Looking ahead to the Song Dynasty

People used to say: the history of the Song Dynasty is too wimpy. However, the author has two lines of limerick: ? The history of the Song Dynasty is a painful history, but the history of the Song Dynasty is also a magnificent story. In fact, the history of the two Song dynasties has its very not a loser, very worthy of Chinese people to be proud of, proud of the side. Even some Japanese scholars have a more objective view of the historical status of the Song Dynasty. The following two paragraphs of their thesis are worthy of attention. One is that Miyazaki Ichidin pointed out in his article "Coal and Iron in the Song Dynasty": ? Chinese culture, at the beginning of the period, was much more backward than that of Western Asia, but later gradually reversed this backwardness and caught up with Western Asia; in the Song Dynasty, it surpassed Western Asia and ranked at the forefront of the world. The other is Kiyoshi Wada's view in his book An Introduction to Chinese History: ? The development of the Han Chinese nation in the Tang Dynasty was not as strong as it appeared to be; on the contrary, the Han Chinese nation in the Song Dynasty was developed to a degree of soundness that was beyond the imagination of the general public.? In other words, firstly, the Song Dynasty, when compared horizontally with all the countries of the world at that time, was above them and in a leading position; secondly, the Song Dynasty, when compared vertically with its predecessors, also surpassed them, and it was a new peak in the ancient history of China after the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty. The above two points can be called the two basic estimates of the historical status of the Song dynasty. In a nutshell, the Song Dynasty was the world's most economically prosperous and culturally advanced countries, in Chinese history is an economic takeoff, a cultural upsurge, enough with the Han and Tang before and after the reflection, each other Yanli. Yang Tang and Song, or Yang Song and Tang, are not necessary. In view of this, why there will be the history of the Song dynasty is a history of a nest egg said? The author believes that the reason is mainly due to two traditional prejudices.

