with arms, so Liangshanbo became a stronghold of the peasants' armed uprising. The peasant uprising led by Song Jiang initially used Liangshanbo as a stronghold and persisted in the struggle for four or five years until 1119, when the uprising was officially declared, and then left Liangshanbo and moved to Hebei and Shandong. Song Jiang's team initially consisted of only 36 people, with the slogan of "doing the right thing for heaven" and "killing the rich and helping the poor", which was deeply supported by the people and expanded rapidly. In 1121, Song Jiang led the rebel army to Haizhou by boat, fell into the siege of the Song army, and surrendered to the Northern Song Dynasty in desperation.

Due to the officials in the late Northern Song Dynasty, the people were forced to rebel. In October 1120, Fang La led a rebellion in Qixian Village, Shexian County, Anhui Province, and established a peasant regime that included 52 counties in six prefectures of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangxi. It had a great impact at the time, and in the summer of 1121 the uprising failed, and Fang La was captured and executed by the imperial court. Fang La's uprising was a blow to the rule of the Song Dynasty.

Maritime Alliance

As early as the first year of Zhenghe (1111), the Song Hui sect sent the eunuch Tong Guan to the Liao Dynasty. Understanding the politics of the Liao Dynasty, Tong Guan met Yan Ren Ma Zhi in the process of this mission, and offered advice to Tong Guan to take Yan, which was deeply appreciated by Tong Guan, and was renamed Li Liangsi by Tong Guan and brought back to Kaifeng. Li Liangsi told Song Huizong Chen that Emperor Liao Tianzuo was desolate and political, and the Jurchens hated Liao to the bone, and if they could cross the sea from Denglai, make a good alliance with the Jurchen tribe, and make an appointment to attack Liao, then Yandi would be desirable. Song Huizong was very happy about this, gave him the surname Zhao, and began a series of activities to seek Yanjing.

When the Liao Dynasty was in a precarious situation under the attack of the Jin soldiers, Song Huizong, Cai Jing and others thought that the time was ripe for the Liao Dynasty to unite with the Jurchens to attack the Liao Dynasty and then recover the sixteen states of Yanyun. Therefore, in the first year of Zhenghe (1118), the Song court sent an envoy from Dengzhou to Liaodong in the name of buying horses, and discussed with the Jin Dynasty about the joint invasion of Liao. In the second year of Xuanhe (1120), Song sent Zhao Liangsi and other envoys to Jin, and then signed a "maritime alliance" with Jin. The two sides agreed that the Yanyun area south of the Great Wall would be captured by the Song army, and the prefectures and counties north of the Great Wall would be captured by the Jin army; After the victory of the siege, the land of Yanyun was returned to the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Northern Song Dynasty sent the annual coins to the Liao Dynasty every year, and sent them to the Jin Dynasty according to the number.

The Song court originally thought that it would be able to seize the sixteen states of Yanyun lightly, but it did not expect that the Liao army would not be able to withstand the attack of the Jin soldiers, but it was not afraid to fight the decaying Song army, and as a result, in the fourth year of Xuanhe (1122), the Northern Song Dynasty sent troops to attack Yanjing twice, but they were defeated by the Yanjing defenders of Liao. By the end of the year, the Jin soldiers marched from Juyong Pass to conquer Yanjing. In this way, the Jin people said that they would no longer hand over the Yanyun Prefectures to the Northern Song Dynasty. After bargaining between the two sides, the Song Dynasty repeatedly backed down, and in the end, the Jin Dynasty only agreed to hand over Yanjing and its six prefectures and 24 counties to the Song Dynasty, but asked the Song Dynasty to hand over the 400,000-year-old coins originally given to the Liao Dynasty to the Jin Dynasty every year, and also to hand over the taxes of the 6 prefectures and 24 counties to the Jin Dynasty. The Song Dynasty promised to pay another 100 yuan a year as the "tax money" of the six states of Yanjing, and the Jin Dynasty agreed to withdraw the army from Yanjing, but when the army was withdrawn, the Jin soldiers swept away the rich families of the golden silk children of Yanjing, and only handed over a few empty cities to the Song Dynasty.

Jin invades

After the fall of the Liao Dynasty, the supreme ruling group of the Jin Dynasty had seen through the corruption of the Northern Song Dynasty and the military incompetence of the Northern Song Dynasty from the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty's war against the Liao, as well as in the process of negotiating the delivery of Yanyun, so they immediately took advantage of the victory to invade the Northern Song Dynasty. In November of the seventh year of Xuanhe (1125), the troops were divided into two routes to the south, and the western route was led by Yan Zonghan to attack Taiyuan from Yunzhong Mansion. The Eastern Route Army was led by Wanyan Zongwang and advanced from Pingzhou to Yanshan Mansion. After the two roads agreed to capture Taiyuan and Yanshanfu, the Western Route Army entered and exited Tongguan, went north to Luoyang, crossed the Yellow River in the south and went straight to Tokyo, and the Eastern Route Army joined forces under Kaifeng City. The Western Route Army was stubbornly resisted by the Song Dynasty soldiers and civilians led by Wang Yu in Taiyuan City, and failed to capture it for a long time, and the Eastern Route Army reached Yanshan Mansion, and the Song garrison Guo Yaoshi surrendered, and the Jin soldiers then drove straight in, crossing the Yellow River and marching to Tokyo.

