Song dynasty city development characteristics

Song social productivity rapid development, social and economic prosperity, so that the Song period of the city appeared a lot of new features: First, the rapid development of the city commodity economy, the economic function of the diversification of industrial and commercial cities, commercial cities and handicrafts and other three types of cities. Second, the rural commodity economy developed, "grass market" gradually evolved into commercial towns. Song Dynasty "grass market" to the development process of the town, roughly through a large number of grass market, grass market to the evolution of commercial market towns and commercial market towns to the handicrafts of professional towns into three stages. Third, overseas trade is unprecedentedly developed, a large number of port cities, promoting the development of bilateral trade, accelerating the development of trade port cities.

The Song dynasty was a regime established on the basis of a weak society after some 200 years of natural disasters and wars. Politically it was a new regime, economically it still needed to be rebuilt, and culturally it needed to be restored and rebuilt. In the Song Dynasty, although the national power was far less than that of the Tang Dynasty, there was still significant progress in terms of socio-economic development. In agriculture, mainly in the improvement of production technology, the expansion of arable land and the increase of agricultural population. In handicrafts, but also more developed than the Sui and Tang dynasties, mainly in the mining and metallurgy, pottery, shipbuilding, weapons, textiles, paper, salt, sugar and other handicrafts categories continue to expand, as well as the division of labor more detailed. It is because of the rapid development of social productivity in the Song Dynasty, the prosperity of the social economy, the Song Dynasty period of the city in the previous generation of the city on the basis of the further development, and the emergence of many new features, resulting in the Song Dynasty period has become China's urban development and a very important historical period. This paper intends to explore the basic characteristics of urban development in the Song Dynasty period from a socio-economic point of view, inappropriate, please experts and scholars to correct.

One, the rapid development of urban commodity economy, economic functions have diversified

In the Song Dynasty, due to the rapid development of social commodity economy, the city's economic functions have been further strengthened. In the construction of the city, the traditional system was gradually broken, the scene of the street store; and in the flow of goods, the production and gradually promote the "cross" (banknotes), "cross" the emergence and application of the commodity economy to further promote the development of the development of the commodity economy; In the tax system, also began to collect commercial tax, according to the "Song history" volume 85 ~ 90 "geography" records, during the Song dynasty, the total number of famous economic metropolis no less than forty, fifty, only the collection of commercial tax in more than 100,000 guan there are 42 cities. It can be seen that during this period, many cities with mainly political functions had gradually evolved into cities with both political and economic functions, and the types of cities began to diversify. From the economic point of view, the economic city types in the Song Dynasty period can be roughly divided into three types such as industrial and commercial cities, commercial cities and handicraft cities.

1, industrial and commercial cities

This type of cities usually appear in the agricultural production and commodity production are more developed areas, they can use the surrounding rural areas to provide raw materials for the development of handicraft production, but also can absorb the surrounding countryside bazaar goods and their own production and commodities to develop commercial trade. For example, Chengdu in the Northern Song Dynasty, both Chengdu Prefecture, but also successive generations of the country's textile production base, is an important industrial and commercial capital of the Southwest. At that time, Shu brocade is the national famous silk fabrics, "Luo, dude, brocade, qi and other things in the world" said. [1] Shu brocade production is also considerable, only the central government of the Northern Song Dynasty each year from the Sichuan region to purchase "on the supply of damask brocade deer tire ten thousand two thousand pi". [2] in the Southern Song Dynasty, the national capital of Lin'an (now Hangzhou), Wuzhou (now Jinhua City, Jiangxi Province), Pingzhou (now Suzhou City), Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Huzhou and other places have become the country's most important silk weaving center. Especially Pingzhou, both the government in, and is the national textile production base and commodity exchange center, become the Jiangnan region of industry and commerce are very prosperous metropolis. [3]

