Diqin Designer

Chapter 491 The Civil Administration of the "God of Chariots" (History of the Northern Song Dynasty)
The failure of Yongxi's Northern Expedition resulted not only in losses of soldiers and supplies, but also in losses of morale, causing some people in the Northern Song court to develop a fear of the Liao Dynasty.

In reality, the Song army was no worse than the Liao army; the two defeats were entirely the fault of the Song army's commanders.

The First Emperor said, "After this battle, it will be difficult for the Song court to stand firm against the Liao Dynasty again. What is the 'Treaty of Chanyuan'? Was it also signed during the reign of Zhao Guangyi?"

Li Nian shook his head and said, "'The Treaty of Chanyuan' was not signed by Zhao Guangyi, but was related to his son. This man was also 'famous' in history..."

Seeing Li Nian's strange expression, the First Emperor and others knew that this "renowned" reputation was probably not a good one, and that he was just another "hero" of the Song Dynasty.

However, Li Nian did not immediately talk about Emperor Zhenzong of Song. He said, "Although Zhao Guangyi was somewhat lacking in military prowess, he was indeed very talented in civil administration. The fact that the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties could survive for more than 300 years is largely due to Zhao Guangyi's contributions."

While the titles "God of War on the Donkey Cart" and "God of the Sorghum River Cart" are indeed shameful in terms of martial arts, Zhao Guangyi's achievements in civil administration cannot be denied.

"In politics, Zhao Guangyi strengthened central authority and reformed the central and local governments. In the late Tang Dynasty, the power of the regional military governors was too great, which made the central government lose its authority."

"The Song dynasty would naturally avoid repeating the mistakes of the Tang dynasty. Zhao Guangyi listened to the advice of Li Han, the Right Remonstrator, and made all the prefectures and counties of the Song dynasty directly under the jurisdiction of the court, no longer using the old system of military governors leading subordinate prefectures."

During the late Tang Dynasty, military governors (Jiedushi) held absolute power over local military and political affairs. They governed subordinate prefectures, and the officials of those prefectures were subordinate to the military governors, making the military governors virtually local emperors. This made it easy for military governors to rebel or disobey the imperial court's orders.

The Northern Song Dynasty learned from these lessons and placed all prefectures and counties under the direct jurisdiction of the imperial court, allowing prefectural officials to report directly to the court.

Even if a prefectural official wanted to emulate the old ways of the military governor and turn the prefectures under his jurisdiction into one family, other prefectural officials would not do so. A single memorial sent to the imperial court would thwart their plans.

Moreover, the Song court had other means to prevent officials from becoming too powerful.

"In the Song court, Zhao Guangyi constructed a rather complex official system by setting up multiple institutions and dividing power, with checks and balances between departments and between officials."

"The advantages and disadvantages of this method are equally obvious. By dispersing and weakening the power of officials, it is difficult for a powerful department to emerge in the Song court. However, this also leads to overlap in the powers of various departments in the Song court, and with the increase in the number of officials, it is actually difficult to concentrate efforts when doing things."

The First Emperor and others immediately understood what was going on. There were many departments with overlapping responsibilities. On a certain matter, it seemed that multiple departments had the authority to manage it, but in reality, they could all ignore it and even hinder each other.

This is what the Song Dynasty emperors would have wanted to see: by having officials check and balance each other, their imperial power could be more secure.

As for the potential impact on national development, that's not the primary concern; imperial power is far more important.

"In order to strengthen control over local areas, Zhao Guangyi reformed the regional divisions at that time, changing the roads to circuits, and dividing more than 300 prefectures, states, military districts and supervisory districts into 15 circuits."

This division is not arbitrary on the map, but rather carefully planned. It weakens the strong and strengthens the weak, rather than making the strong even stronger.

If a certain place is very powerful, but difficult to access, then its key transportation links with the outside world can be transferred to the neighboring administrative region to restrict its access.

"But Zhao Guangyi's greatest influence on the Northern Song Dynasty, or more accurately, on both the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, was his advocacy of civil administration, improvement of the imperial examination system, and elevation of the status of civil officials. This enabled the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties to last for three hundred years and produced many literary giants and famous figures, including Li Qingzhao, one of the four great female talents of China."

