Structural analysis of dynasty replacement in Song Dynasty

The economically developed Song Dynasty basically became Fu Song's * * * knowledge, which has long been a historical conclusion (accounting for 80% of the world's GDP at that time), so I will briefly talk about why it was Fu Song.

In the history of China, most dynasties adopted the policy of "restraining business", with the exception of the Song Dynasty. Zhao Boxin, the great ancestor of the early Song Dynasty, said that "more fields and more houses should be accumulated in the gold market to bequeath future generations, and geisha can enjoy their longevity". After enriching the people, Song Taizong dubbed it "making the two systems discuss politics and make people know".

In the early Song Dynasty, officials studied the ways of managing money and seeking money. In Song Dynasty, the traditional practice of emphasizing criminal law over civil law was adjusted, and monopoly laws such as salt law, liquor law and tea law were specially studied and implemented. The Song Dynasty became one of the most active periods of economic legislation in ancient China. The economic laws and regulations of the Song Dynasty unified the distribution of interests between the state and economic actors, and were very scientific laws and regulations. These correct policy orientations made the commercial tide flourish, commerce developed rapidly and handicraft industry developed rapidly in Song Dynasty. This is unique in the world! Even banks can borrow money to pay in different places. Even in modern times, it is a very advanced economic management system. Geographically, the development of the Song Dynasty is not limited to the old areas such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Sichuan, and even the social, economic and cultural development in mountainous areas and ethnic minority areas is greater than that in the Tang Dynasty, which is also very surprising.

As far as handicrafts are concerned, pit mining, tea, salt, shipbuilding, paper making, sugar making, textile and porcelain making are all more advanced than those in the Tang Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, the handicraft industry not only expanded its production area and increased its output, but also significantly improved its technology. For example, the production technology of "sugar ice" (rock sugar) and the fine excavation of Song porcelain all reflect the maturity and innovation of technology, and the rise of commerce and handicrafts has liberated a large number of farmers captured on the land and invested in commercial handicrafts. During the Northern Song Dynasty, a large number of gold and silver, mineral deposits and the earliest manufacturing plants and processing plants in the world appeared all over the country, such as shipyards, paper mills, printing plants, weaving factories, firearms factories, official kilns, etc., which shows that the prosperity of handicrafts at that time was unprecedented!

As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, China had learned to make steel by burning coal. The big handicraft industry employs hundreds of full-time industrial workers, while the two military industries of the government employ 8 thousand workers-this is already the scale of heavy industry! The average annual output of steel in Song Dynasty reached150,000 tons (some people think that the industrial base of North China reached1250,000 tons/year in Song Dynasty, which is basically a wrong understanding. Most of the data about the steel output in Song Dynasty in Sun Longji's "A Millennium Review of China-A Bird's Eye View of Global History" have been verified, and "150,000 tons" is more appropriate among many data), while in Britain, it is 1788. At the beginning of life, the annual output was only 76,000 tons. In addition, mining, metallurgy, paper making, porcelain making, silk weaving and navigation are also very developed. Song Dynasty was the home of "high-tech" before modern times, and it was the overlord of world handicraft industry at that time!

From the commercial point of view, cities in the Tang Dynasty tended to be administrative centers, while towns in the Song Dynasty tended to be industrialized. The trading areas in the Tang Dynasty were strictly controlled by officials, while the Song Dynasty was more free. Due to the further development of commodity economy, the boundary between residential area and commercial area gradually disappears. Some of these "new" cities in the Song Dynasty have developed to a very large scale, such as Kaifeng and Hangzhou, where Kyle Polo was located in the early Yuan Dynasty. Even at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the largest city outside China was Baghdad, with a population of only 300,000-500,000. Hundreds of years later, Arab traveler Ibn Betuta also called Hangzhou "the largest city in the world"! The population engaged in industry and commerce has gradually increased, the output has increased, and the investment capital has greatly expanded. Therefore, it is not only agriculture that constitutes the main body of national fiscal revenue, but the proportion of industry and commerce has surpassed that of agriculture.

And in its commercial operation, there are also advertisements printed on copper plates, which are more than 300 years earlier than western capitalism. For Su Dongpo, a bachelor, he once made an advertisement poem for an old woman who cooked oily food, which made her business prosperous.

More interestingly, the "tabloids" similar to modern newspapers and the earliest trademarks in history appeared in the Song Dynasty, which is of great significance, which marks the gradual improvement of the commercialization system in the Song Dynasty.

