Dynasties of ChinaLiao, Song, Xia, Jin & Yuan · Coexisting states
9 Southern Song emperors · AD 1127-1279 · 152 years in the south
After the Jingkang disaster, the Song court moved south and ruled from the Yangtze region for over 150 years. Economic and cultural achievements flourished before the final defeat at Yamen.
Dynastic color · Plum green
After the Jingkang Incident in 1127, King KangZhao Gou, the ninth son of Huizong of the Song Dynasty, ascended the throne in Yingtianfu, Nanjing (now Shangqiu, Henan). He was named Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, and was known as Southern Song in history. In the early years of the Southern Song, the Jin army went south many times, and Gaozong fled south all the way, once floating on the sea to avoid the enemy. Generals such as Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, and Wu Jie moved to fight against the Jin, and the situation gradually stabilized. In 1138, Southern Song used Lin'an (today's Hangzhou, Zhejiang) as "Xingzai", indicating that it would not forget to restore the Central Plains, and Lin'an actually became the capital.
In 1141, the Song and Jin Dynasties concluded the Shaoxing Peace Agreement, with the Huai River and Dashan Pass as the boundary. The Southern Song Dynasty paid tribute to the Jin Dynasty, and Yue Fei, who led the battle, was unjustly killed. After that, Xiaozong Longxing Northern Expedition and Ningzong Shihan Tuozhou Kaixi Northern Expedition both failed, and the Song and Jin Dynasties were in a long-term confrontation. Although Southern Song was in a corner, its economic center of gravity had moved southward, overseas trade was unprecedentedly prosperous, and Neo-Confucianism, Song poetry, and science and technology had all reached a very high level.
In the 13th century, Mongolia emerged. After the Southern Song Dynasty allied with Mongolia to destroy the Jin Dynasty, they immediately went to war with Mongolia. The soldiers and civilians in Diaoyu City, Sichuan, Xiangyang, Hubei and other places have resisted tenaciously for decades. Xiangfan fell in 1273, and the Yuan army moved eastward along the Yangtze River. In 1276, they invaded Lin'an, and the Empress Dowager Xie surrendered with the Emperor Gong. Lu Xiufu, Zhang Shijie and others successively supported Duanzong and Last Emperor to continue the resistance against the Yuan Dynasty. In 1279, the naval battle of Yashan failed. Lu Xiufu threw the young emperor into the sea, and Southern Song perished.
A large number of people from the north moved southward, the south of the Yangtze River was deeply developed, and the rice, tea, and silk industries flourished. "When Suhu is ripe, the world is full." China's economic center of gravity has moved from north to south to Southern Song.
Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Mingzhou and other ports established municipal shipping departments to manage foreign trade, and municipal shipping revenue became an important financial source. The compass was widely used in navigation, and ships sailed to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. Quanzhou gradually became a major port in the East.
Starting from 1160, the imperial court established the Huiziwu to issue banknotes "Huizi", which were circulated in various places in the southeast, in parallel with copper coins. In the later period, indiscriminate spending was made to make up for military expenditures, which caused serious inflation.
Zhu Xi inherited the Ercheng theory and established a complete Neo-Confucian system. His "Collected Commentary on Chapters and Sentences of the Four Books" became the standard for imperial examinations after the Yuan Dynasty. Lu Jiuyuan advocated "the heart is reason" and started a debate with Zhu Xi at the Ehu meeting.
Li Qingzhao is graceful and elegant, Xin Qiji is bold and tragic, Jiang Kui is clear and elegant, and famous poets have emerged in large numbers; poets such as Lu You, Yang Wanli, and Fan Chengda have also made great achievements, and their patriotic sentiments run through Southern Song literature.
Song Ci's "Resolution of Wrongs" is the earliest extant systematic forensic medicine work in the world; Qin Jiushao's "Nine Chapters of the Book of Numbers" proposed the "Dayan Qiyi Technique" and the numerical solution of higher-order equations. Both books were completed in 1247.
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After the Jingkang Incident, King KangZhao Gou, the ninth son of Huizong, ascended the throne in Yingtianfu, Nanjing (now Shangqiu, Henan), changed the Yuan Dynasty to Jianyan, and Southern Song was established. Soon the Jin army moved south again, and Gaozong was forced to retreat all the way south to Jiangnan.
