1. Urban development and urban culture
Mr. Lin Zhengqiu pointed out: "The rise of civic culture is the most important content feature of Hangzhou cultural development in the Southern Song Dynasty." In my opinion, it is also very appropriate to replace "Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty" with "City in the Song Dynasty" in his paper.
An important feature of demographic statistics in the Song Dynasty is that the non-agricultural population in the city is listed as a national household alone, and the division of urban and rural population begins. It is an important event in the development history of the household registration system in China feudal society, which shows that the urban belt has made great progress in the Song Dynasty.
Compared with the Tang Dynasty, the biggest factor affecting the city scale in the Song Dynasty was the development of Guo Fu grass market and the change of its status. Herbivores in Guo Fu originated in Jiankang in the Southern Dynasties, with the aim of accommodating a large population in Du Nan. In the Song Dynasty, the development of Guo Fu grass market was more common, and the Song Dynasty also managed Guo Fu grass market as a part of the city. In this way, the urban population in the Song Dynasty can break through the restrictions of the city wall, and the city is more flexible and open in absorbing population. Undoubtedly, "expanding the function and scale of the city is the performance of the city's promotion to the near field." In the Song Dynasty, there were many grass markets around large and medium-sized cities with a large population. In a fire in Ezhou, Song Xiaozong, thousands of families in Cao Nan were burnt down! It can be seen that the grass market is large in scale.
There were tens of thousands or even 654.38+ million capital cities and large commercial cities in Song Dynasty, exceeding 654.38+00. Among them, the total population of Kaifeng, in its heyday, has exceeded 1 10,000, and Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty was also comparable to Kaifeng. Such a population size is unprecedented not only in the history of China, but also in the world at that time. During the hundreds of years of Song Dynasty, two cities with the largest population appeared in the world, which is enough to show the great achievements and height of urban economic development in Song Dynasty.
In ancient times, cities appeared mainly for political and military needs, so they could only have powerful political and military functions. But in the Song Dynasty, due to the development of commodity economy, the status of the city as a regional economic center was greatly strengthened. Moreover, a large number of cities with handicraft characteristics (such as Jingdezhen) and foreign trade characteristics (such as Quanzhou) have emerged, making the pivotal role of cities in regional commodity circulation more prominent, and economic functions have begun to occupy a more important position. 1085, the business tax in Kaifeng was 550,000 yuan, while in the middle of Southern Song Dynasty, the business tax in Lin 'an was as high as10.2 million yuan.
The unprecedented prosperity of industrial and commercial economy and the high concentration of urban population have become good conditions for the development of citizen culture.
Culture, according to the interpretation of Ci Hai, broadly refers to the sum of material wealth and spiritual wealth created by human beings in the process of social and historical practice. In a narrow sense, it refers to the ideology of society and the institutions and organizations that adapt to it. "
Ralph Linton, an American anthropologist, believes that a culture includes at least three levels: material level, spiritual level and psychological level. Below, this paper takes this as a clue to make a brief analysis of the civil culture in the Song Dynasty in the eyes of the author.
2. Material culture centered on citizens' consumption
The so-called material culture refers to the production, circulation and consumption of materials in a culture; Citizen culture is rising with the prosperity of business and the expansion of citizen class. In Song Dynasty, the urban pattern changed from closed to open, the urban population increased greatly, and the extreme prosperity of commerce created the unique lifestyle of citizens.
If a large number of grass markets in Guo Fu in Song Dynasty made the city turn from closed to open, then the collapse of the market system was a sign that the city turned from closed to open.
Before the Song Dynasty, due to the shortage of storage in Kaifeng House, Zhou Shizong issued a letter to allow building a house on the Bianhe River. After Song Taizu ascended the throne, he ordered the opening of the night market in 965. These two orders opened the gap of the traditional market system in time and space respectively. Although the square market system was still implemented in the early Song Dynasty, it finally collapsed with the great development of commodity economy. During Jing You's reign, officials in the Song Dynasty ordered businessmen to open stores anywhere as long as they paid taxes.
