《Luo Zhenyu civilization journey》AD 1012: Discrimination

Hello, this is a journey of civilization, and you are welcome to travel back to 1012 AD, the fifth year of Zhongxiangfu in the Song Dynasty, and the first year of Kaitai in the Liao Dynasty.At this stage, apart from the 300,000 broken coins each year, the two sides of the Song and Liao dynasties actually didn't have much overlap. However, there was one interesting thing this year, that is, both sides competed to give their emperors titles. In the beginning,The two emperors both had eight-character titles, but I didn't expect that just such a thing could lead to an arms race.

Both sides were comparing the number of characters. This year, Song Zhenzong's title was increased to 18 characters. He is now the Emperor of Chongwen Guangwu, Gantian Zundao, Yingzhen Youde, Shangshengrenmingrenxiao.The news of 18 words reached the north. More than half a month later, the Liao Dynasty looked at it and said, "Hey, what should we do if we increase the number of words?"There is no charge for increasing the number of words. We will accompany you to the end, and the Liao Sheng Sect in the north will become.I will read it to you again, called Hong Wenxuan, Wu Zundao, Zhongren, Guangxiaocong, Ruizhao Shengshen praised the emperor of Tianfu.20 characters, two characters more than you, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty. You see, there is no fighting between the two sides, but there are still many battlefields for competition.So if we only look at the court of the Song Dynasty this year, the most important things this year are the following two things. The first one is that Mrs. Liu, the most beloved wife of Emperor Zhenzong in the harem, finally came forward. This year heWas named queen.You must know that Mr. Liu is already 42 this year. It is obvious. Is this how old he is?His ability to reach this point must have depended not only on his looks, but also on his political talents and the personal trust between him and the emperor. These are the things he relied on, so in the next few years, we will watch LiuThe queen rose up the political ladder step by step until she became the de facto head of the Song Dynasty.

This is the first thing. The second thing is that the imperial court promoted two people at the same time this year. One is Wang Qingruo and the other is Chen Yaosou. They hold two positions. They are the privy envoy in charge of military affairs and the prime minister's colleague Zhang.Shi.Friends who are familiar with the history of the Tang and Song Dynasties will know when they hear the words "Tongping Zhang", oh, this is the prime minister.Look again at the name I just mentioned, Wang Qinruo. Wang Qinruo, who has a bad reputation, became prime minister this year.If you have listened to our previous programs, we mentioned many times that this king invaded, framed Kou Zhun, and encouraged Emperor Zhenzong to engage in superstitious activities.Alas, such a person was promoted to prime minister this year.

There may be a small misunderstanding here. Although the title of Zhang in the same screen is the title of prime minister, it is only an honorary prime minister. At that time, many important ministers in the court, including the governor of the Qin Dynasty, etc.If you want to add such a four-character title, what is it called?This is called history.You are the honorary prime minister, but you have other tasks and are not considered the real prime minister. Then when will Wang Qingruo become the real prime minister later?Alas, he would have to wait until the current reigning Prime Minister Wang Dan dies before he has a chance.That was already five years later, in 1017, so Wang Qingruo told people in private that it was because of this dynasty, and because of him, that he delayed me from being the prime minister for ten years.Is this unjust?It was indeed Wang Dan who did not try his best to stop Wang Qingruo from becoming prime minister.It is said that when Song Zhenzong wanted to promote Wang Qinruo, Wang Dan's speech was very interesting. He said this. He said, Your Majesty, our Song Dynasty has never used a southerner as a prime minister. Although it is said that as long as he is a virtuous person,It doesn't matter where he comes from, whether he is from the South or not, but he must be a talented person.Okay, I, Wang Dai, am the prime minister, and I never dare to block the way of others' progress, but what I just said is public opinion. Listen, Wang Dai's few words have three meanings.

Article 1: Our government has a rule handed down from our ancestors, and we cannot use a southerner as prime minister.As for item 2, Wang Qinghou is not a good person.Article 3: This is public opinion, not my bias, please listen to it.In order to stop Wang Qinruo from becoming prime minister, this bastard was so anxious that he took out all the cards in his pocket and put them on the table.The last two reasons sound right to you. Isn’t the so-called Wang Qingruo a talented person?Or does everyone think he is not a talented person?These two reasons are valid, but what is the first reason you just mentioned?Why can't we use southerners to build an organization for party building? Bai's reason for being such a map cannon can also be put on the table. Do we all know it?In the Confucian ideal of the system, the whole world is the king's land, and the land is the king's ministers. This is a basic setting, so everyone must be equal. In Confucianism, there is no such thing as brothers within the four seas. This is also aBasic common sense.

It is said that people are old and young, and the land is not divided into north and south. So how can the emperor treat the death of his ministers differently?But it's strange that Emperor Zhenzong liked Wang Qinru so much and relied on Wang Qinru for many things. However, when Wang Dan came up with such a ridiculous reason for throwing the map, he actually threw it away, saying that southerners, well, may not be suitable to be prime ministers now., it was not until Wang Dai died that he dared to promote Wang Qinrong. Why?So today we have this question: Why were there such explicit regional strange corpses in the early Song Dynasty?Well, let’s take him back in time to 1012 AD to take a look at an unspeakable secret in the early years of the Song Dynasty.

