In Chapter 4 of "The Biography of Traitors", there are 15 traitors, including 7 of them including their children, and 22 traitors. Among them were Cai Que and Zhang Chun who implemented the new law, Cai Jing who encouraged Huizong's squandering, Huang Qianshan and Wang Boyan who made things difficult for Li Gang, Qin Hui who killed Yue Fei, and Han Tuo who was bent on the Northern Expedition. On the eve of the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, Jia Sidao was the captain and governor, and the head of the military strategist. Today, when we re-examine their deeds, it is difficult to prove whether each person was as "loyal and traitorous" as historians described. However, the above-mentioned 15 people were considered unacceptable by public opinion by people at the time and historians. This is a fact. Moreover, after placing them within the context of a country's history, it becomes clear that traitors were morally responsible for the downfall of the dynasty.
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Jia Sidao, "a little down-and-out, not doing his job for the sake of blogging" has always been a typical example of a traditional villain. His sister, Concubine Jia, was favored by Li and promoted through nepotism. Later, he became a powerful minister. He personally enjoys sensuality. When he was young, he often held banquets with lanterns on the West Lake. In his later years, he fought crickets with his concubines in the pavilions. His greatest blunder in state affairs began in 1259. At that time, he was assigned to Hanyang and commanded the military as the right prime minister and cardinal. He sent an emissary to sue for peace from Kublai Khan, who was the emperor's younger brother and attacked Ezhou, and promised the Southern Song emperor to collect money, but Kublai Khan refused at first. It happened that in the autumn of that year, Meng Ge, who was later called Xianzong by Master Meng, died. Kublai Khan had to return to his own country to fight for the throne before making a hasty decision. When the Mongolian soldiers retreated from the north, Jia Sidao defeated Zhang Dajie and returned to the Shaoshi Division to become a marquis. Kublai Khan proclaimed himself emperor the following year and established the Yuan Dynasty, and sent people to collect ancient coins of the Southern Song Dynasty to prevent Jia Sidao from detaining them. Later, Kublai Khan never accepted the Southern Song Dynasty's peace request.
However, Jia Sidao did have the ability to whitewash peace, so after more than ten years, he was awarded the throne of Zhao in 1264, when he was already a little emperor less than three years old. Jia Sidao debuted as a veteran of the Three Dynasties. In the spring of 275, the Yuan army reached the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and Boyan's army advanced downstream. Jia Sidao's direct son-in-law Fan was also demoted to Anqing in the Yuan Dynasty. He also prepared ships to enter and leave Wuhu. However, because his request for peace to Boyan was rejected, the army on the river collapsed without a fight, so he had to live in Yangzhou. At this time, the court in Lin'an was in danger, and the ministers asked Jia Sidao to plead guilty. The ruling Empress Dowager Xie demoted him to be the training envoy of the Gaozhou regiment. In traditional politics, when officials are demoted and released one by one, the motive for assassination is often hidden in the first imprisonment. It turns out that the author of "The Biography of Jia Sidao" could be "in Zhangzhou" in the end. It was only interesting to write because Jia Sidao was such a treacherous minister, but Zheng Huchen was the county captain who volunteered to send him to death. This person was able to leave his name in the history of the Qing Dynasty. He also commended a traitor and a loyal minister, and was recited by historical readers of all generations.
Speaking justice for traitors is not the purpose of this book, which is to reveal the truth about morality in traditional politics, nor is it the theme of our re-examination of history today. We propose a story about Jia Sidao, but it contains an important link in China’s financial and economic history. It cannot be summarized by Jia’s personal behavior, hobbies, life and death.
Judging from various signs, the material civilization of traditional China reached its peak in the Song Dynasty. Zhang Zeduan's "History of the Song Dynasty" was written on the eve of the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty. It can be seen from the picture that Bianjing's commercial development and the living standards of the people above the average level, as well as its buildings, ships, and bridges, are no worse than any inland city in China in the 20th century. That is to say, the transportation, loading and unloading of goods, and the operation of various artisan shops were probably at least consistent with any city in Western Europe at that day. A century and a half later, Kyle Polo arrived in Lin'an on the same day 32 years after the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, and today's Hangzhou once said: "There is no doubt that Kunsai is the most beautiful and noble city in the world." Hangzhou is spacious The streets, canal traffic, and stone ditch drainage leave a good impression on visitors to Venice. What he praised was that China's wealth is now reflected in huge numbers. There are not only countless cities in the metropolises, but also countless towns in the countryside, which are not found in Europe.
Kyle Polo's narrative is provocative, and the average reader is suspicious of his exaggeration. Recently, however, French scholar Jacques Gernet compared his memories with contemporary Chinese documents, such as "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", "Capital Record" and "Mengliang Lu", and found that many of the details can be corroborated with each other. After his arrangement, Hangzhou in the 13th century was really lively and prosperous.
