Brief introduction to "Three Hundred Years of Lin'an in Bianliang"
This is a historical record of the changes in the two Song dynasties and three hundred years, aiming to capture the spirit of that era that was at its peak but full of worries.
The book begins with Chen Qiaoyi's wearing a yellow robe in 960 AD and ends with Yashan's tragic sinking into the sea in 1279. Over the past three hundred years, China has experienced a "golden age" of civilizational achievements and a "historical turning point" of national decline. We not only describe the rise and fall of dynasties, emperors and generals, but also strive to paint a panoramic picture of the "Song-type civilization": its economic prosperity, cultural prosperity, and elegance of life, as well as its struggles and dilemmas in military pressure and geopolitics, formed a huge tension, forming the core context for understanding this period of history.
You will see:
The Goulan tile houses in Bianjing and the street fireworks in "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" are the harbingers of the commercial revolution; Su Shi's poetry, Shen Kuo's written talks, and Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism jointly build a starry sky of thought and art. At the same time, the profound fission caused by Wang Anshi's reform, the political logic behind Yue Fei's unjust case, and the tragic diplomatic mistakes from "alliance with Jin to destroy Liao" to "alliance with Mongolia to destroy Jin" all revealed the inherent contradictions of this literati dynasty.
From Bianliang to Lin'an is not only a southward migration of geographical space, but also a turning point in the mentality of civilization. The partial peace of "when will the singing and dancing in the West Lake stop" and the obsession of "not forgetting to tell the old man about family sacrifices" intertwined into the complex spiritual world of the Southern Song Dynasty. In the end, everything ended under the impact of the Mongolian cavalry on the seaside of Yashan Mountain. One hundred thousand soldiers and civilians died for the country, writing the most heroic final chapter for an extremely elegant era.
