You would never have imagined that a seemingly weak Song Dynasty would become an ideal paradise for today's "trendy people", in this era, not only can you live a slow life of drinking tea and listening to music, but you can also engage in civilian artistic creation with great passion, and even, play "non-mainstream", and make your whole body full of tattoos, and no one says that you are a rebellious bear child.
Today, let's unveil the mystery of the Great Song Dynasty and feel it together, a completely different Song Dynasty in your consciousness!
1. Everyone is a tattooed man
I believe everyone has a good impression of the character Shi Jin in "Water Margin", because he has nine dragons tattooed on his arm, he is nicknamed "Nine Dragons".
In fact, in the Song Dynasty, tattoos were also a fashion. Speaking of which, this itself belongs to a kind of punishment in ancient times - 黣 punishment, which began in the pre-Qin era and has existed in China's feudal history for 2,000 years.
Later, many ethnic minorities believed that the tattoos on their bodies symbolized dragon patterns or wild beasts, believing that this would attract the blessings of the gods and give them the power to overcome nature.
In the Song Dynasty, these very exquisite tattoo patterns became the fashion of young men in the Song Dynasty, and in the most prosperous three cities such as Chang'an, Jingzhou, and Chengdu, there were also specialized professional tattoo artists!
Among the tattooed people, the soldiers of the Song Dynasty are the main body, but most of them will tattoo tattoos on their bodies when they join the army, which is a proper non-mainstream.
2. Soldier: Grow taller and take more
In the impression of many people, the Song Dynasty "emphasized literature over military force" and did not pay enough attention to army building. However, during the Song Renzong period, there was a very strange rule on the soldier's salary, that is, according to the height of the soldier, the higher he looked, the more he would get.
The reason given by Song Renzong is: he grows tall, has great strength, and can fight, which at first glance seems to be in line with the principle of "more work and more reward".
However, how much were the salaries of the soldiers of the Song Dynasty? At 1.83 meters, he gets a meagre 300 yuan a month, while 1.8 meters is only 210 yuan, and 1.77 meters is only 150 yuan.
The monthly salary of the prime minister of the Song Dynasty was as high as 69,300 yuan, and the salary of the ordinary Bapin County Order could also reach 3,465 yuan.
3. Monks need to spend money
Speaking of the monks of the Song Dynasty, everyone will naturally think of the "Flower Monk" Lu Zhishen and the "Walker" Wu Song in "Water Margin", although they were forced to become monks, but in fact, being a true monk in the Song Dynasty had to pay a high price.
Since the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court has strict requirements for monks: they cannot be too old or too small in age, and they must be able to take care of themselves.
Those who meet the above conditions will also ensure that the assets in the family are full, because if you want to make the monk license issued by the official - Du Mu, you must be willing to spend money.
The price of Du Mu changes at any time according to market conditions, but its high price is difficult for ordinary people to bear. During the period of Song Shenzong, a degree of money needed to cost 130 yuan of silver, and at that time, the monthly salary of a magistrate was only 120 yuan, so it can be inferred that if you want to obtain a degree and really become a monk, you must spend 100,000 yuan today to achieve it!
4. The unbelievable "concubine" system
During the Song Dynasty, Cheng Zhu Lixue became popular, and the marriage system of "monogamy and multiple concubines" gradually became distorted. In the Song Dynasty, in addition to the main wife, concubines and maidservants were regarded as the private commodities of the scholars, and could be used for pawn rent and trading.
With the development and prosperity of the commodity economy in the Song Dynasty, concubines and maidservants were naturally sold as commodities, and this became a deformed fashion among literati and doctors.
It should be particularly pointed out that the "concubine" is not a lifelong system, but has a certain timeliness, most of this kind of trading is carried out in the small traders at the bottom of the society, because of the poor background, only by selling the dignity of the concubine can be exchanged for a trace of life, therefore, Zhou Yu hit Huang Gai - a willing to fight and a willing to suffer, small businessmen in order to relieve their own economic pressure, scholars in order to satisfy personal desires, over time, under the stimulation of the commodity economy, this time-sensitive "concubine" system became the fashion of the Song Dynasty.
5. A rich dowry for a daughter's marriage
In stark contrast to the "concubine" system, the Song Dynasty scholar class paid enough attention and respect to their daughters to marry as regular wives.
In the Song Dynasty, in order to protect his daughter's daughter from the troubles and contempt of her husband's family, scholars would generally prepare a rich dowry for her.
