As the saying goes: Character determines destiny. Although this sentence is not absolutely correct, it still applies to most cases, and it refers not only to people, but also to countries!
For example, when we mention the Han and Tang Dynasties now, we are strong Han Sheng Tang; when we mention Song Ming, we are weak and poor. This is mainly because the Han and Tang Dynasties focused on Shangwu, Song Ming favored Chongwen, and this tone was determined at the beginning of the founding of the Four Dynasties! His Shangwu was embodied in the fact that after Emperor Wu of han ascended the throne, he launched a counter-offensive against the Xiongnu, causing them to suffer devastating heavy losses, the Eastern Han Dynasty Ban Chao "throwing pens and obeying rong"; the Tang Dynasty destroyed the Eastern and Western Turks and conquered Goguryeo. Even the Han Dynasty had the saying that the only Han dynasty was killed by force, and Tang Taizong was also a heavenly khan and a foreign land of Yaowei.
And to the two Song Dynasties, throughout the dynasty were confronted with Liao, Jin, Western Xia, and Mongolia, and the national strength was very different, and it was difficult to win; although there was the wind of Han and Tang dynasties and the coming of all states during the Hongwu Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty; but after Xuande withdrew from Annam and confronted the Northern Yuan, Zhengde Wanli's foreign conquest was also a case, resulting in the late Ming Dynasty and qingxing, tens of thousands of eight banners conquering tens of thousands of people, it is difficult to say that they have nothing to do with Chongwen!
Figure 1| The Coming of the Ten Thousand Kingdoms
The contrast is stark, but we can't say that Shangwu is necessarily stronger than Chongwen, because for thousands of years in China, the ancestors believed in subjugating people with virtue and educating all the people:
Didn't you see the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the 100,000 people in the cliff mountains threw themselves into the rivers and seas?
Did you not see the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty for decades?
Therefore, the comparison between the advantages and disadvantages of Shangwu and Chongwen cannot be finalized in one fell swoop, but must be analyzed from many aspects.
In fact, these four dynasties are very representative of all the dynasties in ancient times, and their national ancestors are about three hundred years, although the Han Dynasty is longer, but divided into things. They are not like the Qin and Sui Short Zuo; nor like the Shang and Zhou Splits; and they are not like the Wei Jin Dynasty, the Five Dynasties, the Short Zuo, and the Split! Therefore, Shangwu and Chongwen actually only represent two different national tones! The founding tone of the country is different, and the fate of the country is also very different! The Shangwu of the Han Dynasty evolved into various princes in the later period, and eventually split into three kingdoms; after the Tang Dynasty Shangwu and the Anshi Rebellion, the feudal towns were divided, which eventually led to the endless wars of the Five Dynasties (many of the monarchs of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms originated from the feudal towns at the end of the Tang Dynasty).
Song Ming Chongwen continued to accumulate weakness and die in foreign races.
Shangwu is divided, and Chongwen is easy to destroy the country! Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and it has shortcomings!
Figure 2| Battle of Yashan Mountain
From the above examples, it can also be seen that it is best to revere the text and not suppress the martial arts, and to maintain martial arts and repair the text. The Weishu Gaozu Jixia also has a good interpretation of this state:
Although the state reveres the nine garments with the nine clothes and cultivates the martial arts to avoid the eight wildernesses, it is still unfinished in the direction of learning martial arts.
The state advocates culture to educate the people and cherish the distant places; to renovate the armed forces to deter the enemy and ensure the stability of the frontier! Therefore, both culture and martial arts are indispensable! In fact, in addition to the two Song Dynasties, the three dynasties of the Han, Tang and Ming Dynasties were both equally important for a period of time, so in the early Han Dynasty, there was no royal court in the south of the Han Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty was blessed with thousands of years; in the early Tang Dynasty, it was able to shock the Four Yi and the Tang poetry to endure; the Ming Dynasty had the Wanbang Lai Dynasty in the Yongle Period, and many novels have been circulated to this day. But they can't be maintained after all, which makes people talk about the intentional unfinished feeling of these historical periods!