In addition, the famous scholar Shen Kuo's On the Velocity of Money Circulation has reached the level of modern monetary theory.

The prosperous commercial tide in the Song Dynasty was also the earliest mother of capitalism in the world, and the rapid economic development in the Song Dynasty created unprecedented wealth and prosperity.

2 Cultural glory

The spiritual pursuit of material life became more and more urgent, so in the Song Dynasty, there was a strong cultural demand as well as economic development. The aesthetic taste of national leisure life contributed to the high prosperity of Song culture. Poetry, songs, acrobatics, opera, folk music, novels, calligraphy and architecture all developed at a high speed in the Song Dynasty. At the same time, a large number of famous literati and poets appeared in the Song Dynasty. We are familiar with Su Shi Ouyang Xiu, Kou Zhun Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi Yue Fei, Wen Tianxiang Shen Kuo Xin Qiji, Zhu and Li. Until now, Zhao Qing and other scholars are still in their prime, and their glory is undiminished. At that time, in the Song Dynasty, there were as many as six of the eight most famous masters at all times and all over the world, showing how dazzling their cultural brilliance was! There are countless calligraphers. The four most famous calligraphers are Su Dongpo, Huang Tingjian, Mi Fei and Cai Xiang. Their works are enough to amaze calligraphers. Even Qin Gui, the great traitor, can learn a good pen and dance well. If he is decent, he must be a calligrapher and writer, not to mention heroes such as Yue Fei!

Because of cultural reasons, the Song Dynasty was divided into north and south:

There were four great families in the Southern Song Dynasty: Yang Wanli, Fan Chengda and You Mao.

There was a trip to Cheng Yi Cheng Hao in the Northern Song Dynasty (Neo-Confucianism)

There were three sages in the southeast of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu and Chu.

It is precisely because of Song Wenhua's vigorous development that the Song Dynasty completed the "revival of Confucianism" and produced new Confucianism (namely Neo-Confucianism), which made the traditional "Confucian Classics" enter a new stage of "Song Studies" and promoted the in-depth development of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.

Ci rose from the late Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty and reached its peak after five generations. Therefore, there are Tang poetry and Song poetry, Yuanqu and so on. It is said that visible writing is one of the representatives of Song culture and one of the deep-water bombs. To study the culture of the Song Dynasty, we must first know something about their ci. The most representative one is Su Shi's When is the Bright Moon, which is almost a household name. Even ordinary children can sing two elegant and ethereal words, making people feel like they are in a fairyland, lonely and full of sadness. "Jiang's formal advantages can be said? He also wrote hunting in Michigan, and other poets have made great achievements. Even poetesss like Li Qingzhao are indispensable. Women are good at writing and have reached this level. Since ancient times, Li Qingzhao was the only one in the Song Dynasty. If I list the people of Song Ci one by one, I may not finish talking for a day, but I'll just count the nine Niu Yi hairs of Song Ci culture. As far as Song Ci is concerned, the whole book is * * *. Kong's Complete Song Poetry Supplement collected more than 20,000 poems of 1300 by more than 20,000 poets, and added 100 on the original basis. More than 400 poems were written by more than 20,000 poets, which fully reflected the position of Ci culture in the Song Dynasty and showed the cheerful vitality of Ci as a representative of Song Wenhua!

Poetry is the essence of China's ancient literature. In the Song Dynasty, the interpretation of "poetry" was promoted to a new level, a more popular and universal level, and a more free metrical level. Although Song Dynasty was the heyday of Ci, it was also a country of poetry. No matter primary school, middle school, university or even graduate students, the poems of the Tang and Song Dynasties are the continuation, development and breakthrough of the Tang poetry. The types and forms of poems by poets in Song Dynasty are more extensive and rich. As far as I know, Peking University is compiling The Complete Poems of Song Dynasty. According to preliminary statistics, there are no fewer than 9,000 authors, four times as many as the whole Tang poetry! As far as the number of individual poems is concerned, the individual with the largest number of poems was born in the Song Dynasty. Let us always remember the name of this person who cares about the country and the people. He is Lu You. Do you still remember this great poet's last wish for national rejuvenation? Do you remember his last words? If you forget, then listen! What a simple language "I don't forget to tell Weng about the Japanese Family Festival in Beiding Central Plains". I didn't see Zionism before I died. I will hear this news after I die ... children, don't forget to tell your father this news when you pay homage ... let me die peacefully. ...

I closed my eyes when writing these, but I don't know why I shed tears, not only for the sadness hidden in the "poem", but also for the patriots like Lu You in Qian Qian and Qian Qian, and even for the final fate of the Song Dynasty! Hehe, the keyboard is wet. Let's cheer up and have a rest before we continue writing.

