The following article is transferred from Yunda Economic History, and I would like to thank you.
The study of the grassroots scholars is important for understanding the significance of the Song Dynasty
After reading Mr. Huang Kuanzhong's "Sun Yingshi's Eunuch Career: Daoist Followers' Responses to Political Changes in the Middle Southern Song Dynasty" (National Taiwan University Press, January 2018, hereinafter referred to as "Sun Yingshi's Eunuch Career"), I have been looking forward to reading his research on Liu Zai. Mr. Huang's "Living in the Hometown and Cherishing the Country: The Concept and Practice of the Family and Country of Liu Zai, a Resident of the Southern Song Dynasty", has recently been published (Social Sciences Academic Press, March 2024, hereinafter referred to as "Living in the Hometown and Cherishing the Country"). The book can be said to be a sister chapter of "Sun Yingshi's Scholarly Career". The two books share a common purpose, that is, to focus on the middle and lower class scholars, and to "re-understand the Song Dynasty through the scholars".
In the "Introduction" to Sun Yingshi's Career as a Scholar, Mr. Huang expounded on "Why Talk About Song Dynasty Scholars", pointing out that due to the implementation of cultural governance in the Song Dynasty and the great promotion of imperial examinations, scholars with the goal of promoting careers and the children of high-ranking officials who were in the shadows formed a new class of scholars, and became the mainstream group of traditional Chinese politics, society and culture. In the pyramid structure of the scholar group, the middle and low scholars are the vast majority, they do not have the power to make decisions, they can only respond to changes in the environment, in the recommendation system of official promotion, family resources and social relations are limited, need to continue to accumulate contacts, establish interpersonal relationships and social networks, and climb hard, and most of them are still floating at the grassroots level. Although the deeds and influence of the middle and low-level scholars are difficult to match with the elite scholars such as the famous eunuchs and Confucians, the literature about them is more scattered, lacking, and receiving less attention, but the middle and low-level scholars reflect the survival style of more scholars.
Sun Yingshi and Liu Zai were both low-level scholars from humble backgrounds with no outstanding achievements, and they needed to constantly expand their interpersonal relationships and social networks, climb in their official careers, and develop connections with the imperial court. "Sun Yingshi's Scholarly Career" and "Living in the Countryside and Cherishing the Country" respectively recount the life course of Sun Yingshi and Liu Zai, and observe the political and social trends of the Southern Song Dynasty through their life worlds, but the perspectives of the two books are still different. The former focuses on Sun Yingshi's choices as a follower of Taoism in the entanglement between academic development and career pressure, while the latter focuses on the local society in which Liu Zai was immersed, and the connection between scholars, localities and the imperial court that revolved around Liu Zai's feelings and practices for his family and country.
The object of observation in "Living in the Countryside and Huaiguo", Liu Zai and his home town, Jiang, are special cases in the scholar groups and regional societies of the Southern Song Dynasty, and it is precisely because of their particularity that they not only affect a richer aspect, but also can see more common eyes. As said in "Sun Yingshi's Career as a Scholar", "everyone has their own story", Liu Zai was an outlier in the group of scholars of the Song Dynasty who aimed to pursue advancement. Liu Zai resigned at the age of 44 and lived in the township for 30 years, actively participating in township affairs and caring for national affairs. It has made it a model of scholars who have no outstanding deeds, but have a wide network of contacts, promote the cause of the township, care about the country, and speak for the township and the country. The township of his hometown, Jiang, is also a special area, which is not only a commercial and trade hub where the Yangtze River and the canal meet, but also a military center where the north gate of Lin'an and the head of the Huaidong Theater are stationed. This location environment gives Zhenjiang both economic, political and military national influence, as well as different localities.
The book fully excavates the letters, notes, prefaces, poems, biographies and other records in Liu Zai's collection of essays "Mantang Collection" and his private work "The Old Biography of the Elders in Jingkou", outlining the information of the grassroots scholars who are rarely recorded in the official history, Fang Zhi and other documents, and reveals the appearance of the Zhenjiang scholar group and local society in the Southern Song Dynasty through Liu Zai's life world. The author's research topic is to understand the politics and society of the Southern Song Dynasty through scholars, the objects of observation are Liu Zai and his hometown, the special Zhenjiang society, and the materials used by Liu Zai, namely Liu Zai's anthologies and private writings, can be described as ingenious, while the observation of the society of the middle and late Southern Song Dynasty and the expansion of the topic of "localization of the Southern Song Dynasty elite" present a broader historical picture.
