To know the answer to this question, we should study the ideological differences between Tang and Song Dynasties. First of all, the opening up of the Tang Dynasty is certain. The opening-up of the Tang Dynasty is all-round, adhering to the principle of openness and tolerance in many fields such as culture, economy and politics, and the costumes of the Tang Dynasty can best reflect the opening-up characteristics of the Tang Dynasty. The costumes in the Tang Dynasty have distinctive features, elegant shapes, gorgeous decorations and open and free styles. Women in the Tang Dynasty loved to wear men's clothes, mostly Hu clothes, and most of them were extremely short. After the prosperous Tang Dynasty, topless clothes became more popular. This style is described by poems such as "powder chest and half cover up doubts and dark snow" in Fang Gan's "Giving Beauty". In addition, women in the Tang Dynasty didn't care about women's virtue, and remarriage often happened. For example, the princess of Xincheng once broke her contract and remarried once, and the ruling and opposition parties have no opinions on this.
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"Three obedience" means that a woman does not marry from her father, but from her husband, and her husband dies; "Four virtues" refer to women's virtue, women's words, women's appearance and women's merits.
The Tang Dynasty was indeed open and inclusive, and women's social status improved. Women can't abide by these. Not to mention that even the emperor himself was a woman in the era of Wu Zetian.
In the Song Dynasty, the economy was developed and a hundred schools of thought contended. Among them, the rise of Neo-Confucianism in Zhu Cheng made women's social status decline, and the concept that women should be chaste and one woman should not marry two husbands reached its peak in the Southern Song Dynasty.
It is not the evolution of traditional ideas that has affected social life.
Before answering this question, it is necessary to say what is "three obedience and four virtues". The so-called "three obedience and four virtues" refers to "not marrying the father, marrying the husband, and dying the child", "women's virtue, women's words, women's appearance, and women's merits". Morality, behavior and self-cultivation are the standard requirements of Confucian education for women's life. The Tang Dynasty was really open, so that Li Zhi married his father's wife and later Empress Wu Zetian. And incest between Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan. Some historians believe that this is also one of the reasons for the decline of the Tang Dynasty. As Sima Guang said, "The Tang Dynasty enjoyed the world for 130 years, and Ming Chengzu made peace with it to save the world. As for the decline of the spirit, as for the five dynasties, the three cardinal guides were destroyed and the five permanent members died. Song Taizu and Zhao Kuangyin may have seen this. He insisted on governing the country with Confucianism, so naturally he advocated the three obedience and four virtues of his ancestors. It is worth mentioning that obedience here does not completely mean obedience, obedience and obedience, but also means assistance. Being a husband and a son is an effective means to prevent consorts from going into politics and being a female emperor. Since the Song Dynasty, "nurturing husband and educating children" has become the most important duty of women.
Speaking of the Tang Dynasty, the love affairs between men and women can be described as endless, while the Song Dynasty was relatively conservative, showing an increasingly harsh situation for women.
Yue believes that this change has both the tradition of the same strain and the influence of historical changes.
"Three Religions and Four Virtues" did not begin in the Song Dynasty, but was put forward by Ban Zhao, a talented woman in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and has since become a model advocated by all previous dynasties.
However, the implementation of the rules requires a stable environment. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were the Three Kingdoms. After the brief reunification of the Western Jin Dynasty, it was a long-term chaotic state, and everyone did not attach importance to the three obedience and four virtues.
The Sui Dynasty was established on the basis of the Northern Dynasty, and the ruler of the Northern Dynasty was the Hu people, which inevitably clashed with the three obedience and four virtues, because they did not have to abide by it.
After the short end of the Sui Dynasty, the later Tang Dynasty was also a noble in the Northern Dynasty, and they were equally uninterested in three obedience and four virtues.
More importantly, the Tang Dynasty was very powerful, and it was open to the outside world in all directions, so women naturally had the opportunity to open up.
And the royal family of the Tang Dynasty brought this head. Li Shimin married his sister-in-law, Li Zhi married his mother Wu Zetian, Wu Zetian had Toy Boy, Princess Gaoyang dated a monk, and Li Longji married his daughter-in-law Yang Yuhuan ... The so-called "online and offline" is naturally very open.