After Song Huizong heard the news that the Jin soldiers were heading south, he did not dare to personally assume the responsibility of leading the resistance to the enemy, and hurriedly passed the throne to the crown prince Zhao Huan, in an attempt to flee south. Zhao Huan ascended the throne for Song Qinzong, and changed the next year (1126) to the first year of Jingkang. At this time, the government and the opposition officials and people exposed the crimes of Cai Jing, Wang Hao, Tong Guan, Liang Shicheng, Li Yan, Zhu Mian and other "six thieves" and demanded that they be executed.

In the first month of the first year of Jingkang, Song Qinzong was forced to use Li Gang, the main battle faction, as a pro-expedition envoy to deploy the defense of the capital. As soon as Li Gang had set up the garrison facilities in the capital, the Jin army led by Wanyan Zongwang had already arrived at the city and launched a fierce attack on the Xuanze Gate in Kaifeng. Li Gang organized the Kaifeng army and civilians to hold the city and engage in a fierce battle with the Jin army, and repelled the Jin soldiers who were besieging the city. Wanyanzong saw that Kaifeng was difficult to capture for a while, so he used the strategy of "attacking with peace", and Song Qinzong was originally a faint monarch who was afraid of war, so he hurriedly sent an envoy to Jinying to negotiate peace. Wanyan Zongwang proposed that the Song Dynasty should pay 5 million taels of gold, 50 million taels of silver, 10,000 cows, horses and mules, 1,000 camels, and 1 million variegated satin, cede the three towns of Taiyuan, Zhongshan, and Hejian, respect Emperor Jin as his uncle, take the Prince of Song and the prime minister as hostages, and send the Jin army north to cross the Yellow River before agreeing to peace. Song Qinzong ignored a single qiē, fully agreed to Yan Zongwang's harsh requirements, and ordered the whole city of Kaifeng to borrow gold and silver to be transported to the Jin army. Li Gang resolutely opposed the negotiation of peace with the Jin army, and Song Qinzong held Li Gang accountable for the failure of the Song soldiers to attack the Jin camp at night, and ordered Li Gang to be dismissed and abolish the pro-conquest imperial camp division presided over by Li Gang, so as to express his determination to negotiate peace to the Jin people.

Song Qinzong's perverse behavior aroused the indignation of the Kaifeng military and people, and Chen Dong, a student of Tai, wrote to Xuande Gate, demanding that Li Gang be reused and that Li Bangyan, Zhang Bangchang, and others who advocated peace be dismissed, and tens of thousands of people came to the palace to support and support Chen Dong, and asked Song Qinzong to receive him, and smashed the Dengwen drum and killed dozens of eunuchs. Song Qinzong had no choice but to announce the re-use of Li Gang as the right man of Shangshu, and let Li Gang preside over the defense of the capital on all sides. At this time, about 200,000 soldiers from all walks of life in the Song Dynasty had also arrived.

In the face of this shape, Wanyan Zongwang knew that it would be difficult to capture Kaifeng with 60,000 soldiers and horses alone, so after obtaining the consent of Song Qinzong to cede the three towns, he led the army to evacuate Kaifeng in February of the first year of Jingkang (1126). From February to July of the first year of Jingkang, the Song army had three large-scale reinforcements in Taiyuan, with a total of 400,000 troops, all of which were defeated by the Jin army, and the main force of the Song army was exhausted. [7]

The temporary calm in Hebei and the stalemate in the war in Hedong were only an interlude to a larger-scale invasion by the Jin army. However, the corrupt ruling clique headed by Song Qinzong thought that it was peaceful. The military power of the prestigious veteran Zhong Shidao was dismissed, and all the soldiers of King Qin who came from all walks of life were also returned, and the Song court reverted to the old state of Wen Tian and Wu Huan. The Lord and the faction regained the upper hand at the imperial court. In June of the first year of Jingkang, Song Qinzong, because he was disgusted with Li Gang's repeated words and prepared for the border, took advantage of the aid to Taiyuan, sent him as a Xuanfu envoy in Hedong and Hebei, and forcibly drove him out of the imperial court. In August, Li Gang failed to aid Taiyuan and was dismissed from his post as the ambassador of Lianghe Xuanfu.

In August of the first year of Jingkang, after a summer of rest, the Jin army invaded the south again on the pretext that the Song Dynasty had ceded the three towns of Taiyuan, Hejian and Zhongshan as promised. Wanyan Zonghan and Wanyan Zongwang marched in two ways, east and west. At this time, the Song general Wang Yu had been holding Taiyuan for more than 8 months, and was broken on the third day of September due to the exhaustion of food. Wanyan Zonghan took advantage of the victory and went south, approaching Heyang on the north bank of the Yellow River. Wanyan Zongwang's Eastern Route Army also attacked Zhendingfu, an important town in Hebei, in early October. The southern invasion of the Yu army has put on a posture of destroying the Northern Song Dynasty in one fell swoop.

Song Qinzong only wanted to surrender, thinking that he could continue to use gold silk bribes to make the Jin army retreat, so he hurriedly sent batches of envoys to the Jin camp to beg for peace, and did not make serious preparations militarily. However, the lord and faction within the imperial court sent Tang Ke, Geng Nanzhong and others to firmly cede the land, repatriate the Qinwang army that had gathered again in various places, and remove the fortifications of the capital. The Jin army crossed the Yellow River, Wanyan Zonghan proposed to the Song court to draw the Yellow River as the boundary, and the east of the river and Hebei belonged to the Jin Dynasty.

