"Strong Han Sheng Tang" has always been a topic of conversation among Chinese history lovers. In recent years, many voters have also invented "Fu Song" and "Gang Ming" in order to match. The former refers to the prosperity and astonishing commercial taxation of the Song Dynasty; the latter refers to the Ming Dynasty's foreign policy of "discord and affinity and no indemnity".
Unfortunately, most of the half-understanding interpretations of history by future generations out of their own feelings are not reliable. This article first analyzes the origin and causes of the "rich Song" to see if the Song Dynasty is really rich.
The "rich" of the rich Song, who is the rich?
One of the roots of the Song Dynasty's "theory of affluence" was the astonishing commercial tax revenue after Wang Anshi's reforms. But this "affluence" is not the same thing as what we call "getting rich for all" today. First of all, the government controls a very large proportion of monopolies. The so-called monopoly is that the imperial court uses the power in its hands to prohibit private capital from participating in certain industries. Most dynasties included salt and iron in their franchises to gather wealth.
By the Song Dynasty, in order to cope with the huge military expenditure, the Beijing imperial court also included wine in the monopoly project. After the three-pronged approach, the Beijing imperial court naturally made great profits in commercial activities. At its peak, the Song authorities could profit from it, more than 80 percent of their revenues.
The prosperity of the Qingming River Map is not without cost
There is no doubt that only the official business group has made the most profits from it, and there is not much "cake" for private businessmen to divide. Worse still, the monopoly of the official industry is bound to lead to a sharp rise in the price of monopoly goods because there is no competitor. This situation was particularly evident when the Song Dynasty was in dire need of money. For example, every time the Northern Song Dynasty used troops against the Western Xia, it would lead to a sharp rise in prices in the Shaanxi-Gansu region. In severe cases, prices can increase by 3-5 times in a short period of time.
China's wooden buildings also needed to use iron tools, from which the government could reap huge benefits
The imperial court could profit from soaring prices, but it suffered from peasants who were in dire need of necessities. Moreover, the fact that the Song Dynasty profited greatly from commercial taxes did not mean that the Song Dynasty's agricultural taxes were low.
The Two Tax Laws and "Switching" and "Branch Shifting"
The agricultural tax of the Song Dynasty inherited the Tang Dynasty, using the "two tax laws". The purpose of this policy is very close to the "one-whip law" reformed by Zhang Juzheng in later generations, that is, to convert physical objects into money calculations. This policy itself is very advanced, but when it is actually used, it has evolved into a "policy that harms the people" due to the problem of supporting policies.
For example, when converting physical objects into cash, the officials who handle them will vigorously reduce the price of physical objects. When it is actually converted into cash, it is reported and withdrawn according to the real price. This behavior is what we know as taking kickbacks. The shortcomings of redundant officials in the Song Dynasty led to a huge number of officials and a complex network of various relationships, which could not fundamentally govern similar problems.
The financial policy of the Song Dynasty has always had huge drawbacks
The peasants naturally knew the fact that they were exploited by officials. However, officials belonged to the imperial court, and if they dared to resist, it meant disobeying public power. Most peasants endured the belief of Chinese "no hunger and no rebellion". However, a small number of people who dared to rebel still brought great trouble to the dynasty. According to modern statistics, the Song Dynasty had more peasant uprisings than any previous dynasty. Although, because of the relationship between national policies, it is impossible to form a large-scale rebellion like the Yellow Turban Uprising and the Yellow Nest Uprising that swept the whole country. However, its density and distribution are unprecedented.
Many Song troops suppressed uprisings, including Yue Fei
Compared with "tortuous change", "branch transfer" is a typical strategy to harm the people. After the Qin Dynasty, the Chinese dynasty adopted a centralized system. The characteristics of this system are: 1. abolish as many rights as possible of the feudal monarch; 2. The state coordinates all obligations. For example, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the princely states had the obligation to send troops to defend Zhou Tianzi. The famous Guan Zhong played the slogan of "Honoring the King" and "Honoring the King" (Honoring the King" (Honoring the King' Yi). The troops sent out by the princes needed them to pay out of their own pockets. In return, they enjoyed full administration of their land, and even the Son of Heaven could not interfere in their internal affairs.
After the Qin Dynasty, the county system gradually replaced the ancient feudal system. The interior has become a place to provide money and food, and the border is full of military towns. As a price for confiscating the rights of feudal lords, the central imperial court needed to bear the "transportation costs" of transporting soldiers, money, grain, and taxes from the interior to the front.
It is worth mentioning that the speed of the promotion of the Qin system is very slow, and I will not repeat it here
One of the reforms of the Tang Dynasty was to require the people themselves to send taxes to the front line, that is, "branch transfer". Most of the travel expenses on the road are paid out of pocket by the people. As a result, many people lost their homes, and figures such as "snake catchers" emerged in an endless stream after the Middle Tang Dynasty. The policy of the Song Dynasty was more harsh than that of the Tang Dynasty. Because, after the Middle And Tang Dynasties, not part of the population was under the control of local moderation. The last national census of the Tang Dynasty was before the Anshi Rebellion. People pass through the gray areas created by the central chaos to avoid the sickles that harvest leeks.
However, under the Song Dynasty's national policy of "strong cadres and weak branches", the power of moderation was reclaimed by the central government. The Beijing side took this opportunity to frantically "throttle" and did its best to transfer administrative costs to the people at the bottom. In the long run, path dependence was formed, and by the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, the money obtained by the two tax laws on the people had reached 6-7 times that of the Tang Dynasty.
The Song army's huge military expenditure was the main reason for the court's crazy wealth collection
epilogue
The essence of the so-called "wealth" of the Song Dynasty was the filling of officials and the national treasury. In this "prosperous world", the common people did not gain substantial benefits. Even instead, they need to pay more blood and sweat than in the previous dynasty to survive. This "rich Song" may be the rich Song of the high-ranking officials and nobles, but it is definitely not the "rich Song" of the common people.