The Political System and Political Culture of the Late Northern Song Dynasty

The research object of this book is the political history of the Zhezong and Huizong dynasties of the Northern Song Dynasty (1085-1125). In order to avoid reducing political history to a history of political struggle, this book starts from the political system and political culture, reorganizes the complicated political evolution process of the late Northern Song Dynasty, and then attempts to understand the characteristics of ancient Chinese dynastic politics. First of all, the whole book always focuses on the theme of "politics of scholar-bureaucrats" in the Song Dynasty, explaining the process of gradual alienation of its multi-layered ideals in the political practice of the late Northern Song Dynasty. The political dilemmas of the late Northern Song Dynasty such as party strife and corruption that many predecessors have emphasized are by-products of this alienation. Secondly, this book explains the flexibility and diversity of imperial politics in the late Northern Song Dynasty from a technical and conceptual level, rather than a fixed trend. This is also to break away from the general discussion of the strength of monarchy and find a new way to understand the dynastic system.