In the late Tang dynasty, the vassal regime was serious, and after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, disputes continued. It was not unified until the Northern Song Dynasty.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, three obedience and four virtues were not bad, because this dynasty was very particular about life, literati lived comfortably, and women were naturally not bad.
However, the change of Jingkang changed everything. After the nomads attacked Kaifeng, they burned and plundered, and the women of the royal family in the Northern Song Dynasty were humiliated and carved up by the nobles of the Jin Dynasty, which made the ministers in the Southern Song Dynasty pay special attention to women.
While strengthening the three obedience and four virtues, the Southern Song Dynasty especially emphasized the concept of chastity, which imposed a serious ideological burden on women, so that for the next 800 years, women's status was low.
Of course, this is a retrogression. Equality between men and women is the proper meaning and the mainstream of our society. Yue believes that the change of Jingkang was that women were insulted after the defeat of men, but in the Southern Song Dynasty, women were not strong, but more bound. This logic is naturally an ostrich.
In ancient times, we always paid attention to "three cardinal guides, five permanents, three obedience and four virtues", especially "three obedience and four virtues" to restrain the behavior ethics of ancient women. During the Tang and Northern Song Dynasties, due to economic prosperity and cultural prosperity, the Tang and Song Dynasties were more open-minded than other dynasties, so that when studying the civilization of the Tang and Song Dynasties, there was a saying that "the Tang Dynasty was dirty and the Song Dynasty was chaotic".
Then the popular Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty took Confucianism as religion, absorbed Buddhism and Taoism, unified human relations, human feelings, justice and human desires, and made Confucianism enter political philosophy, which maintained social stability to a certain extent, but more importantly, catered to the needs of the feudal ruling class. There is a saying that "Heaven prevails, but man wants to perish", and the desire is suppressed, and Heaven is believed. What the Song Dynasty paid attention to was not "three obedience and four virtues", but Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism at that time.
Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism is another objective idealistic ideology based on "Three Cardinal Principles, Five Permanent Principles, Three Obediences and Four Virtues", which is a kind of progress for the feudal society at that time, because it standardized a new and more mature code of conduct for that time and later generations, and also provided convenience for the feudal dynasty to rule the people. It can also be understood as retrogression, because in an enlightened era, a hundred schools of thought should contend and a hundred flowers should blossom, instead of using a theory to limit people's thoughts and solidify them without knowing how to adapt.
The above is personal opinion only. If you have different opinions, please criticize and correct me.
The royal family in the Tang Dynasty is of Xianbei descent, so it is more open in all aspects, such as ethics, and may not be particularly concerned. For example, Li Zhi married his father's wife and set up Wu Zetian. The private lives of Wu Zetian and his daughter Princess Taiping are also relatively decadent. The most typical ones should be Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan. Obviously, it is a family incest, but it is still passed down as a love story, which is really staggering.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, women were not confined to their homes, but also had a rich outdoor life. Women can also participate in polo and other activities. In the Song Dynasty, women also worked in the fields like men: "The big woman came out with a sickle and the little woman came out with a basket."
The exact formulation of "three virtues" was put forward by Zhu in the Southern Song Dynasty. Although it regulates women from the aspects of morality, behavior and cultivation, it actually protects men's rights and tramples on women's rights, so that in modern society, there are still some residues. Neo-Confucianism, which was formed in Zhu Cheng's later period, interpreted Confucianism to the extreme and imprisoned human nature. For example, the bad habit of foot-binding destroys women's physical and mental health and makes it impossible to pursue freedom of marriage. How many sad tears are there in a chastity archway?
This is a question involving soul torture, so let Subei say:
Beauty in Tang Dynasty and beauty in Song Dynasty are two completely different creatures. How big is the gap? One swings, plays polo, dances sword and plays pipa, and the other is an actor with low eyes. In terms of identity, the most beautiful woman in the Tang Dynasty was Yang Yuhuan, who was an imperial concubine, and the most beautiful woman in the Song Dynasty was Li Shishi, who was a sex worker. The most powerful woman in the Tang Dynasty was Wu Zetian, the emperor, and the most powerful woman in the Song Dynasty? I don't think so. The most powerful woman in the Song Dynasty was the widow Xiao Taihou, who summoned 200,000 soldiers and forced Song Zhenzong to sign a silver compensation treaty. Later, Queen Liang, the little widow of Xixia, followed suit and forced the Song Dynasty to pay compensation.
The Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty were separated by five dynasties and 50 years. How has a woman changed greatly, and it is a great change in the depths of her soul?
I think the first reason is that men have changed. The Tang Dynasty is a continuation of the Northern Dynasty. Men in the Northern Dynasties were all wild outside, but when they got home, they were afraid. This book "Yan Family Instructions" has detailed records. Look at Tang Gaozong Li Zhi, how gentle he is in front of Wu Meiniang, but the army he released, like a runaway German shepherd, directly leveled Koguryo, which Tiankhan Li Shimin couldn't take, and built the viceroy mansion in the west of Iran. Look at these intellectuals, Li Bai and Du Fu, one by one holding swords and playing with controlled knives. In the Song Dynasty, there was a fan around the man's waist, and many generals would sing a few songs, which were elegant and elegant. For example, Han Shizhong called himself a cool layman, and the generals in the Tang Dynasty seemed to only chop people. When a man in Song Dynasty is a girl, a woman will say, What can I do? what can I do? It can only be more and more feminine.
Besides men becoming mothers, the second reason is low social status. I used to be the hostess of the family, but now I can't. Great changes have taken place in the whole legal provisions, and the low status of women has been determined by law. For example, in the divorce agreement unearthed in the Tang Dynasty, the man wrote: "Because of different hearts, it is difficult to return to one mind. I hope that after my wife and son leave, I will comb my sideburns again, sweep my eyebrows beautifully, skillfully choose the head of a senior official and make a beautiful appearance in court. " Resolve grievances and knots, but don't hate each other; One is different and two are wide, and each has its place. "It is a blessing. What about our beloved Song Dynasty? The talented woman Li Qingzhao divorced, and the final result was to go to jail first. Any divorced woman in Song Dynasty, right or wrong, went to jail first! You can still live a good life after prison, especially women.
In addition to the above two, the most vicious core values have also changed. Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism is devoted to teaching women three obedience and four virtues. Starving to death is a disgraceful trivial matter, rising to the highest concept. Since then, chastity archway has become the highest pursuit of women. This situation continued until the Republic of China. Sister Xianglin married two men and was told that she would be sawed in half after her death. So she worked hard, did her duty, and worked hard, just to donate a small threshold to the ancestral temple, so that thousands of people could step on it and ten thousand people could cross it to atone for her!
The Song Dynasty was a watershed in the opening-up and transformation of the whole Chinese civilization. Before the Song Dynasty, the unified dynasty established by the Han nationality often appeared very confident, enthusiastic, open and tolerant, especially in the Han Dynasty and Sui and Tang Dynasties. However, except Yuan Dynasty, most dynasties after Song Dynasty were more reserved. This introversion and conservatism reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty, and the closed-door Qing Dynasty seemed to have nothing to do with the development of the outside world
The territory map of the Tang Dynasty in the second year of Tang Gaozong's general chapter (AD 669)
Why is this happening? What causes the Chinese nation to gradually become conservative and introverted from a warm and open nation? The reason for this is the following：
First of all, the rise of Cheng Zhu's Neo-Confucianism gradually led to the conservatism of the Chinese nation's ideology and culture.
There are still many differences between Confucianism before the Song Dynasty and Confucianism with "Four Books and Five Classics" as its main representative content. For example, Confucianism before the Song Dynasty did not have such abnormal theories and views. Although Confucianism in Han and Tang dynasties was a prominent school, it did not completely become the mainstream ideology of the upper class. Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism developed greatly in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, showing the trend of tripartite confrontation. With the continuous progress of social productive forces, the crude Confucian theory of destiny established since the Han Dynasty has been unable to effectively convince and fool the public. Buddhism and Taoism became popular and attracted many fans. For example, many emperors in the Tang Dynasty believed in Taoism and Buddhism, and a generation of female emperors, Wu Zetian, even admired Buddhism. The rapid development of Buddhism and Taoism has shaken the social orthodoxy of Confucianism. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, many Confucian believers began to explore how to absorb the contents of Buddhism and Taoism and revitalize Confucianism. In the Song Dynasty, Zhu Cheng Neo-Confucianism came into being.