Poetry in Tang and Song Dynasties is a huge treasure house, which is inexhaustible. Poetry contains countless wealth of knowledge, but we know little about this treasure house and develop it. There are so many potential resources waiting for us to develop, can we not regret it? Why are we not tempted?

Before I talked about the calligraphy of the four great calligraphers, I didn't say much about the achievements of calligraphy in the Song Dynasty. Which painters emerged in the Song Dynasty? The most famous painters are Fan Kuan, Xia Gui, Guo, Zhang Zeduan and other famous artists. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is written by Zhang Zeduan, which best represents the highest artistic achievement in the history of China painting. It is a kind of landscape painting that is sometimes ethereal, sometimes broad and artistic. Landscape painters in the Song Dynasty can be described as talented people with their own strengths. For example, painters in the Northern Song Dynasty are Fan Kuan (good at mountains and rivers and snow scenes), Xu Daoning (good at trees and wild water plants), Guo (good at depicting subtle changes in the four seasons) and Li Cheng (good at Lin Yuping's vision).

Poetic landscape paintings in the Southern Song Dynasty and the Summer and Tang Dynasties reflect the constant changes and development of landscape painting art, and they are called the four unknown or reclusive folk painters in the Southern Song Dynasty together with Liu Songnian.

It can be seen that the calligraphy and painting in Song Dynasty has reached the peak of China's artistic creation.

In addition, the rise of storytelling in Song Dynasty also opened a new era in the history of China literature. It can be said that it created the precedent of vernacular novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In this period, the civilian culture flourished, such as drama: shadow play, burlesque, acrobatics, puppet show, cross talk and so on.

With the rapid development of economy, material life became more and more superior, and prostitution certainly flourished in the Song Dynasty. Prostitutes are clearly divided into four categories: commercial prostitutes, geisha, geisha and official prostitutes. Of course, most of them are not prostitutes, but artists, and quite a few of them are proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and poetry. Some prostitutes can even set up their own families, which are now folk artists. Among these four types of geisha, official prostitutes are the most talented and beautiful.

In the Song Dynasty, all tea cultures were tasteful and could be modulated according to personal preferences. It's not so much tea as tea drink. Even tea cups can be divided into black glaze, sauce glaze, blue glaze, blue glaze and white glaze. It can be seen that the Song people also enjoyed it in a superior way. There were also various kinds of petal teas in the Song Dynasty, and Hui Zong, the monarch, also introduced tea culture in his twenty articles on Daguan Tea. It can be said that the tea culture in the Song Dynasty is a comprehensive embodiment of the ancient elite culture and popular culture in China, and it is a culture that appeals to both refined and popular tastes.

Because Hui Zong likes jade very much, the art of jade carving has made great progress. At the same time, wood carvings, bamboo carvings, Qi Diao, inscriptions, seals, bronzes, gold and silver wares, tooth horns, pen and ink, paper and ink stones, etc. All these show the superb and profound culture and art of the Song Dynasty!

The Song Dynasty also created the Song Zi, which is now used, which shows that its influence on the characters is quite far-reaching.

The field of historiography in the Song Dynasty has also undergone earth-shaking changes. Various schools of historiography appeared in the Song Dynasty, and epigraphy (similar to archaeology) works were also extremely rich. Famous scholars came forth in large numbers, reaching the peak of the development of ancient historiography in China. China's earliest dictionary, Shuo Wen Jie Zi, has long been lost since the Eastern Han Dynasty, and was edited by Xu Xuan brothers in the Song Dynasty.

Most scholars believe that before the founding of New China, China culture experienced three climaxes.

1 During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a hundred schools of thought contended.

2 Cultural Renaissance in Song Dynasty

3 "May 4th" New Culture Movement

Chen Yinque once said that "the culture of the Chinese nation has developed for thousands of years and reached its peak in the Zhao and Song Dynasties". These comments are very worthy of attention. Historian Toynbee (UK) once said, "If I had to choose the Song Dynasty that I want to live in China most", Yu Xiansheng also said, "The dynasty I yearn for most is the Song Dynasty!" Even Deng Guangming once said, "The height of material civilization and spiritual civilization in the Song Dynasty can be said to be unprecedented in the historical period of the whole feudal society!" It can be seen that the culture of the Song Dynasty attracted many literati and elegant guests, which was indeed unprecedented in the whole feudal social and historical period!

