In the eyes of most people, the Song Dynasty was indeed a bit weak. What's shameful about surrendering to Liao and paying the annual currency? The shame of Jingkang? There is also the fact that the Song Dynasty is only half the country, and many people don't regard it as a unified dynasty at all. Why can such an unbearable dynasty last for more than 300 years?

First, although the Song Dynasty? Soft? , but not? Weak?

People's impression of "weak Song" is actually not weak. On the contrary, the Song Dynasty was a dynasty with highly prosperous economy, culture and science and technology in the history of China.

Let's talk about the economy first.

The Millennium History of the World Economy published by Madison, an Englishman, holds that the total economic output of the Song Dynasty was about 26.5 billion US dollars, accounting for 22.7% of the total world economic output at that time, and the per capita GDP was 450 US dollars, exceeding that of Western Europe at that time by 400 US dollars.

At that time, the degree of economic prosperity was far greater than that in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, which was equivalent to the proportion of the United States in the world economy now, showing the strong economic strength of the Song Dynasty.

Agriculture: building water conservancy projects, promoting cash crop cultivation, and doing everything possible to expand the area of cultivated land, the grain output of the Song Dynasty greatly exceeded that of the previous dynasty. Handicraft industry: The five official kilns in the Song Dynasty are well-known, with huge mining and smelting scale, leading shipbuilding industry in the world, rapid development of block printing and paper making industry, and popularization of cotton textile industry. Handicraft industry in Song Dynasty, no matter its classification, opening scale or production quality, was the peak of feudal society in China. Commerce: The development of handicrafts has promoted the prosperity of commerce. There are more shops and the use of money has greatly increased. In order to facilitate the transaction, the world's first officially issued paper money appeared? Sex? . Although the foreign trade on land was blocked, thanks to the advanced shipbuilding and navigation technology, the maritime trade in Song Dynasty developed greatly. At that time, the number and tonnage of merchant ships ranked first in the world. Look at the cultural aspect.

The culture of the Song Dynasty occupies an important position in the cultural history of our country. The invention of movable type printing and the perfection of the imperial examination system promoted the prosperity of the culture of the Song Dynasty.

Song Taizu once asked his son and grandson never to kill the literati, and the status of the literati in the Song Dynasty was promoted as never before. The biggest difference between the Song Dynasty and other dynasties is that the officials in the Song Dynasty all have the characteristics of literati, poets, painters and politicians, who love painting and calligraphy and are good at poetry. Among the eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties, Song people accounted for six, including Su Xun, Su Shi, Su Zhe, Wang Anshi, Ceng Gong and Ouyang Xiu. Ci reached its peak in the Song Dynasty, and was as famous as Tang poetry. Under the influence of Buddhism and Taoism, new Confucianism emerged? A large number of famous Neo-Confucians such as Zhu, Lu Jiuyuan, Zhou Dunyi, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi emerged. Other aspects, such as history, calligraphy and painting, education and so on, have made great progress. Finally look at technology.

Landmark? Movable type printing? Large-scale military application of gunpowder is the earliest in the world? Water transport? The progress of astronomical clock and navigation technology was mentioned by Joseph Needham, a British scholar, in his book History of Science and Technology in China. Whenever people look for a specific historical material of science and technology in China literature, they often find that its focus is in the Song Dynasty. ?

Although the economy, culture, science and technology of the Song Dynasty were strong, the rulers of the Song Dynasty were content with the status quo, preferring to spend money to buy peace rather than fight, which was worthy of the name in their foreign exchanges? Soft? Yes