The square market system can not adapt to the market after the development of commodity economy, which is the result of the development of commodity economy and promotes the further development of commodity economy. From the perspective of civic culture, the collapse of the market system makes the commercial layout of the city more flexible, and the distribution of space and time can be adjusted according to the needs of citizens.
In terms of space, commercial streets emerged in batches in the Song Dynasty, such as the banks of Luanhe River in Kaifeng and the East Gate of the Imperial City. At one time, pedestrians were allowed to buy and sell on both sides of the Imperial Street from Xuande Gate to Zhuquemen Gate. In Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, there were three commercial districts located on the Imperial Street. Not only in the city of Lin 'an, but also in the suburbs outside the city are extremely prosperous, with 15 towns, prosperous businesses and concentrated residents. In addition, the emergence of periodic markets, including temple fairs and special commodity fairs, is also a new feature of commercial development in the Song Dynasty.
From the time point of view, the night market in the metropolis of Song Dynasty can last until four o'clock, only one hour away from the opening of the morning market, and it is not affected by climate and season. In cold winter and heavy rain and snow, there are also night markets for sale.
This space-time layout is compatible with the life of citizens. The main body of the citizen class is engaged in commerce and handicrafts. Therefore, the lifestyle of citizens is obviously different from that of ideological peasants. Personally, citizens don't have to observe strict farming hours like farmers, and they have greater autonomy in the distribution of work and rest hours, so they have more free time to spend; On the whole, citizens are engaged in a variety of industries, and their busy and leisure time is different, unlike farmers, where the boundaries between busy farming and leisure are clear. In this way, in terms of time, whether it is a day or a year, citizens ask the city's industry and commerce to provide them with almost uninterrupted services; In space, citizens live in all corners of the city, and it is also required that industry and commerce can be allocated flexibly according to their distribution, not according to the rules of the rulers. Citizens can have such rights, which is the result of the increasing importance of urban development, especially urban economic development, and even the rising status of citizens.
Teahouses and restaurants are not only places where scholars meet and make friends, but also places where people often tell stories, comment on stories, tell stories and sing songs ... So teahouses and restaurants are also places for citizens to entertain, rest and entertain themselves. The teahouse in the restaurant has gathered people from the civic class, and various topics of public concern circulate in it, becoming a kaleidoscope of observing citizens from all walks of life and reflecting all living beings. The rise of restaurants and teahouses can explain the emergence of citizens' leisure consciousness and cultural convergence. They urgently or naturally need a place or a spiritual "home" to accommodate their interests and opinions, so it has special significance in the material culture of citizens. This is more obvious in the following dynamic culture of citizens.
3. The development of dynamic culture and material culture centered on citizens' secular enjoyment is closely related to the prosperity of dynamic culture, which is mutually causal. The so-called dynamic culture refers to the external behavior of people in a culture, which is often the dominant feature of a culture, so it is the most representative among the three levels of culture.
Citizen's dynamic culture, its mental outlook, cultural structure and various forms of expression all revolve around consumers, among which citizen literature and art aimed at satisfying citizens' enjoyment are the most representative. Citizen literature and art in Song Dynasty is based on the social and economic development of cities in Song Dynasty. As some scholars have said, "The whole city in Song Dynasty is a big market, which produces commodities and profits as well as citizens' literature and art." The development of citizens' literature and art is also directly related to the development of urban commodity economy. For example, the art of chanting in the Song Dynasty originated from the peddling of vendors in the market.
Citizens' literature and art includes lectures on history, acrobatics, zaju, shadow play and puppet show, music and dance. ...