3 agricultural leap

As we all know, agriculture is undoubtedly the most direct barometer to understand the development of productive forces, the rule of the ruling class and the natural conditions and conditions of a feudal society. What about agriculture in the Song Dynasty?

The yield per unit area of crops in Song Dynasty is quite amazing. According to Mr. Meng's research, the average yield per mu in Tang Dynasty was about 1.5 stone (50% higher than that in Han Dynasty), and that in Song Dynasty was about 2 stone, about 30% higher than that in Tang Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty also vigorously promoted traditional crops, especially wheat in the south and rice in the Huaihe River and Yellow River basins in the Northern Song Dynasty. At the same time, cotton planting has also been widely promoted. In the late Southern Song Dynasty, cotton planting expanded from Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian to the Yangtze River valley (even in the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a saying that "kapok harvested thousands of plants and eight people were not poor"). The production level in south china agriculture, China has surpassed that in the north.

The main reasons for agricultural development are nothing more than two points:

The policies and actions of the Song government, such as emphasizing agriculture, encouraged farmers, improved their enthusiasm for labor production, and scientifically promoted the development of agriculture (such as focusing on popularizing Zhancheng rice). ) ...

With the rapid development of production technology, agricultural production, which is directly affected, has also developed rapidly.

In addition, local officials in Song Dynasty also attached great importance to the maintenance and construction of water conservancy facilities, which laid a good foundation for agricultural development in Song Dynasty. At the same time, the extensive sowing of high-yield grain crops has greatly increased the output per unit area of grain crops, promoted the planting and development of cash crops, and changed the industrial structure within the small-scale peasant economy to a certain extent, forming an economic pattern in which agriculture and sideline industries promote each other, and the agricultural structure has also changed.

In the Song Dynasty, southern farmers cultivated many excellent rice varieties and introduced foreign excellent rice varieties. Among the imported excellent rice varieties, Zhancheng Rice (Vietnam) and Huangli Rice (Korea) are the most famous. Of course, Zhanchengmi (also known as Zaohe or Zhanhe belongs to early indica rice) has the greatest influence. Originally from south-central Vietnam, it was introduced to Fujian in the early Northern Song Dynasty. Zhancheng rice has many advantages and is famous for its short adaptability in drought-resistant growth period. There is such a true story about Zhancheng rice. There is a story about Song Zhenzong Dazhong Xiangfu for four years (10 12). Because the dry fields of Jianghuai and Zhejiang University had no food to produce, Song Zhenzong sent messengers to Fujian to take 30,000 sheds to occupy the city rice (the old unit capacity was 10 dou) and distributed them to Jianghuai and Zhejiang for sowing. Soon after, Zhancheng Rice was also planted in Hebei, Henan Province, becoming the main variety of early indica rice in the Southern Song Dynasty and the staple food of farmers all year round.

The agricultural production technology in the Song Dynasty also changed, with the emergence of arc hoes specially used for weeding, iron harrows for breaking and thinning soil and iron plows mounted on plows, which greatly improved the labor production efficiency. In addition, tools such as keel turning mainly appear in water conservancy irrigation, which shows that agricultural technology in Song Dynasty has been greatly improved compared with Sui and Tang Dynasties.

The land and farmland system in Song Dynasty was also very advanced. In the Song Dynasty, the private ownership of land and the system of land distribution by the state changed into the free sale and contract of land, which led to the disappearance of the aristocratic gate, and made the popular "manor system" replace the tenant farmers with the landlord system and the small-scale peasant system since the Wei and Jin Dynasties. As for the country, it has avoided an abnormal vicious circle by reducing land annexation and adjusting the inequality between the rich and the poor. The land policy of Song Dynasty is "the land system is not established" and "not suppressed", although the state-owned land still accounts for the whole. A small part of land is a country that allows land to be bought and sold freely, and only charges registration fees. The degree of liberalization has been greatly improved, and the land equalization system has completely collapsed. The land ownership of private landlords has gradually developed and become the main land ownership, forming a situation of "one thousand eight hundred landlords". As for lease contracts, most of them are decided by private individuals. This kind of situation and system continued until the late Qing Dynasty, showing its advanced nature.

With the abolition of the land equalization system, the state's intervention in society is no longer equal land rights, but loans to small farmers, that is, improving production and developing the national economy rather than equalitarianism. These are all Wang Anshi's ideas.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that he put people to serve the country from cash to local tribute to the central government and then to purchasing after comparing market prices. This is a policy that can only appear when the market and monetary economy develop to a certain extent.