Since the Song court did not make serious military preparations, the Jin army on the two routes did not encounter major resistance, and advanced towards Tokyo along the way. In November, the Jin army's advance reached outside the city of Tokyo, and at the beginning of November, the Jin army's east and west routes met under the city of Kaifeng and launched an offensive against Kaifeng. The troops in Kaifeng City were limited and morale was low, and the Song Dynasty sent Guo Jing to lead the "Liujia Divine Soldiers" to fight at a critical time, and the city of Tokyo was defeated.

Although the city of Tokyo was broken and the rulers were still determined to surrender, the soldiers and civilians of Kaifeng did not want to be slaves of the country, and the resistance to the enemy was very high, and the number of people who participated in the war reached 300,000. Seeing that the soldiers and civilians of Kaifeng were ready to start street battles, the Jin army did not dare to rashly enter and occupy the whole city. So the old trick was repeated, and the words of "peace discussion" were released, and the Song Dynasty demanded 10 million pieces of silk, 1 million ingots of gold, 10 million ingots of silver and other money. However, at this point when it was in danger, Song Qinzong still could not wake up, he sent the prime minister He Li to Jinying to beg for peace, Wanyan Zonghan and Zongwang wanted Song Qinzong to personally go to Jinying to discuss the matter of land reparation, Qinzong had to enter Jinying to ask for surrender, offer a surrender table, and uphold the will of the Jin people, ordered all Qinwang soldiers to stop marching to Kaifeng, and suppressed the people who spontaneously organized to resist, and then the Jin army wantonly searched the treasury inside and outside the Song Dynasty court, as well as the gold and silver money and silk of officials and households.

At that time, it was the harsh winter season, the snow was falling heavily, and the people of Kaifeng, who had been taken captive, were attacked by hunger and cold, and countless people froze to death and starved to death. The surrender policy of the corrupt rulers of the Song Dynasty caused the people of Kaifeng to suffer unspeakable disasters. [7]

Shame on Jingkang

In the first month of the second year of Jingkang (1127), the Jin army successively detained Song Huizong and Song Qinzong in Jinying, and on February 6, the Jin lord issued an edict to depose Song Huizong and Song Qinzong as concubines, and set up Zhang Bangchang, the former prime minister of the Song Dynasty who colluded with the Jin Dynasty, as the puppet Chu emperor. On the first day of April, more than 3,000 people including Hui, Emperor Qin and his concubines, princes, clansmen, and nobles retreated north. The royal seals, costumes, ritual objects, and armillary spheres of the Song Dynasty were also collected and returned. This was the "Jingkang Change" in history,[7] and the Northern Song Dynasty perished.

Zhao Kuangyin took power by launching a military coup d'état, and in view of the division of feudal towns in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, he implemented a series of measures to prevent the military generals from being too powerful and the local armed forces too strong (also known as soldiers do not know generals, generals do not know soldiers). These measures not only greatly reduced the combat effectiveness of the Song Dynasty army, but also weakened the national defense against foreign aggression.

In 1127, the second emperor of Huiqin and more than 3,000 people in the clan in Kaifeng were taken away by the Jin soldiers, the ninth son of Huizong of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Gou, the king of Kang, was exempted from this difficulty because he was appointed as the generalissimo of Hebei soldiers and horses to recruit troops, and soon ascended the throne in Yingtian, the Jin soldiers continued to chase and kill, he fled to Yangzhou, and later was forced to be helpless, fled to the sea, and finally settled in Lin'an (now Hangzhou City), temporarily stabilized dìng, so that the Southern Song Dynasty was established, which was for Song Gaozong. After Emperor Hui and Emperor Qin were plundered, they died in 1135 and 1156 in the Jin Kingdom.

territory

Territorial extent

The border between the Song Dynasty and the Liao State has long been stable, and it is on the line of Yanmen Mountain-Damao Mountain-Baigou. Due to the loss of the barrier of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, the imperial court could only plant willow trees on the border. In terms of the war with the Western Xia, Song Shenzong tried to expand his territory and obtained Sui, Xi, He, Tao, Min, Lan and other states. During the reign of Zhezong, he further acquired the land in the Huangshui Basin, the upper reaches of the Tao River and the area around Guide. In the third year of Xuanhe (1121), Xi'an Prefecture and Huaide Army were taken by Western Xia. The Song Dynasty also set up Li, Xu, Lu, Guizhou, Yong and other prefectures at the junction with Dali.

政zhì

Central system

The political system of the Song Dynasty largely followed the political system of the Tang Dynasty. However, the prime minister is no longer held by the governors of the three provinces, but is also the prime minister of the same Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi. The governor was also added as the deputy minister, commonly known as the ruling minister, and the prime minister was called the "ruling minister". The Song Dynasty's power shrank dramatically, and it was only responsible for administrative functions. The Zhongshu Sect and the Privy Council are collectively called the Second Mansion and hold the power of civil and military affairs. There are also three divisions of salt and iron, household department, and degree branch, which are in charge of financial power and are known as the province. In this way, the three powers, the chief executive, and the privy councillor checked and balanced each other, thus weakening the power of the prime minister and strengthening the imperial power. The Song Dynasty also added the Imperial Court and the Imperial Counselor, which were supervisory bodies responsible for impeachment and other matters. After this reform, the emperor was able to assume power.

