Reading History: If I can cross, I plan to cross to the Song Dynasty

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Nearly 300 years of the Great Schism have given me a glimpse of how terrible the world is dominated by illiterates, incompetents and psychopaths. Yang Jian, an officer with a noble personality and a simple life, had a hard time unifying the bloody and terrifying and fragmented hell on earth into the Sui Empire, but he did not expect that Yin and Yang mistakenly passed the throne to Yang Guang, the son of a loser. This schemer, who pretended to be very simple and low-key, seemed to be in line with His Father's taste, and after tricking His Father's trust and successfully seizing the Emperor's throne, he revealed his original form, and it turned out that he was an energetic, very superficial, super-ostentatious hedonist. Yang Guang was so poor and extravagant that he spent a huge amount of money to build a canal just so that he could often return to his hometown of Yangzhou to play, and flaunted his might along the way. The overlord hardened his bow, and the three pro-conquests of Goguryeo were only to vent their anger and be angry, and as a result, they were defeated in three battles, and finally the national strength was exhausted, the prestige was lost, and the people revolted, and the Sui Empire official Li Yuan overthrew the Sui and established the unprecedentedly powerful Tang Empire.

The tang empire was strong because of the wisdom and divine martial arts of Li Shimin, the son of Li Yuan, the first emperor of the ages. Li Shimin was always a guard against Yang Guang, a broad-minded man, a wise man, a gentleman, a lover of literature, like to stay with intellectuals, and China finally had a good emperor with a high level of education and strong ability to govern the country. Unfortunately, Li Shimin's ascension to the throne still could not get rid of the model of fratricide between brothers fighting for the throne in the era of the Great Schism. Compared with Li Shimin, the passage of Zhao Kuangyin's cup of wine and release of military power is particularly touching, and the iron law that the change of dynasty and the stabilization of the regime must go through internal bloody massacres finally has an almost unique exception, and the emperor's important post is finally the turn of aristocratic intellectuals who do not like to kill.

I once thought that if I had the opportunity to cross, I must cross to the Song Dynasty. The material civilization of the Song Dynasty was highly developed, the level of science and technology and economy was one hundred years ahead of Europe, and the punishment was not a doctor, and it was at most degraded if it was not pleasing. Literati and inkers with real talent and practical learning gathered in the imperial court, and Wang Anshi, the leader of the new party, and Sima Guang, the leader of the old party, were actually literary giants! Not only that, but their respective supporters are also shining with stars, including the great writer Su Shi and the great scientist Shen Kuo, who are actually political opposites. The masters with a strong lineup could talk about the issue of national governance and openly pass the move in front of the emperor, which showed how tolerant and open the thinking of the imperial court was at that time! The four major inventions that the Chinese people are proud of, three of which were also made by the Song Dynasty, even paper money was invented, and the buds of capitalism were about to emerge, if it were not for the military weakness, the Song Empire was definitely a superpower of that era.

The reason why the Song Dynasty is leading in science and technology, commercial prosperity, cultural development, GDP is a hundred times higher than the Sheng Tang, on the one hand, depends on the aristocratic genes of the founder Zhao Kuangyin, on the other hand, the emperor has a high level of education, is more sober, attaches importance to talents, likes intellectuals, has a high degree of tolerance, does not love Hu Lai, and has adopted a wise policy of buying peace with money for the Liao Empire, which is powerful in the surrounding armed forces, and the Jin Empire that rose later, as well as the Western Xia Empire, which is inexplicably self-reliant. As a result, the Song Dynasty spent most of its nearly 300 years in a stage of peaceful development. The economic and cultural prosperity of the Song Empire also had a profound impact on the Liao Empire and the Jin Empire, and the cultural level and commercial trade were the magic weapons to avoid war, which was partially proved in the Song Dynasty.

Unfortunately, Wang Anshi's change of law failed in the end, otherwise with the national strength of the Song Empire, as long as the management method of the army was slightly changed, even if it could not be pacified like the Great Han and Tang Dynasties, at least it could ensure national defense and security, peaceful coexistence with culturally backward neighbors through contracts and trade policies, and influence them to enter modernization. However, all this is just a naïve fantasy, although the Emperor of the Song Dynasty has aristocratic genes, and can listen to some correct opinions, but he cannot produce a politician Like Li Shimin, who is both literate and martial, but he also has to play small tricks from time to time, repeatedly provoking opponents militarily, not only can not achieve the goal of reunification, but completely exposes the fragility and incompetence of the Great Song army, and even a small country like The Western Xia cannot be defeated, which shows how low the combat effectiveness of the army is.

Zhao Kuangyin usurped the throne through a mutiny and established the country, so he was extremely strict with the military generals on the town guard side, overcorrected, and invented a very deformed army management system that emphasized literature and light weapons, which was the fundamental reason for the extreme weakness of the Song Empire's military strength. This system was expected to be improved in Wang Anshi's change of law, and the effect of the new law was obvious as soon as it was implemented, and finally there was a victory to be fought, but unfortunately, the conservative snobbery was too strong. The failure of the reform has restored the army of the Great Song Dynasty to a state of abuse that has been repeatedly defeated, and fortunately, there is an invincible militia armed force like Yue Fei that can prove that the Song people are not unable to fight, and indeed the system is not good, the leadership is not strong!