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So far, we can find the name of the Tongqu Street Bridge and the location of the shop selling the best paper fans in the alley. Hangzhou's population gradually increased from less than 200,000 in the early 12th century to over one million. On that day, the largest city in Europe, with a population of tens of thousands, was incredible. So, Gernet asked: On that day, China was the richest and most advanced country in the world. Even though only half of the rivers and mountains of the Southern Song Dynasty were preserved, it still had a population of 60 million, an area equivalent to four times that of France today, and a culture that was reached its most glorious stage. Why did it show a serious regression in history when it was invaded by the Mongols?
In fact, it was more than 200 years ago that Adams wrote "Old Martial Arts". When he was writing a book, he also went to Borokel to pay homage to China about 500 years ago. It has been pointed out that although China took the lead 500 years ago, it has not been able to sustain its advantage since then. Smith didn't say why, but he pointed out that there must be something in China's legal system that prevents people from increasing their wealth.
Today, when we tell the story of Jia Sidao, we point out that the crux of the problem lies in China’s traditional bureaucracy, which centrally controls a large number of farmers and lacks modern organizational and technical capabilities, especially the lack of an appropriate Ideologies that govern business finance. The above two chapters have gradually mentioned the situation in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the late Southern Song Dynasty, finance and taxation reached the point of exhaustion. Hangzhou's prosperity not only makes no contribution to national affairs, but also fails to mobilize the agricultural wealth of the Yangtze River Delta. The reason why Jia Sidao was angry was not only because he misjudged the enemy's situation, nor because he was arrogant and extravagant, but mainly because he took the initiative to "buy public land" during Li Yun's last two years, which was tantamount to confiscating some rich people's property. assets to feed the army. And he presided over the issuance of the last credit currency, causing prices to rise again. "The Biography of the Traitorous Minister" says that in the end, the man with the reputation of a veteran thanked the Queen Mother Lin and said that he should die, saying: "I don't know how much grass the gentry cultivates, and your Majesty cannot control it." It can be seen that the people in the opposition, including those in the middle and upper levels, People already hate him to the core.
To talk about the background of this situation, we have to start with Zhao Gou of King Kang.
When Zhao Zuo became the future emperor, there was initially no support from the legal system or general will. He was supposed to be taken hostage in the Eight Gold Army, but it was only because his father and brother were taken captive that he proclaimed himself emperor. Except for Zhezong's widow's recognition of the so-called Queen Meng Shi of Yuanhu, his imperial career had no legal basis, and there were no powerful ministers in the south. His subordinates were uncertain about who would take over, and he himself had no money or soldiers. This can also be considered to be the result of excessive centralization of power in the Song Dynasty. So as soon as he returned to Hangzhou from Yangzhou, an official who served as a palace guard rebelled, forcing him to abdicate and let his one-year-old son become emperor. Only when Han Shizhong works diligently can he recover. He was breathing unsteadily and was being chased by the Jin people, so he found a ship to escape for his life. Until 1135 AD, the ancestral hall was built in Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. On that day the southern provinces were also in the hands of rebels and bandits, from which the bulk of the emperor's army was adapted. At that time, the rebellion and peace struggle lasted for more than ten years. Since the Southern Song Dynasty, there has been no opportunity to straighten out the reorganization of fiscal revenue.
Words such as "economic money", "total money", "monthly money" and "book money" extracted from this "Food Notes" are mentioned before and after the history textbook. In fact, this represents the fundraising method when the dynasty was first founded. Generally, surcharges are added to the existing tax amount. At first there were thousands of items, 23 were added, and later it was increased to 56. Comprehensive official handling fees are also collected, combined with the punishment of stolen goods. Then, local governments were instructed to provide supplies to nearby garrisons on a regular basis, "posting every month."
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These names gave the Southern Song government an opportunity to gain a foothold, but they were not the focus of financial history. By the time Li Xin wrote "Yuan Fu", it was already the 13th century, the last leaf of the Southern Song Dynasty. He also mentioned that in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Southeast China only supplied Bianjing with 2 million yuan per year. When he arrived, excluding Sichuan, the total economic and monetary volume of Southeast China had reached 14.4 million. But what he failed to point out is that in the early days of the Southern Song Dynasty, the government sold public land, and later relied on printing banknotes and buying private goods to sustain itself. In the end, 10 million yuan could only buy more than 10,000 stones of rice, and the government could not balance its expenditure with taxes and patents on salt, wine, alum and tea.
