SUMMARY
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Northern Song
After the death of Zhou Shizong, his son succeded the throne when he was only 7 years old. His mother acted as regent and Zhao Kuangyin was the master of the army. 960, Zhao Kuangyin started the "The Treason at Chen Qiao". Zhao ended the Later Zhou Dynasty and established the dynasty of Song. Zhao became Song Taizu.
After the establishment of Northern Song, Song Taizu started the war that later united the North and the South, and decreased the power of the South greatly. 979, Song Taizu's brother, Song Taizong, ended the divided situation of China. Thus, except for some ethnic groups at the borders, the North and the South were united.
Mid-Northern Song, the political system was in a mess.
- The division of land was very unclear. People who had power had infinite land.
- The land that actually give taxes to the government occupy only 30% of usable land
- The rulers, in an attempt to prevent officers from becoming too powerful, created a government that was too-layered with many "garbage" posts that don't do anything
- The rulers use armies to amend the peasants' revolt. These armies have become low-leveled, and were often defeated.
- The rulers of Song pressed all the debts and pressures on the shoulders of the peasants, thus increasing the hatred of the civilians towards the government
- Many rebels broke out during mid-Song. This time, the people rebelling were not only peasants but soldiers and ethnic groups as well
- Frequent wars have wasted the government huge amount of money
- Changes were needed.
AD 1043, during the reins of Song Renzong. Fan Zhongyan, Ou Yangxiou, etc. proposed 10 changes to the current political system to the emperor. The emperor agreed to most of them and the reforms began. But the reforms were only beneficial to the civilians and cut the power of the officialss. Thus, under the influence of these officials who opposed to the changes, Fan Zhongyan and the others were expelled from the government and all changes thus stopped.
AD 1069, Song Shenzong,using the suggestions of Wang Anshi, started a series of reforms again. But because of using the wrong person, during the reforms, there were mistakes and other things that affected the high-positioned officials in a negative way. So later, at the death of Song Shenzong, the changes stopped again.
During Northern Song, on the borders of the country lived a few ethnic groups. From the founder of Song, Song Taizong, emperors tried to conquer these regions, especially the kingdom of Mai. The imperial army of Song went down to this region a few times but always return defeated. Finally, in 1004, the military campagne was able to achieve some victory and Mai asked for a peace treaty between the two places. The emperor agreed.
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