"Outside the mountain Qingshan Building, when is the West Lake singing and dancing?" The warm wind smoked tourists drunk, straight to Hangzhou as a beizhou. ”
After the Southern Song Dynasty ruling class fled from Biezhou (i.e., Dongbeiliang) to Hangzhou (i.e., Lin'an), it continued to compromise and surrender to Jin, only to save half of the country, and had no determination to recover the lost land, and still lived a life of absurdity and decay. This poem written by the Southern Song Dynasty poet Lin Sheng is an exposé and satire of this phenomenon.
Lin'an, called Yuhang during the Sui Dynasty, is the southern terminus of the Grand Canal. In the Tang Dynasty, it was renamed Hangzhou. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, it was the capital of liú, the king of Wuyue. It is on the verge of the mouth of the Qiantang River, surrounded by rivers and ports, convenient transportation, and has long become a commercial city. After the Southern Song Dynasty was established here, it became the political center again. The taxes and tributes paid to the imperial court in various places were concentrated here, and the readers had to come here to take the exam. Large landowners and big merchants who had fled from the north also came here to settle down. As a result, Lin'an soon prospered.
At the end of the Southern Dynasty, the imperial court recruited a large number of migrant workers, expanded the urban area, and built palaces. The urban area was more than doubled and built into a large city for more than seventy miles around. Because the rivers outside lin'an are long and horizontal, many bridges have been built to connect the streets and alleys that are divided by the river. At present, there are more than three hundred and fifty bridges whose names can be found from ancient books, and the pontoon bridges made of wooden boats have not been counted.
Miyagi, where the imperial palace is located, is built under the Wansong Ridge in the south city of Lin'an, Phoenix Mountain, and is nine miles around. The palace inside was magnificently built, and more than forty were built in the imperial garden alone. A fake West Lake was also dug up in the palace in imitation of the West Lake, made of waterfowl and fish and shrimp from gold and silver, and placed in the lake for the emperor and his concubines to see. It also set up the Gozen Koku, an official handicraft workshop, and recruited skilled craftsmen from all over the country to make various luxury items for the royal family.
The north gate of Miyagi Castle is called The Hening Gate, and in front of it are the residences of the six yamen and officials. The ten mile long street in the north is a commercial area called Royal Street. There are many shops selling gold and silver jewelry, satin cloth, clothes, shoes and hats, as well as jade, belt workshops and shops selling lacquerware, porcelain, chicken, duck and fish, and dried and fresh fruits. Of course, most of these shops served bureaucrats, landlords, and the wealthy. In addition, there are many restaurants and some theaters, brothels, etc., for bureaucrats, landlords, and merchants to eat, drink and have fun. During the day, the market prospered, and after nightfall, the lights were bright, and the sound of guessing boxing and dancing and dancing and bamboo was constantly heard, and it was not until late at night that it gradually quieted down.
From the Royal Street to the west, there are many small streets and alleys, which are the living quarters of ordinary people. There are also many shops here, and shops of the same industry are gathered on a street. It is said that there were 440 kinds of industries in Lin'an City, and all walks of life had their own business organization. Among these shops were many "changsheng shops", pawnshops where the landlord bureaucracy used usury to exploit the poor. It is common to see some poor people with yellow faces and thin muscles sending their little valuable things to the high counter of the "Changsheng Shop" and mortgage a few dollars to buy rice and firewood to maintain the life of the family.
Some ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty court also occupied land in Lin'an City, building mansions, villas and gardens. Han Nongxin, who was in power during the reign of Emperor Ningzong of Song, built a large garden on the south side of the Long Bridge, named "South Garden", which had ornate pavilions and pavilions, which were more beautiful than the imperial gardens in the palace. When the South Garden was completed, Han Nongxin invited the celebrities from all over the world to hold a grand banquet, inviting everyone to chant poems and paint, and celebrate in a big way.
Jia Xiangdao, the minister in power during the reign of Emperor Lizong of Song, built a huge villa in The West Lake Geling, named "Semi-Idle Hall", for his own enjoyment. In the "Semi-Idle Hall", there are five steps and one floor, ten steps and one pavilion, which is very luxurious. Jia Rudao also often sent a group of rogue thugs to rob the women of the people, imprisoning them in high-rise buildings and deep cabinets, and forcing them to be concubines. Li Huiniang in Peking Opera is a poor woman who was snatched up by Jia Xiangdao and imprisoned in the "Semi-Idle Hall" for a long time.
Bureaucrats also occupied the beautiful West Lake, asked craftsmen to build large cruise ships, and feasted and danced in the lake to find fun.
The ruling class of the Southern Song Dynasty, fearing that its poverty and extravagance would arouse the people's resentment, vigorously propagated Buddhism to anesthetize the working people. They built many Buddhist monasteries in Lin'an City. According to ancient books, there were more than 600 Buddhist temples in Lin'an City at that time, more than the Buddhist temples in Jiankang, the capital of the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties. The Lingyin Temple in the West Lake is a famous Buddhist temple, majestic and grand in scale, which was built by working people with blood and sweat.
Contrary to the extravagant and luxurious life of the emperor and the princes and nobles, the working people in Lin'an City lived a difficult life of rare food and clothing all year round. At that time, the population of Lin'an was 390,000 households and more than 1.2 million people, of which the royal family, bureaucrats, landlords, and merchants were only a very small minority, and the vast majority of people were working people.
The craftsmen who worked in the Gozen Koku were actually handicraft slaves, without any personal freedom, and lived in poverty. Other craftsmen engaged in handicrafts such as wood, bamboo, lacquerware, and paper, as well as some bricklayers and masons, also had a hard life. Some craftsmen, in order to maintain their lives, have to walk the streets and alleys, mending pots, sharpening knives and scissors, hoop barrels, repairing shoes, etc. Their lives are insecure and they often suffer from hunger.
There are also some small businessmen who carry the burden of goods, shake the drums of goods, and attract customers, although they can make some small profits, they are often extorted by the government and live a precarious life.
In addition to the above people, there is also one of the most discriminated laborers in Lin'an City, that is, those who sweep the streets and empty the toilet, and the bar laborers who collect the corpses and carry the coffins. Their jobs are the hardest, dirtiest, and most tiring, they get the least paid, and they live the poorest lives. On the streets of Lin'an, every cold winter month, there are often a large number of unemployed vagrants sleeping on the streets, crying hunger and cold, and finally dying on the side of the road, ending a painful life.
In short, Lin'an, the capital city of the Southern Song Dynasty, had the beauty of "qingshan louwailou outside the mountains", on the one hand, the ruling class lived a drunken and dreamy life of "singing and dancing in the West Lake" here, on the other hand, the poor people could only live a miserable life in hunger and cold. The great poet Du Fu described Chang'an during the Tang Dynasty as "Zhumen wine smells of flesh, and the road has frozen bones", is this not also the scene of Lin'an City in the Southern Song Dynasty?