What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
In the foreign relations of China's dynasties, a legendary "bilateral relationship" that is "good enough to be very sweet" is the relationship between the Great Song Dynasty and Japan.
How good is it? As an "old neighbor" with China, Japan has always been a lot of tossing and turning in ancient Chinese history. Even if they caught up with the era of the Tang Dynasty hanging and beating the four sides, they dared to "die" at the mouth of the Baijiang River. During the Ming Dynasty, it first invaded Korea as a Wukou and then invaded Korea, until it was "crushed" by the Daming fleet at Lulianghai. During the late Qing Dynasty, he grew capable of doing things, and left China with a painful "national shame". But such a restless "neighbor" was very peaceful in the three hundred years of the Two Song Dynasties. Not only did it "not make trouble", but it also left a lot of "beautiful talk", which seemed "sweet" to the point of being unbelievable.
The most famous "beautiful talk" is the sigh of Zheng Sixiao, a remnant of the Southern Song Dynasty after the fall of the Song Dynasty: "Japan is the ancient Wuye, the land is in Haidong, the first dynasty tasted tribute, Xu Tong merchant travel." He recently knew that the Great Song Dynasty had lost its country, and the whole country was vegetarian. That is to say, this Japan not only gave the Great Song "tribute", the trade exchanges were prosperous, and the Great Song was even more "filial piety", and even after the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, it was also "a national vegetarian", and the relationship was so good that it was touching.
Another "beautiful talk" is not only touching, but also particularly "fragrant": "Qingbo Magazine" records that in the era when the relationship between the Great Song Dynasty and Japan was very "honeymoon", Japanese women often took the "Wuguo Boat" to chop the waves and run to the eastern coast of China, and when they saw the Men of the Great Song Dynasty, they "chose the beautiful one to recommend the bed." After a night of warming up with the "Good Boy of the Great Song", he left satisfactorily, and if he could conceive an heir because of this, he would be even happier as if he had picked up a big bargain and called it "Du Seed". "Good" to this extent, it is really "sweet".
Is the real relationship between the Great Song and Japan really so "filial piety and sweetness"? The first thing to say is the beautiful talk of "Japan giving the Great Song Dai Filial Piety". The fact is that after the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, Japan was the "Heian Era", and after the Southern Song Dynasty crossed south, Japan became the "Kamakura Shogunate". At that time, Japan interrupted the "dispatch of Tang envoys" as early as the end of the Tang Dynasty, and from then until the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, Japan and the "Tang Dynasty", "Northern Song", "Southern Song" dynasties, there has been no official exchanges, and the "envoys" from the Great Song Side are often "people who become foxes", almost all kinds of vigilance.
After all, after being beaten by the Tang Dynasty and knowing how many of its own meats, Japan, which is completely backward in the military to the economy, will also lock the door of the country to its "old neighbor" China. In this context, the official relationship between the Great Song and Japan is actually quite cold, let alone any feelings. The incident of "Japan giving filial piety to the Great Song Dynasty" that has touched countless "wild history fans" so far is nothing more than the beautiful imagination of Zheng Sixiao, the "remnant of the Great Song Dynasty".
Since the "national filial piety" is not reliable, is the more bizarre "Japanese woman degree" incident reliable? In fact, it is the scene of "Wokou and a boat adrift on the territory" in this "beautiful talk" that hides important historical information -- the phenomenon of "political cold and economic heat" between the Great Song Dynasty and Japan.
Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, Japan has been guarding against China's "official imperial court." Even economically there have been various prohibitions. But throughout the Two Song Dynasties, what was far "hotter" between the two sides than during the Tang Dynasty was the prosperous trade exchanges: in the three centuries of the Two Song Dynasties, China's silk fabrics, porcelain, books and other "hard currency", and even spices and other goods "transferred" from South Asia and Asia, were "hot" in Japan all year round. Japanese swords and Japanese fans are also "treasures" in the Chinese market. The poems of the Song Dynasty great writer Su Rui epitomized the influence of "Made in Japan" at that time: the fan came from Japan, and the wind was not Japanese... But with the Japanese fan, the wind comes from infinity.
