bookcurios Chapter 213 The Impact of Wars in the North since the Tang and Song Dynasties
Chapter 213 The Impact of Wars in the North since the Tang and Song Dynasties
Tang Dynasty, 24th year of Kaiyuan
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, can rest assured that there is an heir who is even worse than him. Emperor Suzong of Tang, you are really capable.
Officials such as He Zhizhang felt sad about the stupid things that the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty had done.
Another disrespectful thought popped up in Zhang Jiuling's mind: Why couldn't the emperor be replaced?
While traveling in the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai, Du Fu and Gao Shi made many like-minded friends.
Meng Haoran is one of them.
Today, everyone was sitting around drinking and writing poetry, when they saw the light curtain suddenly mention the An-Shi Rebellion again, and everyone present was indignant.
"Yes, to the common people, who are the rebels?" Du Fu drank a little too much, and spoke without thinking.
"All the houses are destroyed, and the people are all wearing paper clothes..." How sad it is that the people who did such a thing were actually the Tang army.
I want to serve my country and display my talents, but what should I do now?
Because of the light curtain, everyone who was gathered together happily earlier is now in deep thought.
Even the most open-minded Li Bai frowned, feeling confused about the people of the Tang Dynasty and its future.
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People in Luoyang, Tang Dynasty: Rebels, Tang army, and Huihe army are not good guys! We must stop the Anshi Rebellion from happening!
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[This is also because the southern region along the Yangtze River was less affected by the An Lushan Rebellion. As the economic development of the south increasingly surpassed that of the north, the country's economic center of gravity began to move south.
After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the wars in the north did not decrease. On the contrary, the country entered a period of division. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, warlords fought each other and wars were frequent.
In contrast to the frequent wars in the north, places like Shu, Wuyue, Southern Han, and Southern Tang were able to maintain stability for 20 to 30 years or 40 to 50 years. Most people fled south, which undoubtedly brought a lot of labor to the south, promoted the development of production in the south, and added vitality to the south.
The Song Dynasty was established, and the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River flowed to the Pearl River Basin, and they were unified again. However, the Northern Song Dynasty lost the 16 states of Yanyun, and the Western Xia was established by the Dangxiang people in the west. At that time, the entire south was responsible for the food supply of the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. The Liao, Western Xia, Song, and Jin attacked each other, leaving the entire northern region devastated and war-torn.
At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin army marched south in large numbers, and the entire Central Plains and the north and south of the Huai River were hit by war again. As a result, a large number of northerners fled south, causing the land in the north to become barren and unattended.
By the Southern Song Dynasty, the Qinling Mountains and the area north of the Huai River were all occupied by the Jin Dynasty. However, the Southern Song Dynasty relied on the prosperous south to hold out for more than 150 years under the iron cavalry of the Jin Dynasty and the Mongols.
＜From this perspective, it seems that there has been war in the north since the An Lushan Rebellion＞
＜But historically speaking, the South is really a land of peace＞
＜One of the reasons for the fall of the Ming Dynasty was that it could not collect taxes? The South was very rich, but the emperor had no control over it＞
＜Alas, the Central Plains region consumes too much. And it seems that the Song Dynasty imposed a lot of heavy taxes, and many people would rather move to the city than farm.＞
＜The North is in chaos＞
[Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang: What?! You still can’t control those people in the south?!]
[Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Youjian: Wow, the Ming Dynasty is too miserable TT]
[Song Shenzong Zhao Xu: Your Ming Dynasty’s capital is in Yanjing, right? The center is too far away.]
[Ming Chengzu Zhu Di: Your Song Dynasty established its capital in Kaifeng because it was "more about virtue than danger". Kaifeng is a place with many connections, so it was smooth for the cavalry to move south.]
[Han Yu, 12th year of Tang Yuanhe: The capital is the heart of the four directions and the foundation of the country. How can it rely only on "virtue"?]
[Emperor Cao Cao of Wei: The South has such great potential]
[Emperor Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao: During the Han Dynasty, the south was just sparsely populated and looked desolate, but in fact, the south was really rich. I want to go to the south to see it myself!]