The particularity of Zhenjiang's "border society" and its influence
The Zhenjiang region revealed in "Living in the Countryside and Cherishing the Country" is affected by its location characteristics, and has unique locality in terms of social structure, career development, scholars' journeys, and social culture. This prompts people to think about how to understand the "border area" or "border area", how does the attribute of the "border area" affect the local society, and the geographical advantage of the intersection of the Yangtze River and the canal made Zhenjiang in the Southern Song Dynasty a hub position that surpasses all the prefectures along the Yangtze River in terms of commercial and trade activities and financial supply and transportation. This has brought opportunities and impetus to the development of Zhenjiang locality. On the other hand, under the founding situation and border defense pattern of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhenjiang, which was both the frontier and the "near border", became an important military town with equal emphasis on Jiankang and Ezhou, giving Zhenjiang the characteristics of a "border area society".
The "border area" attribute of Zhenjiang was determined by the border situation and system of the Southern Song Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty took Lin'an as its capital, making Huaidong a national defense lifeline for frontal defense of the Jin Dynasty and defense of Lin'an. The Huainan region is the "extreme border," and an extreme border defense network has been organized, with the regular army as the mainstay and civilian armed forces as the supplement. The Yangtze River is the "near border", and a near border defense belt with river defense as the main focus has been constructed. The border defense pattern of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River determined by the monarchs and ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty was that "the Yangtze River is the household court, and the two Huai are the fences", and the river defense is the center of gravity and the bottom line of the border defense. Zhenjiang has the north gate of Lin'an. After the Shaoxing Peace Conference, the main forces of the Huaidong front withdrew southward, and Zhenjiang became the seat of the head of the Huaidong Theater, one of the four major theaters of defense against Jin.
The environment of the "border area" has had a multifaceted impact on Zhenjiang society. The first is the local power structure. The power structure in Zhenjiang presents a dual-track system design with the mixed coexistence of civil administration system and military and political system. However, due to the importance of military and political affairs, the Consulate General has both the right to supervise and evaluate the prefect of Zhenjiang, and when the military situation is urgent, its assessment power goes deeper into the prefectures and counties, and directly directs and dispatches the county-level administration. The prefect of Zhenjiang is still changing frequently, and there are as many as 13 people with the power of the consul general and the prefect. Second, the operation of grassroots government affairs is based on the help of local elderly. The prefect's short tenure of office made it difficult for him to quickly grasp the actual situation at the grassroots level, and he was under pressure from the military and political levels, and his affairs were huge and complicated, and the environment was unfamiliar, so he needed to consult with local elders to effectively administer the government. Third, the people bear a greater burden. Zhenjiang people, who live in transportation hubs and military towns, need to undertake heavier tasks of taxation and conscription, and there are often urgent civil power showdowns and conscription in addition to regular requisition. Fourth, it affects people's livelihoods and mentality. The people of Zhenjiang not only had to bear a heavier burden of servitude, but also often sacrificed agricultural irrigation to ensure water supply. They also had to endure the insecurity brought about by the instability of the "border area", and even the Zhenjiang scholars chose to serve as Huainan officials, who were regarded as fearful by most scholars in the coastal and wealthy areas, because of their sense of dependence on the Huainan borderland. The above factors also affect the social structure and cultural orientation of Zhenjiang place.
As discussed in "Living in the Countryside and Cherishing the Country", Zhenjiang and Mingzhou, which is also the gateway to Lin'an, and Jiankang, an important prefecture along the Yangtze River, all show different regional characteristics. As a "border area", the Zhenjiang region of the Southern Song Dynasty is indeed a special area, which is not only different from the coastal and affluent areas, but also different from other "border" areas. The confrontation between the Song and Jin dynasties was a form of the Song Dynasty's border, and the Song Dynasty's southwestern border, as well as the Northern Song Dynasty's borders with the Liao Dynasty, the Western Xia, and the Tibetan Dynasty were in different forms. The study of Zhenjiang society in "Living in the Countryside and Cherishing the Country" provides a good enlightenment for how to understand the "border" or "border area" of the Song Dynasty in the logic of the Song Dynasty.