Just now we mentioned that Prime Minister Wang Dan tried his best to block Wang Qinruo's progress. There is no doubt that there must be political struggles and personal grudges. This is not surprising.You are the prime minister, and you are saying that the prime minister cannot be used. It is a bit strange that the southerners put such a weak reason on the table.But if you look at the historical materials at this stage, you will find that not only Wang Dan, but also those scholar-bureaucrats born in the north did this at every turn.Wang Dan was from Shenxian County, Daming Prefecture, which is today's Liaocheng, Shandong Province. He was from the north. There was also the famous Kou Zhun. Kou Zhun was not from Shanxi, he was from Huazhou.Today's Weinan people in Shaanxi are also northerners, so Kou Zhun is even more outrageous.Let me give you two examples.One year in the imperial examination, it was obvious that a southerner had better results, but Kou Zhun was present and insisted that no, southerners from inferior places could not be the top pick, so he just replaced him with another person.Moreover, Kou Zhun came out very proud and publicly said that I had won the top prize for him in Zhongyuan.

Look, at this moment, where does Kou Zhun identify himself?He is an official of the Imperial Palace who must uphold justice in the court. He identifies himself as a northerner.Another example is the story of Yan Shu, the great benevolent man, who writes about the helpless flowers falling away, and the deja vu swallows returning.Who?I am from Jiangxi and also a southerner.When Yan Shu took the imperial examination, he did very well, but he was unlucky enough to meet Kou Zhun again.Kou Zhun said that he was very talented, but it was a pity that he was from the south. This made the emperor unable to listen.Song Zhenzong refuted him on the spot, Kou Zhun, the prodigy prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Jiuling, wasn't he also a southerner?Why do you say that?Zhang Jiuling is from Shaoguan, Guangdong.

So you can see that in the Great Song Dynasty at that time, there was an atmosphere of suppressing southerners. There was even a rumor at that time. It must be the rumor that Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin had established ancestral honors, and southerners could not be prime ministers for generations. They said prime ministersThere was a stone in the office hall with words engraved on it saying that southerners were not allowed to sit here.Can this rumor go to this extent?Anyway, when I was reading historical materials related to 1012, I suddenly saw this line of text, which was a line of text in the long preface to the Qualifications Comprehensive Review.There are four people in total, including Wang Qinruo and several others. Let me tell you that Liu Chenggui, Chen Pengnian, Lin Te and Ding Wei have close contacts with these four people. You see, with Wang Qingruo, there are not five people. This is called Wugui.In history, it is not uncommon for people in a political clique to be called the Five Ghosts. But what is interesting is that if you count these five people, I will do the math for you.According to today's provinces, Wang Qingru and Chen Pengnian were both from Jiangxi.Ding Wei and Liu Chenggui are both from Jiangsu, and Lin Te is from Fujian further south. You see, they are all from the south.

If we dig deeper, you will find that these people may have a bad reputation in the Zhenzong Dynasty at that time. After all, they have not yet entered the history of the Song Dynasty.According to the biography of traitorous ministers in Song Dynasty, there are 22 people in total. Alas, when you look at it, you will find that all of them are from the south without exception.This is interesting. Is there a saying?There is no love without reason, and there is no hatred without reason. When his prejudice against southerners reaches this level, it is not just a map cannon. There must be more profound political and cultural reasons behind it.So what's the reason?We can also imagine the superficial reasons, such as dialect issues.Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, our country has been south of the Great Wall and north of the Yangtze River. People from all over the country can easily understand each other, so a large northern dialect area has been formed.But in the southeast, the accent becomes complicated, even to the extent that the pronunciation is different ten miles away. That is, southerners cannot understand each other even if they are ten miles apart, let alone northerners.Therefore, people who speak different languages ​​will inevitably be excluded socially.

Northerners dislike southerners, which is a very important factor. Another reason is the wave of monarchs and ministers who started in the Song Dynasty. After all, they are from the Central Plains and northerners, and the southerners joined later. So firstThe people who came certainly occupied various good positions and high positions.Later southerners came in and wanted to climb up.Alas, sometimes it is unavoidable to resort to unscrupulous means, such as to please the emperor. For example, when Emperor Zhenzong wants to engage in superstitious activities, as we have been talking about in these programs, the main supporters are of course southerners.

The status of southerners is low, and they have a wider climb to gain the emperor's favor. Therefore, the original northerners will inevitably feel that these southerners are too clever, too good at maneuvering, and even rise to the level of bad character. This is also reasonable.Among things, this is a factor.There is another factor. The foundation of the Song Dynasty is the Five Dynasties of the Central Plains, and decades ago in the south, the ten countries were the objects of conquest, so there is also a factor that makes the conquerors look down on the conquered. Isn’t this quite true?Normal?Well, haha, it’s actually not normal for conquerors to look down on or reject the conquered at first.Well, it's normal for there to be emotional factors, because after all, the two sides fought on the battlefield, and you were my loser.But it becomes abnormal after a long time. What year do you think this is?This is 1012 AD, twelve years after the founding of the Song Dynasty, and half a century has passed.It has been 34 years since the country was unified. A generation has passed. How can you northerners still be so arrogant?You are a government official, so for the sake of national integration, shouldn’t you be more aggressive?Are we trying to help southerners integrate into the country’s elite?How can it be obvious what kind of discrimination, exclusion, prevention, crackdown, and map cannon have been made public for such a long time?

