Concise History of China Chapter 2 song Dynasty 宋朝

2021/04/29

To help students learn Chinese better, this website will gradually introduce articles on the process of Chinese history, so that students in the understanding of Chinese history, learning Chinese, twice the result with half the effort. The article will be introduced from the beginning of the dynasty, the main characters and the major events to promote the historical process, the military, economic, scientific and technological level at that time, the status in the world, the reasons for the decline of the dynasty and so on. Only by understanding the history of China, understanding that China has only lagged behind the world for political reasons in the past 100 years, and is now moving towards a comprehensive rejuvenation. It is the trend of historical trends that can not be stopped by sleeping lions. Understand these history and present, learn Chinese well and let students know the importance of learning Chinese and future prospects.


After the late Tang Dynasty emperor was forced to abdicate, China entered a pattern of various disputes.


In 960,AD,in the post-Zhou era, the old emperor died and set up a new emperor who was only seven years old. At this time, Zhao Kuangyin, the supreme officer of the Guards, launched the Chen Qiao military change, the last emperor gave way, and Zhao Kuangyin became the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty. Few dynasties in Chinese history without war and peaceful transition.



Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin launched a mutiny, took the throne of the Zhou Dynasty and changed the Yuan Dynasty to stand on its own feet, and continued the general strategy of unifying the world when Zhou Shizong, and finally basically completed the unification of the whole country. Taizu Zhao Kuangyin, Taizong Zhao Guangyi two emperors launched the Song Dynasty only a few rounds of Northern Expedition, the territory of the early and middle Song Dynasty roughly finalized. Since then, the Song Dynasty has been taking the negative defensive strategy of emphasizing inside and outside, and rarely fighting against the north. At the beginning of the founding of the country, Zhao Kuangyin, in order to avoid the tragedy caused by the separation of towns and eunuchs in the late Tang Dynasty and the frequent administration of eunuchs, attributed the general power to the central government, adopted the national policy of worshiping literature and suppressing martial arts, and adopted the combination of recruitment system and command system. The influence of this state policy is far-reaching: on the one hand, the local soldiers of the Song Dynasty were very wide and miscellaneous, and in the end, there were few powerful officials in the Song Dynasty, industry and commerce, science and technology developed, and culture was extremely prosperous.




 

On the other hand, it also led to the Northern Song Dynasty since the beginning of the weak military preparation, frequently defeated the northern foreign suffering, Xixia, Qidan soldiers repeatedly defeated.

 
There are several events in the Song Dynasty that are influential events in Chinese history.

 
1. Central powers | a glass of wine

 
In order to strengthen the centralization of power and avoid the military coup, the Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin made the history of similar Chen Qiao soldiers repeat and usurp his regime.

 
One day, he summoned his cronies, Zhao Pu, and asked ," for decades since the end of the Tang Dynasty, the emperor has changed eight families. The war is frequent and the people live in deep trouble. What is the reason for this? I want to stop the war, so that the country long-term stability, how to do ?" Zhao Pu replied ," your Majesty is a blessing to heaven and earth. The chaos of the world is not the other reason, that is, the power of the town is too great, the monarch weak and ministers strong. If we want to solve this situation today, we can only weaken the power of the town, limit their finances and confiscate their elite troops, so that the world will be peaceful ."

 
In 963 AD, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin invited several high-ranking generals to drink alcohol. When the wine was half full, Zhao Kuangyin, Song Taizu, said to the generals ," if I had no one, I would not be emperor, although I would be happy to be the original general. After being emperor, I didn't sleep well all day ."

 
The generals were shocked :" your Majesty how to say this, now the fate has been determined, who dare to have another heart ?" "Who doesn't want to be rich? One day, someone will put a yellow robe on you and embrace you as emperor. Even if you don't want to rebel, can you still be trusted ?"

 
The men knelt down and kowtowed, and cried ," The minister is foolish enough to know how to deal with this matter, and ask your majesty to pity us and show us a way of life ." Song Taizu took the opportunity to express his idea of letting them give up their military power, suggesting :" life is short, like a foal over the gap, it is better to accumulate more money, buy some real estate, pass on to future generations, home more geisha dancers, day and night drinking together for the end of the day, there is no suspicion between the monarch and minister, peace, this is not very good ?" The generals thanked him and said ," Your Majesty can think of us and have a good return to life !"

 
The next day, the generals said sick, asked to resign, Song Taizu one by one approval.

 
After this appointment and removal, Song Taizu followed him in charge of the military power of the senior generals were all removed, entrusted with false posts, and changed to manage the army, general power and financial power all concentrated in the central government. Therefore, the Song Dynasty was able to avoid the Tang Dynasty town separation situation. But this also led to a narrow local resources, eventually let the Song Dynasty in the foreign war repeatedly failed.


2. Unity War

 
Another cause that Song Taizu faces is to unify the whole country.


Zhao Kuangyin decided to unify the whole country first south and then north. First destroyed Nanping and Chu, then destroyed the post-Shu, South Han, South Tang three countries. In August 976 AD, Taizu carried out the Northern Expedition again. But on October 19 th Taizu suddenly died, his brother Zhao Guangyi busy with the throne, the cause of national unity suspended.

 
Song Taizu brother Zhao Guangyi immediately called Taizong, after a stable ruling position, continue the cause of national unity, first separated from Fujian Jianzhang, Quan two dynasties, then perished in the Northern Han Dynasty, ended the late Tang Dynasty since the separation of towns, finally basically completed the reunification of the country.

 
Taizong himself is subservient and elegant, likes poetry and Fu, so the government attaches special importance to cultural undertakings, so Song ci and all kinds of calligraphy have been developed rapidly.

In 997 AD, Song Taizong Zhao Guangyi died of illness, by Prince Zhao Heng, the title of the true sect. The Song Dynasty also began to enter the heyday.(Pending)



Through this period of Chinese history, we can know that China's centralization system began after the Song Dynasty.



Edited by Baoyang from Shanghai Beihaimandarin