Why did China's classical civilization perish in the Song Dynasty?

Why is the demise of the Song Dynasty "the interruption of civilization"?

We need to explain a question: Since China realized modernization as early as113rd century in the Song Dynasty, why did the modern transformation of China seem so difficult and tortuous in the second half of19th century? Of course, it is not appropriate to explain such an important issue with a single reason, but if we want to find out the most profound historical reason, I think that after the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, the modernization process represented by the "Reform of the Tang and Song Dynasties" was interrupted, and history went backwards to some extent.

Sharp thinkers such as Huang Zongxi and Wang Fuzhi in the late Ming Dynasty realized that the collapse of the Song Dynasty could not be compared with the change of other dynasties. Huang Zongxi said: "The change of husband from ancient to modern ends in Qin Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty. After these two endings, the position of the ancient sage king pitied his lover and the operator went bankrupt. " Wang Fuzhi said: "The demise of the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty was self-destructive. The death of the Song Dynasty is also the death of the world since the Yellow Emperor and Yao Shun. " The demise of the Song Dynasty is not only the demise of a dynasty, but also a major historical change beyond the general regime change. In the words of that era, it was called "the death of the world"; In today's words, this huge obstacle is called "the interruption of civilization"

Why is the demise of the Song Dynasty "the interruption of civilization"? Please allow me to quote a passage in the preface of Zhou's History of the Yuan Dynasty: After the demise of the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty unified China, which brought some backward influences in the political and social fields. "They are essentially a subversion of the Song Dynasty. This inversion not only worked in the Yuan Dynasty, but also was inherited by the Ming Dynasty as a historical tradition. ..... The political system of the Ming Dynasty was basically inherited from the Yuan Dynasty, which was a patchwork of Mongolia and gold. Strictly speaking, the political system of the Central Plains Han Dynasty, represented by the Northern Song Dynasty, was interrupted by the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty. "

The system brought by the Yuan Dynasty from the grassland and its influence profoundly reshaped the history of China after the Song Dynasty. Let's choose the biggest one and introduce it as follows-

Originally, the Song people had the political consciousness of "the world is for the public", as a Steven Song said to Song Gaozong: "The world belongs to China, the ancestors, the ministers, the surnames, the three armies, not your majesty." The world is not privately owned by the monarch, but owned by everyone. The rulers from the grassland regarded the land, population and wealth they conquered as the private property of the "golden family" and implemented the medieval "overthrowing and enfeoffment system". The "abandoned households" are the people of the grassland aristocrats, just like some serfs in aristocratic families in Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties.

The rise of "retainer system". Song people think that the relationship between monarch and minister is a kind of public order and good custom: "Although the monarch can make ministers, he should not be unreasonable;" Although I am a gentleman, I can't bend to the Tao. "Between the monarch and the minister", each has its own specialty and cannot infringe upon each other. "After entering the Yuan Dynasty, the public relations between the monarch and his subjects were replaced by a private master-slave relationship, and the ministers became the servants of the monarch. Many ministers even needed to serve in the palace. Under the master-slave relationship, of course, you killed you and took your minister. If you want to please your employees, you can punish your own slaves. An observer in the Ming Dynasty said: "The ceremony of governing ministers under three generations is extremely light to win the country (Yuan Dynasty). "

The birth of the "all-color household plan" We know that the recruitment system was implemented in the Song Dynasty, and the people basically did not have to perform military service, and the labor force was scarce. Officers began to stack money and settle accounts. After entering the Yuan Dynasty, the conquerors implemented the "all-color household plan" system according to the old grassland system: all residents were divided into civilian households, military households, post-station households, artisans, salt households, Confucian households, medical households and musicians. According to their occupation, once the occupation is defined, they are not allowed to pass it on from generation to generation and bear the corresponding taxes.

The emergence of "replacement system". Slavery was basically abolished in the Song Dynasty, but the conquerors of the Yuan Dynasty brought it into the grassland "expulsion" system, which revived slavery. The so-called "exorcism" is the "population driven away by others", that is, the population captured in the war, forced into slavery by the conquerors and driven away by others. The imperial court, nobles and government of the Yuan Dynasty all occupied a large number of "exorcism ports", and they were all personal slaves attached to the official or aristocratic private.

The implementation of "artisan registration system" In Song Dynasty, government-run handicrafts mostly implemented "combined employment system" and "differential employment system". "Combined employment" refers to the recruitment of craftsmen from the labor market, and the employment relationship between the government as an employer and craftsmen is equal and free. "Poor employment" has the nature of emphasizing recruitment, but the government still needs to pay the value of craftsmen's work at the market price. However, in the Yuan Dynasty, craftsmen from all over the country were included in the craftsmen's book and forced to work in official workshops in the form of free service.

