1. Strong enemies abroad
The Song Dynasty was a bit unlucky, and in its era, the temperature in Asia gradually became colder, the production of pasture in the northern nomadic areas decreased, and many livestock froze and starved to death. Under the pressure of survival, the nomadic ethnic groups in the north have become more closely united. Tribes that used to compete with each other for pastures united and attacked south wave after wave.
Agricultural areas in northern China have also reduced production due to cooling, the economy has been frustrated, and military strength has declined. What is even worse is that in the Tang Dynasty, because of the large population in the north, indiscriminate logging caused by soil erosion, and the Yellow River continued to flood. During the Song Dynasty, the flooding of the Yellow River became more serious, and there were several diversions of the Yellow River, which brought huge economic losses to the country.
Under the influence of the general environment, as early as the end of the Tang Dynasty, when the Central Plains was in turmoil, the surrounding ethnic groups began to erode the land of the Central Plains. After Zhao Kuangyin established the Song Dynasty, resisting these invasions was a historical legacy that he had to solve.
One of the biggest threats is the Khitan in northeastern China.
The Khitan rose during the Tang Dynasty and originally operated in the northeast of present-day China and the eastern part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In short, it has been entrenched in the area north of the Great Wall for a long time. But in the fifth dynasty, a warlord named Shi Jingyao in northern China, in order to get assistance from the Khitans, took the initiative to cede the area of present-day Beijing, Tianjin, and the northern part of Shandong province and Hebei Province to the Khitans. This area is known as "Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures" or "Youyun Sixteen Prefectures".
In Chinese history, the warlords of the Central Plains have paid tribute to ethnic minorities, paid tribute, and borrowed troops. Even Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, once submitted to the Turks. However, Shi Jingyao's act of ceding Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures this time had too much impact, so much so that it completely changed the history of China.
The special feature of Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures is that its northern end is the east-west Yanshan Mountain Range, which is the only natural danger between the north and south of this area, and the Great Wall is built on the Yanshan Mountain Range. After Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures were occupied by the Khitans, the Great Wall defense line ceased to exist. Khitan soldiers could easily enter the Central Plains.
This is also secondary, and more importantly the Khitan got a large amount of farmland and agricultural population. The advantage of the nomadic people is that the cavalry is brave, and the advantage of the farming people is that they have more food and more population. After the Khitan occupied the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, they incorporated the local people into the original nomadic tribes, so that each tribe had the population and food support of the agricultural area, which was equivalent to the advantages of both nomadic and agricultural peoples. The Khitans also actively Sinicized, ruling the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun in the manner of the Han Chinese, and established a state with the national name "Liao".
The Song people understood the importance of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and after the establishment of the Song Dynasty, they fought several times to the north in an attempt to retake the Sixteen Prefectures. However, the Liao state already had the support of the agricultural population, and its combat effectiveness was greatly improved. The Song Dynasty's Northern Expeditionary Army hit xizhimen in today's Beijing, but in the end it fell short and was defeated.
Fight, can't fight, or defend, right? But defense is also a big problem, which is related to the location of the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Since the "Anshi Rebellion" of the Tang Dynasty, civil strife has continued, and the two capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang have been looted one after another, and later almost became a ruin. Therefore, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, most of the northern regimes set the capital at present-day Kaifeng City, Henan Province, which was then called "Biàn Liang" or "Tokyo".
Kaifeng is not far from Luoyang and is also located in the center of the Central Plains region. Compared with Luoyang, Kaifeng also has more convenient water transportation conditions. After the continuous construction of five generations and ten kingdoms, Kaifeng has become very prosperous, and it is natural that the Song Dynasty will be the capital of Kaifeng.
But compared with Luoyang, Kaifeng has a fatal flaw: its defense is too poor. Although Kaifeng is not far from Luoyang, the terrain of the two is very different: Luoyang is surrounded by the Yellow River to the north, the other three sides are surrounded by mountains, and the entire Luoyang area is equivalent to a small plain surrounded by heavenly grabens, and the location is unique, so it has become the ancient capital of all dynasties. Kaifeng, in addition to the Yellow River in the north, is surrounded by plains, and a large area of land north of the Yellow River is also a plain, and there is no terrain that can be used for defense. Especially for the nomadic cavalry, it is simply a lamb to be slaughtered.
