Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Taizu's spirits back up, they would remand all of their military author-
ity over to him in symbolic exchange for one more round of wine.
Taizu took them up on this (maybe he was not so drunk after all),
and with one momentous toast he deprived them of their military
autonomy. His success at this is known, if not universally celebrated,
as the “exchange of military authority for a cup of wine.”
However it actually happened, Taizu's consolidation of military
authority in his own hands, as well as his insistence that the civilian
arm of the government should have unquestionable control over the
military, had important and long-range consequences. First of all,
these developments significantly weakened the military. In his efforts
to achieve control over the military and prevent any challenge to his
power from that quarter, Taizu also reduced the size of the military,
which eventually had a disastrous effect on the Song's national secu-
rity. Second, they led to an overall climate during the Song that was
disdainful and untrusting of the military. Taizu canceled military con-
scription and relied on an all-volunteer army. As a result, the army had
trouble attracting quality men. Its ranks were eventually filled with
large numbers of sentenced criminals, ne'er-do-wells, and the dregs
of society. A popular saying of the time went that “good iron should
not be made into nails, and good boys should not serve as soldiers.”
All in all, the Song was a weak dynasty militarily. The traditional
Chinese assessment of the dynasty is succinct and to the point: “heavy
on civilian government, light on the military” (zhongwen qingwu).
Patriotic Chinese today do not generally look upon the Song with
much favor, and some disparagingly refer to it as “the little dynasty”
(xiao chaoting) and even blame it for the humiliating military defeats
China suffered at the hands of the British and other aggressive Euro-
pean powers nine centuries later. The Song's military weakness is
probably traceable to Taizu's concerns about military threats to his
government, and in retrospect it is evident that he probably over-
reacted to this possibility. His dynasty never grew to the size or power
of the mighty Han or Tang empires. It did not rule over a far-flung
empire or have a long arm of territory extending far out into Central
Asia, and it failed to attract as much international admiration or envy
as the Tang had.
Taizu was not content simply to have increased control over a weak-
ened military. He also had concerns about the social sphere—namely
the political or economic pressure that prominent families and lineage
groups might bring to bear on his government. Taizu did not like the
aristocratic style of the former Tang dynasty, and he took steps to pre-
vent a new Tang-style aristocratic class from emerging during his
