The history of the Jurchen people living in the Changbai Mountains and Heilongjiang River Basin has been recorded as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, calling it the "Country of Solemnity". After the founding of the Khitan Dynasty, the Jurchens were under the rule of the Liao Dynasty. The Jurchen tribes around Liaoyang were incorporated into the household registration of the Liao Dynasty and called "Mature Jurchens"; the Jurchen tribes in the area north of the Songhua River and east of the Ningjiang River were called "Shengnu Zhen". The "Shengnu Zhen" was not incorporated into the Liao, but it was necessary to pay tribute to the Liao. The Golden Kingdom was established after the development and growth of the "Birth Daughter Zhen".
In 1115 AD (the fifth year of the Northern Song Dynasty and the first year of the Jin Dynasty), the Jurchen leader Jin Taizu established the Jin regime in the northeast of China. After that, the power expanded rapidly, and the Jin Tianhui destroyed the Liao in the third year (1125) and the Northern Song Dynasty in the fifth year (1127) of the Jin Tianhui. In the first year (1153) of the Reign of Hailing, he moved the capital to Yanjing (present-day Beijing), occupying the areas of northern China, the Qinling Mountains in central China, and the area north of the Huai River, becoming a powerful state in northern China, with the name of Dajin.
The Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) passed on ten emperors and lived for 120 years. At its peak, the Jin Dynasty's territory included Northeast China, North China, Guanzhong, and the Russian Far East. From Dashanguan to the Huai River in the south, it confronts the Southern Song Dynasty; the northwest is juxtaposed with the Western Xia; the northeast region reaches the Waixing'an Mountains, and the East sea of Japan.
Restoration and development of commerce within the Jin dynasty
The successive wars between Jin and liao and northern Song caused serious damage to the northern social economy. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the country's commercial center and the largest capital city, Beijing, was besieged twice by Jin soldiers. According to the "Chronicle of the Chronicle of the Lineage", "once the two hundred years of savings are swept away, all the things needed by mortals will be taken away", when the gold, silver, treasures, and brocade of the 72 inner treasures in Beijing were looted. The marauders scraped off hundreds of taels of gold from the pillars of the Imperial Palace's Great Hall alone. The Bian River also silted up into a flat land and was overgrown with sour jujube tang pears.
Many places in Henan, Hebei, and Shandong (the people of the two rivers) are "more after a hundred battles, the affairs of the three rooms in the field have been emptied; the relics of the seventh ancestor have survived." ”
According to historical records, the temperature in the north dropped in the 11th century, and the climate in the north became colder in the early 12th century, and the long-term drought affected agricultural production. Due to war and climate, the economy of the north was devastated, and commerce was once again severely destroyed after the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Five Dynasties.
After the Jin Dynasty unified the north, the great wars and chaos basically subsided. In the 13th century, the climate gradually warmed up, and through the hard work of the people of all ethnic groups and the active policies adopted by some people of the Jin court, social production gradually recovered and improved.
By the time the third emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Jin Xizong, had completed his reign, the rulers had actively carried out various reform measures, fully absorbed the advanced civilization of the Han nationality, and greatly improved the economic and social outlook. By the time the fifth emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Jin Shizong, completed the transition from slavery to feudalism, the Jurchens completed the transition from slavery to feudalism, and then the social economy reached the peak stage of the Jin Dynasty, "talking well from the north and the south, resting with the people", "the group of subjects to keep their duties, the upper and lower levels are at peace", "the family is sufficient, the warehouse is more than enough", and "the number is well-off". At that time, business gradually recovered and developed rapidly.
Handicrafts of the Jin Dynasty
On the one hand, the handicraft industry of the Jin Dynasty inherited the foundations of the Liao, Bohai and Northern Song Dynasties, and on the other hand, it carried forward the inherent traditions of the Jurchen people and formed the era style of the Jin Dynasty.
Handicraft products have improved in both quantity and quality, and some technologies and products have surpassed the level of the Northern Song Dynasty. Especially by the time of Kim Sejong, society was gradually feudalized, and a large number of slaves were given personal freedom. When Jin Shizong succeeded jin shizong as the sixth emperor, Jin Zhangzong completed Yan Jing, in the early days of Jin Zhangzong's reign, the politics were clear, and the world called "the rule of Mingchang", he vigorously developed wenzhi, respected Confucianism, the cultural level reached its peak, liberated slaves many times, and the handicraft industry developed rapidly.
