Chapter 216 Making Money in a Right Way
I've never really liked the Song Dynasty, thinking it was spineless. I imagine the people must have lived a very oppressive life. But everyone says the Song Dynasty was wealthy, and the people lived a well-off life. Where did they get all that money? Why didn't later dynasties learn from the Song Dynasty's money-making methods?
Just 30 years after the establishment of the Zhao Song Dynasty, the Wang Xiaobo Uprising broke out in the rich land of abundance, sweeping across the entire province of Sichuan. Later, the Fang La Uprising broke out in the even more prosperous Jiangnan region, sweeping across the entire province of Zhejiang and capturing Hangzhou. In ancient times, peasants would only risk being beheaded to join an uprising and become enemies of the imperial court when they had no food to eat. It is conceivable that the lives of the vast majority of the people in the Song Dynasty were very miserable.
It is said that the headmaster of Wanshou Mountain saw through the secret and knew that his disciples had committed the evil of the mortal world and were about to face a fatal disaster. The headmaster was eager to love his disciples and was very uneasy, so he closed the gate of the mountain and did not allow his disciples to have any contact with the mortal world.
The next day, the headmaster dismissed his followers and sat upright on his cloud bed, eyes closed, deep in thought. "Bang!" After an unknown amount of time, dozens of streams of dark yellow energy shot out and collided with the mountain protection formation, with a sound like a bell, resounding through the clouds.
Animals also have their own aesthetics, but the beauty that some animals like may not be appreciated by humans. There are many kinds of creatures in the world, and humans are just a very small branch of them. Compared with the long history of biological evolution on the earth, humans are much shorter, and their definition of beauty is sometimes very shallow.
Qingfeng Tongzi, who was waiting outside the door, heard something strange and, without paying attention to etiquette, hurriedly pushed the door open and asked, "Master, are you all right?" Seeing that the dean was still sitting upright on the cloud bed, his Dharma body harmonious and unobstructed, Qingfeng Tongzi felt a little relieved. He did not forget to bow and apologize, "I am ignorant and have disturbed the master's peace. I hope the master will punish me."
"The boy is thoughtful. I have deduced the secrets of heaven for you and have some insights from time to time. It's no big deal." The headmaster didn't care much and looked normal. "Now that there is a murderous intention today, all my disciples of Wanshou Mountain should close their caves and recite the Huangting Sutra quietly. Now that there is nothing to do in the sect, you can find a side hall to practice in seclusion!" After saying that, without waiting for Qingfeng to leave, he used his magical power of shape-shifting to send Qingfeng to an empty side hall, and sealed the palace gate with magic power. It seemed that he had made up his mind to go into seclusion and never ask about worldly affairs again.
A few days later, Xiao Heng felt a sense of relief and went out for a walk. After walking for a long time, the divine bird that was exploring the way reported, "There's a high mountain blocking the road ahead." "It's just a small mountain, it can't stop me. Lead the way!" Xiao Heng was full of confidence, but he didn't know that he had already fallen into someone else's trap.
Creating an objective world through practice, that is, processing and transforming the organic natural world, proves that human beings are a kind of existence... Animals also produce, and they build nests for themselves, such as bees, beavers, and ants.
However, animals only produce what they and their offspring directly need. They produce only partially, while humans produce comprehensively. Animals produce only when their bodies are directly driven by physical needs, while humans produce even when they are not driven by physical needs, and only when they are not driven by physical needs do humans truly produce. Animals also have their own aesthetics, but the beauty that some animals appreciate may not be appreciated by humans. There are many species in the world, and humans are only a tiny subset, much shorter than the Earth's long history of biological evolution. Therefore, our definition of beauty is sometimes very superficial.
The speech of intellectuals is always pleasant to the ear. This sentiment is perhaps best captured by Zong Baihua's statement: "The subjective sentiment of life blends with the objective natural scene, creating a spiritual realm of kites soaring and fish leaping, lively and exquisite, yet profound and profound." This is beauty.
Then there is the question of whether animals have subjective consciousness activities similar to those of humans. From the definition alone, it seems that they do not, but animals are undoubtedly living beings. Since they have life, they have stimulation-perception-feedback activities. So I think that although aesthetics is a humanities discipline and serves humans after all, animals are not necessarily ignorant of beauty. That's about it.
The Song Dynasty vigorously promoted commerce. Not only was mainland commerce prosperous, but maritime commerce was also prosperous. The Song Dynasty's ocean-going ships could reach as far as the Cape of Good Hope. The profits brought by the prosperous commerce could offset part of the taxes. Moreover, the Song Dynasty was the only dynasty in Chinese history to abolish the curfew. The Yuan Dynasty implemented a maritime ban, and after that, the Ming and Qing dynasties did not open the maritime ban on a large scale.
Animals produce only animals, but man reproduces the whole of nature; the product of an animal is directly connected with its body, but man has free control over his product.
Overseas trade and border trade flourished. Land was scarce, and the population was large, especially during the Southern Song Dynasty. Consequently, a large number of people left the land and entered the handicraft industry, further fueling the prosperity of trade. Trade, in turn, brought wealth, which was invested in the education of future generations or family members, further developing the cultural industry.
Although the Song Dynasty was weak in terms of military power, it was able to pay annual tribute and collect taxes. Both the Northern and Southern Song dynasties were destroyed by foreign enemies, and their bureaucracy was still able to function. The Ming Dynasty, for example, collected 120,000 silver coins from tea, which was simply a result of the complete corruption of the bureaucracy.
Animals only produce according to the standards and needs of the species to which they belong, but humans know how to produce according to the standards of each species, and know how to apply their own inherent standards to objects in production. Therefore, humans also produce according to the laws of beauty.
I've always believed that the Tang Dynasty was the most economically developed in ancient times, as it considered plumpness beautiful, similar to the figures of European and American women today. Only when women were generally voluptuous would society's aesthetic values shift to favoring that kind of voluptuousness. And if voluptuous figures were common among women, then the people would surely have good food and a prosperous economy. The Tang Dynasty coincided with the most developed international trade.
In other dynasties, thinness was considered beautiful. How could they be developed if they were malnourished?
The Song Dynasty, which did not implement agricultural tax and did not use agricultural tax as the main national tax, unexpectedly pointed out the technology tree of overseas trade and supporting merchants. This led to constant peasant uprisings in the Song Dynasty.
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