If you do a random interview in the crowd, which of the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms is in front? It is estimated that half of the people could not answer.
I will first publish the answer, the Wei and Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties were after the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms were between the Tang and Song Dynasties, so that everyone will understand that it must be the Wei and Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties before. Why are these two pieces of history so unfamiliar to everyone? A big part of the reason is that these two histories are too chaotic. In particular, the Wei and Jin dynasties, a period of 400 years of great division, produced dozens of regimes throughout China. Emperors changed one after another, not as clearly as the great unified dynasties. In addition, there are no gossip stories in this dynasty, and it is rarely made into film and television dramas. So everyone will be relatively unfamiliar with this dynasty.
However, the period of the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties was a very important period for China, and this period played a very important role in the formation of China's national characteristics and the development of culture.
If we say that the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period laid the ideological foundation of our country, then the political system and economic foundation of Chinese society were formed during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The formation of the Hu-Han fusion
The Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties were one of the most active and violent periods of ethnic minorities in China's history, but at the same time, the biggest feature of this period was the great integration. The division of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties began in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, when the Western Jin Dynasty experienced the Rebellion of the Eight Kings and was extremely weak. At this time, the north of China entered the stage of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, where the five and sixteen were all false fingers, and there were more than 5 ethnic groups at that time, and there were more than 16 political regimes established in the north.
After the northern nationalities entered the Central Plains, after each minority established its own national political power, the first problem to be solved was the problem of relations between the ethnic minorities and the local Han people. If you look at this period of history, you will see a clear vein, when the regime established by the ethnic minorities reuses the Han people, the interests of the original ethnic minorities will be damaged, they will rise up to resist, if they still reuse their original own people, then the minority regime will face the rule of the Han people who have more population than them, and the ethnic minorities have no experience in managing the farming nation. Therefore, with the continuous establishment of political power, the ethnic contradictions between the Hu and Han ethnic groups have become increasingly serious, and the differences between nomadic culture and farming culture have become increasingly significant, which has brought great obstacles to their political rule. How to resolve this contradiction and obstacle was an important issue facing the Hu and Han nationalities at that time. Unlike other ethnic minorities, at that time, the Xianbei adopted the policy of "Hu and Han integration", and the Book of Wei records that "at the beginning of the founding of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Tuoba Tao and Liu Song exchanged 26 times between envoys", and the Xianbei did not reject the Han culture, and adopted a series of reform measures, such as learning from the advanced social system, social organization, and economic system of the Han nationality. During the Murong tribal period, the policy of "integrating Hu and Han" advanced rapidly, and began to accept the suggestions of the Han people, interact with Han scholars, and learn Han ideology, culture, etiquette, and etiquette. The Murong tribe proposed the reform of "teaching nongsang, and the legal system is the same as that of the shangguo", and the Xianbei people continued to develop from a nomadic society to an agrarian society. The Xianbei policy of "hu and Han integration" established the basis for the formation of Hu-Han integration. With the advancement of reform, the continuous integration between the ethnic minorities in the north and the Han nationality has reached a stable equilibrium, the Han nationality is constantly Hu, and the ethnic minorities are also constantly Sinicized, of course, this is mainly based on the Sinicization of ethnic minorities.
The Hu-Han contradiction has always been a core contradiction of the Northern Dynasty, and in the end the Southern and Northern Dynasties were able to unify, and it was also because the Northern regime resolved the Hu-Han contradiction very well and realized the integration and unification of the Hu-Han Dynasty, which laid the foundation for the unification of the whole country.
The development of ideas during the Southern and Northern Dynasties
One of the traditional cultural phenomena in China is the reverence for Confucianism, and the Wei and Jin dynasties were no exception. The study of Confucianism, the respect for Confucianism, and the establishment of education all reflect that the regimes established by various ethnic minorities are basically guided by Confucianism. The ruling class continued to absorb Confucian culture and continued to promote It.
The study of Confucian culture by ethnic minorities is first manifested in the practice of interpretation and the establishment of education. Tuoba Si "loved Confucianism and read the history well", which shows that he had a good Confucian cultivation. Tuoba Tao "In February of the third year of the first light, he began to learn from Chengdong, worshiped Confucius, and matched with Yan Yuan", which shows his respect for Confucianism. Confucius said that "if you don't learn etiquette, you can't stand up", and the opening of schools during the Lilu period enabled the development of Hehuang Confucianism and the rapid spread of Confucian culture. According to the Book of Wei and the Chronicle of Gao Zu, "In the autumn of the thirteenth year of Taihe, in the seventh month of the thirteenth year of Taihe, the state of Yinping sent envoys to pay tribute. Bing Yin, Xing LingQuan Pond, and the Group of Ministers, The Royal Dragon Boat, ended with poetry. Confucius Temple was erected in Beijing. The Northern Wei Emperor Wen established the Confucius Temple in Beijing, which can be seen that the regime at that time was confucius as the object of worship, and also laid the ideological culture for the determination of the minority regime. Confucianism is also prominently reflected in the liturgy in the formation of the integration of Hu and Han. Liu Yuan built the Taimiao Temple and worshipped the ancestors with Han rituals. Emperor Wen of the Northern Wei Dynasty emphasized that "if the village drinking ceremony is abolished, the order of the elderly and the young is chaotic", which is a respect for the etiquette culture of the Han people.