Folk entertainment activities such as Baixi and Quyi have developed to a new stage, and the scale, content, form, venue, standardization, specialization and commercialization have been significantly improved. As an important part of urban spiritual life, scripts and operas are deeply loved by the masses. Scripts handed down from ancient times promoted the development climax of vernacular novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Speaking of it, the Northern Song Dynasty has already seen the clue. At that time, I mainly walked around the neighborhood and rapped, and some performed in court. But in addition, the Southern Song Dynasty mainly performed in Wazi, and a fixed place has been established. The development of scripts and songbooks. There are as many as 107 scripts and legendary novels recorded in Zuiwengtan Record. There are also more than 280 kinds of official scripts of Song Dynasty zaju in Old Wulin (10). Baixi, a general term for various geisha, has a wide range of contents. There are acrobatics, sumo wrestling, magic, kicking bells, eating needles, lighting fires, kicking bottles and so on. Acrobatics gradually became an independent art in the Song Dynasty. The folk dance organization "Shehuo" is quite prosperous, with a large scale and strong professionalism. Some professional actors have superb skills, which reflects the development of folk culture. Gladiation, namely sumo and wrestling, was also a popular activity in the Song Dynasty. Not only men's sumo, but also women's sumo is very popular. Xiaosanniang and Heisjie are both famous women sumo wrestlers. Quyi also formed Zaju in the north and Nanju in the south in the Song Dynasty, which was the basis of two schools in China. Puppet shows are also very popular. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were 24 performances in Lin 'an, Yuanxiao Night, Guanxiangkou and Sujiaxiang.
Most of these art forms are recreations of legends and stories by folk artists, with various forms and rich contents. The protagonists of many works are ordinary people, reflecting the ideals and interests of citizens, even if they do not reflect the real life of citizens. They are far different from the traditional forms of serving the temples, adapted to the needs of cultural life of multi-class citizens, and opened a new era of the development of "vulgar" culture.
In the development of citizen literature and art, another important thing is the rise of tile. Wazi, also known as "Wasi" and "Washe", has many names, but it is still inconclusive. I have no intention to distinguish here. Obviously, the development of Wazi in the Song Dynasty has been very prosperous. According to the Tokyo Dream Record, nine tiles were mentioned. According to the records in Dream of Liang Lu, Old Stories in Wulin and Records of the Old Man in the West Lake, we can know that there are 17 tiles in Hangzhou, which was later increased to 23 tiles.
The characteristics of Wazi are: 1, with a relatively fixed actor team; 2. Not limited by time and climate; 3. Lighting, temperature adjustment, sound reinforcement and other facilities. So it can be seen that it is a relatively developed place.
The emergence of a large number of fixed large-scale folk performing arts venues must meet three basic social conditions. 1: The urban pattern is open, without the restriction of the market system, and the residential area, commercial area and entertainment area are combined; 2. The production activities of residents are not limited by seasons; 3. Dense population and many idle people ensure that the audience is always full. It can be seen that the prosperity of Wazi in the Song Dynasty was closely related to the disintegration of Fang Shi system, the development of urban commodity economy and the change of citizens' lifestyle. Therefore, it is also a concentrated expression of the achievements of urban development in the Song Dynasty.
The fixation of performance venues is accompanied by the fixation and expansion of professional teams, which promotes the increasing improvement of cultural quality and skills. According to "The Story of the Old Wulin", Volume 6, "Various Geisha Artists", there were already 55 cultural performances in Hangzhou at that time, with more than 520 citizen artists. ..... and established trade organizations engaged in various cultural industries.
For example, Fei Qingshe (Zaju), She (Cuju), She (Tanci), She (Le Qing), Huapi She (Shadow Play) and Qinghua She (Singing Opera) were all famous entertainment organizations at that time.
The fixation of performance venues and professional artists reflects the prosperity of citizens' dynamic culture represented by citizens' literature and art.
"The mental state and psychological characteristics of citizens ... are secular and secular." We can see the reflection of some citizens' "secular and secular mentality" from the festival celebrations.