Since it is better to cultivate both at the same time, why are there no shortage of heroes among the rulers of the Four Dynasties, but they do not change the maintenance and cultivation of literature and martial arts? In fact, it was more determined by the environment at that time, and the times created heroes.
Han Dynasty: Inheriting the style of Qin Shangwu, to the Eastern Han Dynasty, foreign eunuchs alternated dictatorship and difficult to revitalize culture
The Han dynasty inherited the Qin system, and the pre-Qin in the environment of fierce strife and annexation among the nations, unification and survival became the main theme at that time, so the Shangwu transformation method to strengthen the country, throughout the 150 years of the Qin state after the Shang martingale. The Han Dynasty also inherited this style of martial arts, although there were early seventy years of peace and affinity, but by the time of Emperor Wu, the national strength allowed to fight back immediately, and at that time, the wei huo and the like were born, sealing the wolf Juxu and the mo nan no royal court. After that, it continued to the Eastern Han Dynasty: Ban Chao threw pen from Rong, and Dou Xian defeated the Northern Xiongnu! In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, foreign eunuchs alternated dictatorships. And foreign relatives and military generals, such as Dou Xian, Liang Ji, He Jin and the like; eunuchs are even less likely to advocate culture, and even at the end of the period, they instigated Huan and The Second Emperor Ling to launch two party disasters, so that at that time, the literati, literati, and culture were all devastated! Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Xiao Huan Benji" and "Book of the Later Han Dynasty. The Book of Filial Piety records it separately:
(Emperor Huan's ninth year [166]) June Gengshen, amnesty for the world, and the removal of the party. (Emperor Jianning of Ling [168]) In September Xinhai, The Zhongchang Attendant Cao Jie (中常侍曹節) commanded Taifu Chen Fan (太傅蕃), the general Dou Wu (窦武), shangshu Ling Yin Xun (尹勋), Liu Yu (劉宇), and Feng Shu (丰述), a lieutenant of tun riding, all of whom were of yiqi. (Ling Emperor Xiping 5th year [176]) Leap month, Yongchang Taishou Cao Luan sat in court and abandoned the city. Protégés, former officials, fathers, brothers, and sons of the Zhao Party are exempt from official confinement.
Figure 3 | the scourge of the party
Tang Dynasty: The military town started from the beginning, integrated hu han, inherited the style of hu people and martial arts, and ran through the Sheng Tang Dynasty
If we discuss the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Guanlong military aristocratic clique has to be mentioned, because this clique is so powerful that it was only a handful in ancient times! It created three dynasties, namely the Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang Dynasties! Everything must have a cause and effect, why is it so powerful? It's nothing more than having an army on hand. Originating from Yuwen Tai, one of the eight pillar states at that time and the founder of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, he pioneered the fu military system, which was a very advanced military system at that time. And the grandfather of Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, was also one of the eight pillar states - Li Hu, and the military town started with a veritable name. At the same time, the Sui and Tang Dynasties also originated from the Northern Dynasty, and since the Western Jin Dynasty, the Influence of the Five Hu Chaohua, the Northern Dynasty states were mostly established by ethnic minorities before, such as the Northern Wei, Western Wei, Eastern Wei and Northern Zhou established by Xianbei, and the Hu people were many Shangwu, and it was on this basis that the Sui and Tang Dynasties integrated hu han and inherited the Shangwu style of the Hu people. Although Tang poetry also endured for a long time, from the early Tang Dynasty's attack on the Eastern and Western Turks, the conquest of Goguryeo, and then to the middle of the Dafeng Domain, and even because of the Hexi Corridor, often clashed with Dashi (present-day Arabia), Shangwu Chao Chongwen was several times higher. This point can be corroborated by many historical materials at that time. Like what:
[Tang] Du You's Tongdian (通典): "Seventy thousand people in Sichuan, YuLuo" [Song] Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian cites [Tang] Tang Calendar: "Thirty thousand people from The Great Food of the Han Dynasty" [Song] Si MaGuang's Tongjian Kaoyi quotes [Tang] Duan Xiushi Biography: "Sixty thousand people of the Han Dynasty" [Later Jin] Liu Xun et al. "Old Book of Tang": "Leading twenty thousand troops deep into Hudi and fighting the Great Food War" [Song] Ouyang Xiu et al. "New Book of Tang": "Xianzhi led the army twenty thousand deeper"
Therefore, the style of Shangwu in the Tang Dynasty is even worse than that of the Han Dynasty!