Jin general Wanyan Zongbi crossed the river to pursue Gaozong, but Gaozong once floated to the sea to avoid the enemy. When the Jin army retreated north, Han Shizhong used 8,000 naval troops to block the 100,000 Jin army at Huangtiandang for 48 days. The Jin army finally dug out old routes and used fire to break through.
Jin Dynasty broke the peace treaty and invaded the south. Yue Fei led the northern expedition, defeated Wanyan Zongbi's elite cavalry in Yancheng and Yingchang, and reached Zhuxian Town. Gaozong and Qin Gui made peace with each other and issued strict orders to their teachers with twelve gold-lettered plaques.
The Song Dynasty first took back the military power of generals such as Yue Fei and Han Shizhong, and then made a peace agreement with Jin: Southern Song professed vassalage to Jin, bounded by Huai River to the east and Dashan Pass to the west, and paid 250,000 silver and silk each year to Jin.
Qin Gui falsely accused Yue Fei of treason, and Yue Fei, his son Yue Yun, and general Zhang Xian were imprisoned. Han Shizhong questioned the evidence, and Qin Gui replied that "the matter does not exist." Yue Fei was killed in Dali Temple Prison at the age of thirty-nine.
The Jin Prince of Hailing led his army to invade the south, but the Song army's leader Wang Quan abandoned his army and retreated. Yu Yunwen, a civil servant who was ordered to reward the army, gathered the scattered soldiers at the critical moment and repulsed the Jin army crossing the river in Caishiji. Southern Song turned the corner.
After Xiaozong came to the throne, he rehabilitated Yue Fei and ordered Zhang Jun to make a northern expedition. The Song army recaptured Lingbi and Suzhou in the first battle, and then was defeated in Fuli. The two sides concluded the Longxing Peace Agreement, and the Song and Jin Dynasties were changed to the Kingdom of Uncles and Nephews, and the annual currency was reduced to 200,000.
The powerful minister Han Tuozhou made a rash Northern Expedition, and the Sichuan defender Wu Xi rebelled and surrendered to Jin Dynasty. All Song armies were defeated one after another. Han Tuozhou was killed in 1207, and the Jiading peace treaty was concluded the following year. Southern Song sent his head in a letter, and the annual coin was increased to 300,000.
Southern Song formed an alliance with Mongolia and sent Meng Gong to lead his army northward with grain to encircle Caizhou with the Mongolian army. In 1234, the city of Caizhou was destroyed and Jin Aizong hanged himself. The Song army took his remains back to Lin'an and offered sacrifices to the Ancestral Temple, to avoid the shame of Jingkang.
After the Jin Dynasty was destroyed, Lizong adopted the advice of Zhao Fan and Zhao Kui and sent troops to recover Bianjing and Luoyang in an attempt to restore the Central Plains. The Song army's food shipments failed, and they were ambushed by the Mongolian army. They returned defeated, and the Song-Mongolian war broke out.
Möngke Khan, the Great Khan of Mongolia, personally conquered Sichuan and stationed troops in Hezhou Diaoyu City for several months but could not conquer it. He died in the army in the same year (one said he was injured by artillery rocks, another said he died of illness). The Mongolian armies retreated northward, allowing the Southern Song to continue for twenty years.
The Yuan army besieged Xiangyang and Fancheng for five years, and finally defeated Fancheng with returning artillery. Xiangyang defender Lü Wenhuan was isolated and helpless, and Kaicheng surrendered. The gateway to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River was opened, and the Yuan army was able to move eastward along the river.
The commander-in-chief of the Yuan army, Bo Yan, came to Lin'an, and the Empress Dowager Xie surrendered with the Emperor Gong. The Emperor Gong was taken to Dadu and surrendered to the Duke of Ying. Wen Tianxiang was detained as an envoy to the Yuan camp, but escaped and went south to continue fighting against the Yuan Dynasty.
Yuan general Zhang Hongfan attacked Yashan, and the Song army's boat division led by Zhang Shijie was completely wiped out. The Prime Minister of the Left, Lu Xiufu, carried the young Emperor Zhao Bing on his back and threw himself into the sea to die for his country. A large number of soldiers and civilians followed him across the sea, and the Southern Song Dynasty perished.
No. Yi'an Jushi, a native of Jinan. In his early years, he and his husband Zhao Mingcheng collected gold and stones together. After the Jingkang Incident, he lived in the south of the Yangtze River, and his style of writing changed from beautiful to sad. Sentences such as "Searching and searching, deserted and deserted" are often recited, and she is known as "the most talented woman of all time".
