Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

"Aunt, aunt, there's something great going on!"

That morning, Grandma Yan was cooking, and Shen Yourong quickly ran back from outside.

Seeing her daughter-in-law's happy expression, Mrs. Yan couldn't help but ask: "What good things can happen? But has Brother Qi's matter of studying in official school been settled?"

Shen Yourong said: "It's the five Baifu brothers. The whole family has disappeared. Some village neighbors said that the Bai brothers committed crimes and the government wanted to arrest them, so they fled to other places overnight."

"Really ran away?" Mrs. Yan didn't believe it.

Shen Yourong said: "They really ran away, and they even robbed the fishing boat. Uncle Liu said that it rained lightly last night, so it was time to fish at night. He had just cast out two nets when he heard the Bai brothers shouting on the shore. He didn't know what they were shouting about. Well, he was afraid of offending the five brothers, so he closed the net and rowed to the shore. Before the boat stopped, Byford had jumped on the boat and pushed him into the water. Several other fishing boats in the village were also robbed by the five brothers. gone."

Grandma Yan said in disgust: "These bad guys will harm others even if they run for their lives. If they rob another fishing boat, what else will they do to survive?"

"The village neighbors whose land has been occupied are now moving back to their fields. Let's go too!" Shen Yourong said urgently.

Seeing the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law going out with hoes and not even cooking breakfast, Zhu Guoxiang couldn't help but ask about the situation.

When asked clearly, Zhu Guoxiang said: "We will also help."

The father and son took Bai Qi and went out to the fields together.

Ju Ming deliberately walked very slowly, dropped a few meters away, and whispered: "I guess they were sent to Yamen. These five brothers knew that they would not be spared, so they simply packed up their belongings and fled with their families. Poor these villagers, they don't know how to make up for the arrears." Tax, everyone is happy to get their land back."

"I asked Mrs. Shen that the villagers have generally paid their land taxes over the years," Zhu Guoxiang couldn't understand, "Why are there still so many tax arrears to pay?"

Ju Ming guessed: "The people fled, their household registrations were not canceled, and the land was annexed by large households. This kind of annexation basically belongs to hidden land. The large households are unwilling to pay taxes, so they have been owed. Now that the government is investigating, they will let all the people live in peace." There is another possibility that some taxes were pocketed by officials and villagers, and if they are traced, they will also be counted on the people."

Zhu Guoxiang fell into silence and became increasingly dissatisfied with the Song Dynasty government.

At this moment, Shangbaicun seemed to be in a carnival.

The villagers rushed to tell each other and went out one after another carrying hoes. They all said that they were oppressed and their fields were taken over by the five brothers. In fact, many people were fishing in troubled waters.

When they came to a dry field, Mrs. Yan pointed to the edge of the field and said, "This ridge of land belongs to my family. The field boundary was moved by Bai Fude."

The father and son immediately swung their hoes to dig out the field bank, and then built a new field bank outward.

The two men and two women worked together, and Bai Qi also helped move the soil. It took nearly three hours to complete the task.

Looking at other villagers, most of them are messing around, not only taking back their own land, but also taking the opportunity to occupy more acres. Anyway, the five brothers of the Bai family have already run away. If they don’t occupy it now, when will they wait?

Even villagers who had never been bullied pointed to a certain piece of land and said: This is my ancestral land, which was usurped by Bai Fude and his great-grandfather!

Faced with the chaos, Mrs. Yan warned her grandson: "Brother Qi, if it is not my family's thing, you must not take it. If it is not my family's field, you must not occupy it. You must have backbone as a man, do you remember?"

"I remember." Bai Qi nodded seriously.

Suddenly, several villagers came over, looked at the field boundary in Xinlei, and asked, "Grandma Yan, this field is next to your house, why don't you order more?"

Grandma Yan said: "I have taken back the occupied ridge."

"The rest will be divided between our two families." The villagers were very happy.

These villagers were from two families, and they immediately divided their fields with hoes.

Not only are the fields divided, but there are also crops in the fields. The wheat seedlings grow lush and green. With a little care, the wheat can be harvested directly in summer.

"It's a fight, it's a fight!"

But it was the two clan brothers outside the old Bai Yuan, each with his or her family, fighting each other in the paddy field near the river.

Of course they will not be bullied by Baiford. They are purely here to grab the land at this time. And they were too lazy to compete with the villagers for dry land, so they directly aimed at the fertile paddy fields, and started fighting over the uneven distribution of the spoils.

By the time Ju Ming went over to watch the show, the fight had already been decided.

Both sides were injured, and some had their heads smashed, their hair disheveled and their faces covered with blood. There were two women lying in the paddy field, grabbing each other's hair, their clothes covered in mud and water, cursing and refusing to let go.

Most of their children were crying loudly, and the older ones also participated in the fight.

Because the incident was so big, both Mrs. Bai and other officials were alarmed.

Old Bai was carried to the edge of the field by his servants and angrily scolded the two clan brothers: "We are all members of our own family, and they were beaten like this just for a piece of paddy field. The Bai family has lost all face by the gangsters!"

Both sides were talking about it, just waiting for the old member to make the decision.

Lao Bai, a member of the Communist Party of China, said: "From the middle of the field to the ridge, each family will share half of it."

The one who suffered the loss in the fight said: "My eldest man's head was hit. He must either pay for the soup or medicine, or get an extra ten feet of land."

"If you beat the shit, it will bleed for a few days and it will be fine." Another person said.

Member Lao Bai was already very angry. He didn't want to mess around any more, so he decided the result directly: "Half of the family, whoever makes trouble again will be sent to work this year!"

No one spoke for a moment, but everyone was dissatisfied.