In order to strengthen the centralization of power and prevent generals from seizing power. In March of the second year of Jianlong, Song Taizu cut off the important position of the forbidden army. In July of the same year, Song Taizu relieved the military attache of military power through guò cup wine, and the leading body of the forbidden army was changed to the palace front division and the guard department, which were respectively commanded by the palace commander, the infantry army commander and the horse army commander. However, the three commanders did not have the right to send troops. The Song Dynasty set up a Privy Council in the center to be responsible for military affairs. The Privy Council was directly accountable to the Emperor and no other official was allowed to intervene. Although the Privy Council can send troops, it cannot directly command the army, which leads to the separation of the power to command troops and the power to transfer troops. At the same time, the Song dynasty often changed the commanders of the army to prevent the emergence of personal power in the army. The deployment of troops in the Song Dynasty can be described as "strong cadres and weak branches" and "guarding the inside and outside". The army of the Song Dynasty was divided into four types, namely the forbidden army, the box army, the village soldiers, and the vassal soldiers. The forbidden army was the central army and the main force of the Song Dynasty army. The Xiang army was the town soldier of each state, which was controlled by the local governor. The township soldiers are strong men who are drawn according to the organs. The vassal soldiers were non-Han armies defending the border.

It is stipulated that the governor of a prefecture or county cannot concurrently hold more than one office in a prefecture or county, and that the military, financial and judicial powers of the prefecture and county are also vested in the imperial court. It also stipulates that the governors of prefectures and counties shall be civil ministers, and that there will be a separate "general judgment" in addition to the governors, so that they can check each other.

Later, the prefectures and counties of the country were divided into 15 routes, and successively set up transfer envoys, prison envoys, pacification envoys, and Changping Divisions in each road, collectively referred to as the "Supervision Division", which were also served by civil ministers, but the pacification envoys sometimes used military personnel. The officials of the road, prefecture, and county are all taken by the central government, and they are temporarily appointed. In this way, the power of the local governors was dispersed, the term of office was short, and the force was weakened, and it was impossible to confront the imperial court.

The rulers of the Northern Song Dynasty carried out military deployments in accordance with the policy of "guarding the inside and the outside". Half of the forbidden army was stationed in and around the Beijing Division, and the rest were stationed in key areas of the country, mainly to suppress the people. Only a small number of forbidden troops were stationed on the border, and the policy of passive defense was gradually adopted against Liao and Western Xia. Song Taizong once said: "If the country has no external worries, there will be internal troubles." External worries can be prevented; However, if it is an internal trouble, it is deeply fearful. The emperor's intentions are always guarded to this. ”

The measures taken by the Northern Song Dynasty to strengthen the centralization of power played an important role in resolving the situation of feudal towns and towns being dominating since the Middle and Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, and in safeguarding national unity, and were also objectively conducive to social and economic development. However, although these measures resolved the contradictions between the central and local feudal towns, they sowed the root cause of "poverty and weakness".

Imperial examination system

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Northern Song Dynasty gradually adopted many measures, including strict examination procedures, increasing the number of admissions, improving the treatment of those who were admitted, and extensively recruiting intellectuals from the landlord class to participate in the political power. From the late Song Dynasty Taizu, after passing the Ministry of Rites Examination, they must pass the "Palace Examination" presided over by Emperor Guò himself to be qualified. In this way, the person who is admitted becomes a "protégé of the Son of Heaven".

Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty reigned for 21 years, and nearly 10,000 people won the imperial examination. Song Renzong reigned for 41 years, and there were 4,517 people who were awarded official positions by the Jinshi Department alone. The large number of landlord class intellectuals in the marsh became loyal servants of the feudal state, and the foundation of the Song dynasty was consolidated.

Taxation system

The agricultural material enslavement system in the Song Dynasty roughly continued the two-tax law at the end of the Tang Dynasty, but increased the Ding tax. The errand service is very heavy and causes a burden on the people, so Wang Anshi has implemented the exemption law when he changes the law.

The land tax of the Northern Song Dynasty stipulated that landowners were taxed on a per mu basis, once a year in summer and autumn (following the Tang Dynasty's two-tax law). In the north, one stone can be harvested per mu of medium land, and one bucket of official tax must be paid. Due to the high yield in various parts of the Yangtze River, three buckets per mu must be taxed. The Tang Dynasty's two-tax law was based on the amount of wealth, while the Song Dynasty was taxed according to the land area. The autumn tax is to levy grain on a mu basis after the autumn is ripe; The summer tax is mainly to collect money, or to fold silk, silk, cotton, and cloth.

Taxation per mu is the basic standard for taxation, but when it is actually collected, there are also so-called calculations of "branch transfer" and "conversion", thus increasing the actual tax amount. "Transfer" means that when the autumn tax is levied, the peasants are required to transport it to the designated place to pay, and if the peasants are unwilling to work with the long-distance transportation, they must pay an extra "branch", that is, "foot money". "Change" means that when the summer tax is levied, money and goods change and change, which also increases the actual amount of tax paid.

The government collects land rent from tenant farmers, which is called "public land endowment". However, no one paid the autumn and summer taxes on the official fields themselves, and often added the two taxes to the tenant farmers, increasing the amount of land rent, that is, the so-called "double tax".

According to the stature of the Northern Song Dynasty, a man is considered a man at the age of 20 and an old man at the age of 60. All men between the ages of 20 and 60 are required to pay the body tax, money or silk, and pay the two taxes at the same time.

The Northern Song Dynasty inherited the harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and merged them into categories, collectively known as "miscellaneous". Among them, there are many names, such as agricultural tool tax, cattle leather tax, silkworm salt tax, shoe money, etc., that is, the so-called "whatever comes out, changes and loses". Hybridization must also be accompanied by two taxes.