During the festival, the government and people hold celebrations. These activities "generally tend to reduce the mysterious atmosphere of superstition, taboo and xenophobia, and increase the color of entertainment and sports activities." During the festival, shops in the town display and sell, people watch songs and dances, acrobatics, make holiday food, put on new clothes and so on. Before and after the Northern Song Dynasty and Shang Yuan Dynasty, there were lights one day, and the main entrance of ouchi was decorated with shadow lights from the mountain building, and a terrace was set up to teach Chen Baixi. In the evening, I opened the old city to Dan and established the concept of citizens. In the five years of Taiping and rejuvenating the country, Taizong "lit the lamp for five nights" and couldn't help but stay up for three days and one night, and the sightseeing was too prosperous. The celebration of festivals, with the original desire to fear God, has gradually turned into self-enjoyment. Can we see that the dependence of traditional agricultural society on "heaven" has gradually turned to the emphasis on human nature, with some colors of humanistic spirit awakening?
The feudal economy paid attention to self-sufficiency, so agriculture became "industry". This is especially true in China, which was ruled by the feudal empire for a long time. In order to facilitate the management of the people, the rulers firmly bound the people to the land with agriculture, but they have always suppressed the mobile commerce. However, the commodity economy developed greatly in the Song Dynasty. The rise of the civil class, mainly composed of small and medium-sized industrialists and businessmen, and the emphasis on commerce and businessmen are all unique ideological trends of the civil class, which in itself negates the traditional hierarchy of "intellectuals, peasants, workers and businessmen", impacts the feudal hierarchy, and spreads to the whole society, forming an impact on the hierarchical ideology of the whole feudal society.
In this context, citizens' rejection and degradation of farmers also appeared. Opposing peasants is an important feature of citizen literature and art in Song Dynasty, among which "cross-dressing" is the most typical. They are characterized by vilifying farmers, exaggerating the simplicity of rural farmers and their inadaptability to urban life, and taking these characteristics of farmers as the object of ridicule. As some scholars have pointed out: "Citizens completely separate themselves from farmers. They try their best to belittle farmers to show off their sense of superiority, which not only shows that citizens have lost their simplicity and honesty, but also reflects their initial civic awareness, which is an inevitable negative process for citizens to fall off from farmers. It is this negation that marks the formation and independence of citizens' thoughts. ..... is a denial of the feudal thought of attaching importance to agriculture. "
This influence is also reflected in many aspects of social life. There were clear regulations on clothing styles and colors in the early Song Dynasty. In the middle and late stages of reciting, it is becoming more and more unconstrained. 1008, Zhenzong once said: "The capital is a scholar, but recently things have become extravagant, clothes and utensils are played with, and gold ornaments are used more. Although the treaty has accumulated, it is not prohibited. " Zhu also said, "Today's clothes are in a mess." In daily use, there is also a phenomenon of "self-control, not restoring discipline". "It is worth noting that the various ceremonies at that time were' not particularly rich and huge' and more came from ordinary people. Explain that the behaviors that often occurred in the upper class in the past have now become popular, which is a rare sight before. "
Thin burial became a common custom in Song Dynasty. There are more and more people advocating thin burial, and the government has explicitly banned post-burial. Paper money and paper funerary objects became popular, and the custom of cremation began to take shape. During the mourning, people still drink and eat meat. Relatives and friends did not criticize, but brought wine to express their condolences, and the host also hosted a banquet. This is very different from the past.
In the Song Dynasty, the number of commercial industries increased significantly, from 170 lines in the Tang Dynasty to more than 400 lines in the Southern Song Dynasty. The new business can be said to be the product of reflecting the needs of the citizens. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were private handicraft workshops specially made in Lin 'an, from cooked food to dressing or doing housework. There are only 22 kinds recorded in Liang Menglu (volume 13) and Tuanxing. This shows that there are more and more components of urban economy as commodities in the Song Dynasty, while the handicraft industry in ancient cities, which aims at satisfying the producers themselves and the aristocratic class, tends to collapse, and the object of production has become the general public in this city, which is undoubtedly a great change. With the development of catering industry, we can see the emergence of a new urban lifestyle. According to Meng Liangzhi (Volume 13, Volume 16), there are more than 200 kinds of cooked food in Lin 'an alone. There were hundreds of famous restaurants in Lin 'an at that time. More and more people like to go to restaurants all over the street to buy food.
