Lesson 6: Politics of the Northern Song Dynasty（759words）

Song Taizu strengthened centralized power

In 960, Zhao Kuangyin, a general of the Later Zhou Dynasty, staged a mutiny in Chenqiaoye, and his men made him emperor. Zhao Kuangyin then returned to seize the Later Zhou regime and renamed his country Song, with Kaifeng as the capital, which was known as the Northern Song. Zhao Kuangyin was the Song Emperor.

When the Song Dynasty was established, there was a trend of unification among the ten divided states of the Five Dynasties. In accordance with the unification policy of unifying the south before the north, Song Taizu and his successors successively eliminated the secessionist regimes in the south and put an end to the division of the central plain and the south.

While carrying out the great task of unification, Song Taizu strengthened centralized power. He was well aware of the shortcomings of the dictatorship of military generals since the end of the Tang Dynasty, and first relieved the military generals of their military power, thus firmly controlling the army. He also controlled the movement of the army, so that the generals of the forbidden army had the weight of the army but not the power to issue troops. He also frequently changed the army generals and regularly changed the defenses, severing the ties between the generals and the soldiers and the locals, so that the soldiers did not know the generals and the generals did not specialize in the soldiers.

At the central level, Song Taizu adopted the method of dividing the power of ministers in order to prevent them from having too much power. There were often more than one chancellor in the Song dynasty, and under the chancellor there were a number of vice-chancellors to discuss politics with the chancellor; there were also multiple institutions to divide the military and financial powers of the chancellor.

At the local level, in order to strengthen control, the Song Emperor sent civil servants to serve as governors of various states and counties, replacing one after another the minions of the former clans. In order to prevent the governors from becoming too powerful and difficult to control, a system of three-yearly changes was implemented, and the governors were frequently transferred. The Song emperor also ordered the abolition of the power of tax collection by the provincial governors, and all taxes were controlled by the central government, except for a portion reserved by each state for necessary local expenditures. Later on, local transfer envoys were set up one after another to collect local taxes and revenues from the central government.

Through the above measures, the Song dynasty strengthened centralization to an unprecedented degree, and imperial power was greatly enhanced.

The policy of emphasizing literature over military power

In order to prevent the recurrence of the shortcomings of the tyranny of military generals since the end of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong of Song intended to reappoint civil officials to control the military and political power. The successor, Emperor Taizong of Song, continued to adopt the policy of suppressing military generals and elevating the status of civil officials, so that the pattern of civilian command of the military gradually took shape. At that time, civil officials held important central and local positions, even presided over military affairs, and their status and treatment were higher than those of military generals. The military generals were constrained in many ways, and they had to lead their troops in battle according to the "formation map" pre-given by the court, which seriously restricted the command of the army.

The Song dynasty focused on the development of culture and education, and reformed and developed the imperial examination system. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the number of places in the imperial examinations was greatly increased, and the status of scholars was improved, so that scholars were not only awarded with superiority, but also promoted rapidly. The development of the imperial examination system had a far-reaching impact on Song society, creating a strong culture of study throughout the country and promoting the improvement of cultural literacy in society as a whole, resulting in the development of science and technology, cultural prosperity and the emergence of talents in the Song Dynasty.

The Song dynasty's policy of emphasizing literature over martial arts reversed the culture of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms that emphasized martial arts over literature, and prevented the domination of military generals and the political shift of mutiny, which was conducive to the stability of the regime and the society.（759words）