The destruction of the Song Empire by the Mongols was the greatest tragedy of history, the descendants of the Xiongnu barbarian Mongols did not even bother to learn Han Chinese, and regarded the Han intellectuals as a social class that was only a little better than beggars and even prostitutes, and from then on intellectuals could no longer dominate China, until Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born of exile, destroyed Yuan Jianming, and intellectuals gradually evolved into the domestic slaves of the emperor and even eunuchs. At a time when the Renaissance was being carried out in Europe and the social system was rapidly progressing, our Ming Empire, under the leadership of a group of autistic and incompetent emperors who could not go to the dynasty for decades, turned back history, closed the country, and the villains were in charge and spies were rampant, and China entered a terrible era of great darkness.

From a hundred years ahead of Europe to gradually lag behind the West, and finally by the great powers with cannons to open the country's doors, becoming a Western colony, which is related to the premature collapse of the Song Dynasty.

The expansionist Mongol Empire originally did not want to include the Song Empire in its incomparably large territory, because the song's national strength initially made the barbarians very awe-inspiring. The Southern Song Empire could have, like his wiser predecessors, admitted its own lack of military strength, signed a peace treaty with the Mongols, and continued to use money to buy peace with the barbarians, at least like Annam and Goryeo, to be a realist, to temporarily pay tribute to the newly emerging forces, the most important thing is not to measure up to their own wisdom, while signing the contract while playing tricks, taking advantage of Kublai Khan's trouble to immediately break the treaty, the result annoyed the Mongols who were very busy expanding everywhere, and sheng made the destruction of the Song a priority.

The uncultured, conquest-loving, and murderous Mongols, because of the fiasco caused by the typhoons on the Sea of Japan and the harsh weather in the tropics, finally admitted that they were not indestructible and omnipotent, and had to stop their eighty-eight-year history of expansion. Only the barbarians who have no desire to conquer and have no political ideals, once they have lost the goal of aggression, they are bound to indulge in pleasures regardless of the lives of the people, and finally their combat effectiveness is exhausted, and they are defeated by the peasant army, which is as uncultured as they are, but more fighting spirit, and return to the steppe to live a nomadic life.

Uneducated barbarians presided over the country, and intellectuals of some standard could only compose music, arrange plays, and write novels in the folk, and political evolution not only stopped, but also continued to regress under the impetus of mediocre literati and cynics. From the Yuan to the Ming, the simple and rough Mongols did go back to grazing, but the uncultured beggars and thieves occupied the land of China, and the legal unjust imprisonment and bloody massacre began again. Ming officials, like officials of the Great Schism era, went to the front of the dynasty and trembled, and even wrote a suicide note, because they did not know what was wrong with themselves, they were beaten to death on the spot. The increasingly fierce literal prison, the harsh punishment of the Nine Tribes, and the fact that the emperor was either inferior and suspicious, or incompetent, and it was difficult for a serious literati to even live, and where there was still a spark of thought, political and human rights could only retreat all the way.

In the dark age of the Ming Empire for nearly 300 years, the villains were enlightened, the hungry people were everywhere, and finally collapsed under the peasant revolt and foreign invasions, but the Manchu Qing Empire that replaced it, although the emperors were mostly intelligent and studious, but they inherited an incomparably pedantic and conservative political legacy, and the intellectuals continued to enslave, not only the actual domestic slaves of the emperor's eunuchs, but even the mouths were at ease to call themselves slaves, completely losing the style and dignity of the literati, such a ruling group, what else can you expect from them? Kangqian's prosperity was only a superficial phenomenon, and the increasingly flattering ministers had blinded the rulers to see the world, turning the emperors into megalomaniacs, waiting only for the western guns to awaken this ossified country from its slumber.

If you think about the humiliating modern history after the Opium War, the Song Dynasty, which is more nostalgic for freedom of thought and the prosperity of the literati, the era when high-level and well-respected intellectuals could freely debate was too short, and the cynics who were good at flattery or the corrupt officials who were hypocritical and thick-skinned always stood in the center of the political stage.

If you can travel to the Song Dynasty, want to see Sima Guang, tell him about the degradation and misery of the future, if he can join hands with Wang Anshi to become stronger, instead of fierce opposition, at least support military reform, there will be no misfortune of being destroyed by the Mongols, there may not be a dark era later, maybe we will be in line with the world early, maybe the people of the country will not bear so much humiliation and pain. Of course, this is too naïve, although history is always full of great contingencies, but looking back at a long distance, accidental historical events seem to be inevitable. However, in any case, I still love the Song Dynasty, because it was a paradise for literati and intellectuals, an era full of great possibilities, a flame in the dark and bloody black hole of history, but unfortunately this flame did not burn to the mouth of the cave and suddenly extinguished.