Born in the army, he put down the Miao and Liu rebellions, and blocked the Jin army with 8,000 naval troops in Huangtiandang for 48 days. According to legend, his wife Liang Hongyu personally played drums to help in the battle. When Yue Fei was imprisoned, he questioned Qin Gui face to face, and then resigned and lived in West Lake.
He was captured during the Jingkang period and went north, but returned to the south in 1130. He won the trust of Gaozong, became prime minister twice, and dominated the government for more than ten years. He advocated peace talks with Jin and framed Yue Fei on "unfounded" charges. He was regarded as a typical traitor by later generations.
The courtesy name is Pengju, and he was born in Tangyin, Xiangzhou. The Yue family's army is strict in running the army. It has the reputation of "freezing to death without tearing down the house, starving to death without looting". The Jin people lamented that "it is easy to shake the mountain, but it is difficult to shake the Yue family's army." After repeated victories in the Northern Expedition, he was recalled, framed and killed, and Xiaozong was rehabilitated.
A native of Renshou in Longzhou, he was ordered to reward the army as a civil servant. When the general resigned and the morale of the army was weakened, he resolutely gathered the defeated troops and defeated the Jin army in Caishiji. Later he became chief minister, and then served as the Xuanfu envoy of Sichuan, aiming to recover.
Ziwuguan, nicknamed Fangweng, was from Shanyin, Yuezhou. He devoted his life to resisting the Jin Dynasty, and has more than 9,000 poems in existence. He is one of the ancient poets with the largest number of poems in existence. Before his death, he wrote "Shier": "Wang Shibei set the day of the Central Plains, and he never forgot to tell Nai Weng about the family sacrifices."
No. Chengzhai, born in Jishui, Jizhou, is known as one of the "four great poets of Zhongxing" together with Lu You, Fan Chengda and You Miao. The poetry style is lively and natural, and has its own "Chengzhai style". The lines "The little lotus has just revealed its sharp corners, and a dragonfly has already stood on it" are well-known.
The courtesy name is Yuan Hui, the nickname is Hui'an, and his ancestral home is Wuyuan, Huizhou. Inherited the Ercheng theory, established a complete system with "Li" as the core, wrote the "Collected Commentary on Chapters and Sentences of the Four Books", and rebuilt Bailudong Academy. His theory was designated as an official school in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties and had far-reaching influence.
No. Xiangshan, from Jinxi, Fuzhou. He proposed that "the heart is the principle" and "the universe is my heart, and my heart is the universe", emphasizing the invention of the original mind. In 1175, he debated with Zhu Xi at the Ehu meeting, and his theory was later developed by King Shouren into the Lu Wang Xinxue.
The courtesy name is You'an and the nickname is Jiaxuan. He is a native of Licheng, Jinan. When he was young, he gathered people to fight against the Jin rule in the Jin Dynasty. After returning to the south, he was repeatedly excluded. His ambition was hard to realize, so he wrote his loyalty and anger in his poems. The style of poetry is bold and tragic, and together with Su Shi, it is called "Su Xin".
A native of Jianyang, Fujian Province, he served many prison terms and attached great importance to on-site inspection and autopsy. In 1247, he summarized the experience and personal practice of his predecessors and wrote "The Collection of Cleansing Wrongs", which is the earliest existing systematic forensic medicine monograph in the world.
Lizong, the younger brother of Concubine Jia, served as a relative and became the chief minister. He had been in power for more than ten years and implemented the public land law. When Xiangfan was besieged, he concealed his military information. In 1275, the supervisor Ding Jiazhou was defeated and was killed by the prisoner Zheng Huchen on the way to his demotion.
No. Wenshan, a native of Luling, Jizhou, was the number one scholar in Baoyou's fourth year. When the Yuan army went south, he raised troops to serve the king. He was defeated and captured. He wrote "Crossing Lingding Ocean" to clarify his ambition. He refused the Yuan court's persuasion to surrender. He wrote "Song of Righteousness" in prison. He died calmly in Dadu in 1283.
A native of Yancheng, Chuzhou, he was ranked Jinshi together with Wen Tianxiang. After the fall of Lin'an, he and Zhang Shijie and others supported Duanzong, the Last Emperor, and served as Prime Minister Zuo. When Yashan was defeated, he carried the young emperor on his back and threw himself into the sea to die for his country. Together with Wen Tianxiang and Zhang Shijie, he was known as the "Three Heroes of the Late Song Dynasty".