Song Gexing

Chapter 128 Cotton cultivation in the Song Dynasty

People in the Song Dynasty knew that cotton kept warm, but it was just stuffed into quilts like reed catkins and did not know how to compact it to make quilts, so the warmth-keeping effect was much poorer.

The Chinese began to make quilts. It was from the late Southern Song Dynasty to the early Yuan Dynasty that a woman named Huang Daopo learned and created the technology.

It was the cotton-playing technology that was looked down upon by later generations, but later generations had forgotten that it was this technology that was looked down upon by them that countless people had survived.

As mentioned earlier, the climate in the Tang and Song Dynasties was warm, and there were not many people who died of freezing without quilts. However, in the Yuan Dynasty, the climate of Xiaobinghe had begun to show signs. If there were no quilts, how many people would have died of freezing.

This is also the reason why Huang Daopo, a poor woman, was worshiped in a temple by the people and was recorded in the official history. She was a glorious woman who gave birth to Buddhas in thousands of families.

After listening to Zhao Fang's introduction, Zhao Zhen and the ministers were very excited. It turned out that kapok, which they despised, turned out to be the best in keeping out the cold.

Zhao Zhen couldn't sit still anymore, and immediately ordered Di Qing to comply, and issued an imperial edict to Guangnan Road, requesting the supply of cotton seeds to fully expand planting in Fujian, Sichuan and other places.

Yazhou, which had always been regarded as a place of exile, was taken seriously by the imperial court for the first time, requiring Guangnan East Road to send a complete system of officials to govern there.

Yazhou established an administrative system starting from Soochow in the Three Kingdoms, but in fact the Central Plains court did not pay much attention to it at all.

There are government officials, yamen, and officials, but no one wants to go there. For example, the chief magistrate of a county is usually a Jinshi.

But in Yazhou, not to mention the county magistrate, even the magistrate of the state may be a member of the Juren family, let alone the county magistrate. Basically, if you have the status of a student, you can serve wherever you are willing to go. (In the Song Dynasty, people who were elected were not considered to be famous, but only had the status of being a Jinshi, but they could indeed become officials.)
If this is the case in prefectures and counties, let alone the second official, the most terrifying thing is education. The imperial court can't send officials who teach and teach, because no one will go.

Don't think that education doesn't matter, it is the foundation of stability. The most important thing for a dynasty is its sacrifice and war capabilities, but the cohesion is education.

When there are problems in education, the sense of identity is gone. Without a sense of identity, there is no long-term stability.

Especially in areas like Yazhou where there are more ethnic minorities than Han people, education is particularly important. But the problem is that no one wants to go there, so where can the education come from.

The first Jinshi in Yazhou was taught by Su Shi. Su Dongpo's merit is not his poems and articles, but the education of a group of students after he was demoted to Yazhou.

Since then, Hainan Island has truly integrated into the Confucian cultural circle. The presence of local officials has given the local ethnic groups a centripetal force.

Whether you want to talk about cultural identity or related interests, in short, with education, you have the hope of advancing to the gentry, and you have a sense of identity.

Now, because of cotton cultivation and textile technology, Yazhou has naturally become more important in the eyes of the imperial court.

Of course, this is only the first step. If the planting expansion is successful and the cotton's ability to withstand the cold is verified, the planting area will be expanded nationwide.

When things got here, there was nothing to worry about Zhao Fang. The comfortable days came again, reading, playing the flute and practicing martial arts. All that was left was to create villains.

But strangely enough, several years have passed and Zhao Fang, who is already 20 years old, has no children. (It’s just the beginning of the new year, so it can’t be counted.)
Even his two younger brothers have children, but he still stares blankly. He is not in a hurry, but others are.

Meng Xin even secretly invited a doctor to check on his wife and concubines, but they were all in good health and had no hidden diseases.

Although he has not been examined, he is as fierce as a big stallion. Could it be that he has to follow in his father's footsteps and only have a son at the age of 28?Although Zhao Zhen did not have a son before, he did have a daughter, which shows that it is not that he is physically weak, but that his seeds are biased towards giving birth to daughters.

It is now the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the second year of Jiayou's reign. Bianjing City is crowded with people during the Lantern Festival tonight, but Zhao Fang is not lucky enough to go shopping. He was jointly treated by his father, queen, and queen.

It turns out that Meng Xin's visit to the imperial doctor for medical treatment was exposed. Also, men must not examine the bodies of the Crown Princess and the Crown Prince's concubines.

But female doctors are only available in the palace. This was his own suggestion back then. He felt sorry for the ladies in the palace who were sick and no one saw a doctor. He could only describe the symptoms and prescribe medicine to the imperial doctor, which delayed the illness.

But not everyone can arrange for female doctors to leave the palace. Meng Xin had the right to recruit them, but she couldn't hide it from the queen and was naturally discovered.

As a result, after asking, Zhao Zhen and his wife were surprised to find that they had always forgotten that this son who had high hopes had not yet become a father.

In fact, I don't blame the two couples. Originally, the elders were most looking forward to having grandchildren, but their eldest son used to be too troublesome, so they selectively remembered to keep an eye on him and not cause trouble.

And in the past when we were young, everyone would selectively forget about this matter, but it finally stopped in the past few years, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief and also forgot about it.

Now that he thought about it, the couple became anxious and asked the imperial doctor to check his body, but found no problem.

After the court meeting on the first day of the new year, Zhao Zhen specifically asked about his sexual intercourse, but he was so shy that he ignored him. It was not because he was thin-skinned, but because he was very calm when his father asked him about it.

The queen did ask Meng Xin and others, and although they were shy, they all answered, but Zhao Fang was not afraid of his father at all, so he was not willing to answer.

Zhao Zhen then murmured, and after discussing with Empress Cao, he thought that the Crown Princess and others might not dare to tell the truth, and it could not be that there was something wrong with his son.

As a result, there was a Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and Zhao Zhen drugged him while he was entering the palace to celebrate the festival.

How could Zhao Fang be wary of his parents? Now everyone is going to visit the lanterns. He is visiting the sea of ​​flowers, and a female official who has been selected is entangled with him to go outside when he has time.

The system of female officials has existed since ancient times. The most mature system was in the Wu Zetian era. Later, it was abolished in large numbers but was not banned. The system of female officials was still used in the Song Dynasty, but the number was very small.

There are roughly two types of people who serve as female officials. One is the talented and learned women who are promoted from the palace maids, and the other is the recruited, innocent women.

The first condition for becoming a female official is talent and learning, because their job is actually the emperor's secretary. Without talent and learning, they can't do anything.

The female officials recruited are not limited to single women. They do not need to stay in the palace all their lives and can retire.

Of course, being single is easier to be selected. After all, you cannot go home if you work in the palace, and it is the easiest to be lucky by the emperor.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty stipulated that the emperor was not allowed to have female officials. Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, very few female officials were favored by the emperor. The emperors of the Ming Dynasty respected female officials very much.

But the Song Dynasty didn't have such regulations, so Zhao Fang was counted by his own father. Zhao Zhen asked Empress Cao to pick out a female official who had given birth to see if his son was sick.

(End of this chapter)