Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

"Your Majesty, I have heard that the giant ships have been out of port for many years, sailing thousands of miles in search of the sea. Three ships have capsized so far, but no trace of the fairy has been found. Please bring your disciples to visit the fairy on the sea for Your Majesty!"

In Yanfu Palace, Xue Daoguang knelt on the ground.

Song Huizong sighed: "You also want to abandon me and leave?"

Xue Daoguang said quickly: "I have no such intention, I am just looking for immortals for your majesty. I also have selfish motives and want to search for traces of my ancestor on the sea."

Song Huizong thought about it carefully, waved his hand and said: "According to your wishes, I promote you to be the envoy of seeking immortals. Go ahead and come back early."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Xue Daoguang bowed and wanted to retreat.

"Wait a minute," Song Huizong shouted, "Japan will not come to court for a long time. When you are looking for the immortal, you can bring the ultimatum and credentials and go to Japan to urge you."

"Yes." Xue Daoguang accepted the order.

Song Huizong looked around and saw that his favorite ministers were still there, but the Taoist priests he valued were gone.

Wang Zaixi died in prison, Lin Lingsu was exiled, and Xue Daoguang asked to go to sea again.

In the past month, more and more Taoist priests have come up with various excuses to request to leave Beijing.

Last year, Song Huizong's worship of Taoism reached its peak, but now it has reached its peak and declined.

He followed Lin Lingsu's suggestion and changed the names of Buddha and Bodhisattva to Dajue Golden Immortal, Immortal, and Great Master. For example, Guanyin Bodhisattva was renamed Guanyin Master.

The temple was renamed Gongguan, and the abbot was renamed Zhigongguan. Monks are renamed deshi, nuns are renamed nvde, and they are not allowed to wear monk's robes.

He also canonized Laozi, Zhuangzi and Liezi, built Taoist schools across the country, allowed Taoist monks to study in Zhouxue and Taixue, and established Taoist doctors in Taixue.

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty also personally annotated the Tao Te Ching, and Cai Jing took the lead in editing the Tao History.

Everything seems so pale and helpless in the face of successive natural disasters.

Emperor, you claim to be the Son of God, why does God still bring so many disasters?

Last year, the Yellow River rose and flooded outside Tokyo. Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty asked Lin Lingsu to go out of the city to perform the ritual.

The laborers who were urgently reinforcing the dike were tired and hungry, and they already had a lot of resentment in their hearts.

Seeing Lin Lingsu crowding out of the city, not only did she not help, but she asked them to stop work temporarily and build a high altar for the Dharma first. Thinking that the high platform had to be demolished and the embankment strengthened after the high platform was demolished, and that Lin Lingsu's disciples and disciples were oppressing the people, the servants' anger finally broke out.

They took various tools and rushed towards Lin Lingsu in a swarm.

The accompanying Taoist priests and imperial troops were unable to resist, and Lin Lingsu fled back to the city in embarrassment.

This matter caused a big fuss, because the Yellow River dam was related to the safety of the entire city of Tokyo, and Song Huizong quickly heard about it.

Still unrepentant, Lin Lingsu relied on the emperor's favor to support King Yun Zhao Kai (formerly King Jia) and deliberately argued with the prince. He, a Taoist priest, dared to ask the prince to avoid driving and give way!

Countless ministers were angry, especially the young ones, and wrote letters of impeachment.

Song Huizong was also a little angry, but also felt helpless, so he had to let Lin Lingsu return to his hometown in Wenzhou.

For the serious crime of disrespecting the prince, Lin Lingsu not only did not go to jail, she was able to keep various titles. When he left Beijing, he was granted the title of Taixu doctor and returned to his hometown in great glory.

The upright ministers were not willing to stop there and continued to impeach Lin Lingsu's disciples.

Evidences of crimes were brought out one after another. Those Taoist priests committed evil and harmed the people. Taoist temples and Taoism annexed the land of the capital.

Song Huizong could only back down again and announced the abolition of Taoist schools across the country and punished some notorious Taoist officials.

Why didn't the emperor go his own way this time?

Because Taoist priests have such a bad reputation, they have aroused too much public anger!

At the same time, the imperial court was in financial distress and suffered from natural disasters for many years. Song Huizong had no money in his pocket and could not be strong-willed.

…

Xue Daoguang left Beijing with more than 20 direct disciples, and was criticized by others along the way.