In terms of taxation, the Song Dynasty can be said to have inherited and developed the "two tax systems" of the Tang Dynasty (pragmatic, gradually realizing private ownership and monetary economy). After the abolition of the reform, it became "two taxes" (the tax system was simplified, and only the household tax was shared with the local tax in summer and autumn, and the household tax was collected in cash). It evolved into the "whipping method" in the middle and late Ming Dynasty and the "Diding system" until the early Qing Dynasty, so it was also a very advanced tax in the whole feudal society.

The status of tenant farmers in the Song Dynasty was also improved. Although the medieval identity system still existed, the government divided the national residents into "main households" and "customers" based on financial considerations, that is to say, the main households with property directly bear all kinds of taxes, and the customers without industry do not directly bear the responsibilities of the countryside. Guest refers to people such as tenant farmers, which are no longer the "private ownership" of clan landlords, but directly incorporated into the national household registration. The identity of a city owner is not based on the existence of real estate, but also includes the existence of shops, warehouses and operating capital.

Due to the high prosperity of agriculture, many farmers directly enter the market to make a living or engage in trading activities in partnership, and other economic fields are not to be outdone. The Song Dynasty faced the most remarkable progress in the history of China!

4 political enlightenment

Newton said that I stood on the shoulders of giants, and so did the same dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, in view of the hegemony of the soldiers in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, their politics gradually tended to be moderate. In the political system, "learning from the Tang Dynasty", "defending the weak outside" and "strong and weak branches" had their own characteristics and developed compared with the Tang Dynasty. In view of the hegemony of the soldiers in the late Tang and Five Dynasties, their politics gradually tended to be moderate, making China the first country in the world to "govern the world by culture" for the people.

And what is Song Zu Zhao Kuangyin's attitude towards politics? At the beginning of the founding of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin passed down the oath of "Don't kill the literati and writers". "If children and grandchildren have this oath, the sky will be over."

From ancient times to the present, which ruler in the early dynasty was not a man with a deep heart for killing? The heroes of the great cause of * * * in ancient and modern times are all spared, and they can't escape the fate of cunning rabbits and lackeys.

The Song Dynasty was definitely an exception. Although Mao Xiande was born as a military commander, he did not fight violence with violence, but made an oath of "never killing a scholar-bureaucrat". This is absolutely unprecedented. All dynasties in the Song Dynasty took this as a warning and did not dare to violate it. Under this traditional policy condition, the political openness and freedom of speech in the Song Dynasty reached an unprecedented level (of course, if there is any suspicion of rebellion, it can be killed). YiWen Zhao Gou Jian, the Emperor Gaozong captured by Ersheng, was fatuous and killed Yue Fei in the Qin Dynasty. Even if he tried to seize the throne, he was exiled (Lu Duoxun and Ding Wei Song Dynasty). So big, it is rare for all previous dynasties to deal with exile without killing courtiers. This also made the Song Dynasty the second period of academic and political freedom in China's history since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Even Buddhism and Taoism have made new progress, and academies have formed a good foundation for the progress of science and technology (academies occupy an important position in the history of education in China).

Therefore, there was no "literary prison" in the Song Dynasty, or even a "cultural prison". However, the court advised that as long as it was "casual and decent", officials argued that it was "reasonable and reasonable", and the emperors of the Song Dynasty generally did not have to worry about the precarious head, let alone the whole family.

In Song Dynasty, there were disputes between different parties, such as reformists and conservatives. They fought for peace, but reformers and conservatives were not permanently fixed. For example, in A.D. 1042, Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu implemented the "Qingli New Deal". In A.D. 1069, Sima Guang opposed Wang Anshi's political reform, Ouyang Xiu opposed it, and Su Shi also opposed it, but their views were quite different. Su Shi opposed the hasty reform when the reformists were in power and the abandonment of all new laws when the conservatives were in power.

Sima Guang and Wang Anshi had many red-faced arguments in the imperial court, but they still respected each other in private. Although people of different factions have different views and positions, they all take loyalty to the monarch and love the people as their responsibility. The partisan struggle in the Song Dynasty is a model of democratic politics!

The unprecedented improvement of the status of intellectuals in the Song Dynasty and such an enlightened political environment made thinkers and politicians emerge in an endless stream, such as Zhu, Lu Jiuyuan, Zhang Zai, Shao Yong, Zhou Dunyi, Cheng Yi, Cheng Hao and other famous politicians such as Wang Anshi, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi and Sima Guang, as well as a large number of loyal ministers who dared to attack Cambodia directly, such as Kou Zhun, Fan Zhongyan and Bao Zheng.