The Song Dynasty faced a strong political confrontation, which not only affected the dynastic politics, but also profoundly affected the society in the border areas. In the past, the confrontation pattern was focused on from the perspective of inter-regime exchanges, but rarely systematically and deeply addressed the border society. On the other hand, the study of the history of "frontier" based on the modern concept of frontier and the concept of "frontier" or "frontier" under the internal and external concepts of the dynastic period need to accurately analyze and grasp the relationship between the modern position and historical logic, especially on the topic of "frontier of the Song Dynasty" or "frontier of a certain dynasty", it is necessary to overcome the connotation and extension of "frontier" and the alienation and confusion of its concept. The discussion of Zhenjiang as a "border area" in "Living in the Countryside and Cherishing the Country" is not only about the distinction between the "extreme edge" and the "near border" in military defense, but also about how the situation of political antagonism, including the tension of the threat of war and the normal relationship between the peace system, affects the power structure, government operation and people's living conditions in the area where it radiates, which can inspire the study of border issues.
The common pursuit of deeds and fame by scholars
Through the Zhenjiang society and the comparison between Zhenjiang and Siming, "Living in the Countryside and Huaiguo" reveals the general image of the Song Dynasty scholar society, that is, no matter the scholars, they were all committed to their careers and fame, on the other hand, the scholars in different regions were affected by factors such as transportation, economy and trade, culture, as well as imperial court policies and geographical location, and there were great differences, so as to better understand the social orientation and specific pattern under the imperial examination system in the Song Dynasty.
The Zhenjiang society, whether it is a common person who is engaged in business or farming, or a family of scholars, is committed to the common goal of pursuing fame. The primary way to pursue career and fame is through education. Zhenjiang society is very prosperous. or invest in the extension of famous teachers, such as Liu Zai's grandfather Liu Ci and Danyang wealthy Tang Dongming jointly raise funds to invite famous people to educate their children. Or founded academies, such as Jintan Zhang's self-built Shenyi Academy to educate the clansmen, and Liu Zai's uncle Liu Siqing founded the academy to educate the backward in the township. There are also families who make different arrangements for their sons, such as Lei Zhen, a native of Jintan, who arranged for the second son and the third son to concentrate on the business after turning from poor to rich, and Sun Dacheng, a Dantu man, who became rich in business, arranged for the eldest son to support the family business, and the other two sons devoted themselves to the business. The Liu Zai family was the lucky one in the middle of the lift, and thus won prestige in the township. And more often than not, but always unswerving. Liu Zai remembered that Ding You, a villager who had been in the field house for 43 years, failed to pass the test repeatedly, and still held his ambition to move his career, and after Lu Conglongzhong Township, he repeatedly failed to take the exam, and was only awarded the special performance at the age of 85.
As pointed out in "Living in the Country and Cherishing the Country", the people of Zhenjiang, whether they are scholars, wealthy or commoners, are committed to the education of their children, and the motivation to strive for fame is the only way to improve their personal destiny and family status. For most villagers who are difficult to get into the Jinshi, becoming a student of Fuzhou County, a Zhongxiang Ju or a Taixue student not only has the status of a scholar, becomes a local elite, and has the qualification to move towards fame, but also has some tax exemptions, service and legal preferential treatment. Wealthy families can become rich and expensive, and poor families can flip their social status. This is an important reason why many Zhenjiang people have worked tirelessly and hard from generation to generation despite the difficulties in their careers.
