The culture of the Song Dynasty made unprecedented progress, with fruitful achievements in the fields of Neo-Confucianism, literature, history, art and science and technology, and outstanding figures such as Cheng Er, Zhu Xi, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, Sima Guang and Shen Kuo were famous throughout the ages. The invention and application of movable type printing, compass and gunpowder have made outstanding contributions to mankind.
Song Dynasty is the most prosperous and prosperous dynasty in China, with the most prosperous national culture, the most scientific and technological innovations, the healthiest population base growth, the highest crop output per unit area and the highest people's living standard. If you don't believe me, I will introduce you to a dreamlike Song Dynasty, so let's dream back to the Song Dynasty together:
1 Fu Song with developed economy
This has long been a historical conclusion, and other dynasties "suppressed commerce", with the exception of Song Dynasty. In the early Song Dynasty, Taizu Zhao Boxin said, "Accumulate more money. The city's farmland houses will bequeath their descendants, and singers and dancers will enjoy their longevity, so as to enrich the people. Later, Song Taizong also nicknamed it "Making the technique of discussing politics with two systems known".
When Shenzong was in power, "managing money first" made many people attach importance to the economy, such as "managing money first in politics is urgent", throughout the Song Dynasty. This is a very important prerequisite to ensure economic development. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, officials studied the way of managing money and seeking wealth. The Song Dynasty adjusted the traditional practice of attaching importance to criminal law and neglecting civil law, and specially studied and implemented monopoly laws, such as salt law, wine law and tea law.
the song dynasty became one of the most active periods of economic legislation in ancient China. Moreover, the economic laws and regulations of Song Dynasty unified the distribution of interests between the state and economic activists, conformed to the laws of commodity economy, and were very scientific laws and regulations. These correct policy orientations made the commercial tide flourish, the commerce and trade developed rapidly, and the handicraft industry developed rapidly, which made the Song Dynasty the earliest paper money (Jiaozi) bank in the world, which is unique! Even banks can lend money and pay in different places, even in modern times, it is a very advanced economic management system.
Geographically, the development of Song Dynasty was not limited to the established areas such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Sichuan, but also the social, economic and cultural development of mountainous areas and ethnic minority areas was greater than that of Tang Dynasty, which is also surprising. From the handicraft industry, pit mining, tea salt, shipbuilding, paper-making, sugar-making, textile, porcelain-making, etc. are much more advanced than in the Tang Dynasty.
The handicraft industry in Song Dynasty not only expanded its production area and increased its output, but also improved its technology remarkably. For example, the production technology of "sugar ice" (rock candy), the excavation of "single-barrel well" and the sophistication of Song porcelain all reflect the maturity and innovation of technology, while the rise of commerce and handicraft industry has liberated a large number of farmers who have been captured in the land and put them into business. The handicraft industry began to mine a large number of gold, silver, copper, iron, coal and other mineral deposits in the Middle and Northern Song Dynasties, and the earliest in the world's history appeared all over the country. Such as shipyards, paper mills, printing factories, weaving factories, firearms factories, and official kilns in various places.
It can be seen that the prosperity of handicraft industry at that time was unprecedented! As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, China knew how to employ hundreds of full-time industrial workers in coal burning, steel making and large-scale handicrafts. And the government's two military industries employ 8 thousand workers-this is already the scale of heavy industry! In 178, for example, the annual output of the steel industry in North China reached 1.25 million tons, while in 1788, at the beginning of the industrial revolution, the annual output of Britain was only 76, tons. In addition, mining and metallurgy, paper making, porcelain making, silk weaving and navigation are also highly developed.
the song dynasty was worthy of being the "high-tech" home before modern times. It was also the overlord of handicraft industry in the world 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 industrial and commercial. The trade areas in the Tang Dynasty were strictly controlled by officials, while in the Song Dynasty, they were more free. Due to the further development of commodity economy, the breakthrough of "Fang system" and the rise of market towns, the boundary between residential areas and commercial areas gradually disappeared.
Some of these "new" cities in Song Dynasty developed to a large scale. For example, Kaifeng and Hangzhou both reached a population of one million, and the latter was an "unprecedented" city that Kyle Polo saw in the early Yuan Dynasty. Even in the late Yuan Dynasty, the largest city outside China was "Baghdad" with a population of only 3, to 5,, which was also called by Arabian traveler Ibn Betuta hundreds of years later. The population engaged in industry and commerce is gradually increasing, the output is increasing, and the investment capital is greatly expanded. Therefore, it is not only agriculture that constitutes the main body of national fiscal revenue. The proportion of industry and commerce has surpassed that of agriculture, and advertisements printed on copper plates have appeared in its commercial operation, which is more than 3 years earlier than advertisements of western capitalism.
As far as Bachelor Su Dongpo is concerned, he once wrote an advertisement poem for an old woman who cooked oil food to make her prosperous. More interestingly, in the Song Dynasty, there were tabloids similar to modern newspapers and the earliest trademarks in history. It is of great significance that trademarks are small, which indicates the gradual improvement of the commercialization system in the Song Dynasty. In addition, Shen Kuo, a famous scholar, also reached the level of modern monetary theory. The prosperous commercial wave in the Song Dynasty was also the mother of the earliest capitalist bud in the world, while the rapid economic development in the Song Dynasty created unprecedented wealth and prosperity.