The dowry is usually the same as the bride price prepared by the man, and sometimes it is slightly higher than that of the husband's family. At that time, people believed that with the support of a rich dowry, the daughter's waist in her husband's house would be straight, and even if she had a conflict with her husband in the future, the mother-in-law would not make it too difficult for her daughter.
This reflects the full respect of the Song Dynasty for women, and is also a symbol of marriage equality between husband and wife in the Song Dynasty.
In addition, the dowry varies from person to person, and of course the princess's dowry is extremely luxurious, while the ordinary scholar's dowry is more practical!
6. Where there is well water, it can sing willow words
The Song Dynasty was the most prosperous dynasty in Chinese culture in history! During the Tang Dynasty, the popularity of poetry was only the exclusive domain of the scholar class, but in the Song Dynasty, the popularity of novels and the art of singing lyrics made the culture and art of the original high and low music really "fly into the homes of ordinary people", forming a new situation in which the common people liked to hear and sang to each other.
The Song Dynasty lyricist Ye Mengde once recorded in his work "Summer Retreat": At that time, the music workshop - equivalent to the folk band that now sings in the bar - was very fond of asking the lyricist Mr. Liu Yong to compose the lyrics, and then invited the courtesans to sing.
In fact, the life path of Liu Yong, the "top stream of folk culture", was not smooth, from the time he first took the imperial examination at the age of 24, to the age of 34, he participated in the four imperial examinations, and each time he ended up in the name of Sun Shan.
Due to his many years of mixing with the people, he has a good understanding of the emotional experience and joys and sorrows of the singer, and has created a large number of lyrics by the citizen class, such as his famous "Yulin Bell": Where to wake up tonight, the willow bank, the wind and the waning moon. The poignant lingering portrays the emotions of ordinary people at the bottom of society in a nuanced and resonant way.
As a result, Liu Yong, who was frustrated in his career, instantly became the beyond of the Song Dynasty, and even Ye Mengde was amazed: Where there is well water, he can sing willow words! The so-called well water is an area where people gather, so it is not an exaggeration to call Liu Yong a king-level figure in the pop music scene of that era!
7. Go straight to the heavenly listening drum
In addition to the cultural prosperity, the judicial system of the Song Dynasty was also better than that of the previous dynasty. Among them, if the people encounter major grievances, they can directly confide their grievances to the Son of Heaven by beating the drum.
The Dengwen drum system first appeared in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and then developed into the Western Jin Dynasty, before gradually forming a legal system, which was finally perfected and matured in the Song Dynasty after a large-scale trial in the Sui and Tang dynasties.
The Song Dynasty government also set up a special Dengwen Drum Courtyard for this purpose, which was responsible for handling particularly important civil disputes and criminal cases of ordinary people, and its functions were similar to those of today's Supreme Procuratorate.
The Dengwengu system was a supplement to the relatively complete judicial system of the Song Dynasty, which opened up a green channel for direct contact between the top and the people at the bottom of the society, and was a great progress in China's legal system.
8. Fan Zhongyan did not go to Yueyang Tower in person
"The worries of the world first, the joy of the world after the world", this famous saying comes from the Song Dynasty famous minister Fan Zhongyan's "Yueyang Tower", however, just as Su Shi wrote "Chibi Nostalgia" did not go to the real Chibi Ancient Battlefield, Fan Zhongyan did not come to Yueyang Tower in person.
In 1046 AD, the Northern Song Dynasty faced the frequent invasion of the Khitan and Western Xia, and the internal class contradictions were sharp and prominent.
Fan Zhongyan was demoted to Dengzhou because of this, and it was during this period that he received an invitation from his friend Teng Zijing to write a preface to the newly completed Yueyang Tower.
In "The Story of Yueyang Tower", Fan Zhongyan put forward the philosophy of "not happy with things, not sad with yourself", and expressed the political ambition of "living in the temple is high and worried about its people, and being far away from the rivers and lakes is worried about its monarch", and it is also put forward the spirit of "Youle" that has been recited from generation to generation, and has achieved his own fame!
Resources:
This article was originally published on the official account of Cover News on November 13, 2019, about "How strange is the emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty? Soldiers are paid according to their height, and tall people take advantage of them".
This article was originally published on the official account of Hangzhou Daily on November 24, 2023 on the article ""Selected City Chronicles" Looking at Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty from Tattoos".
Douyin Encyclopedia "Pawn Wife"