Speaking of the imperial palace, I believe that the first thing many friends think of is the Forbidden City in Beijing: During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Forbidden City was called the Forbidden City, and it was where the emperors lived in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Today, the Forbidden City is still the largest and most luxurious palace complex in the world.
Beijing became the capital of the Great Unified Dynasty in the Yuan Dynasty. Of course, the capital of the Liao and Jin dynasties was set in Beijing before-but in the Liao Dynasty, Beijing was called Nanjing, and in the Jin Dynasty, Beijing was called the Central Capital. In the Yuan Dynasty, Beijing was able to become the capital of the Great Yuan Dynasty of the unified dynasty. Later, the Ming and Qing dynasties were also set here. However, the Forbidden City is a product of the Ming Dynasty.
In Chinese history, in addition to the Forbidden City, there are also famous palaces such as Weiyang Palace and Daming Palace. Among them, Weiyang Palace is a palace of the Han Dynasty, and Daming Palace is a palace of the Ming Dynasty. What is strange is that there is no famous large palace in the Song Dynasty. What is the reason?
Construction background
When Weiyang Palace was built, Liu Bang had already unified the world. Therefore, Liu Bang appointed Xiao He to be responsible for the construction of Weiyang Palace in Chang'an. For the next two centuries, Weiyang Palace was the center of power of the Western Han Dynasty.
The construction background of Daming Palace is similar to Weiyang Palace. It was during the reign of Li Shimin, the holy lord of the Datang Dynasty, that all the internal and external troubles of the Tang Dynasty were solved, so Li Shimin ordered Wei Zheng to build the Daming Palace. For hundreds of years, this place was the political center of Datang.
The Forbidden City in Ming and Qing Dynasties was after Emperor Yongle seized the throne of Emperor Jianwen. He felt that the remnants of the Jianwen court in Nanjing were too powerful, so Emperor Yongle moved the capital to Beijing and built the Forbidden City.
And on the background of the construction of the Weiyang Palace, the Daming Palace, and the Forbidden City, we will find some things in common: first, these are the palaces of the unified dynasty, and second, they are all built during the peace of the world.
And the palaces of the Song Dynasty are not well-known, in fact, to a certain extent, it has a certain relationship with the background.
Two Song embarrassment
If you ask a history lover: Where is the capital of the Song Dynasty? I believe many history lovers would think that the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty is Kaifeng, and the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty is Lin'an. But in fact, this statement is only half right.
Because there were four capitals at the same time in the Song Dynasty, only one of the four capitals was the capital and the four were the accompanying capitals. Among the four capitals of the Song Dynasty, Kaifeng was Tokyo and also the capital of the Song Dynasty. In addition to Tokyo, the Song Dynasty also had Xijing Luoyang, Nanjing Yingtian (now Shangqiu, Henan) and Beijing Damingfu. This division is not only the division of the Northern Song Dynasty, but also the division of the entire Song Dynasty.
Because the Southern Song dynasty made an extremely schizophrenic thing after it settled in the south of the Yangtze River: on the one hand, the Southern Song and Jin dynasties delineated the national boundary, and the Huaihe River was the line between the Southern Song and Jin dynasties. The southern part of the border belongs to the Southern Song Dynasty. This means that the four capitals, east, west, south, and north, are actually not under the control of the Emperor of Song Dynasty. However, from the establishment to the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, Lin'an was never recognized as the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. : It is the temporary residence of the Emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty. According to the concept of the Southern Song Dynasty court, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty is still in Kaifeng, but it is temporarily not controlled by the Song Dynasty.
Therefore, generally speaking of the capital of the Song Dynasty, I believe many people will think of Kaifeng instead of Lin'an.
A trip to the capital of Kaifeng
Speaking of the Song Dynasty imperial palace, all this has to be talked about from the end of the Tang Dynasty.