So if you want to explain this phenomenon, well, there is actually another opposite, but it is more in line with human nature.What to explain?It's just that the northern scholar-bureaucrats are so repulsive to southerners. Hehe, I'm afraid it's not the result of psychological advantages.On the contrary, this may be the result of psychological disadvantage, not simple hatred.This may be more of a fear.Isn’t this what the British philosopher Russell said?What does it mean if you get angry whenever you hear an opinion that is contrary to yours?This means that you already subconsciously feel that there is no good reason for your opinion.Yes, if you hear someone say that one plus one equals 3 and still plausibly say it, then you will only sympathize with him and pity him, and you will not be angry.But if I hear a certain point of view and I get furious, what does that mean?It shows that we know subconsciously that the bell on my side may not be able to overpower the other person's bell, and I may not be able to argue with him. So am I angry?In the same way, if one kind of person suppresses another kind of person by any means, it is not necessarily because of Qiao Buqiou, but because he is afraid that he will not be able to compete. If you think about it from this perspective, think about the relationship between northerners in the Song Dynasty.Is this a factor in the suppression of southerners?And we go one step further. With this perspective, if you look at the so-called list of five ghosts, you will suddenly make a discovery.

Huh, except for Ding Wei, who is from Suzhou, the so-called five ghosts, the other four are all originally from the Southern Tang Dynasty.And even if it is located in Suzhou, my hometown, it is actually very close to Nantang.Among these five people, Liu Chenggui is a eunuch. I won’t mention him. There are three others left. Let me read them for you.The first person is Chen Pengnian, a child prodigy of the Southern Tang Dynasty. At the age of 13, he wrote an article of more than 10,000 words, which was praised by Li Yu, the later master of the Southern Tang Dynasty.When the Southern Tang Dynasty fell, Chen Pengnian was 14 years old. There was another prodigy named Lin Te, who was also a prodigy in the Southern Tang Dynasty. He served as an official in the Southern Tang Dynasty and was called Nantai Jiao Shulang.You can think of this position as a researcher at the National Library.This official position may not sound high, but how old was Lint when he took this position?Even a 10-year-old is a child prodigy.

And where is the hometown of the leader Wang Qinruo?General Lin is Jiangxi today, and it belonged to the Southern Tang Dynasty in the past.His weak-minded father and grandfather were both former ministers of the Southern Tang Dynasty. He himself was born in 962 AD and was an out-and-out resident of the Southern Tang Dynasty before he was 13 years old.So what do you think is trackless?The word Wugui was not only the name of a small political group at that time, but also referred to several talented people from the Southern Tang Dynasty in the court.

So the question comes to the people who nicknamed them Wugui at that time. What do they resent?Is it because these people have close contacts, the political style of their small group, or their origins?They were from the Southern Tang Dynasty. The Southerners were rejected by the scholar-bureaucrats of the Song Dynasty at that time. Was that a covert attack?In fact, it’s a guide to people from Tang Dynasty?This is not my random guess. In the early years of the Song Dynasty, there was indeed a difference between the people of the several small political powers that were conquered.

When the Song Dynasty was first established, the court absorbed many educated southerners. Was it because the controlled area was too large?Do we need so many officials?No matter whether you are from Wuyue in Zhejiang, Nanhan in Guangdong, Houshu in Sichuan or Southern Tang, as long as there are talents, I will use them.But please note that the treatment is different. For example, when the Wuyue people arrived in the Northern Song Dynasty, the highest treatment they could receive was a third-grade official. Instead, they were given a third-grade official as soon as they joined the job. There were also several third-grade officials in their descendants.The Southern Han Dynasty was in Guangdong, a place far away from the sky and the emperor. Even so, there were still people of the third grade.It happened that the highest one in the Southern Tang Dynasty only gave one a fourth-grade official. This was just a revelation in terms of treatment.For more than ten years after Southern Tang officials arrived in the Song Dynasty, regardless of their rank, they were required to wear green clothes.What's the meaning?I just want you to dress differently to show that you are inferior to others, just to humiliate you.If this guess is reasonable, then we really have to go back in time and see what is so great about this Southern Tang Dynasty?Why did the northern scholar-officials at that time, alas, feel a little afraid?Even decades after the Southern Tang Dynasty was completely conquered, I still felt, well, I must suppress the people there. Your people cannot be prime ministers, and I will never give you a chance to get ahead. Why is this?As most people, our impressions of the Southern Tang Dynasty come from the Empress Li, Li Yu. He is like flowers and spring catkins falling in the flowing water. How much sorrow can you have in heaven and on earth, just like a river of spring water flowing eastward.All these words.

This porcelain is indeed well written, but what we feel in our hearts is that in a country where a literary young man became the emperor, in the end the emperor himself was caught in Kaifeng and became a prisoner.The capital of the country is in Jinling, which is a water town in the south of the Yangtze River. How strong can a country like this be?This is the problem of historical narrative, which is a bit of a logic of success and failure.The final ending of the Southern Tang Dynasty made us somewhat misunderstand the truth of the Southern Tang Dynasty. So what was the real Southern Tang Dynasty like?

