"Canal and Shipping Route in Yuan Dynasty"
Canal and air route in Yuan Dynasty
With the Mongolian influence extended to West Asia, the contacts between Europe and China in Yuan Dynasty became more frequent and the technical exchanges were more rapid. The economy of the Yuan Dynasty was still dominated by agricultural economy, and the production technology, cultivated land area, grain output, water conservancy construction and extensive cotton planting all surpassed those of the previous generation. Due to the smooth land and water transportation and the popularity of paper money, the Yuan Dynasty was the first dynasty in China's history to use paper money as a currency on a large scale, and established the earliest and most complete paper money circulation system in the world, which was more than 400 years earlier than that in Europe (excessive paper money at the end of the Yuan Dynasty led to inflation). The commerce of the Yuan Dynasty was also very prosperous, making it one of the richest countries in the world at that time.
Agricultural production and labor system
Due to the long-term war, the population in the north has declined, and a large number of farmland has been abandoned as pasture. Under the influence of the advanced agricultural economy in the mainland, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty gradually abandoned the backward nomadic economy and exploitation methods and implemented the policy of "taking agriculture and mulberry as the top priority".
During Kublai Khan's reign, he first set up a department to persuade farmers, and later renamed it the department of agriculture, and sent ambassadors to various places to rectify agriculture and mulberry. The Yuan government issued the book Nong Sang Ji in different ways.
The Yuan Dynasty carried out reclamation measures for both military and civilian use. In addition, many other measures have been taken to restore and develop production, such as building water conservancy projects. Therefore, agricultural production in various places has gradually recovered and developed. The gradual popularization of cotton planting in Yuan Dynasty was an important achievement in agricultural production.
In terms of land ownership, the Yuan Dynasty basically followed the traditions of Liao, Jin and Southern Song Dynasties, and the tenancy relationship of tenants engaged in production still dominated. However, in the Yuan Dynasty, the status of tenant farmers declined.
In the Yuan Dynasty, there were still exits after landing. They also have a household registration called expulsion and expulsion. You can't change your nationality unless you are released or redeemed. As a residual form of slavery, exorcism did not disappear until the demise of the Yuan Dynasty.
In the Yuan Dynasty, the trend of land annexation continued to develop. With the vicious development of land annexation, class contradictions have intensified day by day, and the social crisis has deepened rapidly.
The tax system in Yuan Dynasty mainly includes two items: grain levy and tax payment. Tax grain is different in the north and south, and the north is divided into tax and local tax; The south follows the old system of the Song Dynasty, and two taxes are levied per mu. Silk, silver and payslips travel in the north. In the south, there are paper money and wallets.
Officials in the Yuan Dynasty were organized according to Li Jiahu, such as Zheng Fang, Li Zheng, Guan Cang and Kuzi. There are also services such as repairing cities, opening rivers, building dikes and transporting. The officials in the Yuan Dynasty were extremely heavy, which did great harm to the working people.
Handicraft production
In the Yuan Dynasty, the production scale of official handicraft workshops was large, and the internal division of labor was finer. Government-run workshops mainly serve rulers.
The yuan dynasty practiced the craftsman system. Artisans also have a household registration called Artisans. The craftsmen in Yuan Dynasty were divided into military craftsmen and official craftsmen. In addition, there are craftsmen. Craftsman's profession is hereditary, and he can't leave his membership unless he is released.
The cotton textile industry in Yuan Dynasty made outstanding development. Driven by the cotton textile innovator Huang Daopo, Songjiang Wunijing became the center of cotton textile industry. At the same time, the silk industry has developed to some extent. Among them, private silk weaving workshops in Hangzhou and other places reached a large scale at the end of Yuan Dynasty.
The porcelain-making industry in the Yuan Dynasty had a new development. Jingdezhen is the largest porcelain making center in China with exquisite products, among which blue and white porcelain is the most famous. The rest, such as Longquan kiln, Jun kiln and Ding kiln, continue to develop, and their products are exported at home and abroad.
In addition, the mining, metallurgy, shipbuilding and printing industries in the Yuan Dynasty also made certain achievements.
The development of business
The metropolis of the Yuan Dynasty was not only the economic center of the whole country, but also a famous metropolis in the world at that time, which attracted caravans and missions from many countries in the East and West.
Other important cities are mostly located along the land and water transportation, among which the commercial cities along the canal and the Yangtze River have further developed, such as Yangzhou (now Jiangsu), Qing Ji (now Nanjing, Jiangsu), Pingjiang (now Suzhou, Jiangsu) and Hangzhou (now Zhejiang). In addition, coastal Guangzhou (now Guangdong), Quanzhou (now Fujian), Fuzhou (now Fujian), Wenzhou (now Zhejiang) and Qingyuan (now Ningbo, Zhejiang) are all important foreign trade ports.
