China's ancient traditional culture is broad and profound, and each dynasty has different characteristics. If we say which dynasty culture is the most developed, in addition to the Tang Dynasty is the Song Dynasty, Chen Yinke also commented on the song dynasty culture: "The culture of the Chinese nation has evolved over thousands of years, and it was created in the world of Zhao and Song. "There are even people who think that the culture of the Song Dynasty is higher than that of the Tang Dynasty, and that the Song Dynasty is the orthodoxy of inheriting the Central Plains Dynasty." However, such an advanced culture of the Song Dynasty, but a very "shameful" thing happened, the biggest shame is the "Jing Kang shame", Song Huizong, Song Qinzong father and son were captured to the Jin Dynasty, this shame also heralded the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty. But if you look at it now, this is an internal dispute between the Chinese nation, but at that time, it was a shame for the Song Dynasty.
Leaving aside for the moment how the backward nomadic tribes in the north defeated the advanced Central Plains civilization, the Song Dynasty, which had an advanced culture alone, was a "great shame." Later generations did not understand that the Song Dynasty people rarely had bloody warriors, but there were many literati who danced and inked, as well as politicians with different identities. It is reasonable to say that the Song Dynasty, which inherited the culture of the Central Plains, should inherit more of the fine traditions of "killing oneself to become benevolent" and "sacrificing one's life for righteousness" in ancient China, but after Song Huizong and Song Qinzong were captured, they not only did not commit suicide and martyrdom, but instead secretly lived and stole their lives, and have been growing old in the Jin Dynasty.
There is no inheritance of the tenacious national spirit
After The father and son of Emperor Huizong of Song and Emperor Qinzong of Song were captured, the descendants hated the two talented emperors. In particular, Emperor Huizong of Song has to admit that he is a rare artist in history, and his calligraphy is unique. But the father and son did not commit suicide and were willing to be the king of the country. Some people believe that these two emperors did not have the courage to commit suicide. For the performance of the two emperors, we cannot blame them, but only blame the Song Dynasty for not inheriting the tough spirit of our country from beginning to end.
China's history has the heroic spirit of "a soldier dies for a confidant", like Jing Ke stabbing the King of Qin, knowing that there is no 100% certainty of assassinating the King of Qin, but for the sake of righteousness, Jing Ke still chooses to die. There are many examples of not being afraid of death like the history of our country, but the Song Dynasty did not inherit it.
Now some people think that the culture of the Song Dynasty was developed, but what is culture? Culture refers to the political and economic relative content of human spiritual life, Zhang Zhengming wrote "Qin and Chu" on a nation's culture to illustrate, culture is higher than the economic and political things, and culture is embodied in the spiritual temperament, simply write and paint, blow and play to define a national culture, which can only be called art! Not all of culture.
The Tang Dynasty not only had sculptures, murals and poems passed down to the world, but also had the spirit of fearless conquest that dared to march west, and the Song Dynasty also had poetry and paintings left, but the Song Dynasty did not open up territory and expand the territory to be admired by future generations.
The Song Dynasty lacked the human nature of Cheng Zhu Lixue and was still revered, in fact, it was this theory that suppressed the development of the Song Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty did not produce any theory, but no one said that the Tang Dynasty was backward.
Therefore, the Song Dynasty did not inherit the spirit left by its ancestors from beginning to end, which can also be said to be a kind of "qi", so it is not surprising that the Second Emperor Hui Qin was alive and well. If the father and son really had the courage to commit suicide, then the Northern Song Dynasty would not have died long ago. Therefore, some people analyzed that the Second Emperor Hui Qin wanted to return to his homeland in the future, so he did not commit suicide.
The founding emperor's stupid move
The reason why the Song Dynasty did not inherit the spirit of the ancients who were fearless and not afraid of sacrifice was mainly the decision made by Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi, the founding emperors of the Song Dynasty. Zhao Kuangyin launched the Chen Qiao Mutiny and usurped later Zhou's ascension to the throne as emperor, so after Zhao Kuangyin, who was born as a military general, became emperor, he deeply realized the danger of those who held military power, so he restricted the military generals from having military power. A strange military system of the Song Dynasty was constructed: soldiers are not generals, they will not know soldiers, and only when they fight wars will they have military power.
When Zhao Guangyi arrived, he even resisted the military generals and vigorously promoted civil rule. There is nothing wrong with this approach, both civilian officials and military generals are an important part of the dynasty, but if you amplify the governance of civilian officials, or even promote the sound of mime, you will be too kind to civilian officials. However, this way of governance and the development of the Song Dynasty culture have a certain inevitable connection, the people are pursuing this artistic culture at the same time, for a long time without a sense of crisis and the spirit of martial arts, then it is not far from extinction.
Governed by imprisoned thoughts
As we said above, the Song Dynasty gave birth to the Cheng Zhu Lixue, which was admired by later generations, and although this so-called theory of science has a certain desirability in it, it is a debating thing without humanity. It is precisely this lack of humane ideological imprisonment that also makes the Song Dynasty not dare to act like the Tang Dynasty, not only the ancient town of the western region, but even the expansion of countless territories. The infiltration of Cheng Zhu's thought could not make the Song Dynasty bloody.
Bloodiness is not innate, but nurtured. To say that a nation has blood is tempered in a certain cultural atmosphere. Cheng Zhu Lixue cultivates a non-hemorrhagic ethnic group. Not to mention that like the science promoted by the Emperors of the Song Dynasty, they did not have bloody people in the first place, so it is better to surrender and beg to live.
The development of a dynasty is both political and economic, as well as cultural factors, and is a process of comprehensive development. The Tang Dynasty people were open, and many poems were handed down, but no one said that the Tang Dynasty was weak in force. The Song Dynasty also had lyricists such as Su Dongpo, and it was not scientific to evaluate the strength and weakness of the two dynasties solely on the basis of culture and art, the key was to see whether there were human factors and whether there was a pioneering spirit. The Song Dynasty was seriously lacking in this regard. Therefore, even if the emperor becomes a group of subjugated countries, there will be self-psychological comfort, they will never commit the feat of "suicide", nor will they inspire their descendants to strive to be strong.
Reference: History of the Song Dynasty