In fact, we often underestimate the strength of the Southern Tang Dynasty. If you count the wars in the Northern Song Dynasty to pacify the south, it would be estimated that it took 66 days to pacify Shu to pacify the Southern Han Dynasty. Because it took half a year to pacify Wuyue, then Wuyue was just a small embankment in the Northern Song Dynasty. No needFight and recover directly, so only this Southern Tang is the most difficult to deal with.Then why?First of all, the territory of the Southern Tang Dynasty was larger than most people think. Although the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty was in Jiangning, which is today's Nanjing, its largest territory spanned 35 states.The backbone is today's Jiangxi and Anhui, as well as the west of Jiangsu, the north of Fujian, and part of Hunan and Hubei. Just look at today's Jiangsu. The richest area today is the so-called Suxi City area in southern Jiangsu.Except for Suzhou in the east, the rest are all from Nantang.Lianyungang, Yancheng, Nantang in Taizhou in northern Jiangsu, Nantang in Hefei in Anhui, Nantang in Wuyishan in Fujian, all of Nantang in Jiangxi, and Wuhan in Hubei are all in Nantang, so its territory is so large.

The military strength of the Southern Tang Dynasty was also very strong. When Zhao Kuangyin was not the emperor, he was a general under Zhou Shizong Chai Rong. He participated in three wars in the Southern Tang Dynasty. Each time he fought very hard, and the final result wasOf course, they all win.But so what?The Southern Tang ceded territory and became vassals, but they did not destroy the country.There is a very interesting story recorded in Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian. It is said that after the Southern Tang Dynasty declared itself a vassal to the Later Zhou Dynasty, it once sent an envoy to pay tribute to the Later Zhou Dynasty.How could Emperor Chai Rong meet the envoy from the Southern Tang Dynasty?After meeting, I asked a question, saying that you are building a city wall recently and are you doing any fortifications?Oh you scared this Southern Tang envoy to death.No, we are surrendering to you now. We are the Kingdom of Shu. How can we dare to engage in any defense?This is what Zhou Shizong said at the time.Alas, what you said is wrong.Haha, what about the past?Our two families are enemies.Isn’t it peaceful now?Have you surrendered?It's a family now.I am the king and you are the minister. The righteousness has been established. Nothing will happen to you while I am alive.But what if I'm gone and someone hits you at that time?So you go back and tell your master that the city defense should be repaired and the defense should be improved.Hey, you still do it.

Oh, look what Chai Rong said, what does it mean?When Sima Guang wrote about this place in his qualifications review, he couldn't help but interjected and said that Chai Rong, Zhou Shizong, was awesome. He loved him like his own son after conquering others. He was really willing to consider the long-term interests of others. He said this with all his heart.Extra words.But after a thousand years, we can see another meaning from this story, that is, at least when Zhou Shizong Chai Rong was alive, he did not think that the Southern Tang Dynasty could eventually be recovered by the Zhongyuan Dynasty and could maintain thisThis kind of superficial relationship is good. The Southern Tang Dynasty was such a large area and had such hard bones that it was difficult to chew. This was only solved later in the era of Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin.How did Southern Tang do it?Zhao Kuangyin's words are very famous and tough, saying that I can't allow others to sleep soundly next to my bed.But if you really look at history and see a specific process, it is not as simple as blowing away a sleeping person.

Since ancient times, separatist regimes in the south have often regarded the Yangtze River as a fortress.What?It's a natural hazard. That's right. I grew up in that area when I was a child. It's across the Chengjiang River. If the weather is bad, you can't see the river on the other side because it's so wide. So it's a natural hazard.But you must know that the natural dangers of the Yangtze River are different from the natural dangers of the passes on land. If the passes on land are used properly and if they are well guarded, it is really like one man becoming an official and ten thousand people cannot change it.

But the Yangtze River is not a political power in the south. Why can you defend the Yangtze River?Don’t you just have a navy master?Isn't the navy just a ship?Aren't they just some trained soldiers?If you can make this thing, so can he. If you can train it, so can he.Therefore, if the northern regime accumulates enough population, economic and military advantages to create large-scale floods, the natural dangers of the Yangtze River will no longer exist.

This was the case when Zhao Kuangyin later attacked the Southern Tang Dynasty. The preparations began as early as ten years ago, in 963 AD.At that time, the Song Dynasty had just founded the country. At that time, a large lake was dug near Kaifeng City and began to train naval forces.And in 974, the year when the Southern Tang Dynasty officially started, I looked at the historical data of that year. Taizu Zhao Kuangyin went to visit every few days to inspect the preparations for water wars. Several warships were built.Thousands of ships, this was the strength of the North, and then the charge was sounded and began to destroy the Southern Party.I won’t introduce the specific war process here, but I will tell you two things that may surprise you.

The first place is this kind of overwhelming war of annihilation between the north and the south that has been prepared for a long time. Usually, the war is devastating, because the defender knows clearly from top to bottom that no matter how hard it is, the country will definitely be destroyed in the end.So basically the war started on the wind, and it was difficult to resist substantively. Didn’t Lady Hua Rui of Hou Shu have a very famous poem?Talking about you soldiers, 140,000 people gathered and not one of them was a man. You just surrendered without fighting.Yes, morale is gone, and the defender collapses very quickly.