The Yuan Dynasty followed the monopoly system of the previous generation, from salt, tea, wine and vinegar to farm tools and bamboo and wood, all of which were included in the monopoly scope. The most important thing is salt. The Yuan government also set up a maritime promotion department to strictly control overseas trade.
Yuan Shizu has issued a series of silver dollar banknotes and RMB banknotes. Later, several generations of Yuan governments changed the banknote law and minted copper coins, but they didn't last long. The excessive issuance of paper money at the end of Yuan Dynasty led to the devaluation of paper money and the intensification of social contradictions.
Wotuo was originally a commercial organization funded by the nobles of Central Asia and run by businessmen, namely caravans and partners. The loan sharks we let out, the money we were asked to pay. During the Yuan Dynasty, money and grain flooded, and the Yuan government also set up the Wotuo Institute and the Wotuo General Affairs Department to make huge profits.
Utilization of shipping and dredging of the Grand Canal
In order to meet the food and material needs of most cities, the Yuan Dynasty opened up sea routes in addition to land and canal transportation. The freight cost is low, and finally it is very important.
The Yuan Dynasty built the North-South Grand Canal with Beijing as the center (the Grand Canal was built in the Sui Dynasty and supplemented by the Yuan Dynasty). Among them, there are mainly Jeju River from Jining (now Shandong) to Dongping (now Shandong), Huitong River from Dongping to Linqing (now Shandong), and Tonghui River from Tongzhou (now Beijing). Today, it has become a world-famous Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which plays a huge role in the South-to-North Water Transfer Project.
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Scientific culture
[Dou E's grievance]
Injustice to Dou E
What attracts the world's attention is that in the development of the Yuan Dynasty for nearly a hundred years, culture and art, especially Yuan Zaju, reached a quite high level. On the basis of Jin Yuan version and Zhu Gong tune, Yuan Zaju has extensively absorbed the development achievements of various genres and techniques, and reached a peak stage, which is comparable to Tang Poetry and Song Poetry in the cultural history of China. Famous writers such as Guan Hanqing, Wang Shifu, Ma Zhiyuan, Zheng Guangzu and Bai Pu. Has become an immortal. A large number of outstanding works, such as Dou E's Imprisonment and Cui Yingying's The West Chamber, have made outstanding achievements in drama and literature, and have had a far-reaching impact on the development of later operas. There are about 150 kinds of existing works in Yuan Zaju, which have become the treasures of human drama and literature and art.
Poetry, calligraphy and painting have also developed rapidly, and a number of masters of calligraphy, painting and poetry have emerged. Zhao Mengfu studied calligraphy under Wang Xizhi. Round and beautiful, known as Zhao Ti. Poetry and painting are excellent. Yuan Haowen is a famous poet and critic with many masterpieces handed down from generation to generation. Mongolian and Yuan culture is an important stage of China's cultural prosperity and development, and occupies an important position in China's culture. During the Yuan Dynasty, China's territory spanned a vast area of Europe and Asia, and the multi-ethnic unification made the cultural development have unprecedented profound and broad connotations. The different cultures of all ethnic groups in China, the Mongolian native culture and the Central Plains culture, the eastern culture and the western culture, meet and merge with each other, and have an unprecedented time and space for development and promotion.
With the support of the government, science and culture have also developed rapidly: a series of large-scale astronomical observation activities organized by the government have made China at the advanced level in the world in many astronomical fields; Geographically, Dayuan Unification Annals is the first official annals in China and the largest official annals in ancient China history. There are 160 kinds of local chronicles compiled in Yuan Dynasty, more than in Song Dynasty. The Yuan government also organized the first field trip to the source of the Yellow River in the history of China. In terms of agricultural technology and agronomy extension, crops in the north and the south are widely exchanged, and agricultural technologies in various places learn from each other. Cotton planting was fully popularized in the Yuan Dynasty, and many crops were popularized. The government has strengthened the summary and popularization of agricultural science and technology. The Summary of Agriculture and Mulberry edited by the Ministry of Agriculture is the earliest comprehensive agricultural book compiled by the ancient Chinese government to guide the national agricultural production. Lu Mingshan's Agricultural Summary and Mulberry's Food and Clothing are the oldest agricultural books in China, and Wang Zhen's Agricultural Book is the first agricultural book that systematically studies ethnic agriculture in China. On the basis of the invention of movable type printing in Song Dynasty, metal movable type, wheel typesetting and color printing were invented in Yuan Dynasty. In addition, the Yuan regime also attached great importance to medicine, shipbuilding, pottery making and water conservancy. It created the most prosperous era of cultural exchange between China and the West during the feudal period in China.
It has promoted the process of China's pluralistic and integrated cultural pattern.