The government forcibly collects private grain and rice; And buy is the government's compulsory purchase of private cloth pumping. At the beginning of the implementation of peace bargaining and purchase, the amount of compulsory purchase was allocated according to the amount of land, and the price was paid.

Two Kyoto Castles

In 960 AD, Zhao Kuangyin launched a mutiny, established the Song Dynasty, set up the capital Kaifeng, known as Tokyo in history, from the old system set up Xijing Henan Mansion (Luoyang), Song Zhenzong set up Nanjing Yingtianfu (Shangqiu), Song Renzong set up Běi Jing Daimyo Mansion. [8] After that, the brothers Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi spent 20 years to end the feudal secession of five dynasties and ten kingdoms, and Kaifeng became the center of politics, economy, transportation, and culture in the country. Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, was the world's most prosperous commercial metropolis at that time, with a population of more than one million in the capital, Xijing and Nanjing, becoming the largest city in the world at that time.

The goods in the market include department stores from all over the country as well as various goods from abroad. There are no restrictions on business hours, and in addition to opening during the day, there is also a night market and a dawn market. There is also a regular market and a regular market in the city. Among them, Daxiangguoji Temple is open five times a month, and the scale is very large. There are also "tiles" in the city, which have "Goolan", wine shops and teahouses, as well as storytellers and acting, which have become the center of entertainment. The "Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival" painted by Zhang Zeduan of the Song Dynasty is an artistic reflection of the city's commercial prosperity at that time.

At that time, Kaifeng water transportation was very prosperous, and there were four waterways running through the whole city, namely Bianhe, Huimin River, Wuzhang River, and Jinshui River. At that time, all the way to the Bianhe River, there were as many as 5 million to 7 million stones of grain transported from the south of the Yangtze River to the capital every year. During the time of Song Shenzong, because the Song Dynasty began to guide Luo into the Bianshui water conservancy project, from Biankou to the west to open a canal for 50 miles, lead the water of the Yiluo River into the Bianhe River, the water depth is one zhang, so that the Bianhe River and the Yiluo River communicate with each other, and the east and west traverse the territory of Henan Province, becoming the most important traffic artery at that time. From Kaifeng to the north, Yanjing of Liao State can be passed; From Kaifeng to the west, through Zhengzhou, Xijing, Shaanxi Jingzhao Mansion; to the southwest, through Xulu, Dengzhou, Xiangyang, Jiangling, directly to Hunan and Liangguang; To the east, it can reach all parts of the coastal area of Shandong. At that time, Kaifeng was an open city, with many religious and cultural categories, large scale and high popularity.

The prestigious royal temple Daxiangguo Temple, the Kaibao Temple Iron Tower built in the Northern Song Dynasty to worship the Buddha relics, the Tianqing Temple Pagoda, one of the three major Taoist temples Yanqing Temple, the Yuwangtai, Xingguo Temple Tower, Dayun Temple Tower, Dongda Temple, the Ancient Guanyin Temple, the Catholic Henan General Seminary and the first women's temple in the province built in the early years of the Republic of China, Baozhu Temple, etc., have complete religious categories. In particular, Xiangguo Temple is a famous temple in the history of Kaifeng, and many excellent classical novels in China, such as "Water Margin", "Journey to the West", etc., have written stories about Xiangguo Temple, which have gone through thousands of years, and the incense has been burning continuously.

The prosperous scene of Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty, in addition to the written records, the most famous is the "Qingming Riverside Map". It is like a documentary, which truly and vividly shows the life and social features of Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty 800 years ago, and has become a precious historical material for future generations to study various social customs and cultural history in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the historical chain of Kaifeng, there are many celebrities, such as Cai Yong, Cai Wenji, Cai Mo, Ruan Ji, Cui Hao, Zhong Sicheng, Wang Yanxiang, etc., who wrote their own pages in Kaifeng. The lyrics of "Kaifeng has a Bao Qingtian, iron-faced selfless and loyal jiān" sang the north and south of the river, and the story of a generation of Qing officials Bao Zheng redressed the grievances of the people is well-known. The stories of the loyal Yang general, the national hero Yue Fei, the Wang Anshi who tried to change the law, and the generation of Qing official Zhang Boxing have been passed down to this day. In modern times, it has nurtured Fan Wenlan, Feng Youlan, Yin Da, Deng Tuo, Yao Xueyin, Mu Qing, etc., which is admirable.

The development of ancient Chinese cities took a new turn in the Northern Song Dynasty. Before the Northern Song Dynasty, cities were generally divided into fang and city districts, that is, residential areas and commercial areas were strictly separated. During the Northern Song Dynasty, with the development of the commodity economy and the increase of the urban population, the boundaries of "fang" and "city" were completely broken, and shops could be opened anywhere, no longer in a centralized way.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the breaking of the old fang system, the zoning of industries in the city gradually disappeared, so the status of guilds became more important and more tightly organized. During the Tang Dynasty, some urban commercial areas expanded outside the city, called grass markets, and were even more developed during the Northern Song Dynasty. There are also small markets in the countryside that are open regularly, called bazaars in the north and bazaars or rush markets in the south. In the trade of grass markets, markets and markets, agricultural products and daily necessities such as cloth, silk, bamboo, and wood ware account for the bulk of the trade, and there are also some production tools traded. Some grass markets, markets, and bazaars have gradually developed into fixed towns on the basis of developed exchanges. Towns are the bridge between the city and the countryside, and their development is conducive to the prosperity of the commodity economy.

military

At the beginning of the establishment of the Song Dynasty by Zhao Kuangyin, Taizu of the Song Dynasty, in order to avoid the phenomenon of feudal towns and eunuchs chaotic government since the end of the Tang Dynasty, he formulated a series of policies and guidelines. First of all, in the military aspect, in 961 (the second year of Jianlong), he used the method of "releasing military power with a glass of wine" to relieve Shi Shouxin, Wang Xianqi and a group of heavy military envoys from the control of the army, and set up the central forbidden army, and brought the elite soldiers in various places under the jurisdiction of the forbidden army in the capital. The guards are standing on their feet.