The author believes that an important feature of urban life is systematization, and people living in cities prefer to be in a relatively single link in the whole urban system-that is, the division of labor is getting finer and finer, and it is difficult for a person to achieve his own goals through self-directed production in cities, which requires various services and production industries to be separated from the original individual life process and become a new industry in the whole social and economic system and an urban system. The higher the degree of systematization, the higher the citizens' adaptability to this urban system and the higher the level of urban development.
Among all kinds of emerging industries, the bathroom industry is very eye-catching, and public toilets are widely opened in major cities around the world. During the Southern Song Dynasty, businessmen who run bathrooms formed a "perfume line", and a bathroom in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty could provide bathing for 100 people at the same time. The bathroom of Famen Temple in Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province is very large, taking a bath every day 1000 people.
Moreover, public toilets were generally built in cities in the Song Dynasty, and the government paid attention to properly handling urban garbage and feces. Every Spring Festival in Lin 'an, the government sends people from house to house to dredge ditches and transport the mud on the road to the countryside by boat. People clean up the rubbish in the street every day, and the residents give some rewards.
The emergence of a large number of handicrafts, commerce and service industries serving the citizens, as well as the gradual new development of many traditional industries serving the citizens, fully demonstrated the developed material culture of urban citizens in the Song Dynasty.
Among them, the development of restaurants and teahouses can be said to be a distinctive aspect of the material and cultural development of citizens in the Song Dynasty.
Although drinking and drinking tea did not begin in the Song Dynasty, the sales scale of wine and tea in the Song Dynasty expanded rapidly: according to Ma Duanlin's literature, ten years ago (1077), the Song government set up more than 1800 brewing workshops in 260 cities across the country. About one-fifth of the financial expenditure in Song Dynasty was supported by wine tax.
At the same time, due to the destruction of the multi-storey closed square market system in the city, the commercial market has spread rapidly and teahouses have flourished. Due to the developed commodity exchange in the market, restaurants have become "ten cities" in order to meet the needs of the public. In the city, even in the alley, there are often many hotels and teahouses. According to "Dream in Tokyo", there were 72 large restaurants in Tokyo at that time, and the rest of the small and medium-sized restaurants were "countless". Song Renzong's Collection of Manuscripts recorded that "there were 3,000 wine shops in the suburbs of Beijing" for five years, indicating that there were not less than 3,000 small and medium-sized wine shops in Tokyo at that time. The territory of the Southern Song Dynasty is smaller than that of the Northern Song Dynasty, but the wine tax is almost equal to or even more than that of the Northern Song Dynasty. It can be seen that there are more wineries in the Southern Song Dynasty than in the Northern Song Dynasty.
In the Song Dynasty, "folk art has penetrated into many aspects of people's food, clothing, housing and transportation, entertainment and sacrifice." It can also be seen that the status of citizens' life in the Song Dynasty has risen, and artists regard citizens' daily life as the object and source of art, which is a new feature of understanding the relationship between citizens' life and art. The genre paintings in paintings, such as Qixi Night Market and Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, are excellent works that reflect reality and have an immortal position in the history of art. In terms of literary works, Dream of Tokyo and Dream of Liang, which reflect citizens' life, are of literary value and history today.
4. Psychological culture originated from urban development and based on commodity economy.
Both material culture and dynamic culture are explicit forms of culture, behind which is deep psychological culture, which refers to the knowledge, attitude and value enjoyed by a culture, and it actually exists in material culture and dynamic culture.