The core view of Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism is to "preserve justice and destroy human desires", that is, to abandon human desires for the sake of so-called "justice", requiring people to keep their bodies as pure as jade and strictly observe the three cardinal principles and the five permanents, while women should follow the so-called "three obedience and four virtues", which is a very strict requirement for feudal ethics and a serious comfort to people's hearts. Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism originated in the Northern Song Dynasty and was established as the official orthodoxy in the Yuan Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty almost reached its peak, and the Qing Dynasty declined, which almost affected the economic and social development of China for nearly a thousand years. Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism is the uncle of people's thoughts, which is the fundamental reason why the Song Dynasty tends to be introverted and conservative.
Several representatives of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties
Second, the loss of strategic position made the Central Plains Dynasty lose the way of foreign ideological and cultural exchanges.
Different from the Tang Dynasty, at the beginning of the establishment of the Tang Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty, it was at a geographical disadvantage compared with the Liao Dynasty, because the sixteen states of Youyun, a strategic place of the Central Plains Dynasty, were seized by the Khitan State during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. In the early days of the Northern Song Dynasty, the military strength was relatively strong, but Zhao Guangyi and Song Taizong were too worthless and failed in the Khitan War, which made it difficult to recover the sixteen states of Youyun. There is a barrier of Xixia in the northwest and a barrier of Tubo dynasty in the southwest. At the same time, the northern song dynasty failed to hold the Hetao plain, thus failing to get through the silk road and blocking the road of foreign exchange. Moreover, due to the national policy of valuing literature over martial arts formulated by Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, and the fact that the areas rich in war horses in the northwest were not under the control of the Song Dynasty, the military strength of the Song Dynasty declined day by day, and many foreign wars ended in failure. Therefore, the ideological culture of the Song Dynasty tends to be conservative.
Map of the Northern Song Dynasty and its Surrounding Situation
Third, the failure of Wang Anshi's political reform led to more conservative politics in the Northern Song Dynasty.
During the Northern Song Dynasty's development to Song Shenzong, the country was poor and weak, the army's combat effectiveness was poor, and the government's fiscal revenue was decreasing. Therefore, Song Shenzong is very eager to realize the revival of the Northern Song Dynasty through political reform. At this time, the emergence of an enterprising reformer, Wang Anshi, made Song Shenzong see the hope of a rich country, Qiang Bing. It should be said that Wang Anshi's political reform is very advanced. If many policies are put in place, the Northern Song Dynasty will be brilliant again. Among them, "Young Crop Law" and "Garbo Law" are both real strategies to enrich the people in Qiang Bing. However, due to improper employment and strong internal opposition in the Northern Song Dynasty, this reform ended in failure. The failure of Wang Anshi's political reform also led to the further influence of Zhu Cheng Neo-Confucianism on politics, and the politics in the Northern Song Dynasty was more conservative and introverted.
Wang Anshi, a reformer in the Northern Song Dynasty
Generally speaking, it is the above three points that lead to the conservatism of ideological culture in the Northern Song Dynasty. The so-called three obedience and four virtues is just a manifestation of this conservatism. This is actually a retrogression. Conservatism in the Northern Song Dynasty represents the turning point of the whole Chinese civilization and affects the political trend in the next Millennium, that is, it is becoming more and more conservative.
Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism put forward the concepts of "three obedience and four virtues" and "preserving nature and destroying human desires" for women; Is to use women as tools. In ancient China, since the Song Dynasty, the spirits of Taoism and Neo-Confucianism permeated the whole country, which suppressed people's normal lust. Women are not only alienated as fertility and sexual desire tools, but also have extremely low status.
The Northern Song Dynasty was quite open. The Neo-Confucianism of Cheng and Zhu in the Southern Song Dynasty rose and imprisoned women.