Although he does not do evil and usually restrains his disciples, the Taoist uniform he wears is enough to make him a street rat.

After leaving the city and walking along the Cao River, there were hungry people everywhere in the suburbs.

This season is the time of drought, and there is famine in all parts of the capital. Countless people fled to Tokyo, and the capital of the Song Dynasty was surrounded by tens of thousands of hungry people.

The monarchs and ministers in the court turned a deaf ear and turned a blind eye.

It was not until June that the number of hungry people increased, and the Kaifeng Prefecture was allowed to release grain for relief.

It's still the old method, recruit young and strong refugees as Xiang troops, and the rest can just give porridge for a few days.

Cai Jing is about to step down.

He could no longer think of any way to increase taxes, so he could only restart the Fangtian Order to inventory the acres of land (to increase revenue), and at the same time let his confidants oppose the alliance with Jin to attack Liao (to reduce expenditures).

Fang Tianling offended the gentry and officials, and his opposition to the attack on Liao offended the emperor and Tong Guan. He was unable to continue to make money for the court.

How can this prime minister do it?

Xue Daoguang left the capital and went all the way to Hangzhou.

When we arrived in the southeast, there were floods all over the southeast, and there were also floods in the Huaihe River this year.

Small-scale uprisings occurred on Guangdong Road and Jiangxi Road at the same time.

After the flood subsided, Xue Daoguang continued to Hangzhou and discovered that Huashi Gang had not stopped along the way. In addition, local officials continued to collect excessive taxes for the sake of political performance. Liangzhe Road and Jiangnan Road were full of hungry people.

"Zhenmao, you are finally here!"

Eunuch Cui Hu warmly welcomed him, bowed and said: "I will entrust the matter of finding immortals to the real person. I will stay in Hangzhou to pray for the real person."

Xue Daoguang said: "The noble man has the emperor's mandate and should go to sea with the ship."

Cui Hu quickly said: "I'm not lucky enough, I'm afraid I won't be destined to be an immortal. If I follow the boat, it will be bad."

In fact, this guy was scared out of his mind.

Last year, Cui Hu led the fleet to sea and encountered a big storm. There were a total of 14 ships, 2 were sunk, 1 was missing, and the rest were seriously damaged.

Cui Hu himself almost died in the belly of a fish. He never wanted to take a boat again in his life.

Cui Hu also asked his followers to bring a sculpture: "This is a witch from Fujian. Her surname is Lin. After her death, she built a temple to become a deity. The Min people call her a goddess or a dragon girl. She can protect the safety of ships on the sea. When we came back, we passed by In Fujian, I invited a statue of the god, and it turned out to be smooth sailing. In the past six months, I have worshiped here day and night, and it must be more effective."

In the late Northern Song Dynasty, Mazu was just a folk witch who transformed into a deity, belonging to Fujian's shamanistic beliefs.

It would take another three years before Song Huizong granted him the title of Shunji Temple. There is no title, just the name of the temple given by the emperor. Mazu herself does not have a name, she is only known as "Lin's daughter".

Xue Daoguang didn't like this kind of folk witchcraft, but considering the crew's thoughts, he still planned to bring the statue with him.

Xue Daoguang asked: "Where did the noble people go last year?"

Cui Hu replied: "I was looking for information along the way. I got the help of the Fujian Road Envoy and recruited more than ten local crew members and fishermen. Going down from Quanzhou, I encountered the Pinghu Islands (Penghu Islands). There were Han people on the Pinghu Islands, all of whom had fled from Fujian. Households. We went to sea to find immortals, so we did not treat these fugitive households harshly. We rewarded them with copper coins to gain their trust, and found out that there are larger islands nearby."

Cui Hurang personally went to get the navigation records, and he continued: "There is a large island to the east of the Pinghu Islands. According to the escaped households, there are Liuqiu Kingdom, Bisheye Kingdom, and Tanmayan Kingdom on the island. Liuqiu people They are gentler and willing to trade local goods with the fugitives. The Vaishexie and Tanmayan people are extremely ferocious. They often cross the sea on bamboo rafts, burn down their houses, rob food, and take women captive."

"Let's take the fleet to visit the Liuqiu Kingdom. The barbarians there are indeed gentle, and the chief can speak Chinese. We gave a few pieces of porcelain, and the chief gave back a lot of fruits, venison and deer skins."