/kloc-At the beginning of the 3rd century, after more than 70 years of conquering wars at home and abroad, Mongolian rulers successively wiped out the regimes of Xixia, Jin, Dali, Tubo and Southern Song Dynasty, completed the unprecedented unification of multi-ethnic countries, and formed a favorable environment for the cultural exchange and development of all ethnic groups.
The coexistence of multi-ethnic cultures in China has been further affirmed. Since the Spring and Autumn Period, the theory of "Xiayi" formed in the Central Plains has emphasized the idea of "respecting Xiayi" and "changing Xiayi", which has formed an obstacle to equal exchanges among all ethnic groups. For example, [2] the theory of "Zhengyue", which is very influential in the history circle, advocates that "the four foreigners can't be orthodox" and lists the northern nationalities in the Central Plains regime with "thieves" and "usurpers" in the unorthodox sequence, which is actually a political culture that excludes other nationalities. Since the Yuan Dynasty also belonged to the minority regime in the Central Plains, the rulers need to try to reverse this traditional concept in order to establish the legitimacy of its status. When compiling Liao History, Song History and Jin History, the officials of the three historical capitals and the prime minister of Zhongshu Right stood out and said arbitrarily: "The Three Kingdoms are different from orthodoxy, and each is related to its title." Then the discussant rests. This move ended the "orthodoxy" dispute that lasted for more than 200 years after the demise of the Liao Dynasty, and at the same time affirmed the legal status of various ethnic regimes in the name of the central government for the first time in the history of Chinese historiography. Its significance is as summarized by Mr. Han Rulin: "This decision determines the basic principle of treating the three histories equally, which is in line with the objective reality that China is a multi-ethnic country and the unrelated historical situation of Liao, Jin and Song San Dynasties, so it is correct, so Tuotuo's contribution to the three histories cannot be ignored."
It has accelerated the cultural exchange among ethnic groups. The national cultural policies implemented by the rulers of Yuan Dynasty brought many new phenomena to the integration and development of ancient national cultures in China. Mongolian characters came into being in this period and have been used ever since. The Secret History of Mongolia, the first historical work in the history of nomadic people in the north, was born. In the history of China's feudal dynasty, the ethnic composition of government officials in Yuan Dynasty was the most complicated. The Yuan Dynasty was also the first dynasty in the history of China's unified dynasty to use multi-ethnic languages. Liao History, Song History and Jin History are the only historical books in the twenty-four histories, compiled by multi-ethnic historians. They are also the first works edited by an official for three dynasties in the history of Chinese historiography, which have preserved precious historical and cultural heritage for future generations. The Central Plains culture has been widely spread in frontier ethnic areas, Confucian classics have been translated into Mongolian and published, and schools teaching Confucian culture have appeared for the first time in remote areas such as Mobei and Yunnan. For the first time, the educational institutions of minority languages and characters approved by the central government appeared in China-Mongolian Sub-Ministry and Returned Sub-Ministry, and a large number of China writers emerged among Mongolia, Khitan, Jurchen and Semu. The cultures of all ethnic groups in the western regions spread further to the Central Plains society, and Tibetan Buddhism spread in the Central Plains. Kapok planting and textile technology of Li nationality in Hainan promoted the development of cotton textile industry in China. In the relaxed political and cultural atmosphere, the integration of all ethnic groups has also entered another climax. Khitan, Nuzhen, Tangut and other ethnic groups have quietly merged into Mongolia, Han and other neighboring ethnic groups, and a brand-new ethnic group-Hui was born on the land of China. For the harmonious coexistence of various cultures in the Yuan Dynasty, Doric, one of the "four great travelers" in medieval Europe, once called it "the greatest miracle in the world" with emotion.
It can be seen that the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty broke the artificial cultural shielding phenomenon that appeared in the past history, and the reality of China's cultural diversity was generally recognized. The concept of "four seas as home" and "one country under the sun" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the pattern of pluralism and integration has become a reality in the unified environment.
Inclusive and pragmatic cultural policies promoted the development of feudal culture in China.
Compared with most feudal dynasties in China, the ideological and cultural concepts in the Yuan Dynasty have two remarkable characteristics: one is inclusiveness, and the other is "no emphasis on empty words". Under the guidance of this thought, the cultural environment of the Yuan Dynasty showed the characteristics of inclusiveness and pragmatism.
The cultural compatibility of the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties is mainly reflected in the following aspects: it is the only dynasty in the ancient history of China that did not put forward the "taboo" system from the official point of view; It is the dynasty with the least system of ideological and cultural imprisonment in China's feudal history, and there is no case that people in Yuan Dynasty suffered misfortune because of their speech. According to statistics, the cultural ban in Yuan Dynasty was only a few tenths of that in Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is also the only dynasty in China's feudal history that explicitly put forward freedom of religious belief. At that time, all the major religions in the world had venues and followers in China, which was probably a unique cultural phenomenon in the whole human world at that time. The compatible cultural atmosphere provides a good environment for the development of China culture. China's "important event in the history of drama and literature"-Yuanqu was formed in this environment. Nowadays, Yuan Qu is regarded as a treasure of China culture, alongside Tang Poetry and Song Poetry. Some scholars believe that the birth and prosperity of Yuanqu in the Yuan Dynasty mainly benefited from the influence of the ethics of the northern ethnic minorities in the Yuan Dynasty and the relaxation of cultural policies, which "freed social thoughts from the shackles of traditional norms" and created them freely.