Figure 4| Guanlong Group
Song Dynasty: Five generations of wars, Song Taizu's cup of wine to release military power, Chongwen suppressed martial arts
Because The Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin had a sense of the five generations of war, after his almost unification, he released his military power with a cup of wine and ruled the world with the scholars, laying the foundation for the later dynasty to emphasize literature and light martial arts. We can also see from the continuation time of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms that the military power in the hands of military generals is indeed a factor of instability. From Zhu Wen's usurpation of Tang in 907 to Zhao Guangyi's sweeping away the Northern Han Dynasty in 979 AD, in just seventy-two years, it has gone through five dynasties and more than ten countries, and most of them started from the late Tang Dynasty and seized power by force! As mentioned in the New History of the Five Dynasties:
Where the military power is, it will rise with the rise, and where the military power goes, it will die with it.
Therefore, the two Song Chongwen also have their era background!
Figure 5| a glass of wine to release the military power
Ming Dynasty: Zhu Yuanzhang took the world is not easy, collecting the lessons of the rise and fall of the previous generations, leaning towards Chongwen. After arriving at Tumu Fort, the founding of the country and the Jing Dynasty were almost killed and wounded, and it was a foregone conclusion that the civilian official power would become larger
During the Ming Dynasty, Xiang Chongwen was born because Zhu Yuanzhang rose up with grassroots roots to unify the world, and cherished this hard-won Jiangshan: because he learned the lessons of the demise of the past dynasties, he divided the kings as a barrier; because he was afraid that his descendants would not be virtuous, he spent a lot of effort to forge the "Ancestral Precepts of the Emperor Ming" that is of great reference value to future generations, so relative Chongwen is also the result of his deep thinking! During his reign, he further improved the examination system and selected talents for the state. After several generations of development, after the change of Yingzong Tumu Fort, with the death of The Jing Dynasty hero Zhang Fu and other Xun Qi, resulting in Xun Qi no longer having real power after that, it was a foregone conclusion that the civilian official power would become large, and Chongwen would almost revert to the Two Song Dynasties!
History of The Ming Dynasty. The Yingzong Benji also has a detailed record of the death of Xun Chen:
The division collapsed, and hundreds of thousands of people died. Gong ZhangFu of england, Chen Ying of fengning marquis, Du Ma Du Wei And Yuan, Pingxiang Bo Chen Huai, Xiangcheng Bo Li Zhen, Sui'an Bo Chen, Xiu Wu Bo Shen Rong, Du Governor Liang Cheng, Wang Gui, Shangshu Wang Zuo, Kuang Ye, Xue Shu Cao Nai, Zhang Yi, Shilang Ding Xuan, Wang Yonghe, vice capital Yushi Deng Tang, etc., all died, Emperor Bei hunted.
Figure 6| the change of the civil fort
It is precisely because in the context of these eras, Han And Tang Shangwu and Song Ming Chongwen. The founding tone of the country is different, and the fate of the country is also very different: the Han and Tang Dynasties ended in a split, and the Song Ming died at the hands of a foreign race, and it is difficult to distinguish which spirit is more advanced, because they are only choices made in line with the background of the times at that time.
The above is only a family's words, if there is an error, I hope you will point out in time, the copyright is still owned by the sun and the moon millennium, please indicate the source when reprinting!
bibliography:
Book of Wei and The Book of Gaozu, Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Filial Piety Benji [Tang] Du You Tongdian [Song] Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian [Song] Si Maguang Tongjian Examination Difference [Later Jin] Liu Xun et al. Old Book of Tang [Song] Ouyang Xiu et al. New Book of Tang, New History of the Five Dynasties, History of Ming. Emperor Hideyoshi