Zhao Kuangyin first continued the system of the Later Zhou Dynasty, fixing the capital kaifeng, and after the state affairs were stable, Zhao Kuangyin once discussed with the people around him whether to move the capital to Luoyang, and did not discuss a conclusion, and the matter was dragged down.
Perhaps Zhao Kuangyin felt that this problem could be solved in a few days. Unexpectedly, one day he suddenly fell ill and died.
It is said that the situation on that day was as follows: on this night, Zhao Kuangyin and his brother Zhao Guangyi drank together, and the palace eunuchs were not allowed to enter. According to the people outside the house, they saw the shadows on the windows shaking by the candlelight in the house, and Zhao Kuangyin poked the ground with an "axe", and the two people seemed to have an argument. Later, after the two of them finished drinking, Zhao Guangyi slept in the palace, and in the middle of the night, Zhao Kuangyin died violently. This story is commonly known as the "axe sound of candle shadows".
This event is recorded only in the wild history of the Song people, and historians have found neither evidence to support it nor reason to refute it. Even whether the "axe" that Zhao Kuangyin poked at the ground was a large axe that could cut people, or a small axe used as a paperweight, or a dust, historians did not reach a consensus, this incident is a mystery for eternity.
Why are people so interested in this suspicious case? It was because after Zhao Kuangyin died violently, it was his younger brother Zhao Guangyi who succeeded to the throne, not Zhao Kuangyin's eldest son.
Regardless of whether Zhao Guangyi had killed the king or not, his succession violated the primogeniture system, and at that time, some people questioned the legitimacy of his succession, and even some people planned to launch a coup d'état to try to support Zhao Kuangyin's son to succeed to the throne.
Under such a special circumstance, Zhao Guangyi must choose to open the capital. Because before he took the throne, Zhao Guangyi's identity was the mayor of Kaifeng, which was equivalent to saying that Kaifeng was his sphere of influence. The mayor of Luoyang is the father-in-law of Zhao Kuangyin's son. In order to stabilize the throne, Zhao Guangyi could only stay in Kaifeng.
This could be bitter to the border guards of the Northern Song Dynasty.
From the Liao border to Kaifeng, the cavalry only needed three or four days to reach the bank of the Yellow River, and the Liao army took full advantage of mobility. This was not only a military problem, but also an economic problem: there was no natural graben to rely on, and the Great Song needed to garrison a defense army several times larger than usual. And because the Liao state has the advantage of mobility, these armies cannot be organized in peacetime and must maintain a state of combat at all times.
Fighting wars was the most expensive thing in ancient times. The Song Dynasty had to maintain a consistent and large combat team even in peacetime, which was a great drain on national strength.
Resisting a Liao state alone is not enough. In the northwest region of our country, in the whole territory of today's Gansu Province, northern Ningxia, and western Inner Mongolia, a new force has risen -- the "Xia" regime established by the Dang Xiang people, historically known as "Western Xia". Western Xia was weaker than the Liao State, but not worse than the Northern Song Dynasty, and there were often wars with the Northern Song Dynasty. The Northern Song Dynasty had to face the pressure of a two-line war, which cost a lot of money every year, but it could only mix one self-protection.
2. Heavy literature and suppression of force
When talking about Li Longji, we talked about the stability and efficiency of the system, and if the two want to pursue one, we must sacrifice the other. The Tang Dynasty died blindly pursuing efficiency and abandoning the stability of the regime. The dominance of moderation and the dictatorship of eunuchs are manifestations of the lack of stability of the system.
The Song Dynasty absorbed the lessons of the Tang Dynasty and designed the system with great emphasis on stability. But at the same time, efficiency is sacrificed.
Let's start with the military.
The economy of the Song Dynasty was very prosperous, and from the books, the army was also very strong: the number of troops was large, and the material reserves were large. We have said that the key to determining the outcome of the war is national strength, and in this way, the Song Dynasty should be a military power.
Unfortunately, the strong book advantage is offset by inefficiency.