"Going south along the big island, we met the Vaishya people. Their skin color was very dark, and they didn't even know how to build a boat. They actually paddled bamboo rafts to and from the sea. We drove the boat and bumped into them, knocking over several bamboo rafts at once. , it can also be regarded as a bad breath for the Han people on Pinghu Island who fled their households."

"I heard that Tanma Yanguo is further south, but we haven't encountered it..."

These so-called vassal states were actually tribes.

The Liuqiu Kingdom is located in the northwest of Taiwan Island. Because they often interacted with the Han people, they were called Liuqiu people according to historical records.

The Vaishya Kingdom and the Mayan Kingdom are located in the west and southwest of Taiwan Island.

In particular, the Vishe evil people appeared many times in the historical records of the Southern Song Dynasty, and they even rowed bamboo rafts and plundered all the way to the coast of Fujian.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, Yongning Village was built in Quanzhou and more than 200 military buildings were built on the Penghu Islands, specifically to guard against the evil spirits of Vaishya.

Cui Hu continued: "We took the fleet further south and encountered many islands. We sent people to go to the islands to see them. Some islands were inhabited and some were uninhabited, but we did not encounter gods. We arrived at Mayi Country. (Northern Philippines), you can meet Han merchants there..."

This cargo went all the way from Taiwan to the Philippines, then circled around Java Island to reach Vietnam. It encountered a storm and lost three ships on the way.

In addition to looking for immortals, he also brought back many spices in exchange for things, and made a huge fortune when he arrived in Hangzhou.

But no matter how much money he made, Cui Hu would not go. He really almost died at sea.

Xue Daoguang said: "When I left Beijing, the officials ordered me to go to Japan to urge tribute. I have to go to Japan first this year."

Cui Hu said: "You can go to Mingzhou to discuss this matter with Zhizhou Louyi."

The Song Dynasty and Japan had always had diplomatic exchanges, with exchanges in the form of ultimatums.

The Song Dynasty issued an ultimatum in the name of the magistrate of Mingzhou (Ningbo), and Japan responded in the name of Dazaifu.

This is not a tributary relationship, or even central-level diplomacy. However, in order to save face, the emperors of the Song Dynasty often used words such as "zhizhao" and "gift" to unilaterally regard each other as a tributary relationship between monarch and minister.

There was a change three years ago. Song Huizong didn't know what he thought, but he actually sent letters of credence to Japan (the only time in the two Song Dynasties).

This is tantamount to admitting that Japan and the Song Dynasty have equal diplomatic relations.

But Japan was very disrespectful. Three years later, it still hadn't replied to the letter of credence, which really made Song Huizong a little worried.

At this time in Japan, Genji interfered in government affairs and pursued a policy of isolation. Only merchants from the Song Dynasty were allowed to go there, while Japan was not allowed to sail to the sea.

In order to get rid of his relatives and Genji, Emperor Shirakawa voluntarily abdicated and became Emperor Shirakawa. He established an additional court outside the imperial court to recruit and promote middle- and lower-level samurai.

To put it simply, the Emperor rebelled!

The two power groups in Japan were fighting fiercely. How could they be in the mood to play diplomacy with Song Huizong?

Xue Daoguang left Hangzhou and went to Mingzhou to discuss with Lou Yi, and then went to Japan with the merchants.

Less than half a month after he went to sea, a man named Fang La began to rebel.

History has changed, although not much, and it is all related to the Zhu family and his son.

In order to build a glass cave, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty ordered all official and private kilns to pay tribute to the glass. The people of Jiangxi were miserable, which led to this year's Jiangxi Uprising, which was larger than ever in history. Many kiln workers joined the uprising.

Building a fleet to go to sea to search for immortals also increased the burden on the people of Zhejiang and Zhejiang. Not only did they need materials for shipbuilding, but they also forcibly recruited crew members and food to go to sea. Even the goods brought for trade were extorted from merchants.

Most of the strange stones, flowers and trees in the glass cave were forcibly collected from the two Zhejiang provinces.

Fangla's uprising was advanced several months.

However, Song and Jin have not yet formed an alliance, and Song's troops have not assembled in Tokyo, so they cannot be directly mobilized to suppress the uprising.

Fang La in this time and space has more time to expand his territory.

(End of this volume.)