But please note that this is not the case in the Southern Tang Dynasty. If you look at historical data, the generals of all walks of life resisted constantly, and there were often very heroic sacrifices for their country. Even Li Yu, the empress of Li, surrendered.Alas, Jiangzhou in the Southern Tang Dynasty is today's Jiujiang area. A defender is still fighting and resisting the ball for four months.Just tell me what kind of period this is?This is an unexpected thing, and another unexpected thing is the performance of Li Yu, the empress of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

When we were young, when we read Li Yu's poems, some of them seemed to be whining and crying, haha, especially that sentence about the destruction of the country in the Southern Tang Dynasty..Alas, you cried to Gong E.Haha, we are particularly impressed by this sentence. We feel that Li Yu is the kind of crying king who subjugates his country.Actually no, it may be difficult for you to imagine that Li Yu held on to Jiangning and Nanjing for 10 months.For 10 months, the Song Dynasty repeatedly tried to persuade him to surrender, but he refused to obey. He would fight as many times as he wanted, so the city of Nanjing was conquered every time. Even after the city was broken, there were fierce street battles. Basically, every last soldier was defeated. The emperorLi Yu just surrendered.You see in the performance of the subjugated king, apart from not taking the initiative to commit suicide, he can be regarded as a tough guy.

Having said so much, I actually want us to understand how people in the early Song Dynasty felt about the Southern Tang Dynasty. It was really a hard nut to crack.Of course, things are not that simple. The Southern Tang Dynasty was wary of the scholar-bureaucrats in the early Northern Song Dynasty, and there was actually a very subtle and secret factor that caused us to be wary of it, and this factor makes people today very estranged from each other.But Doctor Shi at that time knew very well, what?It’s about the change of national orthodoxy. What do we call this regime today?It was called Southern Tang, but when he founded his own country, the name of the country was not Southern Tang. It was just a single character for Tang, without the character for Nan.And have you remembered, what was the surname of the Emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty?Your surname is Li?Li Jing and Li Yu claimed to be the descendants of Miao Hong, the founder of the royal hall of the Tang Dynasty.Therefore, people at that time may have such an understanding of the major events in the world, that is, although Liang Tang in the Central Plains entered Hanzhou in the Five Dynasties, why did you sing and dominate and I came on the stage, it was a mess.But the Tang Dynasty actually never died.The Zhu Wen family killed the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, but soon the Li family had another harem. After the destruction of the Later Tang Dynasty, there was the Southern Tang Dynasty. They all claimed to be the successors of the Tang Dynasty and wanted to revive the Tang Dynasty..

If you lived at that time, if you were very emotional about the Tang Dynasty, would you feel that way?Well, compared with the gang of warlords in the Central Plains who were killing each other, and compared with the old Zhao Jie who usurped the throne and came to power, the Southern Tang Dynasty and the Li family actually looked more orthodox.Does anyone think so?In fact, the Song Dynasty itself had related discussions. This discussion was very theoretical, that is, whether the Song Dynasty inherited the legal system of the Later Zhou Dynasty or the Tang Dynasty. If it inherited the legal system of the Later Zhou Dynasty, then I'm sorry, you are the Song Dynasty.Usurper, right?Isn't it flattering to bully other people's orphans and widowed mothers?Can it be said that what is directly inherited is the legal system of the Tang Dynasty?Yes, it is well-founded.

Didn’t we destroy the Southern Tang Dynasty?Right?If my legal system comes from him, and this is a government of force, will my face be lightened?He was destroyed by me, the Song Dynasty, so if I inherit the Tang Dynasty, I will grow up naturally. Do you think this is a good way of saying it?In fact, just two years ago, we are now talking about 1012 AD. Just two years ago, in 1010 AD, someone made such a suggestion, and it was reported in the court.Emperor Wenzong said at the time that there were too many people saying this, and there were too many people saying it.But this was decided when the Song Dynasty was founded. Can't we just change it?If you don't change things like this, then this matter will just get over.

So you can see that the Song Dynasty and the Southern Tang Dynasty still have a bit of competition, competition for orthodox legal systems.But I think this is not the most fundamental reason why the scholar-bureaucrats in the Song Dynasty were afraid of the people of the Southern Tang Dynasty.What is the most fundamental reason?In fact, it’s still cultural.When we talk about the Song Dynasty today, we often think of the word Fengya. We feel that although the Song Dynasty was not very good in military force, its culture was very splendid.Whether it is Shi Dafu's poems and songs, or the commercial vitality of the people, Dafu is a fascinating era when mentioned.This is certainly true, but what does this Song Dynasty refer to?It is an overall impression that can be seen from the 300 years of the Song Dynasty.

If we live in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, just look at this short section, haha, you will find that if you want to say the word Fengya, hehe, it is not the Song Dynasty, haha, but the Southern Tang Dynasty.Let’s take a look at the Southern Tang Dynasty first. First of all, the Southern Tang Dynasty is very rich. How rich is the country?This area under Wen Tang produced 40% of China's silver at the time.How rich was the emperor?The founding emperor was called Li Bian. When Li Bian died, he had 7 million gold foils in his treasury. What kind of concept is this?Let's talk about this period of history. When it comes to money, you have a basic benchmark, which is 300,000 broken coins. Now there are 7 million in Nantang's warehouse.Generally speaking, if you establish a concept, Song Taizu confiscated the treasury of all other ten countries, but the total treasury collected from the Southern Tang Dynasty was not even more than that collected from the Southern Tang Dynasty.

