China has had a prosperous age since ancient times. The recognized prosperous ages in China include the Wenjing Dynasty, the Hanwu Dynasty, the Zhenguan Dynasty, the Kaiyuan Dynasty, and the last Kangxi and Qianlong Dynasties. It can be seen from these five prosperous dynasties that they are basically the most powerful dynasties in Chinese history.
"The wild geese fly high in the dark moon, and the Chanyu escapes at night, trying to drive away the light cavalry, and the heavy snow covers the bow and knife." From these four lines of poetry, we can completely see the heroic advancement of the Han Dynasty, and the kind of Enterprising and brave majestic temperament.
The Han Dynasty made the country rich and powerful through the rule of Wen and Jing. Furthermore, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty fought bravely to defeat the Han's biggest enemy, the Huns, in order to obtain the greatest living space and development space for the nation. That's why there was the rule of Wen and Jing and the prosperity of Han and Wu.
However, facing such a prosperous age in history books, or to be precise, it should be regarded as a prosperous age of emperors. However, the entire country has run out of money to maintain the war, and the people are miserable. All the big households have been looted, let alone the small people. Therefore, this prosperous age of Han Dynasty is not really a prosperous age.
In fact, everyone knows that during the prosperous period of Zhenguan, Tang Taizong spent his years in literary and martial arts. He not only unified the country, but also wiped out the Turkic royal court in Mobei with his own hands. But one thing is certain. Although the great deeds of emperors recorded in history books are just a drop of ink on white paper, the common people have to pay thousands of drops of blood for this drop of ink.
There is a poem that says, "The poor bones by the Wuding River are like people in a boudoir's dream." Another point that is now recognized by historians is that Emperor Taizong Li Shimin especially liked to tamper with history.
As for the prosperous age of Kaiyuan, anyone who has read history knows that in just a few years, it was quickly destroyed by the Anshi Rebellion in the smoke of gunpowder. From then on, the people lived in endless smoke of gunpowder. .
In the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong, we can already see from the words and pictures of the British mission that it was a prosperous age of dullness, decadence, corruption, and even hunger. Sure enough, after seeing this weak giant, the British made up their mind to beat up this arrogant giant. Finally, all of a sudden, this giant lost all his self-esteem and self-confidence, and this loss of self-esteem continues to this day, affecting today's Chinese people all the time. So in history, which dynasty was truly prosperous?
In fact, it was the Song Dynasty that many people once despised. The greatness and prosperity of the Song Dynasty are still underestimated by many people until now. Today we will take a look at the political, economic, cultural and military level of the Song Dynasty.
First of all, one thing to note is that the urbanization progress of the Song Dynasty can be said to be the highest among all Chinese dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, there were only 13 cities with a population of more than 100,000 households, while during the Song Dynasty, nearly 40 such cities with a population of more than 100,000 households were born.
If you only look at the numbers, it actually doesn’t seem like much, but anyone who knows a little bit about history knows that this gap can clearly see the gap in national strength and productivity.
If a city wants to support so many residents, it must first have a large amount of commercial grain. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Bianliang was already very densely populated. The combined population of the inner and outer cities amounted to millions of people. The people needed about 2,000 tons of food every day. During the Southern Song Dynasty, Lin'an had "one hundred and forty-five thousand shi of rice on the moon."
The reason why the cities of the Song Dynasty grew so rapidly was because the agricultural level of the Song Dynasty was more advanced than that of previous historical dynasties. In the Song Dynasty, the government vigorously promoted crops with higher yields, such as Champa rice introduced from Vietnam, which had a very high yield and was vigorously promoted by the Song Dynasty government.
"Going up the Jiang, Huai, and Liangzhe roads, the paddy fields were not climbed earlier, so the envoys were forced to capture Fujian, and 30,000 hu of rice in the city were divided among the three roads."
A new type of farming tool also appeared in the Song Dynasty, called the "treading plow". This kind of plowing tool used iron knives for the first time, making it possible for "the plow to be plowed, it is easy to start, and the oxen is labor-saving."
During the Southern Song Dynasty, the yield per mu in the Jiangnan region had basically reached 290 kilograms per mu, and the per capita grain supply was 1,214 kilograms of grain. Therefore, it can be said that almost 30% of the people in the country relied on commercial grain to survive, which is enough to prove the development of agriculture in the Song Dynasty.
Secondly, the Song Dynasty can be said to have been the best dynasty in terms of government welfare among all Chinese dynasties. Whether it was Bianliang in Tokyo or Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty who later traveled south, they all insisted on distributing winter supplies in obvious places in the city during the cold winter season to help the poor survive the winter. During the Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong also ordered local officials in Lin'an to take out copper coins and grain from the treasury, and asked the officials to distribute relief to the people from house to house.
"Each person paid two hundred coins, and with a shake of rice, The priority is to achieve benefits and not to reduce costs.”
At the same time, the Song Dynasty also stipulated that families whose income was less than 15 guan per month could be exempted from labor service. This provision not only protected to a certain extent that poor families would not be subject to labor service due to taxes. , which led to the final bankruptcy, also maintained the living space of vulnerable groups to a certain extent.
What is more talked about is the universal medical insurance policy of the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty at that time, many states and counties had government-established welfare pharmacies, such as Pharmacy Bureau, Mixture Bureau, and Taiping Huimin. Bureaus, these pharmacies funded by the government not only strictly control the quality of the drugs, but the prices they sell are also much cheaper than the market price. During special disasters and plague times, these pharmacies can also He often delivers medicines free of charge and is loved by many people.
It can be said that during the Song Dynasty, natural disasters and wars caused plagues and diseases to be prevalent in many areas. The Song Dynasty government would send medical officers from the Imperial Hospital, carrying various herbal medicines, to the plague site to provide free treatment to the local people in a timely manner.
“In the hot summer, the people were in short supply of medicines, so the Hanlin Medical Academy sent four medical officers to Lin’an.”
At that time, the Song Dynasty not only established a baby bureau to adopt children from parents Abandoned children, as well as Futian Bureau, are used to support childless elderly people. For dead husbands and women, if they are unwilling to remarry and still want to raise children, they can enter the clean temple built by the court. There are tasks arranged by the state. As long as they are completed, they will have wages to support the elderly and children.
The Song Dynasty not only did very well in civil affairs, but many of our current lifestyles are also thanks to the Song Dynasty. Because of the shortage of land, people must be encouraged to engage in the tertiary industry if they want to receive sufficient taxes.
So the curfew system that had been in place for more than a thousand years was completely abolished, and the Chinese nightlife began. This is also the main reason why the economy of the Song Dynasty was so good. According to "Tokyo Menghualu", Bianliang, the capital of the Song Dynasty, had many large restaurants. People could not only eat here, but also watch geishas dance and sing. If they were right, they could even make an appointment to write together. The Song Dynasty poem "Looking back suddenly, the person is in the dimly lit place" is also because of the beginning of nightlife, Chinese people start their third meal, and late-night snacks also appear.
So, the Song Dynasty was indeed a dynasty with flourishing flowers and happy people. No wonder the emperor of the Jin Dynasty at that time regretted that he was born in a barbarian land instead of the Song Dynasty. The reason for this cannot be explained in words, but I have some ink in my mind.