The rapid development of commodity economy dominated by cities in Song Dynasty greatly strengthened social mobility, so the replacement of officials and people was often rapid and frequent, and "courtiers don't know what will happen tomorrow and today" became the mantra of literati. The trend of "the rich and the poor have no orientation, and the farmland has no owner. If you have money, you can buy it, and if you have no money, you can sell it", which economically reflects the fluctuation of the economic status of social strata. Culturally, the traditional concept of "the rich and the poor are doomed" has been substantially impacted.
Great changes have taken place in the thought of commodity economy in Song Dynasty. The traditional theory of "emphasizing agriculture and restraining commerce" has been criticized, and the status of businessmen has been improved. Generally speaking, the industrial and commercial management system in the Song Dynasty tended to be loose, which promoted the development of the concept of commodity economy.
In the middle and late Song Dynasty, agriculture and industry and commerce were highly developed, and their development had a completely different impact on each other. The importance of agriculture lies in that it first produces the basic materials for human production and survival. Without agriculture, there would be nothing. Therefore, after the war, the serious consequences of agricultural recession will be particularly prominent in the period of declining output. Reducing agricultural labor force and hindering agricultural development will naturally be restrained, which is an objective requirement for developing productive forces. However, when agriculture develops, productivity is improved, basic life is guaranteed, and even agricultural products are surplus, the status of agriculture will naturally decline. The function of commerce is to make products realize the allocation of resources through the flow of commodities, thus improving the production efficiency of wealth, which is particularly important when the productivity reaches a certain height. Especially the active commodity economy, the long-term economic policy of "emphasizing agriculture and restraining commerce" in China feudal society was strongly impacted. The social role of businessmen is more and more recognized by people, and the trend of "industry and commerce are their own business" begins to appear. Some people realized that "there were four kinds of people in ancient times, namely Japanese scholars, Japanese farmers, Japanese workers and Japanese businessmen ... people who were diligent in trade could accumulate wealth." These four things are the people's industries. Since the birth of the people, no one can change. " In "A Brief Introduction to the East", it was written: "When businessmen sit well, four people will benefit from money." During the reign of Song Shenzong Ningxi, Prime Minister Han Qi also pointed out: "Businessmen can make a fortune for themselves." Ye Shi and other more radical people think: "It is wrong to suppress the end and be thick."
In the distribution of commercial streets in Tokyo and Lin 'an mentioned above, we can also see: Isn't it a symbolic change to allow a large number of businesses that were originally considered very humble to settle in the Imperial Street, which is considered to be closely related to the prestige of the Emperor? This should show that the value of business has been recognized by society. The development of commerce in Song Dynasty improved the social status of businessmen. On the one hand, this is the result of the closer relationship between commodity exchange and people's lives. The refinement of division of labor and the improvement of consumption level have expanded the demand for goods, and the position of commerce in social life has become more and more important, so has the position of businessmen engaged in commerce.
Businessmen began to be regarded as "Qi Min" equal to other social classes. In the laws of the Song Dynasty, there was no law that aggravated the criminal punishment of businessmen. Not only that, businessmen have begun the struggle for independence. In July of Kaibao, a businessman in Tokyo was killed unjustly, which triggered a strike struggle of businessmen and forced the government to make some compromises. Although some scholars think that the means of strike struggle at that time were simple and backward, they demanded original compromise. However, the author believes that when a class or stratum begins to strive for independence, ideologically speaking, it is enough to explain the awakening of their independent class (stratum) consciousness; From the objective materials, it can also be explained that they already have a certain range of decision-making power in this social system. Although the size and spatial scope of this power vary greatly, it does exist-just as workers' strikes only have power in a certain industrialized society, and strikes only have power when businessmen are indispensable in the social system. The compromise made by the government shows that their independent class consciousness and social influence have been widely recognized. Although they are still naive, it is only a matter of time before they grow up in the social system.