One is the old traditional prejudice, that is, the accumulation of poverty and weakness. Once upon a time, people tend to mention the Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, on the praise on the praise: Shengshi rule; a talk about the Song Dynasty, on the depreciation on the suppression: the accumulation of poverty and weakness. In fact, the Song dynasty is weak but not poor, not because of its weakness and called its poverty, that is, low social productivity, social and economic underdevelopment. It is an indisputable fact that the Song Dynasty was weak but not poor. If it must be said that the Song Dynasty was poor, it only means that its central *** for a period of time was financially more difficult. There was the Song Dynasty? Revolution? Much. Some scholars call the widespread use of coal and its application to smelting in the Song Dynasty the "Coal and Iron Revolution". Coal and Iron Revolution? or? Fuel Revolution? which is in essence an energy revolution; the dramatic increase in crop production per unit area is called the? Agricultural Revolution The great improvement in the appearance of cities, the breakup of the market system, and the elimination of restrictions on the trading of commodities in both space and time are called the "Commercial Revolution". The Commercial Revolution. The creation of paper money is called the "Financial Revolution". The Financial Revolution. The improvement of printing technology and the resulting gradual popularization of books is called the "Printing Revolution". The printing revolution. The information revolution, in essence, was a fundamental change in the way people stored and transmitted information. The list goes on and on. The actual level and extent of these phenomena is not clear from the use of the term "revolution". revolution? One can question the appropriateness of the term "revolution". But it is hard to deny that the Song dynasty in many areas of greater development, some areas can even be used? The word "revolution" can be used to describe the development of the Song dynasty. The word "revolution" can be used to describe it. It is not desirable to talk about the accumulation of poverty and weakness. The other is a new type of traditional bias, that is, the upward and downward stage. This theory began in the 1950s and was imported from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's authoritative historiographical journal "Problems of History" once carried out a discussion on the internal staging of feudal society, and finally published a concluding article in the name of the editorial board. This article argued that the process of development of feudal society could be divided into two stages: the first stage was the upward or ascending stage, in which the relations of production were adapted to the nature of the productive forces and promoted the smooth forward development of the socio-economy, or even surged forward; the second stage was the downward or descending stage, in which the relations of production were not adapted to the nature of the productive forces, and became the shackles of the development of the society, and the socio-economy stagnated, or even retrogressed. The fashionable language of the time was: ? The Soviet Union today is our tomorrow.? The Chinese historical community, like all walks of life in the country, was bent on blindly learning from the Soviet Union. As a result, the theory of upward and downward stages was transplanted into the study of ancient Chinese history, using the so-called ? Theory? The theory of upward and downward mobility was then transplanted into the study of ancient Chinese history, and the so-called "theory" was used to slaughter history, judging the Song dynasty as having entered a downward mobility stage and social stagnation without argumentation. This theory is a stereotypical understanding and mechanical application of the principle that the relations of production must be adapted to the nature of the productive forces, and it describes the pattern of social development as a simple sliding scale, consisting of two straight lines? The human being. Zigzag, straight up and down, steeply ascending and descending, does not correspond to historical reality and is not trustworthy. Nowadays, people often talk about? Tang, Song change? The Tang and Song transformations are not stagnant downward transformations, but forward upward movements. Ancient Chinese society from the Song Dynasty entered a new stage of history of continued development, further development, never stagnation or decline. To grasp the historical status of an era, this specific historical era should be placed in the overall process of historical development and evolution for dynamic examination. It is necessary not only to look at history in the right direction, but also to look at history in the wrong direction. In other words, we should look forward as well as backward. Li Qingchen, a minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, boasted: ? The civilization of the court is worthy of the Three Dynasties, Han and Tang? [1] (Volume 135, "Ouyang Wenzhong Posthumous Discussion (Li Qingchen)". Hao Jing, the Mongolian emissary to the Southern Song Dynasty, praised the Song Dynasty, along with the previous Han and Tang Dynasties, as? The Three Posterior Dynasties? The latter three dynasties: the Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty. The rule of Han Dynasty seems to be like Xia, the rule of Li Tang Dynasty seems to be like Shang, and the long period of your dynasty seems to be like Zhou, so it can be the latter three generations. The latter three dynasties can be regarded as the "latter three generations". [2] (Volume 39, "The Song Wenzhi"). On the Song Lord Chen please return to the country of 10,000 words ") Li, Hao said are forward-looking, that is, compared with the previous generation, (Song Dynasty history) can indeed highlight the historical status of the Song Dynasty. People often cite Mr. Chen Yin Ke's assertion: ? The culture of the Chinese nation, after thousands of years of evolution, the creation of the ultimate in the Zhao-Song era? [3] (p245), also belongs to look forward. In fact, it is perhaps more important to look back than to look forward. The so-called care for the future, that is, with the future generation, rather than deliberately to argue how the Song dynasty for the future generation is not as good as, that kind of argument does not make much sense. If we examine the Song Dynasty in relation to future generations, we can find at least the following two points. First, it is a precedent for later generations. Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties not only its social and economic development on the basis of the Song Dynasty, its political system of the Song Dynasty, and its political system of the Song Dynasty, and some of its landmark prominent social phenomena in the Song Dynasty has seen the beginning. At present, the academic community on the Tang and Song change more, speak of Song and Ming connection less, of course, is not absolutely nothing. Such as Zhu Ruixi will be the prototype of Ming and Qing eight-legged instant text traced back to the Song Dynasty [4], Li Hongqi that the Ming and Qing Dynasties, lifts enjoy a variety of treatments and privileges, the Song Dynasty has been [5]. There are many other phenomena such as this, we just do not study enough. Such as the Ming and Qing times living in the countryside and have a reputation, similar to the official but different from the official, similar to the people and on top of the people, and on behalf of the local forces of the squire, the Northern Song Dynasty has appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty, the number of more. Second, for future generations to leave a legacy. According to previous scholars, mainly two big pen: a material heritage? Developed Jiangnan economy; another is the spiritual heritage? Science. Only in terms of these two major heritage, the Song Dynasty on the influence of future generations is also very far-reaching. The late American scholar Liu Zijian pointed out: ? China's culture in the last eight hundred years has been modeled on the Southern Song Dynasty as a leader, focusing on the area around Jiangsu and Zhejiang.? [6] (p80) Previously, Yan Fu, as an Enlightenment thinker, had a more far-reaching and profound understanding. He said: ? Ancient people are good to read the first four histories, but also to its text ear. If the study of the human heart of the political and customary changes, the Zhao-Song generation of history, the most appropriate to study the heart. China so become today's phenomenon, for good or evil, no matter, and for the Song people's creation, Sh eight nine can be asserted. [7] (p1) as we all know, the Tang dynasty is good at the excellent components of foreign culture with amazing absorption and famous in history. For foreign culture, the Tang Dynasty people have a good appetite, strong digestive ability, not afraid to eat foreign species into alien. Since the Tang Dynasty was in the process of digesting foreign cultures, it was inevitable that the Tang Dynasty people had some so-called "exotic flavor". exoticism? The Song Dynasty culture, on the other hand, was established after the process of digestion had basically come to an end, and was more rich in Chinese flavor and style. Today, the values, thinking patterns, aesthetic views and ways of expressing feelings of Chinese people have their own unique personalities, which are obviously different from those of foreigners. According to Yan Fu's view, all these are y related to the Song Dynasty, the Song people and the two Song cultures. No wonder certain foreign scholars, such as the late French scholar Balazs (Chinese name Bai Lezhi), who had initiated an international research program on the history of the Song in the 1950s, believed that in order to understand current China, one should start from the Song Dynasty. It can be seen that the Song dynasty not only has a profound influence on the future generations, but also has its special cognitive value. One tendency masks another. At present, whenever academics discuss historical topics, they must first discuss their status, and there is no lack of excessive words. As far as the history of the Song dynasty is concerned, the main tendency in the past was to belittle the Song dynasty. At present, this phenomenon still exists, and at the same time there seems to be a tendency to overestimate the Song dynasty. If we continue to regard the Song dynasty as the "Renaissance of the East," as Miyazaki Ichidin did in his time, we will be able to see the Song dynasty as the "Renaissance of the East. The Renaissance in the East? and believe that the Eastern Renaissance triggered the Western Renaissance, hundreds of years earlier than the Western Renaissance, we cannot help but think that the Song Dynasty and the Song Dynasty have inflated their historical status. Nowadays, in the relevant books, from time to time, we find that the Song Dynasty is colorfully referred to as the traditional society? Ideal state? The best state? The best state? and so on. In my opinion, these only belong to the hand too much. References: [1] Lu Zuqian. The Emperor's Literature [M]. The four series of early edited version. [2] Hao Jing. Lingchuan set [M]. Jing Yin Wen Yuan Ge Siku quanquan. [3] Mr. Chen Yin Ke's Collected Works: Volume 2 [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1980. [4] Zhu Ruixi. The current literature of the Song and Yuan dynasties [J]. Historical research, 1990(3). [5] Li Hongqi. Lifters in the Song dynasty [A]. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Song History [C]. Taipei: Chinese Culture University, 1988. [6] Liu Zijian. Song history research compilation [M]. Taipei: Lianjing Publishing Company, 1978. [7] Song history data compilation? Jingkang yilu [M]. Taipei: Wenhai Publishing House, 1970 Zhang Bangwei: 1940?, male, Jiang'an County, Sichuan Province, Professor of History, Sichuan Normal University, mainly engaged in the study of ancient Chinese history. Originally published in Hebei Journal, No. 5, 2006

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