The generals of the Sanya are appointed by people with less qualifications and who are easy to control, and they are often transferred. Although these generals commanded the army, and the deployment and relocation of the army had to obey the orders of the Privy Council, at the same time, they also implemented the "change of military law", and the location of the forbidden army was changed every few years, but the generals did not change with it, so that "the army is impermanent and the commander is impermanent", and the army is prevented from being privately owned by the generals. This ended the situation of the tyranny of the warriors and gave the Song Dynasty complete control over the army.

In addition, in terms of politics, the government of the Northern Song Dynasty adopted the method of dividing powers, placing the position of prime minister in multiple people, and also set up privy envoys, governors, and three envoys to divide the military, political, and financial powers of the prime minister. So that the emperor held more power than all dynasties. In terms of the imperial examination, Song Taizu broke the usual practice and conducted the final assessment of candidates in the form of palace examinations. In this way, the ranks of the bureaucratic class of the Northern Song Dynasty were strengthened, and a large number of outstanding politicians emerged from them, consolidating political power.

economy

agricultural development

During the Northern Song Dynasty, farmers in the south generally used keel dumpers for irrigation, and the cylinder carts with greater running power than keel dumpers were also used to divert water uphill and irrigate mountain fields. Fan Zhongyan's "Waterwheel Fu" has the sentence "The instrument is made of images, and the water is used to rotate", which reflects this kind of cylinder car with wheel axle and propelled by water or ox power. The government of the Northern Song Dynasty twice promoted the "tread plow" in areas where there was a shortage of cattle. "Treading plow" is a good tool for turning the soil by manpower, and the effect of four or five laborers is equivalent to half of that of ox ploughing. This has played a certain role in solving the difficulties of cultivating land in areas with insufficient animal power.

In the tombs of the Northern Song Dynasty, groups of iron farming tools, such as ploughs, cocoons, harrows, hoes, sickles, etc., are often found, among which there are more cultivated agricultural tools such as harrows and hoes, indicating that farmers attach importance to intensive cultivation and the increase in farming procedures. Farmers in the Northern Song Dynasty also paid great attention to manure accumulation and fertilization. They have learned over the course of their long practice that different types of soil should be applied to different manures. The so-called "use of feces is like medicine". At that time, the relationship between the depth and density of crop cultivation and the yield was also understood. Monographs on agricultural production knowledge, such as crop books, agricultural tool books, agricultural books, and silkworm books, have appeared one after another, reflecting the improvement of agricultural production technology.

During the time of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty, he built Pitang in Hebei region, and built a weir with a length of 600 miles, set up a doumen, diverted water from the lake for irrigation, planted rice, and obtained a bumper harvest.

The achievements in water conservancy construction in the southern region are even more significant, among which the larger ones are Hanhaiyan in Jiangbei, Hanhai Shitang in Zhejiang, Qiantang River Embankment, West Lake and so on. For example, the Qiantang River embankment has been built many times before and after, and it is the most effective to repair it when it is true. In this construction, absorbing the experience of the five dynasties, the stones were packed in bamboo cages, piled up into an embankment, and wooden stakes were driven outside the embankment to enhance the ability to block the erosion of the tide. The West Lake was originally irrigated with more than 1,000 hectares of fertile land, which has been abandoned for a long time.

During the reign of Zhezong, Su Shi served as the prefect of Hangzhou and presided over the dredging project of the West Lake, which benefited the nearby farmland. In addition, Mulan Pi in Putian County, Fujian Province, was also a famous project at that time. There is a dam of 80 meters wide, more than 10 meters high and more than 160 meters long in Mulanpi, which can stop floods, store water, drain and irrigate, and ensure the harvest of thousands of hectares of farmland in drought and flood. It is still very strong today, which fully demonstrates the wisdom and creative ability of the working people.

Handicraft industry

During the Northern Song Dynasty, there was great progress in handicraft production, and Bian embroidery and Song embroidery were particularly famous. At that time, the scale of the various handicraft workshops and the meticulous division of labor within them surpassed those of their predecessors. The production technology has developed significantly, and the variety, quantity and quality of products have been greatly increased and improved. The most outstanding is the various porcelains of the Northern Song Dynasty.

The porcelain of the Northern Song Dynasty has been greatly improved compared with its predecessors in terms of production and production technology. At that time, the kilns that fired porcelain were all over the country, and the porcelain made had its own characteristics.