In society, it has gradually become a trend to worship merchants and abandon agriculture, infiltrate Confucian merchants and integrate officials and businessmen. Therefore, the identity of businessmen in Song Dynasty was more complicated, and businessmen were warmly accepted and treated. There are officials and businessmen, as well as businessmen and landlords. Scholars are also actively engaged in business for profit, and even some scholars have turned to trade management because of their poor official career, and some are scholars with considerable academic attainments.
The broad masses of civilians in the city have also "abandoned their roots and pursued them to the end." During the Yuanfeng period, there were more than 15,000 industrial and commercial households in Kaifeng, Tokyo, accounting for about one tenth of the total number of households. There is a saying circulating in Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty: "If you want to be an official, you must kill and set fire to it; If you want to make a fortune, you should rush to sell wine and vinegar. "
As can be seen from the above, with the great development of commodity economy with the city as the core, commerce with the city as the main space has begun to be valued. In this atmosphere, the civil class, which is dominated by industrialists and businessmen, has also taken a fancy to its own values, becoming more and more independent and showing more and more rebellion against the traditional feudal empire ideology based on agricultural economy.
5. Citizen culture in Song Dynasty
After the mid-Tang Dynasty, with the high development of urban economy, the nature of urban residents gradually changed, resulting in a citizen class. In the Song Dynasty, with the unprecedented prosperity of urban economy, the ranks of the citizen class grew day by day. Their birth is an important event in Chinese economic history, especially in the history of urban development. It not only indicates that the traditional functions and characteristics of ancient cities in China have undergone new changes in the Song Dynasty, although this change was not so obvious in the feudal society at that time and even later. Historians at home and abroad boldly believe that the ancient cities of China have broken away from the traditional regime in the Song Dynasty and entered the real "urban revolution" period. If this conclusion holds, then the birth of brand-new urban residents with the theme of businessmen is undoubtedly the important connotation of this conclusion.
Based on the theory of credit city ecology, a Japanese scholar, Spoyi, analyzed Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty. He thought that the downtown of Hangzhou was the concentration point of capital and financial shops, while the palace was in a corner, which was similar to the spatial structure of modern cities and showed realistic urban rules, and was the product of the urban revolution in the Song Dynasty.
Some Japanese scholars believe that the Song Dynasty was the beginning of China's "modern times". 1973 The book "Historical Patterns of China" published in Britain called the Northern Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty "Late Empire" in 1975. In the introduction of essays published in the United States, he wrote: "The beginning of China's' modern' history can be traced back to the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries, that is, the so-called Tang and Song Dynasties.
The author believes that from the perspective of social form, the rise of citizens as an increasingly independent class in the Song Dynasty is a remarkable highlight of the development of social form in the Song Dynasty. Since the Qin Dynasty, under the domination of traditional feudal imperial ideology based on agricultural economy, a citizen class appeared in the Song Dynasty. Contrary to the traditional social characteristics of "quietness" and "spirit", they advocate "movement" and "people". Looking back at the history of the world, although it is impossible to achieve complete equality due to different historical conditions, can we see the value of citizens in the Song Dynasty as a new progressive force in history by comparing the history of Europe?
Regrettably, the Song Dynasty ended with the Mongols' expedition to the south. Although according to the traditional view, the Yuan Dynasty was a dynasty with developed urban economy, the author has a question, that is, as a nomadic people with relatively backward culture, can they quickly integrate their ideology with the social situation with developed commodity economy after entering the Central Plains? Of course, they also tried their best to absorb the advanced culture of the Han nationality, but the society of commodity economy is not described in Confucian classics. Moreover, as "foreigners", Mongolians are deeply wary of "Han people" and "southerners" in the Central Plains, mainly to suppress them-this is also an important reason why they will be short-lived. The development of urban commodity economy and society must be the product of relatively free thought, which is obviously unwilling to be seen by emperors and nobles. References:
Renren