Chapter 82 Hahaha, Thunder God, help me!
As the saying goes, long periods of division will inevitably lead to unification, and long periods of unification will inevitably lead to division. Since the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, no dynasty has lasted more than three hundred years. The Qin and Sui dynasties perished in their second generation, the Tang dynasty lasted 289 years, the Ming dynasty 276 years, and the Qing dynasty 267 years. The Han and Song dynasties combined did last for over 300 years, but at a painful price of bloodshed. Aside from the emperors not changing their surnames, none of their other empires had much to do with the previous dynasties.
Due to the popularity of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", any Chinese person can talk about it with eloquence, and Zhao Huan is no exception.
They chatted and gossiped at the dinner table. Besides making money and playing with women, they occasionally talked about history, politics, and military and national affairs.
As we talked more, I naturally remembered some things. What impressed me most was Mr. Zhu Kezhen's climatology.
Thinking of this, Zhao Huan chuckled. If it were in the future, a lot of trolls would immediately jump out and tell you that you are wrong, you are wrong, how could climate be the root cause?
The fundamental reasons are serious land annexation, the invasion of the nomadic peoples in the north to the south, the lack of quality assurance of the emperor's continuous self-destruction, etc.
Today, let’s have a good talk about it.
Before that, I have to explain to you the changes and impacts of climate over the past thousands of years. High-energy warning ahead, everyone fasten your seat belts, Zhao Huan will take you off.
According to the climate map drawn by Mr. Zhu Kezhen, overall, the temperature in China has been gradually decreasing over the past five thousand years.
The first ice age began during the Warring States Period. Although the temperature fluctuated over the next two thousand years, the overall trend remained unchanged.
During the two thousand years of climate evolution, the difference between the highest and lowest temperatures can be between 2 and 5°C.
It is very necessary to explain here that you should never underestimate the difference of one or two degrees. Taking the Yellow River Basin as an example, if the average temperature rises by two degrees, Henan, Hebei, Shandong and other places will become subtropical regions, equivalent to today's Guangdong and Yunnan. This kind of huge change over time is so shocking that it will make you dumbfounded.
The abbreviation of Henan is Yu. Do you know why?
Because during the Shang Dynasty thousands of years ago, elephants were the livestock raised by every household in Henan, the abbreviation of Henan is the word "Yu", which is a person leading an elephant.
After establishing the worldview that one degree of difference means a lot of changes, let's talk about the important factors that affect the change of feudal dynasties.
Serious land annexation, as the name suggests, means that land is gradually concentrated in the hands of a few classes or people, and then the poor people cannot afford to eat or wear clothes.
This process usually lasts about 200 years. At this time, although the country has not yet collapsed, it has already encountered many problems.
At this time, the voices of reformists often appear in the court, calling for fighting against landlords and powerful people. Undoubtedly, this is difficult, as the ranks of vested interests are always huge. Reform requires bloodshed and may last for a long time.
If they could survive, the dynasty could extend its life by another hundred or eighty years, but not many people succeeded.
No matter what twists and turns they experienced in the middle, in the end, in an era of common natural disasters, they would have no food to eat, no clothes to wear, and no place to go.
Moreover, as the old saying goes, it is not the lack of wealth that is worrying, but the inequality of wealth.
I have nothing here, but you guys eat meat and fish every day.
The rich are feasting and drinking, while the poor are freezing to death on the streets.
No one can maintain a balanced mentality.
In the end, we reached the point of not rebelling.
The emperor takes turns, and this year it's my turn.
Then a new wave of resource allocation will be carried out, and a new round of historical cycle will begin.
Author's comment: As an aside, I used to think Zhang Jiao of the Yellow Turban Rebellion was pretty rubbish. Now, with the daily push of "Thunder God Helps Me" videos on TikTok, I feel like they're incredibly cool.
The blue sky is dead, and the yellow sky should be established.
In the year of Jiazi, the world will be blessed with good fortune.
With my true energy, I will unite with the creation of heaven and earth.
All major events in the world are under my control.
Peace is the destiny, and the world will be unified.
Look at this power that changes troubled times.
Thunder God, help me.
Getting back to the point, you will definitely say that you also said that rebellion will only break out when the climate is bad, so this is just the last straw that breaks the camel's back, or the fuse.
You are totally wrong to think so. The reasons for land annexation can be largely attributed to climate reasons.
In the era of manual farming, the biggest characteristic was that food was dependent on the weather. According to statistics, for every one-degree Celsius drop in average temperature, precipitation decreased by 100 mm, and correspondingly, grain production decreased by 10%.
Perhaps this 10% is not a serious risk for the specialty class, but for the vast majority of poor farmers, reduced production is a fatal survival issue.
If the harvest was poor, the poor peasants had no choice but to sell their land to landlords who still had surplus grain in order to survive.
Overnight, they were transformed from poor peasants into even lower-status tenants. This vicious cycle worsened with the repeated fluctuations in temperature, until the peasants could no longer tolerate it and war broke out.
At the beginning of a dynasty, resources were redistributed and most farmers at that time had a small amount of land, which was enough to at least ensure their survival.
Due to climate change, farmers are vulnerable to natural disasters and are forced to sell their land to landlords with greater resilience. This vicious cycle exacerbates land consolidation.
Well, someone will definitely say it at this time.
This is because productivity is insufficient to resist natural disasters. This statement makes sense, but the improvement of productivity does not happen overnight.
Every dynasty faced almost the same problems. Therefore, it is unreasonable to regard insufficient productivity as the most important factor.
By the way, let’s talk about the invasion of nomadic peoples from the north.
The climate is fair to everyone, affecting the agricultural economy of the Central Plains dynasties as well as the nomadic economy on the grasslands.
When the northern nomads could not get enough food, they began to cross the border and rely on waging war to plunder resources.
Throughout history, whether it was the Xiongnu, the Turks, or the Khitans, they went from being law-abiding to being openly hostile.
The fundamental reason is the food shortage and food crisis caused by climate cooling.
Food is the most important thing for people.
This sentence exists like an iron law throughout the entire feudal dynasty.
The temperature dropped and the production of food and other materials decreased significantly, which not only caused the Central Plains dynasty to have a significant decline in its overall national strength, but also had to face the nomadic cavalry who also needed to solve the problem of famine.
These two threats are the core reason why every dynasty always ends up in a dilemma of internal and external troubles.
Climate factors have been subtly influencing the change of dynasties and are a driving force hidden behind the scenes.
It is impossible to fundamentally solve the climate problem. The only thing we can do is to increase our ability to resist disasters and slow down the process of land annexation.
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