Li Nian added, "In my humble opinion, among the four great female talents, 'Yi'an Jushi' is the most talented." This greatly interested the First Emperor and others. To be one of the four great female talents of China was already remarkable, but this one was actually the most talented among them.

The most talented woman in Chinese history was born in the Song Dynasty, which shows that the Song Dynasty's cultural achievements may have been quite remarkable!
"Zhao Guangyi advocated civil administration and improved the imperial examination system. Although he intended to select talents for the court and bring all the heroes of the country into his fold, his main purpose was to reverse the trend of military men ruling since the late Tang and Five Dynasties period, so as to consolidate the Song Dynasty."

"It is not wrong to reverse the trend of military men ruling after the late Tang and Five Dynasties period. In the late Tang and Five Dynasties period, whoever had the army was king, and the chaos in the world was inseparable from those military men."

"Having lived through that era, Zhao Guangyi was well aware of the dangers of military rule, so it was quite normal for him to want to promote civil administration and reverse this trend."

"The problem is that the correction went too far, changing from the original 'emphasizing martial arts and neglecting literature' to 'emphasizing literature and suppressing martial arts,' and there was even a saying that 'only those who are named as the top scholar outside Donghua Gate are good sons.'"

"This refers to the fact that after the imperial examination, the emperor would personally go to Donghua Gate to announce the names of the newly appointed scholars."

It was only then that Wang Jian, Meng Tian, ​​and the others realized that the system used in the Qin Dynasty's grand examination in Xianyang originated from the Song Dynasty in later times.

Meng Tian said, "For those Song Dynasty scholars who have passed the imperial examinations, it is a great honor to have their names read aloud by the emperor himself. When people see this, they will gradually come to believe that being called by the emperor at Donghua Gate is the highest honor, and thus they will be more willing to study for the imperial examinations rather than join the army."

"In this way, the prevailing trend of 'valuing military over civil service' will be reversed. However, with such a move, many talented people in the country will participate in the imperial examinations, while the army will lack capable individuals, and the Song army will decline as a result."

Meng Tian's analysis was wrong. The Song court was the Song court, and the Song soldiers were the Song soldiers. Although the Song Dynasty implemented a policy of "emphasizing civil affairs and suppressing military affairs", the Song army's combat effectiveness was not as weak as people thought, and it also had famous generals.

Li Nian smiled and said, "Although the Song Dynasty 'emphasized literature and suppressed military affairs,' the Song army's combat strength was still quite good. Unfortunately, under the leadership of the Song court, it was good at defense but not enough at offense. If the Song army had no strength, it would have been destroyed by the Liao and Jin dynasties long ago."

"The system of announcing names at Donghua Gate originated in the second year of the Yongxi reign of Emperor Zhao Guangyi. Before the Song Dynasty, the imperial examination system was not standardized and had many loopholes that could be exploited. It was also basically monopolized by the sons of officials. However, during Zhao Guangyi's reign, the imperial examination system was standardized, making it the most important method of selecting talent for the dynasty, without exception!"

“For example, the anonymous grading system existed in the Tang Dynasty, but it was only during the reign of Zhao Guangyi that it was popularized in the imperial examinations to make the selection of talents more fair. Another example is the locked-room system, which was also established in the Song Dynasty.”

"Some of the policies established during the Song Dynasty's imperial examination system were even used in later generations."

Although the imperial examination system appeared quite early, it was only in the Song Dynasty that it was truly regarded as an important policy for governing the country. The imperial examination system in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and the well-known imperial examination system later on are not the same thing at all.

"Zhao Guangyi not only standardized the imperial examination system, but also increased the number of candidates admitted. Those who participated in the imperial examination and achieved excellent results were given preferential treatment in official appointments and could be promoted more quickly than those who became officials through other means."

Wang Wan smiled and said, "This move is also to elevate the status of the imperial examination and encourage people to participate in it, so as to achieve the goal of 'all other professions are inferior, only the imperial examination is superior'."

To get people interested in something and to make them follow it, you need to elevate its status and ensure that those involved receive significant benefits, whether material or honorable.

This is how participants feel that what they are doing is prestigious and worthwhile, and they will be willing to do it. Even if only one in a hundred people succeeds, there will still be a steady stream of people participating.

Clearly, Zhao Guangyi succeeded!
(End of this chapter)