But when we read history, we have another feeling: the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty were separated by only a few decades, but they felt far apart, as if the two dynasties were completely different.
Generally speaking, we feel that the whole feudal society has not changed much. Just looking at the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, I feel that the two dynasties are too far apart. What's going on here?
(Zhu Yuanzhang stills)
Let's talk about the difference between Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty.
First, the relationship between monarch and minister is different.
Prime ministers in Song Dynasty were divided into official system and military system. The government has left and right sides, and there are also deputy prime ministers, such as participating in politics. The army has a cardinal and a lieutenant. In this way, there will be many prime ministers. Although in the Southern Song Dynasty, Qin Gui, Han Biaozhou, Shi, Jia Sidao and other prime ministers were in charge of government affairs. But many times, the affairs of the whole court are still in a state of collective decision-making.
Relatively speaking, the emperors of the Song Dynasty did not play a very important role in government affairs. Moreover, the emperor of the Song Dynasty can demote ministers, but he almost never kills them.
The relationship between monarch and minister in Ming Dynasty was completely different from that in Song Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister, there was no prime minister in the Ming Dynasty. Although the emperor was playful and didn't want to deal with so many state affairs, he still set up a cabinet. But the Cabinet University is completely different from the Prime Minister. The cabinet college students are just the mouthpiece of the emperor, and it is enough to pass on the emperor's orders. If they have opinions, they can only tell the emperor, not give orders directly.
We can see that the cabinet and ministers of the Ming Dynasty seem to be very busy, such as the "big gift" storm during Jiaqing period and the "storage storm" during Wanli period. But in fact, ministers have no influence on the emperor. The emperor only needs a word, and those noisy ministers may soon be at a loss.
The ministers of the Ming dynasty were not slaves of the emperor like the Qing dynasty. However, it is very close to the situation in the Qing Dynasty.
(Single Source Alliance)
Second, North-South relations are different.
During the Song Dynasty, the whole north was very powerful militarily, and four very powerful countries, Liao, Xia, Jin and Mongolia, appeared successively. Moreover, the Song Dynasty had no advantage in the war with these four countries. However, although there is no advantage at all, many times we can still maintain a peaceful state.
After the signing of the "Temple League" between Liao and Song, there was little war with Song throughout the Northern Song Dynasty. After Xu Jinguo signed a peace treaty with the Southern Song Dynasty, although there was a lot of friction afterwards, in most cases, they were able to live in peace.
The Ming dynasty was different. The relationship between North and South was reversed in Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty was very powerful militarily, while Mongolia in the north was always in a weak position. During the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang made eight northern expeditions and Zhu Di made five northern expeditions, all in the state of destroying Mongolia.
Although Jianzhou Jurchen has risen, it is almost impossible to replace the Ming Dynasty if the Ming Dynasty is not the end of the dynasty and there is no need to divert energy from the peasant uprising army.
(peasant uprising)
Third, the relationship between the government and the public is different.
In the history of more than 300 years in the Song Dynasty, the number of peasant uprisings was the highest in all previous dynasties. However, in the Song Dynasty, there was no peasant uprising that impressed people and affected the whole country. In the late Northern Song Dynasty, when Xu Jinguo invaded, most peasant uprisings were directed against Xu Jinguo. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, no peasant rebels and Mongolian ancients used fire to destroy the Song Dynasty.
The Ming dynasty was different. There was no peasant uprising for most of the Ming Dynasty. But the peasant uprising that broke out in the late Ming Dynasty was earth-shattering. Moreover, these peasant rebels did not aim their guns at the invaders because the Ming Dynasty was invaded by foreign countries, but continued to fish in troubled waters until they finally overthrew the Ming Dynasty in front of foreign countries.
The difference between Song and Ming shows the difference between the two dynasties. There was little confrontation in the Song Dynasty, but fierce confrontation in the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, a book called Water Margin appeared, which was about the peasant uprising in the Song Dynasty, and finally accepted the favor of the court and turned the gun to attack the Liao country. This book appeared at that time, with far-reaching significance.
After careful analysis, we will find that the differences of the above three relationships actually vary from person to person. The relationship between people in Song Dynasty is obviously more harmonious and easier to understand. In the Ming dynasty, the relationship between people was more antagonistic and there were more conflicts.
Although there are many reasons for this result, it cannot be said that it is closely related to the fact that people in the mid-Yuan Dynasty were divided into four classes, thus destroying normal interpersonal relationships.