In ancient Chinese history, there were two peak periods of opening up to the outside world, namely the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty. However, the two dynasties did not open up to the outside world in the same form.
Let's look at two paintings first. The first painting is the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei's "Works of the Early Ming Palace of the Jia Zhishe People", which contains the sentence "Nine Heavens Open the Palace, and the Crown of All Nations Bows to the Crown", depicting the magnificence of the Daming Palace, the dignity of the emperor, and the Tang Dynasty weather of the four seas. But this is a kind of kingly glory of "the coming of all nations".
The second painting is the Northern Song Dynasty Hanlin scholar Li Bing's "Yong Song Dynasty Quanzhou Overseas Transportation and Trade", which contains the sentence "Cangguan Shadow Sanzhou Road, rising sea sound in the sound of the merchants of all countries", depicting the bustling business scene of Quanzhou, the largest port in the East, with its masts like clouds and merchants gathering. This is a kind of economic prosperity, the prosperity of "trade among all nations".
It can be seen that the Song Dynasty attached great importance to pragmatism, and the developed agriculture and handicraft industry also led to commercial prosperity, and foreign trade also reached its peak period, mainly overseas trade.
At that time, countries that traded with the Song government spread throughout today's Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia, as well as Korea and Japan in Northeast Asia.
When overseas trade in the Southern Song Dynasty was at its most developed, there were more than 50 countries that traded and more than 200 kinds of imported goods. The government also uses overseas trade as a link to communicate cultural and technological exchanges between overseas countries.
The introduction of excellent varieties such as rice and mung beans from overseas has played a positive role in the development of China's agriculture.
The export of handicrafts such as silk fabrics and porcelain from the Song Dynasty not only stimulated the consumption of overseas countries, but also promoted the development of local production technology.
The active foreign trade policy allowed the Song government to obtain huge fiscal revenues. In 1159 AD, the foreign trade income reached two million taels (strings of copper coins, each string of one thousand texts), equivalent to one-twentieth of the total annual revenue of the Song Dynasty government, occupying an important position in fiscal revenue and expenditure.
So, why was the overseas trade of the Song Dynasty so developed?
First of all, the rise of the Western Xia, the traditional "Silk Road" was blocked, and it had to pay attention to the development of overseas trade.
Since its opening, the Silk Road has been an important bridge between China and the world. The traditional Silk Road, starting from Chang'an, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty of China, reaches Central Asia through Gansu and Xinjiang, then passes through Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and other directly reaches the Mediterranean region, and finally reaches the terminal station - the city of Rome, which is more than 6,000 kilometers long.
Starting from Chang'an, the starting point of the Silk Road, this section of the road through the Longxi Plateau and the Hexi Corridor to Yumenguan and Yangguan is known as the eastern section of the Silk Road.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, with the formation of the confrontation between the Western Xia and the Song Dynasty, the Western Xia firmly controlled the eastern section of the Silk Road in its own hands.
In order to continue commercial exchanges with countries along the Silk Road, in addition to opening up a more rugged Qingtang Road, it also promoted the rise of the Maritime Silk Road in the Song Dynasty. In contrast, the cost of transport by sea was much lower than that of the new Silk Road.
Secondly, the developed domestic commerce and the continuous improvement of shipbuilding and navigation technology provide material and technical conditions for overseas trade.
The shipbuilding industry of the Song Dynasty, especially the quality of sea vessels, was already at the world's leading level at that time. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty, the number of ships built in the country each year had reached more than 3,000. The number of merchant ships going to sea and the tonnage are the largest in the world.
At that time, there were two kinds of ships: passenger boats and Shenzhou. When the Song Dynasty painter Xu Jing followed the Song envoys on his mission to Korea, in the "Xuanhe Feng envoy Goryeo Tujing", he depicted two kinds of ships, clouds: the passenger boat "is more than ten zhang in length, three zhang in depth, two zhang and five feet in width, and can carry two thousand millets", and one hu is ten buckets. Shenzhou "Shenzhou is three times as long, tall, assorted, used, and number of people in The Shenzhou." It can be seen that the Shenzhou is much larger than the passenger boat.
According to the "Record of Dreams", it is also recorded: "Zhejiang is the JinDao of the Tong River crossing the sea, and like the ships of the sea merchants, the size varies, the large one is 5,000 materials, which can carry 500 or 600 people; the medium 2,000 to 1,000 materials can also carry 200 or 300 people; the rest are called 'drilling wind', eight or six bridges in size, and each ship can carry more than 100 people." "Material" the ancient unit of measurement for shipbuilding, one material is ten cubic feet (Song ruler).
Secondly, the use of the compass directly promoted the foreign trade of the Song Dynasty. In order to further expand the scale of foreign trade, Song Taizong attached great importance to going out to attract business. According to the "History of Song", Yun: "In Yongxi, eight internal servants were sent to the Imperial Household, and they were divided into four ways to attract the Hainan Zhufan. ”
In the Southern Song Dynasty of Emperor Gaozong's generation, although it was partial to the south of the Jiangsu River, it still spared no effort to attract foreign investment and invented the "merchant investment". At that time, people who took chinese trade lived in Quanzhou and other places for a long time. Many Chinese businessmen have also gone abroad to do business, most of them from Zhejiang and Fujian.
Third, in order to increase fiscal revenue, the rulers adopted a policy of preferential foreign trade to attract foreign businessmen.
At that time, from the imperial court down to local governments at all levels, they were committed to creating a good environment for attracting businessmen, formulating laws and policies to attract foreign businessmen and protect their legitimate rights and interests, not only reducing taxes, but also setting up various rewards, giving clothing, gifts, etc.; foreign businessmen came to Or left China, and municipal officials also set up banquets and hospitality.
Even outstanding foreign businessmen will be awarded official positions. For example, in the late Southern Song Dynasty, foreign businessman Pu Shougeng was appointed as the "Shipping Department of Quanzhou City", and he was in charge of overseas trade work for more than 30 years.
Finally, the government has established a relatively complete foreign trade management system.
During the Song Dynasty, the first foreign trade regulation in China, the Municipal Law, was born, which was 571 years before the navigation regulations, the first law promulgated by the United Kingdom in 1651 to protect the monopoly of british maritime trade.
Shifang (市舶) is the common name for Chinese and foreign merchant ships in the Tang and Song dynasties. Legislation on overseas trade originated in the Tang Dynasty, but did not form a system. By the Song Dynasty, with the expansion and development of foreign trade, foreign trade legislation gradually became complete and mature.
The overseas trade of the Song Dynasty wrote a glorious page in the course of the development of China's foreign trade, and made outstanding contributions to human civilization and friendship among various nationalities.