2, commercial city

This type of city usually appears in the land and water transportation are more developed areas, that is, transportation hub areas, mainly due to the transit of goods and commercial trade is more developed and formed. With the dredging of the Grand Canal, along the Grand Canal, some larger political centers such as Lin'an, Bianjing (now Kaifeng), etc. became important commercial cities in the country, and their scale, population, and commercial prosperity at that time were the backbone of other cities. According to "Bian Du Fu", Bianjing at that time was "rich in all five cities and prepared for the bribery of goods in nine states". According to Zhou Baozhu's research, during the Yuanfeng period of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were about 15,000 industrialists and businessmen and other service industries in Tokyo (i.e., Bianjing, present-day Kaifeng).[4] During the Tang Dynasty, the city of Bianjing was the largest city in the world. [4] During the Tang Dynasty, the Fang and City system was broken, and industrialists and businessmen set up stores on the streets, with large and small trading houses lining up. The main commercial area, all day long carriages and horses, busy trading. Zhang Zeduan's "Qingming Riverside" is a true depiction of the commercial prosperity along the Bianhe River in Kaifeng City. In addition to daytime business, these commercial areas also have night market and dawn market. In addition, there are regular trading markets in Kaifeng City such as Xiangguo Temple, Drum Fan Baisuo City, Lane Miscellaneous Market, and Beggar's Bazaar, which are also very large in scale. [5] developed transportation areas along the Yangtze River also appeared many commercial cities, such as Jingkou (now Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province), Wushu, Jiangzhou Herkou, Ezhou, Jingzhou, etc., of which Ezhou is particularly prevalent, its commercial impact on the scope of the east and the sea, the west to the Chuan, the south of the Pearl River, the north of the Huaihe Shui, "cover the Chuan, Guang, Xiang, Huai, Zhejiang trade relocation of the meeting" [6], "the city is rich and strong, the city is rich and strong, the city is rich and rich, the city is rich and rich, the city is rich and rich. "the city is rich and prosperous, the city is complicated and wrong." [7] Zhenzhou (present-day Jiangsu Province) is the largest city in China. [7] Zhenzhou (present-day Yizheng City, Jiangsu Province), in the Northern Song Dynasty has also replaced the status of Yangzhou in the Sui and Tang dynasties, became the two Huai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang road goods distribution center. [8]

3, handicraft-type city

This type of city, and the Sui and Tang dynasties, compared with the handicraft city, there has been a big difference, its origin is neither a political center, nor a transportation hub, it is mainly dependent on the formation of handicrafts or mining and development. This is mainly in the Song Dynasty period in the textile, ceramics, papermaking, printing, shipbuilding, weapons, metallurgy, salt and other production scale, variety, quantity and technology have made significant progress, so that the handicrafts-type cities to exclude the original political aspects of the factors and the development of independent. This period of papermaking technology has entered a fairly mature period, thus the capital city Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Fujian Jianyang, Jiangxi Wuzhou, Chengdu and Meishan, Sichuan Province, etc. have developed into the center of the printing industry, and the powder paper of Wujiang Prefecture, the rejuvenated paper of Wenzhou, the jade plate paper of Huangyan, Taizhou, the rattan paper of Hangzhou, the bamboo paper of Shaoxing Prefecture, and the Xuan paper of Xuanshu Prefecture, etc., were all very famous paper products at that time. From the textile industry, there are Shu brocade, carved silk of Dingzhou, flower Luo of Wuzhou, flower Luo of Dongyang, flower Luo of Runzhou, interweaving of Qingzhou and Shaozhou, Lianhua yarn of Fuzhou, Shouling of Yuezhou and Brazilian sako of Mianzhou, light yarn of Bozhou, daughter cloth of Xiangshan of Mingzhou, and medicinal class cloth of Kunshan of Pingjiang Prefecture. From the point of view of porcelain industry, kiln sites throughout the country, very developed. Among them, Dingzhou's white porcelain, Ruzhou's celadon, Yaozhou's blue and white porcelain, and Jingdezhen's shadow celadon are quite famous. [9] It can be seen that handicraft-type cities were quite developed in the Song Dynasty.

Second, the rural commodity economy is developed, "grass market" gradually evolved into commercial towns

Commercial towns and prosperity, is another major feature of the Song Dynasty socio-economic development. The sign of this feature is "grass market" a large number of emergence, and gradually evolved into commercial market towns. The "grass market" evolved from the regular bazaars formed by the exchange of surplus products in the countryside. As evaluated in Ancient Chinese History, "many regular trade fairs were formed around the cities and in the countryside, which were collectively called fangchang (坊場) in the north, market in the south, and grass market in the Jianghuai area. These fangchang were the link between the city and the countryside, and between the countryside and the countryside in terms of economic ties, enabling the transformation of agricultural and sideline products other than farmers' own food for their own use into commodities, and an increasingly close relationship with the market." [10] Throughout the pillow Song Dynasty "grass market" to the development of the town, can be divided into a large number of grass market, grass market to the evolution of commercial market towns and commercial market towns to the handicrafts of professional towns into three stages.

1, the emergence of a large number of grass market

The grass market began in the North and South Dynasties, the Sui and Tang dynasties have been the initial development. [11] to the end of the Tang Dynasty, in some commercial prosperity of the city began to appear night market and attached to the city of grass market, the rural areas on a regular basis in the small market is also more and more. Such grass market, according to the level of economic development and traffic conditions, each with a different set period, such as two days a set, three days a set, five days a set, six days a set, and even ten days a set. [12] To the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the city construction completely broke through the boundary between the square, the city, stores can be opened everywhere, which led to the city within the bazaar. At the same time, many cities due to the expansion of the scale, limited to the city walls within the scope of the city is no longer enough to use, the commercial area continues to expand outward, and the rural areas of the grass market, thus accelerating the emergence of a large number of grass market. [13]