The author points out that the situation of the founding of the Southern Song Dynasty led to the division of the regions south of the Yangtze River, the coastal areas, and the border with the enemy, and the imbalance of social and economic development in various regions expanded, which limited the industrial and social development of important prefectures on the south bank of the Yangtze River. Compared with the coastal areas and affluent areas, Zhenjiang society has more instability, lacks economic strength and cultural literacy to accumulate strong famous families, more disadvantaged in employment, and more difficult to advance. The success rate of the Zhenjiang family in striving for fame in the imperial examination is not high, and the number of Zhenjiang people who pass the Jinshi examination is at most two or three people. In 1190, Liu Zai was admitted to the Jinshi, and 537 Jinshi were admitted in the country, and only Liu Zai and Zhao Chonggu were admitted to Zhenjiang. In the more than 150 years of the Southern Song Dynasty, there were only 100 scholars in Zhenjiang, ranking 11th among the 16 Fuzhou armies in the Liangzhejiang Road in the Southern Song Dynasty, and belonged to the "unsuccessful" area of the imperial examination. Zhongju is obviously a very high threshold for many Zhenjiang scholars and families. In Mingzhou, Jinshi is regarded as the starting point for obtaining social status, while in Zhenjiang, Jinshi is an unattainable threshold, and most people regard passing the township examination or entering Taixue as a symbol of the success of family education.
For Zhenjiang scholars, it is extremely difficult to pass the Jinshi examination, and the success of the imperial examination is only to obtain the qualification to enter the official career, and there are more obstacles to promotion. Promotions for official positions rely not only on personal ability, but also on personal connections and social networks. Mingzhou has many famous families who are tired of the eunuchs, and they can recommend each other in their official careers, and they can help each other and jointly open up the way to political development, and there is no shortage of important positions in the DPRK and China, such as prime minister and governor, so that the family of the four Mingshi people has become the most advantageous political group in the political arena of the Southern Song Dynasty. However, there are few wealthy families in Zhenjiang society, the number of people in the middle is small, the age is on the high side or the promotion of grace, and the official positions, interpersonal relationships, and even competitive conditions are far inferior to those of scholars in the coastal and Jiangnan areas. There are few officials and attendants in Zhenjiang, and there are very few middle-level officials at the road level, and most of them are low-level officials. In the areas where officials were appointed, most of them served as grass-roots pro-people officials in the Lianghuai region and other border areas that were regarded as fearful by the people of Fujian and Zhejiang. Among the scholars, those who are born in the common people's families are more disadvantaged in the competition for official careers than those who have more abundant family resources. Only two of those who served as middle-level officials in Zhenjiang were born as Jinshi, and the rest were all shade supplements.
The Formation of Social Forces and the Problem of "Elite Localization".
In the discussion of how social forces are formed and how social forces and political forces interact in the cause of the township in "Living in the Countryside and Cherishing the Country", we can see the relationship between the society and the state in the Southern Song Dynasty, rather than the dualistic opposition, and the role of scholars as an intermediate force in integrating the resources of the township, connecting the township and the government, and promoting the cause of the township.
The author defines social force as "the force formed by the people to resolve social contradictions and promote harmony". In the Song Dynasty, the leader of condensing resources and forming social forces became a group of scholars, rather than a religious force in the Middle Ages. Especially in the Southern Song Dynasty, there were a large number of officials living in the countryside because of the waiting, mourning, and political disputes. They are social elites with social and economic strength, and they form a close social network with the rich families in the township because of their fellow villagers, classmates, marriages, etc., which are conducive to mastering resources and influencing society.
The social power of the township resources to solve problems and benefit the people often benefits from villagers like Liu Zai. There are quite a lot of Shishu in Zhenjiang, like Liu Zai, who actively participate in education, relief, public works and other undertakings in the township. The three large-scale hunger relief activities led by Liu Zai all united the participation of fellow villagers and righteous people. In particular, the second hunger relief is to show the strong social power of the people, Liu Zai donated the field rent, his friend Zhao Ruoqi and Jintan's prestigious family, 12 officials from other villages, 33 township tributes and scholars, 15 ordinary villagers, monks and Taoists all participated in the donation, and Zhao Shanying, the county governor of Jintan, also donated money and rice. The scholar community is the main force of this relief.