Changes in the economic landscape during the Southern and Northern Dynasties
In the south of China, it has also undergone a change in the integration of the north and the south. From the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, 1/6 of the population of the entire north moved to the Jiangnan region. Before the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the economic center of our country was always in the North. After experiencing a large number of migrations from the Wei and Jin dynasties to the north and south, with the migration of the population, the more advanced production tools and production technologies in the northern region at that time were also transmitted to the south. The economy of the south began to rise gradually, and the original situation of taking the Central Plains as a single economic center was gradually broken. During this period, a situation of multiple economic centers was formed, mainly the three economic centers of the Northern Central Plains, the Bashu Region, and the Yangtze River Basin.
Taking the Lingnan region as an example, during the Han and Wei dynasties, the Lingnan area was one of the rather backward areas in the south, and with the migration of the northern population, the rulers of the Southern Dynasty encouraged people from the areas of the original Yangtze River Basin to come here to develop, and the economy of the Lingnan region was greatly developed. Rice cultivation technology in Lingnan has continued to develop, and according to historical records, it is even possible to plant three seasons of rice. Lingnan was also the first to use kapok and grass wool weaving, and it was also one of the areas where overseas trade rose. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the development of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River was quite remarkable. Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake basin fertile land, rich in products, grain industry has been rapid development, while driving the development of shipbuilding, textile, ceramics, tea making and other handicraft industries.
The period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties did not complete the southward shift of China's economic center, this period mainly began to establish a number of economic centers, after the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the economy of the south began to gradually surpass the north and become the main economic center.
The influence of the Wei and Jin dynasties on the legal system
During the Wei and Jin dynasties, the regime changed frequently, and different dynastic backgrounds and regimes had their own characteristics. The laws of the Han Dynasty, which had been in use before, were not sufficient for the needs of the current regime, so each dynasty in this period had to reform and revise the original laws according to its own actual situation to meet the needs of the current regime and rulers. During the Three Kingdoms period of Wei, countries carried out reforms on the basis of following the Han law, such as the State of Wei changing the "Law of Punishment" to "Criminal Name" at the head of the law, reflecting that the State of Wei also innovated in penal reform and judicial system compared with the previous dynasty. The Jin Law of the Two Jin Dynasties included the uniform system in the legal code for the first time, and the general provisions of the criminal law were also improved, compared with the laws and Han laws of the Three Kingdoms period, which were both innovated. By the time of the Northern Dynasty, the legal system was more perfect and mature. The Northern Qi Law has made new developments in terms of criminal names, charges, and penal principles.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, dynasties changed frequently, thus creating the diversity of laws and the frequency of legislative laws in this period, and the process of dynastic changes was also a process of continuous innovation and improvement of the legal system of the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the standardization and maturity, so the Wei and Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties were an important period in the history of China's legal development.
The influence of the Wei and Jin dynasties on the imperial examination system
If you want to list one of the systems that have the greatest impact on China, the examination system will definitely be shortlisted. The influence of the imperial examination system on China is very large, and the works on this subject are also vehicle-mounted buckets, and I will not repeat them here, it can be said that the imperial examination system has shaped China's social structure for more than a thousand years. The imperial examination system is not a simple examination, it has a complete set of operational logic behind it, from the selection of officials to the appointment to the establishment of a hierarchical system, have experienced hundreds of years of operation and development, although the imperial examination system was formed in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, but its incubation and production was during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The Han Dynasty's official selection system is the inspection system, the so-called "state lift xiucai, county lift filial piety", to the Wei and Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties period developed a set of nine pin official law system, nine pin official law is also a complex system, interested friends can read, the end of the article attached to the link, here is not much to talk about. However, many of the systems he made for the examination system were born out of the Nine Pins Official Personnel Law, such as the implementation of the examination system, and moreover, if the examination was successful, there were also officials who were selected to appoint officials, which obviously followed the Nine Pins Official Personnel Law. One of the most important things is to transfer the system of electing officials, that is, the personnel power to the central government, and the general process of the Nine Pin Officials and Personnel Law is like this, the central officials are responsible for selecting officials, and the officials are awarded according to the candidate's character. There is also a Zhongshu Province, which is responsible for supervision and regulation. Zhongzheng, who undertakes the task of specific appraisal, is also directly appointed by the imperial court and belongs to the direct leadership of the central government
。 Through the establishment of such institutions and their subordinates, the right to vote is completely controlled by the central government. Strengthening the centralization of power through this method is also the core function of the imperial examination system
。
The only real great split in Chinese history was during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and after experiencing such a great split in China, there was never a long period of division. It can be said that it is this split that has shaped China in the future, and it is worth our good understanding.