2, the evolution of the grass market to the commercial town

With the further development of the grass market and a large number of rise, so that some of the large rural market has become the distribution center of the nearby areas and urban and rural exchanges of the linkage, and thus evolved into the city and town. In the early days, there was a relatively strict boundary between cities and towns in China. According to "Wujiang County Records" Volume 4 "town city village" records: "there are merchants and traders called the city, set up an official defense is called the town". Visible, "city" only has economic functions, "town" is to guard the place, with military and administrative functions. However, to the Northern Song Dynasty, the nature of these cities and towns began to change, purely trade as the characteristics of the town of a large number of emerging, "the town supervisor, in charge of the police patrol theft and fire and smoke ban, and tax questionable dealings". [14] Thus, between the county and the city of grass, there is also the town of the establishment. The emergence of towns in turn accelerated the development of commercial market towns. In this way, the criteria for distinguishing between city and town also underwent an essential change, "to the commercial situation is more prevalent for the town, the second for the city"[15]. According to Fan Shuzhi's research, during the Northern Song Dynasty, the Yellow River Valley held a clear advantage in the development of cities and towns, and the four capitals were particularly prominent, with 31 towns in Kaifengfu, Tokyo, 22 towns in Henanfu, the western capital, 20 towns in Daimingfu, Beijing, and 13 towns in Yingtianfu, Nanjing. The contemporaneous Jiangnan region is relatively small, Suzhou has 4 towns, Xiuzhou has 4 towns, Hangzhou has 12 towns, Huzhou has 6 towns. Southern Song Dynasty, with the rapid development of the economy of Jiangnan, the Jiangnan region of the city of the towns rose to prominence. Lin'an Province to 28 cities and towns, Jiaxing Province up to 15 cities and towns, Suzhou up to 19 cities and towns. It can be seen, by the Song generation, the grass market not only developed into a market town, and the number of increase is also quite rapid.

3, commercial towns to the handicrafts professional towns

In the Song Dynasty, the towns around the world, despite the strong commercial trade function, but the production of various industries, that is, handicrafts production activities are also very active, but also an important part of the economy of the towns. According to the "Song Hui Yao?6?1 food and goods" records: "the city has its own brokerage, craftsmen have their own handiwork". Such as jingdezhen, jiangxi province, ceramic production was quite prosperous, there are porcelain kilns up to "more than three hundred seats", and the division of labor is also quite fine, there have been pottery, box work, soil work, li bian, car blanks, glaze blanks, printing, painting, carving and other types of work and process categories. It can be seen that the Song dynasty, with the development of the town's commodity economy, handicraft division of labor and production to further expand the original commercial towns on the basis of the emergence of a number of handicrafts with a professional tendency to the color of the town. In addition to the above ceramic town, there are Kyunju Qingxi City mining and metallurgy town, Lingshou Lai salt town, Pengzhou Pucun tea town, Suizhou Fengtai sugar town, Xinghua military Longhua sugar town, Quanzhou Anhai shipping town, Xiuzhou Qinglong shipping town and so on. The emergence of this group of cities and towns, not only shows the Song Dynasty cash crops, handicrafts and commercial highly developed, but also marks the grass city, the town's economy itself has entered a new stage of development.

Three, overseas trade is unprecedentedly developed, the emergence of a large number of port cities

Song Dynasty period, Song overseas trade is very prosperous, more prosperous than the period of Tang Dynasty. Overseas trade is the main object of India, the Central and Southern Peninsula, Southeast Asia islands, and the Arabian Peninsula and other areas of some countries. Song dynasty to countries export silk fabrics, porcelain, tea, handicrafts, gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, etc., the imported items are mainly spices, beads and jade, rhinoceros horn, ivory, coral, sumac and so on. As a result of the development of overseas trade, the seaport cities in the southeastern coastal areas gained a great deal of development. [16] Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Mingzhou (present-day Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province), Quanzhou, Xiuzhou (present-day Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province), and Mizhou (present-day Jiaoxian County, Shandong Province) were all important foreign trade port cities at that time. In order to strengthen the management, the Song Dynasty also set up the City Hublot Department in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Mingzhou, Quanzhou, Mizhou and Wenzhou. In addition to the southeastern coastal port cities, the states of Tong (Nantong City, Jiangsu Province), Chu (Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province), and Hai (Haizhou Town, Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province) to the north of the Yangtze River, and the states of Yue (present-day Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province), Taishan (present-day Linhai County, Zhejiang Province), Fu (present-day Fuzhou City, Fujian Province), Zhang (present-day Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province), Chao (Chaozhou City, Fujian Province), Lei (present-day Haikang County, Guangdong Province) and Qiong (present-day Hainan Province) to the south of the Yangtze River, as well as Zhenjiang, Pingjiang (present-day Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province) were also navigable seaports. However, it should be noted that, due to the political and economic situation of the Song Dynasty turbulence, the rise and fall of seaport cities are more. Such as the Northern Song Dynasty, north of the Shandong Peninsula belongs to the Liao regime,