The change of dynasty between the Tang and Song dynasties was actually a major migration of the political and economic center. Because of the previous dynasties, whether it was the Qin and Han, Jin, or Sui and Tang dynasties, as long as the conditions are met, these dynasties will either be capitals of Chang'an or Luoyang. Of course, the emperor of Han and Tang dynasties traveled between Chang'an and Luoyang more often.
From the Song Dynasty, Chang'an began to stand aside and became an abandoned capital. Kaifeng was regarded by the Northern Song and Jin dynasties as a good place to set the capital.
Kaifeng became the capital in the late Tang Dynasty. At that time, after Kaifeng warlord Zhu Wen took control of the Tang court, he planned to dethrone the Emperor Tang Ai of the Tang Dynasty and become the emperor himself. However, Zhu Wen considered that Chang'an and Luoyang were not places where they had operated for many years. Secondly, due to the wars of more than a hundred years since the Mid-Tang Dynasty, Chang'an and Luoyang were no longer suitable for continuing to serve as capitals of the new imperial court. Especially Chang'an. Therefore, Zhu Wen ordered the people to destroy the city of Chang'an, then deposed Emperor Tang Ai and established the Houliang Dynasty.
After Zhu Wen established the Houliang Dynasty, the prelude to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms opened. As Zhu Wen deposed Emperor Ai of Tang Dynasty, the feudal towns in other regions also seized one side and fought each other. This kind of melee situation lasted for more than fifty years.
Houliang established political power under these conditions. It is conceivable that the Houliang court is nominally a court, but in fact it is a warlord group. Therefore, Houliang has no power in terms of environment or conditions. Go and build palaces like Weiyang Palace or Daming Palace. In fact, in the five generations of regime change, Kaifeng city has experienced many wars.
After the weekend, Zhao Kuangyin established the Northern Song Dynasty regime. The imperial palace in the Northern Song Dynasty was built on the basis of the Kaifeng imperial palace in the Five Dynasties. And this pattern laid the foundation pattern of the Northern Song Dynasty imperial palace.
Renewal difficulties
In the Song Taizong era, the Northern Song army destroyed the Northern Han Dynasty and completed partial reunification. However, the subsequent Northern Song emperors did not make a significant contribution on the basis of the Kaifeng Palace. Expansion, so that the size of the Song Dynasty palace is comparable to that of the Tang Dynasty palace, and the size of the courtyard house of the rural rich man: Not to mention, the perimeter of the Daming Palace is about 15 Huali, while the Song Dynasty palace is only five Huali perimeter. In comparison, one can imagine the shabbyness of the two Song imperial palaces.
The reason why the Emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty did not expand the palace was mainly due to the following points:
As a result, the Northern Song Dynasty pursued the rule of the emperor and the scholar-officials, and the expansion of the palace was a matter for the emperor to enjoy. , Inevitably attracted the opposition of scholar-officials. Therefore, the emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty had no motivation to expand the palace;
Second: In order to appease the people of the world, Song Taizu continued to absorb landless peasants as soldiers. At the same time, the Northern Song Dynasty government continued to expand the bureaucracy, which resulted in the Northern Song Dynasty’s strong financial resources, but, The Northern Song Dynasty's finances still used to eat grain, repairing and even expanding the palace, which was a lot of money. Where did the Song emperor use this money? What's more, the Northern Song Dynasty also had to bear the Qidan coins and Xixia's gifts. In addition, the frontier war between the Song Dynasty and the Xixia Dynasty also ran through the entire Northern Song Dynasty after the Song Renzong era. These financial expenditures restricted the consumption of the Northern Song Emperor.
Sanlai: The emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty were all decent people and wanted a good reputation. For example, Song Zhenzong likes to go to Mount Tai to enshrine the Zen. This is a money-burning project, but it can gain a good reputation. The building of the palace is often exaggerated into a desire for pleasure. The emperor of the Song Dynasty would not easily advocate the expansion of the palace because of his reputation.
