Looking at the 23 dynasties in Chinese history, most of the final demise was not entirely caused by the outside world, but more often the internal collapse. The eunuchs of the Qin Dynasty and the foreign relatives of the Han Dynasty led to the demise of these two powerful states. The Tang Dynasty continued to erupt into mutinies since the Anshi Rebellion, and the capital Chang'an even fell several times, with frequent wars. The Ming Dynasty was constantly entangled in party strife, the Qing Dynasty implemented the practice of closing the country to the outside world, and the late foreign relatives eventually perished, even from an earlier point of view.
If the six kingdoms of Shandong had not been corrupted within themselves first, how could the Qin state have dominated and unified the world? Of course, there were also some dynasties that did not die in civil strife, such as the Song Dynasty. The two overthrows of the Han Dynasty were mostly due to foreign relations, but the two overthrows of the Song Dynasty were due to external troubles, and it became the only dynasty that did not die directly from civil strife. For more than 300 years, no one in the Song Dynasty successfully rebelled, but it was suppressed and beaten by foreign enemies.
The Song Dynasty was a very complicated dynasty, on the one hand, like people's first impression of it, anyone can bully it. From the very beginning, the Liao Dynasty continued to loot and kill at the junction, and the jingde first year (1004) evolved into a large-scale invasion of the Song. In the end, the two armies said that it was a peace negotiation, but in fact it was also an unequal treaty, and the Song dynasty had to give Liao 200,000 silk and 100,000 taels of silver every year. In addition to Liao, Western Xia also often came to rob a hand, and although Dali did not beat the Song, it was also peace obtained by spending money.
The reason why the Song Dynasty was not strong also had a certain relationship with its origin. In 960, the year after Chai Rong's death, the generals of the Zhou army staged a mutiny, "adding" the yellow robe to Zhao Kuangyin and proclaiming him emperor. Immediately afterward, Zhao Kuangyin, who was originally a Zhou general, coerced Chai Rong's son Emperor Gong of Zhou to take the throne. That is to say, his throne was stolen from the old master, and in order to avoid others from following suit, he had a glass of wine and the right to release the army. Later, the entire Song Dynasty was jealous of all the substantial forces that could shake the imperial power, and it has always been heavy on literature and light on force, and the value of force is naturally not good.
It is true that no one inside shakes the imperial power, but the external military is not good, and there is no strong team that can only suppress the fight. At the same time, the Song Dynasty was also more unlucky, encountering foreign enemies that were more powerful than one, and could only be captured when facing the iron hooves of the nomads. The worse side of heavy literature over military force is that those in power are civilian officials, and in the face of war, most civilian officials' ideas are to seek peace. Perhaps it was precisely because the civilian officials were in power that they rarely caused bloodshed and casualties, so that a nationwide peasant uprising would not break out.
But on the other hand, the Song Dynasty was indeed at its peak in terms of culture and economy, which was completely opposite to military strength. Some people have calculated that China's total GDP in 1000 was 26.55 billion US dollars, accounting for 22.7% of the world's total economy. The urban commodity economy of the Song Dynasty was particularly developed, and at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were 46 cities with more than 100,000 mouths, and the capital city of Kaifeng Province had a population of more than one million. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the population of Lin'an Province (Hangzhou) was even 1.25 million in 1274, which was extremely prosperous.
Therefore, the weak Song Dynasty is not completely accurate, its social and economic prosperity far exceeds that of the Sheng Tang, but the military is not good. Not to mention the scientific and technological culture, the scientific and technological achievements of the two Song Dynasties are a peak in the history of ancient Chinese science and technology, and they are leading in the world. Su Shi, Xin Qiyi, Wang Anshi, Li Qingzhao. Fan Zhongyan, Lu You, Ouyang Xiu, and other literati were numerous, and the Tang and Song dynasties accounted for six of them, and the words reached their heyday. Science, literature, history, art have yielded fruitful results, calligraphy, sculpture, stone carving, painting and so on have a new development.
Reference: History of the Song Dynasty