Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, was not only brave and good at war, but also particularly fond of invention and creation. For example, he invented the weapon Panlong Stick, which later evolved into a double-cut stick, and invented the boxing technique "32-Style Taizu Long Fist". However, we will not talk about martial arts today, but only his inventions in the field of civil rule.
The first great invention: standing towards
When we watch historical dramas now, we find that the ancient officials in film and television works are all standing on the court, which is actually not all right. Because before the Northern Song Dynasty, many high-ranking officials had seats above the imperial court and had tea to drink. For example, in the position of prime minister, under normal circumstances, the emperor will ask someone to arrange a separate seat for the prime minister. However, when Zhao Kuangyin became emperor, he felt that the courtiers were the courtiers, and even the largest courtiers could not sit on an equal footing with the emperor, so he decided to cancel the special treatment of the prime minister "sitting in the dynasty".
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the prime minister was called Fan Qian. Once, Fan Qian got up from his seat and played to Zhao Kuangyin, and when he was finished, he was thinking of taking a seat. Zhao Kuangyin stopped him and said, "Please hand over your recital." Fan Qian personally handed over the fold to Zhao Kuangyin's hand, and when he turned to look for a seat, he found that the seat that was still there just now was missing. Fan Tian had to stand up. The next day, Fan Zhi and the ministers found that the seats were empty and gone, and knew that the history of the prime minister sitting on the upper court was over.
Zhao Kuangyin did this, of course, in a euphemistic way to tell his courtiers the supremacy of the emperor, and no one could sit under the emperor. That's fine. Above the court, the courtiers stood in two rows, and the emperor sat high above. A king is a king, a subject is a subject, and the rules are well-behaved.
After the Northern Song Dynasty, the dynasties followed this method and spread it until the Qing Dynasty.
The second greatest invention: the winged hat
Zhao Kuangyin is good at observation. One morning, he sat on the dragon chair and found a bad phenomenon in the hundred officials, that is, they exchanged heads and ears, whispered, and bombarded indiscriminately. This situation is very similar to the current teachers before class, the students are absent-minded, self-care and gossip, the teacher is of course going to be angry. However, Zhao Kuangyin is not angry, he likes to use his brain.
In order not to let the officials turn their heads and ears during the dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin designed a special official hat - a long-winged hat, which is a hat with long wings. The wings are thin, more than a foot long, made of iron and bamboo, and have a certain weight. Because it has a certain weight, it is very inconvenient to wear it, and it is easy to fall off due to losing its balance. If you wear this hat and tilt your head in the hall, bow your head and whisper to people, the hat will "snap" and fall to the ground, then the whole court will know that you are gossiping again, how embarrassing! If you can't get angry with the dragon, it's possible to cut off your head.
(This is Zhao Pu, the prime minister, and he is wearing this long-winged hat)
In this way, the officials in the court can only have one posture: stand upright and speak face to face, especially serious, very formal, and very neat.
Of course, it pained a lot of officials. Because of wearing such a hat for a long time, so that the habit becomes natural, down the face, take off the hat, when going home, encounter pedestrians or pass through narrow alleys, actually sideways forward, afraid that the "hat" on the head will be touched. It is said that the prime minister Kou Zhun was like this, once he wore the clothes of a reader to the street to check the people's feelings, and when he talked to an old man, the old man called him an official, and Kou Zhun was shocked and asked why. The old man said, when I saw you passing through the narrow alley, you could obviously stride forward straight, but you walked sideways, which must be because you are used to wearing a long-winged hat, so of course you are an official.
(This is Kou Zhun, who is also wearing a long-winged hat)
The third major invention: the eight-character banner
At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, there was an official named Li Fu, who was honest and honest and dared to speak out in righteousness. Li Fu made a career in Guizhou, and was appreciated by Zhao Kuangyin, who transferred him to the capital Kaifeng and gave him a very important servant.
What task? It turned out that when it was time for the local government to pay rents and tributes to the imperial court, the money and goods handed over by the states of Jingxi Road did not complete the task, and the states of Jingxi Road were the key states of the Song Dynasty and the rich states. Dongping Province, under the jurisdiction of Jingxi Road, has a large population of nearly 400,000, xuzhou and Jeju also have a large population, and Xuzhou also has a base for casting copper coins and steelmaking... In short, it must be the court officials colluding with local officials to intercept interests, enrich themselves, and abolish the public for personal gain. Zhao Kuangyin asked Li Fu to handle the case.
However, Li Furen spoke softly, and it might be difficult to shake the korean and Chinese officials with only a loyal and warm blood. So Zhao Kuangyin began to use his brain to think of a way. Soon, he thought of the method of "eight-character banner", that is, he wrote a few words, hung on the flag, and then Li Fu went to handle the case under such a banner to see who dared not cooperate? So, which eight words did Zhao Kuangyin write? These 8 words are: "Li Fu is everywhere, like a degenerate line". Zhao Kuangyin's 8 words are even more powerful than the Holy Will, because Li Fu has become the embodiment of the emperor, and whoever sees it must kowtow to greet him, who dares to be disrespectful and disrespectful, what is hidden?
Soon, Li Fu discovered more than a hundred problems, sorted them out and reported them, solved the problems on Jingxi Road, and punished a large number of local officials and officials implicated in the dynasty. Li Fu was also promoted and became a living man.
The fourth major invention: heavy literature and light martial arts
Zhao Kuangyin was a warrior by birth, and he also commanded the forbidden army because of his status as a military attaché of "inspecting the capital in front of the palace". In 960, Zhao Kuangyin launched the Chen Qiao Mutiny with the strength of the leader of the Forbidden Army, seized the chai family's world, and established the Northern Song Dynasty. Therefore, he understood all too well that the warriors were plotting against the harm of a dynasty. Zhao Kuangyin often talked with Zhao Pu, the prime minister, about strategies for governing the country, and once when he talked about military attaches, Zhao Kuangyin sighed: "The corruption of a hundred civilian officials is not as good as the scourge brought about by the rebellion of a military attaché!" ”
To make a warrior have no antipathy, it is not possible to rely on co-optation and reward, because co-optation and reward will make him more powerful, and can only cut off the source of their power. In view of this, Zhao Kuangyin implemented a policy of emphasizing literature over military force in the Northern Song Dynasty, and no matter which military position, its main position was a civilian official, and the military officer was a deputy. In this way, the civilian officer commands the military attaché, and the military attaché is useless.
For example, in "Water Margin", the owner of Qingfeng Zhaizhai is Liu Gao, a white-faced scholar, who is useless; the deputy owner of the village is Hua Rong, known as "Little Li Guang", who is invincible in the world of archery, and is also handsome. The main position is not as good as the deputy post, which is the norm in the Northern Song Dynasty, no matter how powerful your military generals are, you must also be subordinate to civilian officials. Looking at Di Qing, the god of war in the Northern Song Dynasty, his military achievements were outstanding, and Song Renzong appointed him as a privy councillor, which was a regular post. Just because it was a regular post and violated the principle of emphasizing literature over military force, the civilian officials collectively opposed it. After that, people often found faults for Di Qing, and finally annoyed Song Renzong to remove Di Qing's military power, making him depressed.
Zhao Kuangyin put an end to the rebellion of the warriors with the strategy of emphasizing literature over martial arts, but it caused the overall weakness of the Northern Song Dynasty, so that it was repeatedly defeated by the hands of Liao, Western Xia and Jin, and finally destroyed the country. This is a postscript.