Then why are you so rich?Was it because the north was in war at the time?Is it being produced in the south?If we talk about the numbers of rice and tea here, it may not be so intuitive. I will tell you the same thing: textiles. There was no cotton at that time. The clothes worn by the people were mainly made of linen, and linen could also be used to collect taxes.There was a warehouse in the Southern Tang Dynasty, which you can think of as a warehouse, called Dechang Palace. There were 40 warehouses for storing linen.The common people wear linen, so of course the rich wear silk?How exaggerated was the silk wealth of the Southern Tang Dynasty?The emperor often invited civil and military officials to visit the palace warehouse, and the ministers could take it as they pleased.Whatever you want, take as much as you want.

So if you lived in that era, if you had been to the Central Plains and Nantang, what would it be like to compare this?There really was such a person at that time. His name was Zhang Ji. He was an important minister of the Southern Tang Dynasty. He once went on a business trip to the Central Plains and to Kaifeng. After returning to Jiangning, he wrote ten poems, includingWhat is the three-character evaluation of Kaifeng?It's called Yihuadui, a big mound of gray soil.
Haha, you can imagine that today you live in a very prosperous city and go to a small fifth-tier county where you are very country.You may feel this way, Yi Hua Dui, how does this compare with our Jiang Ning?Unexpectedly, Kaifeng City and Bianliang City, which later became so gorgeous and prosperous, had such an image in the eyes of the people of the Southern Tang Dynasty in the early years of the Song Dynasty.This place is a pile of ash. By the way, Jiangning, today's Nanjing, has not always been so prosperous.Alas, it also has a changing destiny curve in history.When do you think Nanjing will become famous?During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it was the capital of the Southern Dynasty.Nanjing was the so-called golden land of the Six Dynasties, and had the so-called royal aura of a tiger perched on a dragon's plate, so it was the most important city in South China at that time.But during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Nanjing was more unlucky, right?Perhaps because the northern regime was considering suppressing the south, the city of Nanjing was basically destroyed.During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Nanjing's status was not even as good as a county seat. Sometimes it was politically affiliated with Yangzhou, and sometimes it was affiliated with Zhenjiang. Therefore, there is a theme in Tang poetry called Jinling Nostalgia.

When mentioning Nanjing, I always feel like, oh, how could this place be in such a state of ruin? It was still so prosperous hundreds of years ago.You see, this subject matter is particularly suitable for poets, and it embodies all kinds of poetic sentiments. Don’t you see that Li Bai has it?Centipedes are buried among flowers and grass in a quiet place, and modern clothes become ancient autumn.The song by Liu Yuxi is even more famous. It is called The Old King Xie Tang Qianyan. He flew into the homes of ordinary people and looked at the desolation in front of them. It was the same thing that harmonized the beauty of the prosperous times hundreds of years ago.

So when did Nanjing become awesome again?Alas, in the Southern Tang Dynasty, the city of Nanjing suddenly became prosperous like a raging fire.In fact, many of the sources of Song culture we are talking about today can be traced back to Nanjing and Jiangning in the Southern Tang Dynasty.For example, when the Song Dynasty was just founded, the entire Kaifeng palace collection only had more than 10,000 volumes, while the collection of books in the Southern Tang Dynasty was ten times that, with more than 100,000 volumes, and these were more than 100,000 books.It is different from the collections of books in other places in the Five Dynasties Kingdom.

The Song Dynasty later compiled a large series of books called Taiping Preview.That's thanks to the family fortune saved by Southern Tang Dynasty, which is a collection of books.Another example is Song poetry. The first lyrics are popular ditty of the common people and cannot be considered elegant.But precisely because of Li Yufei, the empress of the Southern Tang Dynasty, this style of writing was suddenly illuminated.So didn't Mr. Wang Guowei just say it in the "Human Ci", saying that it was Li Yu who turned Lin Gong's shrine into Shi Dafu's shrine? In the entire history of Ci, the Southern Tang Dynasty was a turning point.

For another example, a lot of knowledge actually comes from the Southern Tang Dynasty.There was a man named Xu Xuan in the Southern Tang Dynasty. It was Song Taizu who yelled at him, saying that my plan of sleeping on the couch would not allow others to sleep soundly. That man was really handsome.Later, after the Southern Tang Dynasty merged into the Song Dynasty, Xu Huan became a generation of cultural masters in the Song Dynasty.Let’s not talk about anything else, let’s just talk about the so-called four great books of the Song Dynasty: Taiping Guangji, Taiping Zhanwenyuanyinghua and Cefu Compass. Almost all of them were written by Xu Xuan and Xu Xuan’s friends and students.Xuan brought it from the Southern Tang Dynasty, and Gu Jiu participated in the revision.If you have watched our previous programs, I have mentioned twice that there was a university writer named Du Go, who was known as Du Wanjuan.Who is this person?This person was a student of Xu Xuan, as well as Wang Qinruo, who was compiling the territorial regulations at this time, and another one of the five ghosts named Chen Pengnian, who was also a student of Xu Xuan.The talents of the Southern Tang Dynasty had this status in the Song Dynasty. What about the four treasures of the study, the pen, ink, paper and inkstone that the scholar-bureaucrats were most particular about?Except for the best brush called Hu Bi at that time, which came from Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, the best rulers, the best tombs, and the best inkstones at that time were all in the Southern Tang Dynasty.The so-called Chengxintang refers to Li Tinggui's banquets and banquets. Many of them were developed with the personal participation of two generations of Li Yu and his son.For example, take the Chengxintang paper. The manufacturing process of this paper was actually lost in the Song Dynasty, but this paper was so good. Later, someone got a batch of Chengxintang paper. How much did it cost?There are 100 copper coins in one roll. Ouyang Xiu was invited to come and watch just this piece of paper.