The handicraft industry of the Jin Dynasty can be divided into two categories: official handicraft industry and non-governmental handicraft industry. During the Jin Shizong and Jin Zhangzong periods, the representative industries mainly included textile industry, mining and metallurgy, porcelain industry, paper and printing industry, firearms manufacturing industry, shipbuilding industry, etc.
1. Textile industry. After the Jin regime entered the Central Plains, it attached importance to the silk weaving industry and stipulated that more mulberry should be planted to raise silkworms. The "History of Jin" records: Where there are mulberry dates, the people should be diligent in planting more, and the fewer will plant three of their land, and the fewer households will be taught to plant one of the tenths of their land, and the dry and new will be replaced, so that it will not be quenched. While extensively planting mulberry silkworms, the Jin Dynasty migrated a large number of silk weavers from the Central Plains to the northeast inland to spread the craft and improve the quality of silk fabrics. The Jin Dynasty set up Ayajin Temples in Zhending, Pingyang, Taiyuan, Hejian and Huaizhou to weave regular lessons. These are also five large-scale official handicraft workshops. The Jinshi Geographical Chronicle records that areas that "pay tribute" or are rich in certain textiles are distributed with many folk textile workshops. The "Fanluo", "Northern Silk", "Northern Silk", etc., which were sold in the Southern Song Dynasty, reflected the prosperity of northern silk.
2. Mining and metallurgy. Mining and metallurgy is an important department of handicraft industry, which is directly related to the development of the dynasty's fiscal revenue, military strength, agricultural productivity, daily necessities, commerce, and currency circulation. The restoration and development of the mining and smelting industry in the Jin Dynasty began as early as the time of Jin Xizong.
The administrative division of the Jin Dynasty was twenty roads, only four roads had gold and silver mining and smelting, in order to explore the source of minerals in many ways, the strategy of the Jin Dynasty was changed from state monopoly to "Xu min mining", and gave great preferential tax policies. In the third year of Dading (1163), "gold and silver pit smelting Xu mining, twenty points to take one tax". That is, the smelters themselves mine gold, silver and copper mines, and the state collects 1/20, that is, 5% of the product tax, from the smelters. This is 15% lower than the "two-eight points" (tax rate of 20%) in the Northern Song Dynasty. Such a low tax rate is a great concession for smelters, which promotes the development of mining and metallurgical production.
The five-year (1165) policy of Dading was further favorable, and the government allowed the people to "shoot" (rent) silver smelting. This preliminarily determines the buying (leasing) relationship between the smelter and the state.
In the twelfth year of Dading (1172), the pit tax was abolished and the people were allowed to mine at will. Kim Sejong believes that "the profits of gold and silver and yamazawa should be with the people, but money should not be minted privately." Now that the country's wealth is abundant, what is the difference between spreading in all directions and being an official? Although the cost is large, it is in the private sector, and the new money is increasing day by day. It is managed by its dispatched officials. "At this time, the state finances are abundant, even the 5% mineral tax is not collected, and the wealth is hidden in the people, but I hope that the people will not privately mint copper coins."
In the twenty-seventh year of Dading (1187), Jin promulgated a policy of benefiting farmers, "listening to the people collect silver in the gaps of the farmers and accepting official lessons." The "people" here do not refer to mining professional households, but to farmers. In order to make them also get some benefits, the Jin court allowed them to collect silver during their spare time.
Because the Jin court adopted a policy of buying and low tax rates, which greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of mining professional households, that is, smelters, the state collected widely due to low taxes, but instead obtained a huge amount of gold and silver, Ming Chang II (1191), "the world sees more than 200 collars in gold, 552,000 silver more than 552,000 collars." Perhaps because the treasury was too rich to continue mining, Ming Chang three years (1192) "to mention the words of the criminal division, seal the silver smelting, forbidden people to smelt."
However, the drawbacks of forbidden people's refining were soon revealed. "The state has been carrying on peace for a long time, and the hukou has increased interest rates, although it has tasted the prohibition, while the poor people seek livelihood and gather the masses to practice privately." There is a forbidden name on it. However, there is no real elimination, so the officials have no benefit and the people have more violations of the law. Therefore, the policy is reversed again: if the people are ordered to shoot and buy, the poor and strong are husbandsmiths, the old and the young are provided for miscellaneous services, and each has a balance, and the house of shooting and buying also has a surplus profit. In this way, it can be carried out for a long time. Compared with the official service of the workers, the cost of a hundred ends, there is a gap.
