As one of the four ancient civilizations, China has a pivotal position in the whole world, especially in ancient times, the comprehensive national strength of China's feudal dynasty period was among the best compared with other countries in the world, and the strength it had was also unattainable for many countries, and when was China's strongest period? Many Western scholars believe that it is not the Han and Tang Dynasties, but another dynasty with relatively advanced technology, so which dynasty is this Dynasty in China?
The Song Dynasty, with unprecedented cultural and economic prosperity
The most powerful dynasty mentioned above is the Song Dynasty period in China, and seeing such a statement, many people cannot help but wonder that although the Song Dynasty was indeed a powerful dynasty, it was only the very beginning, that is, the beginning of the establishment of the Song Dynasty by Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, when the Song Dynasty was barely strong.
However, in the later generation, the overall strength of the Song Dynasty was undoubtedly a downward trend, and in the last year of the Song Dynasty, the famous Jingkang Revolution occurred in history, and it was directly destroyed by the neighboring Jin Dynasty. Don't worry, let's dissect the reasons for this a little bit.
To say that the Song Dynasty is the most prosperous period, one of the important reasons is that at this time the corporate culture and economy is unprecedented prosperity, let's first talk about culture, because the Song Dynasty emphasizes literature and light weapons, and the development of culture is more advocated, so we can see that in the Song Dynasty, there were Song words, and there were many literary people, such as six of the eight people in the Tang and Song Dynasties were born in the Song Dynasty, such as Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, Zeng Gong and others.
Also in the pen and ink Danqing that is, painting has also made great progress, the overall more freehand realistic style characteristics, and unexpectedly there was a trend of free speech, in short, as long as you do not curse the emperor, do not rebel against the rule of the dynasty, basically will not be punished, so the culture of this period is relatively open, compared to other countries in the same period the Song Dynasty is far ahead of them.
Secondly, in terms of economic development, don't look at the Song Dynasty in the military aspect, that is, marching and fighting, but to say that in the economic construction of society is doing very well, the commodity trade has seen an unprecedented prosperity, but also the emergence of China's earliest paper money exchange, which is undoubtedly very favorable for the development of industry and commerce, there have also been certain changes in currency, then how prosperous was the Song Dynasty in this period? With a single data, it can be shown that the total economic volume of the Song Dynasty in this period accounted for more than 1/5 of the entire world, and the per capita GDP was more than that of Western Europe.
In addition, the development of various industries in this period has been greatly improved, such as agriculture, manufacturing, porcelain industry, textile industry, etc., the production of porcelain and silk fabrics is even as an important export trade commodity, which also makes the navigation trade at that time is also particularly developed, in the sea often see the Song Dynasty and other countries to trade with each other merchant ships, and it is recorded that the Song Dynasty quietly in more than fifty countries and regions to carry out commodity trade, which also confirms the prosperity of the economy in this period.
Science and technology are also advanced and developed
Since the economy and culture have appeared such a prosperous scene, it is natural not to lag behind in science and technology, and the science and technology of this period is also in a far leading position compared with all countries in the world, taking the four major inventions of ancient China as an example, one of which originated from the Song Dynasty period, and the other was greatly improved and applied during this period.
This first is the Northern Song Dynasty Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, it is said that he was specialized in book printing at that time, the work time is long, can't help but feel that the previous old method is too backward to use is also very cumbersome, troublesome, so in his spare time, Bi Sheng will delve into how to improve the speed of printing, after continuous research and experimentation, finally invented the clay movable type and wood movable type this printing technology.
This more advanced printing technology greatly improved the speed of book printing, which also indirectly promoted the development of Song Dynasty culture and the improvement of people's level of knowledge, and had a profound impact on the cultural dissemination of later generations, and this invention exceeded the Western countries for 400 years, from here it can also be seen that the Song Dynasty at this time was definitely in the leading position in the world in science and technology.
This second invention is the compass, although the compass first appeared in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, but at that time it was only used in military warfare, the popularity was extremely low, in people's lives, basically no value, and the emergence of this invention is also little known, and so on to the Song Dynasty, because the development of commodity trade, especially maritime trade needs tools to guide the direction, the compass came in handy, in this period has been greatly improved and widely used, and even by many Western countries to imitate the use.
It is difficult to escape the fate of extinction
According to the previously mentioned Song Dynasty, it was undoubtedly a very powerful dynasty, and there were few countries in the whole world at that time to compare with it, but why was it finally destroyed later? To say this reason, we must also start from the root, this root is the founder of the Song Dynasty, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin.
Because he became emperor through the Chen Qiao Mutiny and the yellow robe, after he became emperor, he was also afraid that his subordinates would do this to seize his throne, so later she also drank wine and released the military power to let the generals under him unload their armor and return to the field, and advocated emphasizing literature and light martial arts.
Although such an approach is conducive to the stability of the Song Dynasty's regime, it also greatly reduces the overall military strength of the Song Dynasty, yes, why the Song Dynasty, which was so prosperous and developed, seemed to have some difficulty in facing the attacks of the Liao and Jin States, in fact, at that time, the Song Dynasty had the strength to compete with these two countries, such as the confrontation with the Liao State during the Song Zhenzong period.
Obviously, he was about to win victory, but Song Zhenzong did not want to take advantage of the immediate interests, and signed an alliance with the Liao state at that time to establish friendly relations, so that the idea of peace was good, but later he wanted to pay tribute to gold and silver, and what should he say about the horses?
Obviously, they should have been victorious countries but they were defeated, and they didn't know whether it was Taiwen or Taiyi, and then when they faced the attack of the Jin Kingdom, the hundred officials in the DPRK were even more afraid to die, the main and factions were greater than the main war faction, coupled with the rumors of the traitor Qin Juniper, song Huizong at that time was also faint and incompetent, and he was directly sent to the old nest and directly destroyed the country, and such an end was really unbearable.
epilogue
Perhaps such a Song Dynasty is too much in the eyes of future generations, the glory and prosperity of the past have been covered up by these humiliations, and people see these painful experiences, but in the eyes of Westerners, the Song Dynasty in this period is simply the object of their imitation, and it is a dream country, so when looking at some dynasties in history, we must look at it from a comprehensive perspective, only in this way can we understand the true appearance of a dynasty.
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