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[An additional note is needed here. The Song dynasty sat at a critical cliff edge where women's social status took a sharp downturn, and as a result, women's lives became extremely polarized.
From a legal standpoint, Song women actually enjoyed certain rights that looked progressive on paper. Even after marriage, a woman retained half the inheritance rights of a man. Compared to the Tang dynasty, where women lost inheritance rights once married, this was technically an improvement.
Economic prosperity also raised female literacy rates during this period. Women attending school became far more common, and there were even extremely rare cases of women attempting to participate in the imperial examinations. All of these were reflections of women's social presence at the time.
But at the same time, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism began to take shape, preaching that "starving to death is a small matter, but losing chastity is a great one." Coupled with the Song's repeated military failures after the Battle of Gaoliang River, society as a whole started drifting toward conservatism.
Take Zhang Zeduan's masterpiece Along the River During the Qingming Festival, which depicts the bustling cityscape of Bianjing. Of the roughly eight hundred figures in the painting, only a little over ten are women.
The most violent turning point came with the Jingkang Humiliation. Massive numbers of women, including imperial concubines and princesses, were taken by the Jin as prostitutes or servants. This dealt a devastating blow to the Song people's sense of national dignity.
From the Southern Song onward, chastity-focused Neo-Confucianism became mainstream doctrine, turning into iron shackles that bound women in place.
The transition from Northern to Southern Song also had another crucial factor quietly working in the background: paper money.
Five years after Liu E's death, Emperor Renzong refused to acknowledge Li Yuanhao's claim to emperorship. Northern Song and Western Xia entered a prolonged tug-of-war, and military spending began bleeding the treasury dry.
For the Northern Song, however, the jiaozi offices established under Liu E were an incredibly convenient way to raise funds. During Renzong's reign, the government used 36 million strings of cash as reserves to issue 1.25 billion strings' worth of paper money.
At first, the state maintained relatively strict control over issuance. But as battlefield defeats piled up, oversight quickly collapsed.
In the fifth year of Xining under Emperor Shenzong, jiaozi were overissued for the first time by 1.2 billion strings.
In the first year of Shaosheng under Emperor Zhezong, a second overissue occurred, this time 1.5 billion strings. Just four years later came the third overissue, a staggering 4.8 billion strings in one go.
By the time of Emperor Huizong, the numbers were no longer even countable. Based on surviving records, roughly 22 billion strings' worth of jiaozi were circulating on the Northern Song market. At that point, paper money was effectively worthless.
Huizong attempted fiscal reforms, introducing instruments such as "money drafts" and "salt certificates." In essence, they were just jiaozi under new names, new packaging for the same old method of draining the people to feed the ruling class.
Twenty-two years after the fall of Northern Song in the Jingkang disaster, the poet Li Qingzhao, now nearly sixty-five, was living in exile in the Liangzhe region.
Among her acquaintances was a bright young woman surnamed Sun. Li Qingzhao considered taking her on as a disciple, hoping to pass on her lifetime of learning.
The girl refused outright.
"Literary talent is not a woman's concern."
The words closely echoed what would later become the Ming dynasty saying: "A woman's lack of talent is her virtue."
That even Yi'an Jushi, a genius of her age, was rejected with such reasoning in her later years speaks volumes about how sharply women's status and social attitudes had shifted at the boundary between the two Song dynasties.
Thus, the brief "era of red makeup" sparked by Wu Zetian officially faded into a distant, unreachable mirage for women living under the feudal system.
And with that, this episode comes to an end. By this time next week, it will be close to the Spring Festival. Perhaps we can change perspectives and look at history through the lens of the New Year.]
[Server Chat Log]
MoDaoX: "After all this, modern times really are better. To hell with 'a woman's virtue lies in her ignorance.' Knowledge is the only real way to change one's fate."
BrokenDao: "Agreed. And the Song dynasty perfectly proves the saying, 'Without the rise of a great power, how can common people have dignity?' Tribute payments bought temporary survival, but never an open-minded prosperity or national self-respect."
QingfengBlade: "And this is not just about women. Looking back at Song records of popular theater, the line 'The Jin have spiked clubs, we have skulls' is just heartbreaking."
NiTian_001: "Using 36 million as reserves to print over 20 billion in paper money. That's wild. No wonder the Song agreed to tribute so easily. No wonder their emperors lived so comfortably. Printing money really is fast cash."
"In the end, financial tools are the sharpest double-edged swords. If you can unify and expand outward, you bleed others. If you cannot, you bleed your own people to sustain the elite."
WanHunJun: "Politically speaking, figures like Wu Zetian contributed less to civilization than cultural and technological pioneers like Huang Daopo."
"Huang Daopo was incredible.
She invented the cotton ginning wheel, solving the problem of seed removal centuries ahead of her time. Later she systematized cotton spinning and weaving techniques and taught her fellow villagers how to make a living. My hometown still has a temple dedicated to her, inscribed with 'Clothing the World.'
As a kid, I even heard people call her the Cotton Goddess."
"Centuries ahead of her time? More like the West was centuries behind.
The Song may have been clumsy, but it was still one of the world's leading centers of civilization."
For the first time, Li Shimin felt the full force of a blow from the Song dynasty.
He still remembered joking with the Empress not long ago, saying that future generations used 'ten thousand ten-thousands' as a unit, but such numbers were rarely needed. What use could they possibly have?
Even Changsun Wuji's recent remonstration echoed in his ears, warning that paper money had one advantage but a hundred harms.
And yet here the Song stood, giving him a solid, undeniable lesson.
"If I understand this correctly…"
Li Shimin felt his throat go dry. He pressed his lips together before speaking.
"With 36 million strings as collateral, the Song borrowed over 20 billion from its people?"
Racking his brain, he could only compare it to private lending practices.
"But it is not the same," Du Ruhui said quietly.
"When one borrows privately, default still requires enforcing the contract and forfeiting the collateral."
"But the Song's collateral… is still the Song emperor's own money."
Du Ruhui currently oversaw the Ministry of Revenue and had been drowning in figures of late. He had even joked with Fang Xuanling that after seeing the realm's finances, he no longer recognized money itself.
But compared to the Song's casual talk of billions, the Great Tang now felt dirt poor.
After all, Du Ruhui clearly remembered that in the previous year, the fourth of Zhenguan, total fiscal revenue excluding grain amounted to just over eight million strings.
Silence fell across the hall.
Even Changsun Wuji, previously the most adamant opponent, said nothing more.
After all, as the later ages put it, this blade could wound both enemy and self. If that was the case, then opening markets with the Turks and learning how to wield it against others did not seem unreasonable.
Seeing Changsun Wuji silent, Li Shimin absently rubbed his stomach, suddenly missing the fat sheep of Yanmen Pass. It had been too long since he tasted them.
In the end, he steadied himself and returned to the matter that had concerned him earlier.
"What about the cotton seeds? Any news?"
Fang Xuanling stepped forward and bowed.
"This year, we will surely present this auspicious thing before Your Majesty."
Setting aside the shock brought by those enormous sums, Li Shimin gathered his spirit.
"With cotton, the people will no longer suffer the bitter cold. Compared to paper money, this is the true instrument that benefits the state."