Ouyang Xiu was also very surprised and asked where did you get such a good baby?These papers had been stored for 100 years. By the time of Brother Ouyang, it had been 100 years since the Southern Tang Dynasty made this batch of paper. It was still so strong, so smooth, and so crystal clear. This paper was so good that Empress Li personally participated.R&D.Until the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong still wanted to restore the craftsmanship of Chengxintang paper, but he never succeeded in producing such good paper.I don’t need to give more examples. Now you understand that all the elegance and prosperity of the Song Dynasty actually fled south.At this point, it is not difficult for you to understand why those northern scholar-bureaucrats thought of Southern Tang people, well, Southern Tang people should not be allowed to be prime ministers, and they should not be allowed to be proud politically.One of the reasons, I think, is that psychologically, I am from a place like a heap of ash. When I see you people from a place of elegance, I still feel a little uncomfortable.

Our pursuit of a better life comes from the opening of every extraordinary door.Casarte was born for love, the art of connecting homes.In fact, we can look at the Southern Tang Dynasty from another angle. What we are talking about now is 1012 AD. If we turn the time back more than half a century from this year to 947 AD, then at this time Lianda UniversityThe Song Dynasty didn’t have it yet.The Song Dynasty was not founded until 960, and came to New Year's Day in 947.On the day I take you to travel through time, we will walk around China. After reading it, you will have a deeper understanding of the relationship between the Southern Tang and the Song Dynasty.

On New Year's Day, 947 AD, our first stop was Chang'an. When you mention eternal love, you must have thought of a particularly majestic achievement, right?What do you think you can see?Can we still see Li Guinian singing loudly?Does Mrs. Gongsun dance with the sword?Can we still see Li Bai’s 100 poems about drinking wine?Sorry, that long case is long gone.This year Chang'an was besieged by the troops of the Later Han Dynasty. The city was completely out of ammunition and food, and women and children were eaten alive by the soldiers as food.This is hell on earth.What about Kaifeng, the most prosperous city in the north?

Okay, our second stop is Kaifeng, which was the political, cultural and economic center during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, right?That's right.But on New Year's Day in 947 AD, Khitan Khan Lu Deguang broke into Kaifeng and announced that the Later Jin Dynasty was destroyed and that he wanted to be the emperor of the Central Plains.Just a year before and after this, there were three emperors in Kaifeng, haha, Shi Zhonggui, the last emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty, Yelu Deguang, Taizong of the Liao Dynasty, and Liu Zhiyuan, the great ancestor of the Later Han Dynasty.That's really like you singing and then I come on stage.

Kaifeng at this time was in such a mess, hey, that one young man couldn't stay any longer, who was it?Zhao Kuangyin, who was in his 20s, was in such a mess that he had to run away from home in Kaifeng and travel around the world to find a new way of life for himself.The historical records about Zhao Kuangyin’s early years can be simply put that Zhao Kuangyin was roaming around at this time, so what did he see along the way?They were all ordinary people fleeing from the north to the south. This was China at that time.But if we were not in the north at this time, and our third stop came to the Southern Tang Dynasty, especially Jiangning, what would we see on New Year's Day in 947?On this day, Emperor Li Jing of the Southern Tang Dynasty convened a group of literati to enjoy the snow and compose poems. He also convened a group of the best painters in China at that time.Hey, I said you should divide your work to record this scene. Some people are responsible for painting figures, some are responsible for painting pavilions and buildings, and some are responsible for painting bamboo forests.This gathering of monarchs and ministers was actually frozen in one click. Ha, it became a good story in the history of Chinese culture and became this snow-appreciating picture.

But it’s a pity that we can’t see this picture today.But we can still see this wonderful story in this prosperous age today.But some people may think that this is just a plaything. In such troubled times, what is your emperor of the Southern Tang doing?If you still engage in such romantic affairs every day, you deserve to be destroyed later.But look at it from a different perspective, from a cultural perspective.I have a book here. The book by the writer Tang Nuo is called Before the Eyes. There is a passage in it that I want to read to you. It is about the Spring and Autumn Period.He said that the so-called disaster moments in history can also be defined in this way, or it is a general rule, that is, people are used cheaply, inappropriately, and unreasonably.The best poets and novelists were sent into the trenches with guns and never came back.Man cannot do what he is best at and most productive at.People are wasted, which is of course one irreparable loss after another.

What is a disaster?When people are used unreasonably, it is called a disaster. From this perspective, isn't this the value of Southern Tang?In that world where white knives came in and red knives came out over the past few decades, he asked people with poetic sentiments to write poems, people with painting talents to paint, and people with craftsmanship to develop the best pens, inks, paper and inkstones.Because of the Southern Tang Dynasty, he did not waste people. In the process of preparing this program, I accidentally saw a piece of historical data that shocked me.It is said that 974 AD was the last moment before the collapse of the Southern Tang Dynasty.The entire Jinling City has been heavily surrounded by the Song Dynasty army.Li Yu, the later leader of the Southern Tang Dynasty, also ordered the release of the last imperial examination results in the history of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and admitted 38 warnings as an exception, which was the most in the history of the imperial examinations in the Southern Tang Dynasty.Obviously, the national collapse is imminent, and the short-sightedness of being admitted is of no use, and he can no longer be an official.