The Jin court applied policies that were in line with the actual situation, overcame the disadvantages (few ore sources), increased the production of minerals, and enabled the country to obtain a large amount of gold and silver. A large number of mineral products were put on the market, which not only activated the development of the gold and silver handicraft industry, but also activated the commodity economy.
Copper from the Jin Dynasty was mainly used for minting money. After the Jurchens ruled northern China, the circulation of goods developed rapidly, and the demand for copper and iron soared. Due to the small amount of copper, the government stipulates that all civil bronzes are officially manufactured and sold, and it is forbidden for private copper to be cast. In the eighteenth year of Dading (1178), Xu Min mined copper. Copper coins are minted under the jurisdiction of the state, and the annual output is up to more than 140,000 yuan.
In order to ensure the quality of money minted by the Jin Dynasty, not only lead and tin were added, but also silver, and when the Jin government banned money, gold merchants smuggled copper money to the Southern Song Dynasty in exchange for Southern Song goods. Folk also have private cast bronzes, mainly copper belts and copper mirrors.
Coal mining and use was very common during this period. Lu You's "Notes on the Old School" records that "there is more charcoal in the north, more charcoal in the south, and bamboo charcoal in Shu". The charcoal here is coal. Zhuang Jiyu's "Chicken Rib Compilation" "There are millions of families in Xibei, all rely on charcoal, and none of them burn salaries." Jin Xingding's second-year-old good question "Continued Yi Jianzhi" records that Henan Province "produced charcoal from the pond, the charcoal cave was revealed, and it was enough to take it, and the users accumulated into piles, and the salaries were hot, and the flames were burning", and the soldiers and the people "took it and used it as they pleased".
Iron manufacturing developed rapidly during the Jin Dynasty. Famous iron-producing areas of the Jin Dynasty included Yunnei Prefecture (present-day Guyang County, Tuyou Banner, Tuzuo Banner, Andu Banner, Baotou City, Inner Mongolia), Zhendingfu, Ruzhou Lushan (present-day Lushan County, Pingdingshan City, Henan Province), Baofeng (present-day Baofeng, Pingdingshan City, Henan Province), and Dengzhou (present-day Dengzhou City, Nanyang District, Henan Province). Due to the tightening of the ban on copper in the late Jin Dynasty, iron casting crafts were able to develop rapidly, and their technical level even exceeded that of the Northern Song Dynasty. Many iron lions in the people's park in southern Shanxi and Shijiazhuang were representative works in this regard at that time.
3. Porcelain industry. The porcelain industry was one of the more developed handicraft industries in the Jin Dynasty. After the establishment of the Jin Dynasty, the porcelain kilns in the old territory of the Liao and Song Dynasties have gradually resumed production, and the Jurchen inland has also begun to build kilns to burn porcelain, innovating in production technology and product forms. In terms of quality and output, they exceeded the Liao and Northern Song Dynasties. Hongmai's "Three Records of Yijian" records: Zou Shi, the world is Yanren. As for Shi Meng, he moved to Baitu Town in the north of Xiao County, Xuzhou, and was the head of the white kiln household. Where there are more than thirty kilns, hundreds of potters. Fan Wenlan, Cai Meibiao, and others wrote in the General History of China: "In recent years (1954), a porcelain vase was found in Baitu Town, and the bottle was engraved with the inscription 'Zhao Shunjin of Baitu Town Kiln Household applied a pair of vases to provide for the Bodhisattva of the Ci Clan of the South Temple of the town', 'Made on March 22, 2019 of the first year of the reign of the Emperor'. During the reign of Jin Xizong, the porcelain kiln continued to produce. Since Sejong, the original porcelain kilns in various places have been gradually restored. In the northeast region, there are the famous Liaoning Fushun Daguantun kiln and the Liaoyangjiang Guantun kiln. The Fushun Daguantun kiln site is located in the southeast of the present-day Fushun Daguantun Railway Station, close to the power plant. Created in the late Liao Dynasty, it was widely fired in the early Jin Dynasty, and is a representative of the Jin Dynasty porcelain in northern China. Liaoyang Jiangguantun kiln, also known as "Liaoyang kiln" and "Jianguantun kiln", was created and burned in the late Liao Dynasty and flourished in gold. It is mainly used to burn white glazed coarse porcelain, and also burn white glaze black flowers, black glaze, three colored utensils and so on. The white glaze is white and yellowish, and the black glaze is pure black, and there are many utensils such as plates, bowls, cups, plates, and bottles. All apply makeup soil, black glaze products are more rough and large.