During the Han and Tang Dynasties, if people wanted to travel far, they had to apply to the government for a pass, which was called "crossing the place". Song people have the freedom to migrate, and they no longer need to "cross the place". However, the Yuan Dynasty also implemented the "road introduction system" to restrict the flow of population. In the Yuan Dian, there was a piece of legislation called "Passers-by Inspection and Release": "Anyone who travels on the road must file a lawsuit for bail pending trial before seeing the county where he lives, and then he is allowed to do business elsewhere. ..... After Guanjin Ferry, it will be released and pledged by the county; If there is no county, it will be submitted to the company or inspected; No one can settle down without a public guide. If you need to stay overnight, the store will also check the quotation and attach the store calendar. ..... Offenders are not allowed to see Mao's house, and they are slapped 27 times. " Businessmen who travel far and stay in hotels must hold an official "summons", similar to a letter of introduction, before they are allowed to leave and stay in hotels.

The proliferation of "no membership system". Without records, the government will not accept the families, handmaiden and property of criminals. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the system of no record was quite prosperous, but in the Song Dynasty, the punishment of no record was rarely applied and was strictly controlled. For example, a piece of legislation in Song Xiaozong stipulates: "From now on, anyone who has no property according to law must apply to this department for trial and defense before granting membership. We are still always aware of this. If it violates the celebration, we will listen and let people sue. " After entering the Yuan Dynasty, the system of "no registration" flooded again. For example, an imperial edict of Kublai Khan said: "Anyone who does not work diligently and returns without asking the Han people will be punished and homeless." This is, of course, the embodiment of the degeneration of property rights.

Institutionalization of corporal punishment and torture. Since the abolition of corporal punishment by Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, corporal punishment such as "stabbing face", "cutting nose", "cutting feet" and "cutting power" has basically been eliminated. The Song Dynasty inherited the five dynasties and kept the penalty of "stabbing the face", but "cutting the nose" and "palace" never dared to be restored. In the Yuan Dynasty, corporal punishment was written into the law, such as "cattle thief and horse thief". In the Song Dynasty, cruel torture such as Ling Chi was only a kind of extra-legal punishment, which was rarely used. In the Yuan Dynasty, the formal codification, instead of hanging, became one of the two ways to execute the death penalty in the Yuan Dynasty, and the year of the year began to spread, which led to the barbaric trend of China's legal system.

The revival of "human martyrdom", as an ancient barbaric and ignorant custom, has basically disappeared since the Han Dynasty, with only sporadic voluntary martyrdom. The custom of human sacrifice still exists in the grassland tribes such as Khitan and Nuzhen in the north, which should be a reflection of the incomplete civilization of society. Whether the nobles of the Yuan Dynasty kept human sacrifices is not recorded, but there is no doubt that the Yuan Dynasty encouraged the people to do so. "History of the Yuan Dynasty" contains: "Qi, the wife of Datong Li, Yang, the wife of Yansui in Henan, Chen, the wife of Pan, and Gao, the wife of Wang Cheng, died and aspired, while Hu Runnv, the wife of Shunde, Zhou, and Wei, the wife of Zhen, all hanged themselves with their husbands. Zhu Yuanzhang, who grew up in this bad custom, resumed the system of human sacrifice after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.

The establishment of the "no sea order". The establishment of China's "maritime ban" also began in the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty ruled China for less than 100 years, but it carried out four "sea bans" in succession. During the "sea ban", businessmen are not allowed to trade in the sea: "Those who sell the sea privately are prohibited from detaining their pre-existing treasures and buying them by officials. Those who hide, promise to sue, and those who have no money, give the plaintiff half "; Overseas trade can only be monopolized by government-funded "official ships" This is very different from encouraging and protecting private merchant ships to go to sea in Song Dynasty.

The reappearance of "curfew" Before the Song Dynasty, there was a "curfew" system in cities. In the Song Dynasty, the "curfew" system collapsed and a bustling night market appeared. However, the "curfew" was restored in the Yuan Dynasty. When night falls, the bell rings, that is, residents are not allowed to travel, drink or light lamps. "After the curfew, the guards patrolled the market to check whether there were lights. If there is a light that is not turned off, they will leave a note on the door. Rosty Yi reported the owner of the house to the judge, and if he didn't speak, they would be punished. If someone walks in the street after the ban at night, they will be arrested by Rosty Yi and sent to court. " .

Vulgarization of governance system. The cultural level of courtiers in the Yuan Dynasty was not the same as that in the Song Dynasty, which also caused people in the Yuan Dynasty to be unable to inherit the developed and intensive governance system in the Song Dynasty. For example, in the field of legal system, as Mr. Xu Daolin, a legal scholar in the Republic of China, pointed out: "After Yuan people entered the Central Plains, the excellent judicial system in the Song Dynasty was greatly destroyed. They canceled the Dali Temple, the law, the criminal law examination, and the court transfer system. " Vulgar governance system is characterized by extremely low tax rate, and the government can only maintain the simplest form. In Mencius' words, this is called "a dead end"; From a modern perspective, that kind of pure government can't organize social and economic innovation in the historical transition period.

It can be seen that the system brought by the conquerors of the Yuan Dynasty from the grassland has obvious medieval color, and their implementation means that the modernization direction initiated by the "Tang and Song Reform" has been reversed.