The Song Dynasty adopted the policy of "strong cadres and weak branches", and resources were tilted to the central army; it often rotated generals to ensure that "soldiers do not know the generals, they will not know the soldiers", so that the soldiers and generals could not cooperate well; they also emphasized the military and light weapons, let the civilian officials hold the military generals hostage, and lowered the status of the military generals. These measures have reduced the combat effectiveness of the army.
Combat effectiveness has been reduced, and in order to ensure the stability of the border, the state must provide more troops to make up for the loss of efficiency. The Great Song Dynasty was willing to spend money on raising soldiers, and the welfare of soldiers was very good, and as a result, in order to support a huge standing army, the state finances were miserable, which was the so-called "rǒng) soldiers".
And then there's the imperial court.
The notes of the literati of the Song Dynasty recorded such an incident: it is said that after Zhao Kuangyin became emperor, he one day asked Ouchi to build him a smoke cage. What is a "smoke cage"? The ancients liked to burn some carbon for heating with a small stove, or burn some incense. This stove is hot, it is dangerous, so it is necessary to cover a small cage on the outside, so that the small stove can be held in the arms or stuffed into the bed. This small cage is the "smoke cage".
Zhao Kuangyin asked Ouchi to build a smoke cage, and this order was passed down, but he waited for several days and did not build it. Zhao Kuangyin was anxious and asked the people below: Why hasn't it been built yet? The person at the bottom replied: This matter must be approved by Shangshu Province, Ministry, Temple, bureau, first level, go through the formalities, and then repeat it to the emperor, and you approve it, and this smoke cage can only start manufacturing. Zhao Kuangyin collapsed as soon as he heard it, and asked the prime minister: Brother, I was in the folk, I could buy a smoke cage for dozens of copper coins, and now I am a tianzi, why is it so difficult to get a smoke cage?
The Prime Minister replied: These rules are not designed for you, but for your children and grandchildren. In the future, if your descendants want to create something extravagant, he will have to go through the approval of the relevant departments, and there may be an official (jiàn official) who is responsible for supervising the emperor to impeach him.
Zhao Kuangyin understood as soon as he heard it, and only then did he turn from anger to joy.
What does this story illustrate? One is to say that Zhao Kuangyin had good intentions at that time, and did not hesitate to use a complicated bureaucratic system to contain the imperial power. But on the other hand, it also shows the cost of efficiency in order to maintain the stability of the country. The emperor needs such cumbersome procedures to make a daily necessities, so how much effort does it take to do something big?
The more people responsible for a thing, the less efficient they become, or even not at all.
The Song Dynasty government had the problem of inefficient work. In order to decentralize powers, several departments did one thing, increasing the number of officials. But the efficiency of work has declined, and the more people there are, the lower the efficiency, which is "redundant official".
The Song Dynasty emphasized literature over military force, gave preferential treatment to civilian officials, bureaucrats had good salaries and benefits, and raising officials alone was a huge expense. In order to reduce the pressure of war, the Song Dynasty also gave western Xia and Liao a large amount of "old coins" every year in exchange for peace. Coupled with huge military expenditures, these have placed a huge economic burden on the country. The increasing number of land annexations, in turn, has reduced the revenue of the State, with the result that the State finances are not sufficient, which is "redundant expenses". "Redundant soldiers", "redundant officials" and "redundant expenses" have dragged the country's hind legs with low efficiency.
3. Party strife
With the improvement and development of the imperial examination system, the rulers of the Song Dynasty faced a new problem: party struggle. What the Song Dynasty called the "party" was, simply put, an interest group composed of private individuals.
In primitive societies, primitive people did not have the concept of the collective, but they would naturally form small groups and small tribes. The reason is simple: the strength of the group is greater than that of the individual, and the small group can easily kill the person who drops the order. Whoever refuses to join the group will be killed by other groups and will not survive.
The political life of ancient times was "Confucianism", and underneath the moral rules of Confucianism, there was also the brutal struggle of the Legalists. The political struggle is your life and death, either I kill you or you kill me. For individuals to survive, they must cling to the strong. In the Wei and Jin dynasty's door valve society, the family background was the strongest, and the officials relied on their own families. In the imperial examination era after the late Tang Dynasty, officials were all from the cold door and had no background. In order to survive, these people must automatically form small groups one by one like primitive people forming tribes.