The paper money of the Southern Song Dynasty has been studied in detail in "Quan Han Sheng". Taking Huizi as an example, about a hundred years after Emperor Gaozong, the circulation increased by 32.5 times. However, the meeting must be "bound" every three years, and the old coins must be exchanged for new coins.
There are cases where two are exchanged for one, and five are exchanged for one, so its depreciation must also be calculated cumulatively. But sometimes the government also sells gold and silver to recover legal tender. Sometimes it uses both old and new coins, and its legal value cannot be calculated. According to information provided by the whole family, in the early Southern Song Dynasty, it was common for rice to cost 30 cents per stone. 100 years later, references to 340 cents, 700 cents, and 1,000 cents per stone appeared, and the currency devalued by more than 300 times. Today, people who have experienced monetary inflation may not think this situation is remarkable, but in the Middle Ages, when markets were small and traffic was congested, this was an extreme threat. One stone of rice is worth 1 million, which is shocking enough. Moreover, currency depreciation is tantamount to a disguised tax increase, and the burden is often passed on to the poor. The government is short of money and the corresponding payment items are only deducted but not deducted. Quan Hansheng gave an example: In 1235, a court official resigned to supervise the dispatch of military horses. The reasons he cited were currency devaluation and military shortages. Therefore, the situations of supervision and non-supervision are self-evident. "Bingzhi" mentions conscription, and there is another paragraph like this: "Our company cannot practice it personally, Cao
Jia Sidao's plan to buy land was implemented in 1263. It was 13 years after the Yuan army entered Lin'an that he abdicated and became the Supreme Emperor for a hundred years. The area for buying land was limited to six counties from Pingjiang to Jiaxing, which is today the richest area in the Yangtze River Delta between Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The land purchased was 1/3 of the 200 acres per household. According to a complex formula, the price was. Use paper money, use gold and silver and express love. The purpose of buying farmland is to avoid creating paper money and harmony in the future. It is expected that the rent collected can solve the financial problems of the day.
Jia Sidao initiated it with his own 10,000 acres of property. . The results of its implementation have been discussed many times. Only a passage in the book "Yuan Fu" written seriously today tells us that this is a very ambitious plan that will be implemented in a short period of time. The difficulty is not just buying the land, but that after buying the land, the bureaucrats have no sure way to control the management in order to reap the fruits. When Jia Sidao fell, all parties demanded the return of the land to the original owner. Some people also suggested that tenants should be recruited for the reward of the official land. .
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However, these official fields were never returned, and the Yuan Dynasty regarded them as a reward to the royal family. Even 100 years later, the dynasty did not deal with them properly and they still became Susong in the future. The problem of heavy taxation on regional official land is reflected in Gu's "History of the Song Dynasty" and the papers written by Zhou
With the dual experience of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, we know that when an agricultural country When the administrative system has matured and cannot fully manage and play the role of the most advanced economic departments under its jurisdiction, only commercial control is the way out. At this time, the functions of the government are becoming more and more complex, and the need for the use of special skills is increasing. Because it was beyond the scope of old agriculture and could not be dealt with by existing taxes, bonds had to be issued, which led to representative politics and justice and other organizations and institutions that followed. Independence of the movement.
This development is only possible if the citizens are economically mature and their organizational structures are able to generate leadership and become a center of political gravity. In the case of Europe, this is capitalist. Rise. Therefore, French historian Fernand Braudel once said: "The success of capitalism lies in its penetration into the state, and it itself becomes the state. "China has not reached this stage in the 20th century, let alone the Southern Song Dynasty in the 13th century. As for the old bureaucracy, it is difficult to accurately grasp its resources due to the lack of close economic ties with the rural areas under its control. A recent study by British historians A study found that in the Tudor and Slate dynasties, feudalism had collapsed, capitalism had not yet emerged, and the royal family managed real estate in a bureaucratic structure, resulting in numerous technical problems that could not be summarized by corruption and incompetence. The destruction of the family has been ignored. To regard him as the main cause of the collapse of the Southern Song Dynasty is to simplify history in the name of morality.
Looking back on this period of history today is not enough to make the Chinese proud, but it should also make people proud. Feeling depressed. Remember that the Mongols destroyed the Song Dynasty in 1279, but within a hundred years, Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty came to the city, Xu Da gathered the three concubines and rushed to Mobei, becoming an expelled dynasty. This was also the case in the past. Unprecedented. Only with these experiences, the great emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty tried his best to restore the economy. There is still a long way to go to say that today's China is "sunny after the rain", but these aspects can be consistent.
If you read history from this perspective, you can better understand the characteristics of China's history. Jia Sidao is also one of the important links. If you are not poor, it is difficult for you to understand the depth and twists and turns of history, so it is difficult to see through the long-term rations