As the highest status symbol of the country, the emperor naturally travels differently and reflects the dignity and momentum of the ruler. In different dynasties, because of the different social and cultural differences, the forms in which each emperor traveled were different, and this was very different during the Song Dynasty.
Whether it is the entourage when traveling, and the preparation before the trip is very messy. This was especially evident when Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty had not yet determined the national capital.
The travel of the emperors of the Song Dynasty strictly adhered to the etiquette system, so there were many things to prepare. As soon as there are many things, the cost will naturally go up, plus the money that is rewarded when traveling, and the cost of a trip to the emperor of the Song Dynasty is also a huge amount of money.
Why did the emperor of the Song Dynasty travel?
As an emperor above ten thousand people, his every move was watched by countless people, and naturally he could not act as he pleased. Therefore, the emperor's travel must be accompanied by a certain purpose.
As we all know, the military strength of the Song Dynasty is definitely not strong, which has a lot to do with the national conditions at that time and the ruler's lack of attention to the military. The purpose of the emperor's personal trip to see the army was to show the strength of the national army, commonly known as "bright muscles", which has many similarities with our current military parades.
When the Northern Song Dynasty was first established, there were still many places that were not completely unified, and it was most necessary to demonstrate military strength at this time. Therefore, in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Taizu and Taizong traveled very frequently to see the army.
However, in the later period, the rulers who signed the peace treaty with Liao and entered a period of false peace were no longer keen on referring to the army, and played a negative role in the construction of the army.
Going out to hunt has always been an essential activity for ancient emperors. Initially a recreational activity, hunting evolved into a political and military necessity. As a result, this has become one of the projects of imperial travel.
At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, hunting flourished, but began to decline during the Zhenzong period until it slowly disappeared. The reason for the disappearance, in addition to the change in the attitude of the rulers towards hunting activities, was also related to the courtiers' pleas to "strike the hunt".
The reason why the courtiers asked for a "hunting strike" was because there were many examples in history of emperors who indirectly weakened their countries because of hunting activities, and they did not want to repeat the mistakes of the past.
It is an ancient tradition for the emperor to go to the southern suburbs ceremony, which mainly refers to the emperor's round hill festival every three years, which is generally set on the winter solstice in November. This type of travel does not change according to the attitude and preferences of the ruler, as in the first two, but as a rule.
During the Song Dynasty, the emperor personally inspected places far less often and on a larger scale than the previous dynasty, and the purpose of his inspections was different. Most of the inspections in the former dynasty were to do things that were light and entertaining, such as going to the temple to burn incense, going to the garden to play, and banqueting. During the Song Dynasty, the inspection was more to suppress the rebellion, drive the imperial conquest, and boost the morale of the army.
Travel in strict accordance with etiquette
The above four are the main purpose of the Song Dynasty emperor's travel, and in the process of traveling, the emperor also needs to abide by the etiquette system, and these etiquette systems are inherited from the previous dynasty, inheriting from generation to generation, and the etiquette becomes very cumbersome.
This made travel an extremely troublesome matter, and the three most important travel etiquette systems during the Song Dynasty were related to the means of travel, guards and entourage.
Rutting system. The chariot system of the Song Dynasty was basically inherited from the previous dynasty, mainly including the most important five ruts and secondary ruts, such as jade, gold, symbol, leather and wood.
Jade and gold were generally used by emperors when they traveled to sacrifice; The symbol was used by the emperor during some insignificant close travels; Leather is a tool used for military purposes when traveling, such as referring to the army, imperial driving and personal conquest; The wooden trunk was used by the emperor when he went hunting.
As for the secondary rim, its specifications are lower than those of the five rims, and although it is made of imitation jade, there is no jade ornament decoration. In addition, the emperor would also use some cars when traveling, which did not make much sense, just to conform to the etiquette system.
Ceremonial system. The ceremonial guard mainly refers to the person responsible for protecting and guarding the honor when the emperor travels, in addition to protecting the emperor's safety, but also highlighting the emperor's majesty.
The ceremonial guard system in the early Song Dynasty continued the previous dynasty, and the number of honor guards was large when traveling, which not only cost a lot of money, but also caused traffic congestion, and was not conducive to protecting the emperor.
Later, the courtiers made suggestions according to the actual situation and set up different ceremonial systems for different occasions for the emperor's travels. The ceremonial guard system during the Song Dynasty was a process of gradual improvement.
Subordinate system. Unlike the guards of honor, they were the ones who accompanied the emperor on his journey. In addition to brave guards, there are also various civil and military officials. The officials who could travel with the emperor were basically people who trusted the emperor.
Therefore, there are often officials who compete for a position in the entourage when the emperor travels, maybe if they perform well, they will be valued by the emperor, and they will ascend to the sky step by step. Even if they were not valued, according to custom, the emperor would feast on the courtiers accompanying him, and reward them with clothes, horses, and the like.
Costs associated with travel
There are many types of expenses for the travel activities of the emperors of the Song Dynasty, but most of them can be summarized as the reward of the entourage and the cost of repairing the items used during the trip.
When referring to the army, the emperor would give monetary rewards to his entourage and sergeants, and less to the entourage when he went hunting, but to the people who had a hard life on the way.
In addition to direct rewarding money, clothing, gold and jade are also more rewarding items.
In the process of traveling by the emperors of the Song Dynasty, the most common phenomenon was to encroach on people's fields. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, this has had a significant impact on people's lives. When he learned of this happening, the emperor would generally directly spend money to buy this usurped land or reduce local taxes.
The former is the simplest and most effective method, because the money for the purchase of civilian land is directly handed over to the people, but the policy of reducing local taxes requires layers of procedures, and it is not known when it will be able to go to the local area.
Later, the emperor of the Song Dynasty decreed that it was forbidden to encroach on people's land when traveling, which reduced the impact of travel on the lives of ordinary people.
summary
The history of the Song Dynasty does not specifically record the expenses of the emperor at that time, but the corresponding various systems and etiquette are recorded in detail.
From the above, we can clearly know that the emperor of the Song Dynasty was still very particular about travel, from the purpose of travel to the tools of travel, and then to the arrangement of entourage, all of which have corresponding systems.
One aspect of the cost of travel is relatively fixed, that is, repairing everything used for travel. Expenses such as rewards mainly depend on the emperor's mind, and the reward depends on his mood.
In general, the travel expenses of the emperors during the Song Dynasty were huge, and the types of expenses in it were very varied, but at least not all of them were spent on bell ringing and food.