The ceramic industry in the Central Region was revived in the early years of Sejong Dading, and the famous Dingyao kiln in Dingzhou, Hebei (present-day Quyang County, Baoding City, Hebei), Guantai Kiln in Cizhou, Hebei (present-day Cixian County, Handan City, Hebei), Yaozhou Kiln in Tongchuan, Shaanxi, and Jun Kiln in Yu County, Henan (present-day Yuzhou City, Henan), which were famous during the Northern Song Dynasty, carried forward their own styles and fired many fine products.
The Jin Dynasty allowed the private sector to operate porcelain kilns, and the government appointed "extracting officials" to collect taxes at the location of each porcelain kiln. For example, the porcelain kiln in Baitu Town, the name of the firing kiln owner engraved on the porcelain bottle of its product, the year and month of the memory, can be determined as a civil kiln.
4. Papermaking and printing. Zhongdu (present-day Beijing), Nanjing (present-day Kaifeng, Henan), Pingyang (present-day Linfen, Shanxi), and Ningjin (Ningjin, Hebei) were the four major inscription centers of the Jin Dynasty formed during the jin shizong and jin zhangzong periods. Zhongdu's engraving owners should be in the Guozijian, called the blueprint, which is an official workshop. The engraved books include scriptures, medical books, anthologies, dictionaries, poems, plays, etc. Hedongnan Road (present-day Shanxi) suffered less from the war, and the papermaking and printing industries were more developed. Jishan bamboo paper and Pingyang white linen paper in Linfen, Shanxi Province, were once famous for a while. The Jin Dynasty set up the "Pingshui Books" (Official Book Bureau) in Pingyang, which not only engraved and printed books themselves, but also managed the folk bookstore. At that time, the quantity and high quality of Jishan bamboo paper made Pingyang (present-day Linfen, Shanxi) the center of the public and private publishing industry in the Jin Dynasty. For a time, the literati gathered, revered the literature and re-taught, and the reading atmosphere was very strong, "the family set up a library, and the people stored a library". The Great Tibetan Scriptures found at Guangsheng Temple in Zhaocheng County (present-day Zhaocheng Town, Hongdong County, Linfen City) were carved in the Jin Dynasty. From the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Jin Xizong (1149) to the thirteenth year of Kim Sejong Dading (1173), after 25 years of unremitting efforts, this set of Buddhist scriptures was finally successfully engraved. A total of 1570 Buddhist scriptures and more than 7182 volumes were collected. In the eighteenth year of Jin Sejong's reign (1178), Cui Fazhen, daughter of Cui Jin of Luzhou, personally escorted the Buddhist scriptures to the Jin capital Yanjing (present-day Beijing). In the twenty-first year of Dading, Cui Fazhen once again escorted the printed Buddhist scriptures to Yan and hid them in the Jingshi Hongfa Temple, which is the earliest and most complete preserved carved and printed Tibetan scriptures in China.
The Jin Dynasty already had copperplate printing. The Shanxi Daixian Cultural Center collects a bronze banknote plate of the Jin Dynasty "Zhenyou Treasure Coupon", which is 34 cm long, 19 cm wide, 1 cm thick and weighs 5800 grams. The banknote version was made in the fourth year of Zhenyou (1216), only one year after the banknote was handed over to a treasure coupon, and from the degree of wear and tear, the individual handwriting has been blurred, and it is conceivable that the banknote version has been used many times.
5. Manufacture of firearms. The application of gunpowder and the production technology of firearms in the Jin Dynasty developed on the basis of the Northern Song Dynasty, and its level of technological development was not as good as that of the Southern Song Dynasty at that time, but better than that of Mongolia in the north.
In the war between Jin and Song and Mongolia, the craftsmen of the Jin Dynasty produced a large number of iron cannons, which were later improved to "earthquake and thunder", filled with gunpowder in iron cans, and lit with fire, and the "History of Jin" contains that "the cannon is on fire, its sound is like thunder, it smells hundreds of miles away, and the fire is half an acre above, and the fire is lit with armor and iron." Such weapons have great lethality. The Jin Dynasty also had a weapon "flying musket", the method of which was "to take the sixteen weights of yellow paper as a barrel, two feet long, and actually use willow charcoal, iron, magnetic wei, sulfur, and arsenic", tied to the gun head with a rope, lit when the battle was imminent, and the flame spewed out more than ten steps before the gun. The Mongol army was most afraid of these two firearms when fighting the Jin army. The efforts of the craftsmen of the Jin Dynasty in the application of gunpowder and the manufacture of firearms contributed to the development of science and technology in Our country.