More importantly, the group of villagers has the ability and role to connect the government and the grassroots. The government participated in the three famine relief led by Liu Zai, especially the first famine relief, which was completed only when Liu Zai and the villagers were unable to provide money and food to the government. Grassroots public construction and charity activities are a combination of government and non-government, that is, social and political forces. This combination is based on the alignment of the goals and values of the private and government governments. As a result, the people gained official legitimacy, as well as financial and administrative support, and scholars could promote harmony between the family and the local community in contributing to the township and caring for the national government, enhance the social prestige of the family, and even gain the approval of the state to realize the feelings of the family and the country. Liu Zaizheng became the leader of the township because he organized a series of good deeds to contribute to the township, conveyed the township's demands to the government, cared about national politics, and advised the current situation, won a national reputation, was affirmed by the imperial court, and was called up twice to be an official. The government can absorb more social forces to help the country's governance, relieve financial pressure, make the country's governance more resilient, and promote the integration of township awareness and the country's destiny.
It is the cooperation between social and political forces that has led to the widespread development of various forms of non-governmental mutual assistance in the grassroots society of the Southern Song Dynasty, such as volunteer service, Yizhuang, Yixiao, and Shecang, and has become a prominent phenomenon in local governance in the Southern Song Dynasty. For example, volunteer service not only has the role of ensuring the transfer of government service, enhancing the people's ability to serve in service, reducing neighborhood disputes, and harmonizing neighbors, but also benefits both the government and the people. Therefore, not only villagers such as Liu Zai, as well as the wealthy families in the township, actively organized, but also vigorously advocated by the government, gave subsidies, and even directly ordered. These forms of mutual aid have also developed a sustainable mechanism for raising funds to purchase land or other assets for maintenance at a cost of lease interest. For example, Liu Zai organized the establishment of Jintan 23 Duyizhuang, which combined volunteer service, Yizhuang and community warehouse, bought land and settled houses, bought public land with the surplus, planned community warehouses, and formed a more institutional mutual aid organization. This kind of grassroots governance with a sustainable mechanism was widely implemented in public works and social management such as water conservancy and relief in the Southern Song Dynasty.
The above research responds to and expands the issue of "localization of the scholar elite". Whether the scholars of the Southern Song Dynasty focused on local affairs, alienated themselves from the relationship with the state, and whether there was a problem of the withdrawal of state power from society and the replacement of private forces. The academic community has made in-depth discussions from the perspectives of intellectual history and social history. As summarized in "Living in the Countryside and Cherishing the Country", the general consensus of the academic community is that although the scholars of the Northern and Southern Song Dynasty identify with the country and pay attention to national affairs, they are more committed to local construction and local history writing, and connect the identification of local identity with the identity of scholars, thus presenting a scene of "localization" of scholar elites.
The research of "Living in the Countryside and Cherishing the Country" shows that the construction of the grassroots society in the Southern Song Dynasty was the result of the social force gathered by the scholars after forming a dominant group, and the political power of the local government representatives, and the social force with substantial influence formed by the convergence of scholars and the powerful in the grassroots society, and the political power controlled by the government and with administrative and financial decision-making power. The government has administrative and financial control over certain local affairs. The cooperation between political and social forces is mutually beneficial and win-win for society and the country.
Mr. Huang reminded in "Living in the Countryside and Cherishing the Country" that Liu Zai was not only a model of the Southern Song scholars, but also a special case of the Southern Song scholars, and that Zhenjiang society not only had the same phase as the Southern Song Dynasty society, but also had a significant gap with other regions. Only by deeply exploring the conflicts and cooperation, differences and commonalities between scholars, localities and countries can we gain a more practical understanding of the society of the Southern Song Dynasty. Mr. Huang also pointed out that the study of grassroots society in the Southern Song Dynasty needs to explore meaningful issues and achieve new breakthroughs, such as the family and social roles of women in traditional societies who are important drivers of family beginnings, and the reasons for regional career differences need to be studied from perspectives other than politics and economics. "Living in the Countryside and Cherishing the Country" provides readers with a new perspective for understanding the society of the Southern Song Dynasty from the perspective of scholars, and will certainly promote the further development of a new situation in the study of this issue.
(This article was originally published in Huang Chunyan's Huayi, Ocean, Finance: Inside and Outside China in the Song Dynasty, Shanghai People's Publishing House)