Guanyao, Jun kiln, Ru kiln, Dingyao and Ge kiln are the five famous kilns of the Northern Song Dynasty. The products of the official kiln have fine soil veins, thin body and blue color, slightly pink, and different shades; Jun kiln soil veins are fine, glaze with five colors, and rabbit silk patterns; Ru kiln has both rouge and cinnabar, and the color glaze is clear; Dingyao is famous for white porcelain, and can make red porcelain, and its products are very exquisite; Ge kiln is rich in celadon, and the product is known as "Qianfeng emerald color". During the Jingde period of Zhenzong, an official kiln was set up in Xinping, Jiangxi, and the bottom book of the tribute porcelain was made with the four characters of "Jingde Year System", which was later well-known Jingdezhen porcelain at home and abroad. The carved pattern on the porcelain is a new creation in the Northern Song Dynasty, the scratching is carved with a knife, the embroidery is used with a needle, the printing is printed with a plate, and the cone flower is chiseled into a pattern with a cone tip, and the pile of flowers is piled up into a convex shape with a pen dipped in powder, and then the white glaze is applied. Song porcelain is not only a daily necessities, but also a fine arts and crafts. A large number of porcelain from the Northern Song Dynasty was sold abroad, and a large number of them have been unearthed in various parts of Asia and Africa in recent years, proving that porcelain was an important export at that time.

Today, Song porcelain has become a famous artwork in ancient China, and is well-known at home and abroad.

Mining and smelting

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the mining and smelting scale of gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, and coal was quite large. Liguojian, an important iron-smelting center in the northeast of Xuzhou, has 36 metallurgical workers and about 4,000 miners. Xinzhou, Jiangxi Province and its vicinity are rich in copper and lead, "often recruit more than 100,000 people, dig day and night, and get tens of millions of catties of copper and lead." In the Anhui Fanchang iron smelting site, there is a scrap iron pile about 2 meters high and an area of 750 square meters, reflecting the scale of smelting at that time. On the basis of the expansion of the scale of mining and smelting, the number of products has increased greatly. Taking copper and silver as an example, Song Shenzong paid more than 14 million catties of copper and more than 200,000 taels of silver, and calculated according to the two-tenths tax rate levied by the government, it can be inferred that the annual output of more than 70 million catties of copper and more than 1 million taels of silver exceeded that of the Tang Dynasty several times. In addition, there have been great advances in mining and smelting technology.

Silk industry

The textile industry of the Northern Song Dynasty was still dominated by silk weaving.

There are many kinds of silk fabrics, there are more than 50 kinds of silk and 27 kinds of silk. The silk of Dingzhou, Hebei Province is woven with silk threads of various colors to weave beautiful and realistic flowers, plants, birds and beasts. Jingdong single-state's thin silk, each horse only weighs 100 plants, looking at it like fog. These are silk treasures. The hemp weaving industry is concentrated in the southeastern region. Huainan, Jiangnan, Jinghu, Fujian, Guangnan and other roads all produce hemp weaving cloth. Among them, the silk cloth of Huang, Yi, Yuan, Ji and other prefectures, and the white silk of Qianzhou were the best-selling products in the market at that time.

Caoyun shipbuilding

The Northern Song Dynasty set the capital of Kaifeng, the southeast transport is very important, ships are an indispensable means of transportation, coupled with the prosperity of overseas trade, it has promoted the progress of the shipbuilding industry.

The government-run workshops mainly build boats, but also build seat ships, war ships, troop carriers, etc., while the private workshops manufacture ships and pleasure boats. Taking cao boats as an example, the annual output of Zhenzong reached more than 2,900 ships. The volume and carrying capacity of the ships of the Northern Song Dynasty were quite large, and the large sea ships built by Huizong to envoy to Goryeo, called "Shenzhou", were estimated to be able to carry more than 20,000 stone of goods, and the carrying capacity was about 1,100 tons. Sea ships are all "flat at the top, like a blade at the bottom", with the advantages of deep draft and strong resistance to wind and waves. The main mast of the sea ship is ten zhang high, the head mast is eight zhang high, and a total of 110 sails are loaded. The whole ship is divided into three cabins, and the middle cabin is divided into four cabins. This compartment waterproofing device was the first of its kind among Chinese shipbuilders.

It is worth pointing out that the compass was already applied to navigation at that time, which was a great contribution of ancient China to world civilization. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the boatmaster was sailing, watching the stars at night, the sun during the day, and looking at the compass when it was cloudy and obscure.

Money transactions

With the development of commodity exchange in the Northern Song Dynasty, the amount of money in circulation also increased significantly. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, 320,000 pieces of coinage were minted every year, and the Northern Song Dynasty reached 800,000 pieces per year since the time of Taizong. Later, it gradually increased, and in the sixth year of Shenzong Xining (1073), it reached more than 6 million guan. In addition to copper and iron coins, gold and silver were also used as semi-negotiable money. The collection of taxes, the payment of official salaries, and foreign trade were all made in silver. In large cities, there are gold and silver shops and exchange houses, which specialize in buying and selling gold and silver and huàn currency. The proportion of silver in the national tax revenue gradually increased, from more than 883,900 taels in 1021 (the fifth year of Tianxi) to 18.6 million taels in 1120 (the second year of Xuanhe). Gold is in circulation, but it is not significant.

The Northern Song Dynasty also produced the earliest paper money in China and the world, "Jiaozi". After the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Sichuan region used iron money for a long time, because the iron money was heavy, it was inconvenient to carry, at the end of the 10th century AD, the so-called "Jiaozi shop" appeared in the Chengdu market, and the paper money "Jiaozi" was issued to replace the iron money circulation. In the winter of the first year of Renzong Tiansheng (1023), the government saw that it was profitable to issue Jiaozi, that is, under the pretext of merchants' disputes, it officially established "Jiaozi Affairs", changed Jiaozi to an official office, and used 360,000 iron coins as a reserve to issue it regularly, and the circulation area was still limited to Sichuan. During the reign of Huizong, Jiaozi was changed to "Qian Yin" to expand the circulation area. However, money was not prepared for capital, and a large number of them were printed and distributed, so it became a major scourge to the people.