Why are the economic exchanges between the two countries, which are "politically cold", on fire? In this regard, we must talk about a special group in the Two Song Dynasties: Chinese maritime merchants.
After the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, the north faced the pressure of the Liao state, and the traditional overland Silk Road was almost depressed, so maritime trade became hot. In addition, the Song Dynasty's restrictions on coastal merchants going to sea were greatly relaxed compared to the Tang Dynasty. As a result, the group of "maritime merchants" expanded rapidly. With the powerful shipbuilding and handicraft economy of the Song Dynasty at that time, "every ten consecutive numbers can be easily exchanged for hundreds of goods." This huge temptation of interests naturally provoked all walks of life in the Great Song Dynasty, as long as they had money and opportunities, they all "went to the sea."
Moreover, these "Great Song Maritime Merchants" who went abroad also have a strong right to speak on the sea surface of Asia. Sometimes when I come to some countries, the local people are "the king and his family go to the ship to ask for labor." Japan, on the other hand, is also the "big market" for the maritime merchants of the Great Song Dynasty. From the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty alone to 1166, more than seventy groups of maritime merchants landed in Japan during the Song Dynasty. With the powerful position of "Great Song Manufacturing", these merchants not only made great profits in Japan, but many people simply settled in Japan - In Japan's Hakata, Seto and other places, there were a large number of Song Dynasty maritime merchants settled, and also built "Tang Houses", which is recognized as Japan's "rich area".
Such a "rich and status" Song Dynasty maritime merchants naturally made "Sino-Japanese trade" hot all year round, and the Great Song Dynasty also made huge profits from it. A number of maritime merchants also "carried" to promote Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges -- in the era when Japan strictly practiced "locking the country", the privileged Song Dynasty maritime merchants also often used their powerful sea vessels to "carry" Japanese monks to "seek the Law". In the three centuries of the Song Dynasty, 181 Japanese monks who came to China with the help of Chinese maritime merchants had names and surnames. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the Japanese monk Yuan'er, who came to China alone, brought back thousands of volumes of Japanese texts. Don't look at "political cold", but Japan's pace of "learning China" has not stopped.
Even the official exchanges between China and Japan, which have always been "deserted", mainly relied on the "maritime merchants" as a link at that time, and the several envoys of the Song Dynasty to Japan during the two Song Dynasties were all envoys by the "maritime merchants". The story of "degree seed" in "Qingbo Magazine" is based on this special story as soil.
However, compared with this kind of miscellaneous talk, with the increasing corruption and inefficiency of the Song Dynasty during the Southern Song Dynasty, Japan under the background of "political cold and economic heat" has also earned more and more "hard goods" from the Great Song: copper coins.
For a long time, the exquisitely crafted Copper Coins of the Song Dynasty have always been the great love of Asian countries. However, the flow of copper coins is related to the country's economic stability, so the Song Dynasty has always strictly restricted this. However, in the late Southern Song Dynasty, which was in turmoil, the Chinese and Japanese maritime merchants who saw the "huge profits" among them also made it into a "smuggling trade". Not only did the Song Dynasty maritime merchants "dump" copper coins to Japan, but the Japanese maritime merchants also went abroad and came to the Song Dynasty to start this "profiteering business". During the Southern Song Dynasty and song Dynasty alone, the "maritime merchants" of the Public Family of the Japanese Minister of State, Xiyuan Temple, earned 100,000 copper coins from the Great Song Dynasty at a time, so that "Taicheng suddenly had no penny in the city overnight."
Comparing the amount of money minted by the Southern Song Dynasty every year is only 200,000 yuan, we know that this transaction is called the Great Song Dynasty. This "huge amount" of copper coins imported, which promoted the development of Japan's commodity economy at that time, but it was also called the poor and weak Song Dynasty, and fell into the problem of "money shortage". The real "trade picture" under the appearance of "sweet relationship" is only a few simple strokes in the annals of history, but compared with the decline of the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty, it really has a thought-provoking significance - although openness can bring strength, how to better protect their own interests, from ancient times to the present, is a significant topic.