When it comes to Bao Zheng and China, only Song could quarrel with the emperor face to face in court like this, but the emperor didn't hold grudges. Said Bao Zheng seldom spit on injong's face, and so on. Although Renzong was angry, Bao Zheng, who was very rational, still had a successful career.

What was the political atmosphere in Song Dynasty? There was a law in the Song Dynasty that "truth belongs to the first emperor and the common people", that is to say, anyone who broke the law will be severely punished, and lower-level officials and even the common people can sue higher-level officials, even the prime minister above ten thousand people will not be spared. Didn't Bao Zheng just overthrow his immediate boss and several officials several levels higher than him (similar impeachment is only possible in democratic politics)? People like Bao only appeared in the enlightened Song Dynasty. It can be said that Da Song created them, and it is not difficult for the people to sue the officials. Anti-corruption regulations have also been posted at all levels, and people can appeal to the authorities until they win the case (not the current system of second instance and final adjudication), so it is not uncommon. The political atmosphere is fresh and clear.

What was the political power of the Emperor in Song Dynasty? In my opinion, the main performance is that the emperor can choose his own private secretary (bachelor of Hanlin) from people belonging to different parties, as well as the remonstrating officer who is responsible for remonstrating with the emperor and supervising the official's suggestion. At this time, the imperial power was limited to some extent, and he had to ensure the absolutism centered on the imperial power. Centralization divided the prime minister's power and established the system of "speaking officials", which further increased Song Renzong's power of remonstration and discussion at the court when he was in power. However, the emperor still had to respect the power of civil and military officials and could not interfere at will. There are many historical doubts in understanding the British political system.

For example, when Song Shenzong saw a refugee trying to shed tears, he couldn't directly ask Wang Anshi to unilaterally stop the "young crops law", and Wang Anshi wouldn't listen to him, unless he used the imperial power to expel Wang Anshi and his companions from the court and replaced them with people of Sima Guang's series, giving up the achievements of political reform.

For example, Song Gaozong knew that Qin Gui was domineering, but he could not be replaced at will, because Qin Gui was the leader of the peace faction. If Qin Gui is expelled from the peace faction, the remaining talents will not be able to run the country by the people (Qin Gui has a set of people who can't replace him, which is also a helpless move). He finally had to put the war faction on stage to suppress the peace faction and others.

In addition to observing the emperor's behavior, we can also get circumstantial evidence from the notes of the Song Dynasty, that is, the notes of the Song Dynasty generally discussed the "official system" in a large number, and a large number of retired officials were recorded privately. So what made them record like this, threatening other dynasties not to record a large number of "official system" privately? Even the last three generations were not found in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.

This can only show that the Song Dynasty attached great importance to the "official system" and that positions and rights were generally respected.

From the legislation of the Song Dynasty, we can see the relationship between administrative merit and political morality and criminal morality.

The Criminal Code of Song Dynasty (hereinafter referred to as the Criminal Code of Song Dynasty, the basic law of Song Dynasty) has developed in style and content compared with the law of Tang Dynasty. From the content point of view, it mainly includes:

The change of 1 created the "broken staff" method after five punishments.

2. Compared with the Tang Law, the punishment provisions for officials committing stolen goods are obviously lightened.

3. Theft is aggravated.

4. Compared with the law of Tang Dynasty, the number of clauses regulating civil legal relations has obviously increased, which is the most prominent change.

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the system of folding sticks began in Mao Zen, which changed the severe punishment in the world since the Five Dynasties (replacing other punishments with folding sticks and exempting some extremely cruel punishments)

Song Renzong's enlightened policy can be found in "Suspected Prison in the Last Years of Injong" (this move is similar to the spirit and principle of our legislation today, "there is no doubt")

Renzong's policy of "replacing the law with orders" is an integral part of the whole reform activity, and its direct purpose is to ensure the implementation of the policy of "enriching Qiang Bing" (unfortunately, after Zongshen, "replacing the law with orders" became an arbitrary legal tool of the emperor, which reached its acme during Huizong's reign).

The idea of "population occupying land" in the Northern Song Dynasty advocates rewarding agricultural production and implementing the system of "social warehouses" to reduce taxes, which is also the idea of being close to the people.

Therefore, even from the legal point of view, the Song Dynasty was really benevolent.

Governing the country in Song Dynasty was not arbitrary and immoral, which was almost a sign of the process of modernization and civilization.