Commercial tax monopoly

Due to the development of commerce, the government of the Northern Song Dynasty paid special attention to commercial taxes. Set up farms, affairs and other institutions throughout the country to collect taxes.

In the Song Dynasty, there were two types of commercial taxes: passing taxes, each level was worth two out of 100, which was drawn to merchants; The living tax, which is worth three out of 100 draws, is drawn for sitting on Jia. In addition to regular taxes, there are also miscellaneous taxes. With the prosperity of commerce, commercial tax has increasingly become one of the important sources of government revenue. During the Jingde period of Zhenzong, the commercial tax was only 4.5 million guan, and by the time of Renzong, it had increased to 22 million guan.

In order to loot more money, the government of the Northern Song Dynasty implemented a monopoly on salt, tea, wine, alum, etc., that is, the government controlled the production and monopoly sales of these items. The implementation of the monopoly system in the Northern Song Dynasty made the feudal government reap great benefits, but it affected the normal development of private industry and commerce.

The Northern Song Dynasty was very socially developed and was at the peak of China's feudal dynasties. The gross socio-economic output of the Northern Song Dynasty reached 80 percent of the world at that time. The feudal towns were divided, and a series of measures were implemented to prevent the military generals from being too powerful and the local armed forces were too strong. These measures not only greatly reduced the combat role of the Song Dynasty army, but also weakened the national defense force against foreign aggression.

National population

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were only about 6.5 million households. According to the records of the Nine Domains of Yuanfeng, during the period of Yuanfeng (1078-1085), there were 16 million households in the country. According to the "History of the Song Dynasty - Geographical Chronicles", in the first year of Shaosheng, the household was 19,120,921 households, and the mouth was 42,566,243. In the third year of Yuan Fu, the household was 19,966,812 and the mouth was 44,914,991. In the first year of Chongning, the household was 2,264,307 and the mouth was 45,324,154.

technology

Gunpowder technology

During the Northern Song Dynasty, because it unified most of the country, some areas were relatively peaceful, so the productivity and science and technology have made significant progress, and China's four major inventions, movable type printing, compass and gunpowder were produced and carried forward during this period. Due to the needs of warfare, gunpowder was first used in the military during the Song Dynasty. The modern weapons of warfare in Western countries were developed on the basis of the gunpowder manufacturing process that was spread through West Asian countries during the Northern Song Dynasty.

Printing and papermaking

Engraving printing developed rapidly in the Northern Song Dynasty and was widely used to engrave books.

The book engraved by Guozijian was called the prison book in later generations. The books engraved by private bookstores are called fangben. The capital city of Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Jianyang, Fujian, and Meishan, Sichuan are all centers of the printing industry.

There are many types of paper in the Northern Song Dynasty, such as bamboo, rattan, taffle, and hemp, which are all raw materials for papermaking. Sichuan's cloth head paper, cold gold paper, Shezhou's frost, Chengxin, Xuanzhou's chestnut paper, Zhejiang's rattan paper, Wenzhou's shell paper, etc., are all famous varieties. Shezhou produces a kind of long paper, the production is very fine, a piece is fifty feet long, and it can be done from beginning to end, even as one.

culture

In terms of literature and art, the Northern Song Dynasty produced many celebrities. The imperial examination system of the Song Dynasty gave the literati the space to develop freely. Among them, the more famous literati include Wang Anshi, Fan Zhongyan, Sima Guang, Su Shi, Ouyang Xiu, Song Yande [9] and others, and the poetry works of the Song Dynasty have also reached a very high level, and it has become a treasure of classical literature and art in China together with Tang poetry. In terms of painting and calligraphy art, Zhang Zeduan's "Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival" was the first to be recommended, which depicts the scenery of Kaifeng, Tokyo, which brought nearly 600 people to life on paper and became an immortal masterpiece in the history of Chinese painting. Ouyang Xiu wrote the historical masterpiece "New Tang Dynasty Book" in Luoyang, Xijing; Sima Guang lived in Luoyang, Xijing for 15 years, and wrote the first chronicle of the history book "Zizhi Tongjian"; The two Cheng brothers also founded Luoxue and later Cheng Zhu Lixue in Luoyang, Xijing. The Northern Song Dynasty can be called one of the most powerful feudal dynasties in Chinese history in terms of literature.

diplomacy

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the opportunity to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun was lost. The Liao state maintained its dominant position as a long-standing threat to Song rule. Moreover, in the Shaanxi and Gansu areas, Western Xia emerged at this time. The government of the Northern Song Dynasty only bent its knees to make peace with the Liao and Western Xia. At that time, the Song army, the Liao army, and the Western Xia army often fought, and there were many defeats and few victories. Military inaction has led to political and diplomatic weakness, and peace can only be achieved by relying on reparations. This policy of the Northern Song Dynasty is very similar to the policy of the Six Kingdoms in the Warring States Period towards the Qin State.

At the beginning of the 12th century AD, the Jurchen tribe, which arose behind the Khitan, established the Jin state. After the Jin soldiers destroyed the Liao in 1125 AD, they began to go south, the Northern Song Dynasty court had no intention of resisting, and in 1127 AD, the Jin soldiers broke through Kaifeng, captured Huizong Qinzong, Kaifeng was looted, and the first major city as a political, cultural and economic center in the Middle Ages was completely destroyed.