[Emperor Jiajing of Ming Dynasty Zhu Houcong: As expected of my cousin, you are so courageous. [Eating melon]]
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Song Dynasty, Kaibao Year 3
"Ugh."
Zhao Kuangyin sighed heavily.
Zhao Kuangyin's idea of making Bianjing the capital was simple. First, it was the old capital of the previous dynasty with complete facilities. Second, it was centrally located with convenient water transport.
However, he had never really thought of making Bianjing the capital of the Song Dynasty forever.
This can be discussed later and the capital can be re-determined.
"Zeping, can you tell me how much tax my Song has?"
Zhao Pu thought for a moment and then replied, "We in Song Dynasty revised the two taxes that were added arbitrarily during the Five Dynasties, and also inherited the miscellaneous taxes levied in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, such as water transport, taxes, purchases, mining, coinage, tea, salt, wine, miscellaneous taxes, and taxes on the population."
"Yes, there are numerous exorbitant taxes and levies. This is just the situation at the beginning of the Song Dynasty. I don't know what more the emperors after him will impose." Zhao Kuangyin said these words calmly.
But Zhao Pu's political sense made him understand that the government was ready for reform!!!
Now that the south has been pacified, only the Northern Han and Liao are left. Zhao Kuangyin is afraid that something unexpected will happen here again, and he urgently needs to eliminate the hidden dangers within the Song Dynasty one by one.
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[Okay, we have finished the first part.
The An-Shi Rebellion, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Rebellion, and the wars between Song, Liao, Xixia, Jin, Mongolia and Yuan Dynasty plunged the North into the quagmire of war. What impact did they bring? What is the relationship with the theme of our video, the North-South List Case? Next, let's move on to the second part.
2: From the 14th year of Tianbao in the Tang Dynasty to the demise of the Yuan Dynasty, during the long period of more than 600 years, numerous wars caused great damage to the Yellow River Basin, the birthplace of ancient civilization. The most notable of these was that frequent wars caused farming to be delayed and farmland became ruins.
The decline of farming and agriculture in the north, coupled with the rulers' repeated breaches of the Yellow River, exacerbated the rampant disasters. It also caused agriculture in the north to lag behind that in the south. The people in the north also lived in depression.
The population of Taiyuan, an important city in the north, had reached over 100 million during the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty. However, by the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, there were only over 108 people left. During this -year period, the population dropped by over million.
Xi'an was once the capital of several dynasties. During the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty, it had a population of 196 million. By the time of Emperor Huizong of Song, the population was reduced to more than 27.
Sharp population declines in cities like Xi'an and Taiyuan are not isolated phenomena; they are the norm in the north.
Not only did the agriculture and population decrease, but also the culture was destroyed because of the war. The development of northern culture stagnated and declined. In fact, from this we can also get a glimpse of the North-South case to be discussed later. One thing we have to admit is that the culture of the north at that time was not as good as that of the south. 】
＜The war caused people to flee, the land became barren, and no one cultivated the land. Moreover, wars were usually accompanied by plagues, and people died in various ways. Even though the north was large, the rulers fought against each other, making people unwilling to live in the north.＞
＜I remember that what they were talking about before was the Central Plains. Then it became the wealthy area in the south＞
＜This is not to say that the economic base determines the superstructure, and the superstructure reacts on the economic base.＞
＜The most important thing for a nation is cultural heritage! Years of wars will cause scholars to flee, and many classic books and rare copies will be lost.＞
＜Chang'an, what a pity.＞
[Tang Taizong Li Shimin: The Guanzhong region in the video on the screen is very different from the Guanzhong where I am now.]
[Qin Shi Huangdi said: "The economic base determines the superstructure, and the superstructure reacts on the economic base." This is a good saying.]
[Tang Xuanzong Li Longji: Chang'an has become so desolate.]
[Emperor Wu Zhao of the Zhou Dynasty: In addition to natural causes, the decline of Chang'an was also due to your contribution, Li Sanlang.]
[Li Qingzhao, the second year of the Chunxi reign of the Song Dynasty: I thought of the Jin thieves who went south in the past, looting and burning cultural relics and books wherever they went...]
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