This small group is the "party." The "party" here is not the same thing as the "political party" we have today. It has no strict organization and political program, it is a group of officials who come together for the sake of profit, help each other, and advance and retreat together.
In ancient political discourse, the word "party" was a pejorative term that represented small groups that endangered society. Because in the Confucian view, social order is maintained by etiquette. You can do whatever you want, it's all according to your identity. If you form small groups in private, putting the interests of small groups first, this undermines the social order. Therefore, Confucius said that "gentlemen are not party" and opposed "friends party".
For the state, the biggest problem with the partisans is that officials put the interests of small collectives above the interests of the state. As for the praise and criticism of the policy, they do not think about whether the policy is good or bad for the country, but whether the policy is beneficial to their own friends. When it comes to the promotion and demotion of an official, they do not think about the ability and character of the official, but about which party the official belongs to.
Mutual attacks between friends are called "partisan strife". If most of the people in the official arena are busy with party strife and with each other, the country will be even more chaotic.
The most famous partisan dispute of the Song Dynasty was Wang Anshi's change of law. As mentioned earlier, there were actually many problems with the system of the Song Dynasty. By the time of Song Shenzong, various ills had accumulated too much, coupled with the tremendous pressure of the border war, and the country was already showing signs of decay. Many ministers in the imperial court had a desire for reform. Among the two most famous people, one is the great literary scholar Wang Anshi, and the other is the great historian Sima Guang.
Wang Anshi was a radical who proposed to the emperor a comprehensive reform plan involving politics, economy, military, and personnel. Many of his reform programs are good in themselves, but even the best ones cannot be implemented in one go, so that the country cannot stand it - the previous person who did this was Wang Mang, and we all know his subsequent fate.
But at that time, Song Shenzong was only twenty years old, and the young people were very angry, and they were always eager to revitalize the country at once. Wang Anshi's genius ideas and impassioned rhetoric (after all, he is a great writer!). Said moved Song Shenzong. Soon, the package of reforms was in full swing.
Wang's reform plan was so radical that some of the designs were out of touch with reality. For example, he proposed that the state provide low-interest loans to farmers, which is a good thing for the country and the people to win-win from today's point of view. But his ideas are too advanced, many technical issues are not well considered, and the country's execution cannot keep up. For example, in modern society, low-interest loans should be implemented by commercial banks, to identify which farmers can lend, to supervise farmers not to spend money indiscriminately. But when Wang Anshi was executing, these loans became a government order, and the government order became a forced apportionment at the grassroots level. The official does not care whether you need a loan or not, he only has to complete his own task, forcing the peasant households to take out loans and pay interest, but it has become a bad policy that harms the country and the people.
Wang Anshi's plan was too radical, so many people opposed him. The leader of the opponents was Sima Guang. Sima Guang did not want to reform, but his plan was still the same as the old Confucian formula: encouraging agricultural production, saving government spending, and so on. Therefore, on the issue of reform, the Wang Anshi faction and the Sima Guang faction fought. Once this matter was divided into factions, what was originally a simple technical problem became a matter of taking sides. Officials at the imperial court took sides one after another, and when they stood up, they began to attack the other side, and a full-scale party struggle was launched at the imperial court.
As a result of this, ministers had to think about partisanship before they thought about the state. For example, in order to strengthen his own strength, Wang Anshi promoted some people who supported reform but had poor character. The result is both intensification of inter-party contradictions and the erosion of the effectiveness of reforms. Sima Guang also had problems, and Wang Anshi's reform policies were not all bad. However, after Sima Guang came to power, all the reform policies proposed by Wang Anshi were opposed and completely rejected. As a result, the state has worked hard to reform for more than ten years, and in the end nothing has changed, delaying the opportunity for reform and development.
Later, the court of the Song Dynasty was completely mired in the quagmire of party strife, and the court was constantly arguing about a small matter. As a result, "the Song people are undecided, the soldiers have crossed the river", the imperial court is still fighting, and the enemy soldiers have already fought.
![Film History Classic Montage 3: The Party Is Different[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)