The social status of Confucian culture has been further improved. In the Yuan Dynasty, Confucius was named "the king and sage of great achievements", which made his reputation reach an unbounded level. Mencius and other famous Confucian scholars have also won lofty titles; For the first time in the history of China, the Yuan Dynasty established a "Confucian" class to protect intellectuals, and "those who wish to be disciples are free from all kinds of chores". The popular education in the Yuan Dynasty surpassed that of the previous generation, with more than 400 academies and more than 24,400 state and county schools at most. Regarding the development of Confucian culture in the Yuan Dynasty, Mr. Chen Yuan commented as follows: "The Yuan Dynasty lasted only a hundred years. ..... If we start with Henkel and Emperor Taizong, end with the centenary of the Han and Tang Dynasties, end with the theory of the Qing ancestors, and end with the Qianlong 20 years ago, regardless of the Qianlong 20 years later, the academic prosperity of the Han, Tang and Qing Dynasties will surpass the Yuan Dynasty! " However, Confucian scholars in the Yuan Dynasty were also discriminated against, and even there was a saying among the people that "nine Confucianism and ten begging".
Pragmatic spirit promotes the interaction between culture and social practice. The Mongols who founded the Yuan Dynasty were in the rising stage of feudal society and had more urgent development requirements. Therefore, compared with the Song Dynasty, the pragmatic cultural spirit of the Yuan Dynasty is very remarkable. Kublai Khan, the founding father of the Yuan Dynasty, advocated that "those who should respond to heaven should be sincere and those who save the people should be realistic" and emphasized that "things should be realistic and not empty words". On this basis, he put forward that "the imperial examination is empty, I won't take it", abolished the imperial examination system, and emphasized the selection of talents instead of simply "winning by writing"
From the perspective of China's cultural history, the influence of the Yuan Dynasty is mainly reflected in two aspects:
Promoted the internationalization of China. In the ancient history of China, the most influential dynasties were the Tang Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty. However, from the perspective of external influence, the number of countries and international status, the Tang Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty are incomparable. Preferential trade policies, smooth trade routes, rich countries and beautiful legends all made the Yuan Dynasty attractive to all walks of life in the West and the Arab world. Shangdu, Dadu, Hangzhou, Quanzhou and Guangzhou have become international cities, and Quanzhou Port has become the largest foreign trade port in the world. Travelers, businessmen, missionaries, government envoys and craftsmen came to China by land and sea. Some of them have lived in China for a long time, and some of them are government officials. According to statistics, these people come from Persia, Iraq, Azov, Li Kang, Syria, Morocco, North Korea, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Britain, France, Italy, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and other countries. After returning home, some people recorded their experiences in China. It is these travel notes that make westerners fully grasp the information of China and the East for the first time, and a civilized and wealthy China is truly presented to the world. This information has changed Europeans' understanding and familiarity with the world. It is generally believed in academic circles that the works of Kyle Poirot and others have had a crucial impact on the arrival of the era of great navigation.
Created the most prosperous era of cultural exchanges between China and the West in ancient times. In the Yuan Dynasty, the number of countries and regions that conducted economic and trade exchanges through the Maritime Silk Road increased from more than 50 in the Song Dynasty to more than 140. Arriving from the coast of Africa by sea and going directly to Western Europe by land, the unified environment has created unprecedented convenience for international and regional exchanges. Historically, it has been said that "the fittest is thousands of miles away, at home; Wan Li is like a neighbor ". While a large number of Arabs and Europeans flock to the East, China people have a broader vision and a clearer understanding of neighboring countries, Central Asia, South Asia and the Indian Ocean, and their footprints even extend to West Asia and Western Europe. People's understanding and introduction to the outside world is no longer limited to hearsay, but mostly personal experience. For example, in Wang Dayuan's book "A Brief Introduction to the Island", the historical facts about the countries along the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea are "all visited in person and heard by the eyes, but the legendary things are not contained". The book records hundreds of place names, as well as mountains and rivers, climate products, folk customs, economic and cultural exchanges with China, etc. Most of these are unknown to our predecessors. Similar documents are The Journey to the West and The Journey to the West's Notes on the Northern Envoys, Notes on the Western Envoys, Notes on the Local Customs of Zhenla, and Records of Foreign Countries. , reflecting the Yuan Dynasty China people's new familiarity with the outside world and broad cultural vision.