6. Shipbuilding industry. Jin Dynasty shipbuilding was lagging behind the Southern Song Dynasty. However, due to the needs of inland navigation, maritime traffic and war, shipbuilding technology still developed and improved on the basis of the Northern Song Dynasty. During the reign of King Hailing, the official Zhang Zhongyan was ordered to build a giant ship. The "small sample" (model) designed by Zhang Zhongyan is exquisite to a few inches long, without glue paint, and the head and tail are hooked with "drums" self-phase hooks.
Jin Dynasty craftsmen also designed a boat suitable for traveling in the river during the harsh cold season in the north. With this kind of special ice-crashing ship, the cargo ship in the south of the cold winter moon can still operate on the northern river channel, which is the prototype of the modern icebreaker.
Dushui Supervisor wrote the book "General Discussion on River Defense", which is the first surviving monograph to comprehensively describe the engineering technology of the Yellow River. The book "Shipbuilding Materials" records that at that time, shipbuilding was based on each hundred materials as the basic unit of calculation, and the number of pieces, the size and weight of each piece were specified for the materials required to build a hundred material ships. In the "Loading Weight" section, it is also recorded in detail the certain loading and unloading capacity of different material ships. All this shows that the shipbuilding technology of this period has improved compared with the previous period.
The nature and status of the craftsmen of the Jin Dynasty
Just as handicrafts can be divided into official handicrafts and folk handicrafts, craftsmen can also be divided into official craftsmen and folk craftsmen. Direct producers of handicrafts refer mainly to the producers (craftsmen) of the official handicraft workshops, who are scattered in various branches of handicraft production. In the gold, silver, copper, iron and other mining and metallurgical aspects, there are smelters, the military armament supervisor has craftsmen who are authoritarian weapons, the Aya Brocade Temple has weavers, the Guozi supervisor has engravers, the Shaofu supervisor has color craftsmen, the Tailoring Bureau has tailors, the Cultural and Embroidery Bureau has embroiderers, and the Weaving and Dyeing Bureau has dyeers.
In addition to official craftsmen, there are also craftsmen engaged in various industries. The official smiths were craftsmen who had served in the government for a long time, and their gifts included money and silk, which was the same as that of the Song craftsmen. The craftsmen pay money on a daily basis, which is temporarily recruited from the people, and the mobility is relatively large. Taking the production management of the textile handicraft industry as an example, it is recorded in the Jin Shi Baiguan Zhi:
The craftsmen of the bureaus asked for money, and the embroidery women all managed the five stones of qiansu, all embroidered the head of the qiansu four stones, the deputy embroidery head three consecutive five hundred stones, the medium fine embroidery person three consecutive stones, the second fine embroidery person two consecutive five hundred stones, the xi xue ben put the main person qian zhi half of the second half, depicted the embroidery of five people qian su three consecutive stones, the two officials three consecutive stones.
From this, it can be seen that the embroidery female pipe is the highest level of technology, and it is also the highest. Under them, there are all embroidery heads and deputy embroidery heads, all of whom are foremen who manage female workers under the leadership of the straight chief. This is followed by medium fine embroiderers, secondary fine embroiderers, apprentice counselors, embroiderers, and clerks.
Shuuchi, the first five stones, the craftsman four stones, and the spring and autumn silk two horses each. In addition to money and food, the soldier pays fifty dollars a day and one and a half liters of rice. The common man pays a hundred dollars and a liter and a half liters of rice every day.
Guozi supervises the carving craftsman, who makes the first six stones, the deputy head four stones, and the spring and autumn clothes and silks two horses. The long line of three consecutive stones, the grain shooting smith Qian Su three consecutive stones, the spring and autumn clothes silk two horses each, learning to give half. Beginner learners pay 600 yuan, 6 buckets of rice, 1 horse each of spring and autumn silk, and 1 horse each of cloth. The folk craftsman pays one hundred and eighty yuan a day.
Above is a historical document from the History of Jin. From this, we can understand the general situation of the craftsmen produced in the official handicraft industry at that time and their status, status and treatment. Among the officials, the head and the deputy head belong to the management and have a higher status. Craftsmen are divided into grades (medium and inferior) according to the level of craftsmanship, and have different types of work names according to different divisions of labor. There are also apprentices. Apprentices are divided into apprentices and beginners. Treatment varies. The officials and craftsmen basically followed the old system of the Central Plains and restored and developed.
(Source: China Business Times)