So why do it?I think there is a possibility that this is not only to give the students a final and decent explanation for their hard study for the exam, but also for the Southern Tang Dynasty, which did its best to spread the seeds of reading.In fact, if we jump out and take a look, you will find that there are often places like this in human history. Then we often give such places a name. What is it called?It’s called the tinder jar of civilization.Even when the surrounding world suddenly fell into a sea of ​​swords, swords, corpses, and blood, there were some places where people were immersed in questioning, intoxicated with elegance. When the war outside ended, the fire of civilization in the tinder jar jumped out again, and again.A single spark can start a prairie fire.

There are many such places and moments like this, such as the Lu State during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Jiangdong during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Five Dynasties Period, and the Jiangling in the Southern Tang Dynasty we just mentioned.In fact, there are places like this in Western history. For example, ancient Greece as a political entity was controlled by the Roman government, right?But as a carrier of civilization, it spread further through the force of Rome.I brought another book today. This one is called Mankind and Mother Earth, written by historian Toynbee.There is a passage here that talks about the spread of Greek civilization after being conquered by Rome.This is what he said. Each empire was absorbing and spreading Greek civilization in its territory. At this time, from the upper reaches of the Jumna River in northwest India to the west to the western end of Sicily, this vast area was spoken in Greek.its civilized language.Greek culture under the guise of Rome is using Latin as a medium to spread from the Italian peninsula to the European continent all the way to the Rhine and Danube rivers, and to northwest Africa to the northern edge of the Sahara Desert.

You see, this is very similar to the Southern Tang Dynasty we are talking about today. He is also a civilized fire official. The war outside cannot stop the prosperity inside. Once the peace outside comes, he will immediately start a prairie fire.Our program today starts with the story of northern scholar-bureaucrats in the Song Dynasty who looked down on southerners and were wary of southerners.But this historical stage will soon pass. In the year 1012 AD, Wang Qingruo, one of the so-called Five Ghosts, was 50 years old, Chen Pengnian was 51, and Lin Te was 61.

This generation, they all carry the memory of the Southern Tang Dynasty and live in the open capital of the Song Dynasty. To put it bluntly, they know very well that they are the auspicious ministers of the subjugated country and are inferior to others.What to do?They also want to have life dreams, and they also want to climb up the ladder of life.So he must be working hard to please the emperor and make him happy.The emperor wants a heavenly book. I will find a heavenly book for you.Your Majesty, if you want a fan, I will perform a ceremony for you.This would of course make the other ministers at that time, especially the northern ministers who had experienced Taizu's entrepreneurship, dislike them, so it was normal for the north and the south to fire map cannons at each other at this time.The boundary between Southerners and Northerners will soon be blurred.

There is a theory in the history circle that things that happened within 40 years are not called history. What are they called?It's called communication memory.Why?Because what happens in 40 years will either happen to you or your elders.The parties involved who have personally experienced many incidents are still alive. All kinds of grievances and emotions are still entangled, and they are still affecting our real life. This is within 40 years.Well, after 40 years have passed, all the people who should have called the curtain have withered away.What happened has either been forgotten, or it has been solidified into text or video records, and turned into this kind of carrier and this kind of historical data. This is called history, and we can study it objectively.So 40 years is just a dividing line.

For people like Song Zhenzong and Wang Qinruo, although the Southern Tang Dynasty was destroyed, it was not a period of history.According to the theory I just talked about, this is a communication memory.This memory affects people like Wang Dynasty who refused to let a southerner be the prime minister, and Kou Zhun who refused to let a southerner be the number one scholar. It affects and entangles real life.But don’t forget to do some calculations. The Southern Tang Dynasty was destroyed in 975 AD. In 1015 AD, it will be 40 years in three years. This dividing line in history will soon be crossed.Sure enough, five years later, when Wang Dan came to an end, Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty generously promoted Wang Qingruo from the Southern Tang Dynasty to the position of prime minister. The southerner became the prime minister, and the grudges of a generation were settled. The southerner no longer became the prime minister of the party.obstacles.

Okay, let’s take a look at Liu Yong, a 30-year-old southerner from Fujian who was born in this year. Where has he been wandering around during this time?The historical record is actually vague.Yan Shu, a southerner born in Jiangxi, has become an official in Dongtai, Jiangsu this year. He will soon become the prime minister of the Song Dynasty.Ouyang Xiu, a southerner whose ancestral home is Jiangxi, is 5 years old this year. In the future, he will become a patriarch in the literary world of the Song Dynasty.You see, southerners have integrated into the mainstream of Chinese civilization.The prosperity of Jiangning City evolved into the elegance of Kaifeng City. The civilized tinder pot of the Southern Tang Dynasty finally ignited the fire of civilization throughout the Song Dynasty, which burned everywhere and filled the sky with brilliance.This is what civilization is like. In troubled times, it hides mesons, and in prosperous times, it lets them go.This is how civilization is, just relax and lose every time. Alas, just move forward step by step. We will see you in the next issue in 1013 AD.

Luo Zhenyu civilization journey

Luo Zhenyu civilization journey

Total 913 Episodes Feb 28, 2024 C-Drama Docu/Hist