The winning side feels that if they win, they should occupy more land.

The side that lost the battle felt that it should occupy more land even though it suffered a loss.

But they can't accept it. Member Lao Bai has already spoken, and they must strictly abide by it.

As for Bai Chongwen, the eldest son of the Bai family, he has already taken the two most fertile paddy fields with his servants, and no one who is blind dares to snatch them from him.

The fighting in the paddy fields paused for a while, and fighting resumed in the mountains further away.

At this moment, the law of the jungle prevails, and morality and law have to stand aside. As long as they are not killed or maimed, no one will care.

The peaceful countryside reveals its most cruel and ugly undertones.

The father and son returned to the courtyard. Zhu Ming moved a bench and sat down: "Dean Zhu, do you have any thoughts?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "It is unique and amazing. When I was a child, there were occasional fights for land in the countryside, but only for small corners. The main thing is that it is useless to fight too much. The land belongs to the village collective. When there is a dispute, you can let it go. The production team reorganizes the fields. In ancient times, there was no way to solve it. It all depended on who was more powerful and whose family had more men. The grassroots governance of the government was too weak."

Ju Ming smiled and said, "I really admire Mr. Bai. If it were those evil gentry, no one would be allowed to rob them today. All the land belongs to the landlord. The Bai family has been very restrained in being able to resist greed and only occupy two fertile fields." ”

While they were talking, another group of villagers passed by, pushing and cursing.

It was probably because the land grabbing failed to produce results, so they were clamoring to find Lao Bai, a member of the Party Committee, for external review.

This reflects the prestige of Lao Bai Yuanwai. The villagers only come to him for comment because they believe in him. As long as the favoritism is not too obvious, Lao Bai can do whatever he says, and the villagers are willing to listen to him.

The more similar incidents are handled, the higher the prestige of the old white member will be.

Ju Ming pointed at the villagers who had gone away, with a hint of sarcasm in his tone: "See, this is called a village sage, who takes care of the people on behalf of the emperor. In remote countryside, the emperor is nothing, and the village sages are the ones who speak the truth. "

“The grassroots level is out of control,” Zhu Guoxiang said.

Zhu Ming shook his head and said: "The grassroots level has not completely lost control. In ancient times, with the backward productivity, the gentry class was a supplementary part of the state power. From a certain perspective, it could even be called a progressive force. The decline of the Northern Song Dynasty was due to problems with the superstructure. . It is in the transformation period of ancient Chinese feudal society, and it has begun to transform, but it has not yet turned around."

"Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, it has been a system of prefectures and counties, right? How do we need to transform?" Zhu Guoxiang didn't understand what his son wanted to say at all.

Ju Ming explained in detail: "It's different."

"Before the Song Dynasty, no matter what the actual effect was, the imperial court had expressly prohibited annexation. In the whole world, there is nothing but royal land. This sentence is the absolute theme. Since the Song Dynasty, land has been completely commercialized. Even if the emperor gives ministers gifts People have to pay demolition fees for their houses. Don’t worry about how much you pay, and don’t worry whether you get them or not. Even if you show off, you still have to pay demolition fees.”

"The liberalization of land annexation led to drastic changes in the social structure. The landlord class, as a force, entered the stage of Chinese history for the first time. At the same time, agricultural technology improved and could feed more people. Cities in the Song Dynasty began to prosper, and the social division of labor became more refined. Citizens Class has also entered the stage of history.”

"Confucianism in the Tang Dynasty and before could not explain the social structure of the Song Dynasty, so it gave birth to Confucian innovation. Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism was born under this background. In the late Northern Song Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism was not yet mature, and there were only many New Confucianisms One of them."

"Coincidentally, printing and imperial examinations also took shape, cultural communication methods underwent qualitative changes, and the number of educated groups expanded rapidly. It can be seen from academic works that academic works in the Tang Dynasty and before were mainly in the form of classical Chinese, and the audience was the social elite ; The academic writings of the Song Dynasty are becoming more and more vernacular, and they are oriented to the entire citizen class and the landlord class."

Zhu Guoxiang thought seriously and said: "Listening to what you said, the Song Dynasty was a bit like the Renaissance."

Ju Ming said with a smile: "The Six Classics annotated me, isn't it the Renaissance? The schools of thought in the Song Dynasty flourished, and the academic leaders of each school wanted to seize the right to speak in the field of thought during the period of social transformation. In the end, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism won victory."

"In the Ming Dynasty, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism ruled the country, marking the successful transformation of ancient Chinese society and entering the model of rural China."

"In the Song Dynasty, only half of the situation was reversed, and the situation was very embarrassing. The social problems of the Tang Dynasty continued and developed into the social problems of the Ming Dynasty. Famous officials and scholars were all looking for a way out. Wang Anshi was one of the radical explorers."

"By the way, the Chinese people's concepts of family, country, and ethics were constructed during the Song Dynasty."

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said, "It's a bit interesting."

Ju Ming said: "We often ask: Do you speak truth? Dao is truth, Daoism is Neo-Confucianism, and truth is the core of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism! The influence of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism on later generations has reached the point where people do not use it every day. The point of self-awareness.”

After his son said so much, Zhu Guoxiang quickly summed it up in one sentence: "The Song Dynasty was a dynasty that connected the past and the following in China. Its government structure and official ideology have not yet adapted to the dramatic social changes, so it is difficult to deal with various conflicts when they break out."

Ju Ming gave a thumbs up: "Dean Zhu, you are so smart!"

To do great things, we must grasp the main contradiction.

Analyzing the social structure of the Song Dynasty is the first step to grasp the main contradiction.