Since the date of signing the contract, the alliance of Buddhist monasteries has been praised and criticized differently, and it is considered as no less shameful than the alliance at the gate, and it is also considered as the friendship of "practicing the world". In fact, to correctly evaluate the single-source alliance, it is necessary to contact the special historical conditions of Song and Liao dynasties at that time to see if it conforms to the development of social history.
The main contents of "The Alliance of Buddhist Monasteries" are as follows: Song and Liao are brothers, and they are respected as aunts, while Liao Shengzong is respected as a brother and called Liao Shengzong as a brother; The Northern Song Dynasty transported "ancient coins" and "two hundred and two thousand silks and one hundred and two thousand silvers" to Liao every year. Taking Baigou River as the boundary river, the state troops along the border maintain the original boundary, and people from both places shall not infringe upon it; Neither side is allowed to build castles or change rivers.
Judging from the content of the Covenant, it is mainly stipulated that the Song and Liao sides should stop fighting and negotiate peace, each side should keep its original border, not invade each other and live in peace. From then on, the Liao army withdrew from the Song Dynasty.
From the early years, Song and Liao fought more than 100 times, with equal strength, and it was hard to tell the outcome. However, the huge military expenditure makes it difficult for both sides to eat enough. For example, in the battlefields around Hebei Province, "Ding Zhuang passed away, while vilen smeared blood", farmers could not carry out normal agricultural production at all, and it was even more extravagant to live a stable life.
In addition, in the Northern Song Dynasty, in order to consolidate centralization, strengthen "taxation", the practice of "arresting hundreds of officials for fear of sin, drawing on the people's strength and leaving nothing behind" (Twenty-two Records) further intensified contradictions, and peasant uprisings continued to occur. According to incomplete statistics, from the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty to the last years of Emperor Taizong, there were six large-scale peasant uprisings led by Zhou Bi, Chongzhou peasant uprising, Fujian peasant uprising, Yangzui peasant uprising, Yuzhou peasant uprising led by Du Chengbao, Quzhou peasant uprising led by Li Xian and Sichuan peasant uprising led by Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun, and other small-scale uprisings occurred from time to time. It can be seen that the military expenditure in the early Northern Song Dynasty was still quite huge, and the economy at that time was unbearable.
After the signing of the Covenant, the Liao Dynasty was forced to give up the recovery of ten counties in Guannan and continued to invade the south in territorial disputes, and the life of Song people in several border States of Song and Liao was restored to normal. The Northern Song Dynasty no longer mentioned the recovery of sixteen states, and the Liao Dynasty no longer claimed the land of Guannan, so the two sides lived in peace. Besides, 300,000 yuan was not a big burden for the economically developed Northern Song Dynasty at that time. Wang Dan, the prime minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, once said: "Since the reconciliation of Naqidan, everything in the river has been blocked. Although the legacy is given every year, it is less than 1% compared with the cost of fighting. " These are by no means Wang Dan's boasting. You know, this "300,000-year-old ancient coin" is not worth mentioning at all for the huge annual military expenditure and the people's livelihood. Moreover, in the market trade established later, the government of the Northern Song Dynasty got compensation from taxes by virtue of its economic advantages.
Xu's "Three Dynasties North Alliance Compilation" said that "the expenses given by the ancestors to the market are all from the benefits of the market, taken from Lu and returned to Lu, and China was unscathed at first." Su Dongpo also mentioned in Dongpo Zhi Lin: "Since the Battle of Ge Yuan, Zhenzong has been rich in the world for 19 years without saying anything about soldiers." It can be described as "taking it from Lu and using it in Lu". Therefore, The Alliance of Ge Yuan is still quite valuable for the Song Dynasty. Moreover, as the Central Plains dynasty, the Song Dynasty was a "brother" and the Emperor Shengzong of Liao was a "brother", which is not shameful.
The year after the signing of the Covenant, the Song Dynasty sent a special envoy to Liao to celebrate Xiao Taihou's birthday. When Song Zhenzong sent a letter, he "claimed to be the Southern Dynasty, taking the Khitan as the Northern Dynasty", but a minister wrote: "The foreign countries in the Spring and Autumn Annals are just viscount. It is enough to recognize the title of Liao country now. Why should it be called the Northern and Southern Dynasties? " He was dissatisfied with equating Song and Liao in the credentials, but he still acted according to his own ideas.
From the aspect of Liao country, it should be said that it is the biggest winner of the "Yuan Dynasty Alliance". Although "lost" the "land of Guannan", it is located in the civilized developed area of Yanyun, and "302,000" is of great significance to the economically underdeveloped nomadic people. Only at the end of Emperor Shengzong I of Liao Dynasty, "the title of the year was left by the Southern Song Dynasty and kept in the imperial palace, which was rare and solid." There is no need to fight, and neighboring countries will send silver wire on time every autumn. As long as they are normal, they will be happy. So in the next hundred years, Liao and Song Dynasties were basically "a hundred years of reconciliation".
You know, although Liao had already made a transition to feudal society during Song Shenzong's reign, agriculture and animal husbandry developed together, and social production made great progress, such as the fertile land of "compiling 100,000 households and ploughing thousands of miles" (History of the Song Dynasty), it still had a huge gap with the Northern Song Dynasty. Although it has many advantages in the military and controls strategic places such as Yanyun, the economy determines everything.
In this war, Xiao Taihou drank Han Derang, which brought great benefits to Liao countries, and their position in China became more stable. Xiao Taihou made Han Derang the ruler, the king of Jin and a fief. More than three years later (27 years after the unification of Liao Dynasty), Xiao Taihou died at the age of 57. Emperor Sheng of Liao also respected Han Derang very much. He was buried with his mother's grave until his death.
During the period of 1 18, Song and Liao exchanged courtesies, and the official records recorded that the two sides exchanged envoys for 380 times. Of course, both sides receive each other's envoys with the highest etiquette, such as the birthday of Empress Zheng Dan, auspicious festivals, weddings and the birth of the prince. As long as they can find an excuse, the two sides will immediately take the opportunity to visit relatives. Even if there was a disaster in the border areas of Liao Dynasty, Song Dynasty would send people to the border areas for disaster relief. Even Song Huizong once warned the generals guarding the border not to make a move. "Everything in the north and south is innocent."
As for the Liao country, it goes without saying that Xiao Taihou, Han Derang and others also "vigorously developed friendly relations between the two countries". Later, the news of Song Zhenzong's death came, and Emperor Sheng Zong of Liao immediately "gathered the ministers of Han Dynasty to mourn, and the empresses were all in tears". "Liao History" contains: "The emperor of Liao country has been in office for a long time, and his name (good name) is inexhaustible, and his talent (Liao) is holy!"
After the death of Emperor Sheng of Liao, his son Liao Xingzong still celebrated the birthday of Nandi (Emperor Song) with pipa. Followed by Liao Daozong, he once made a golden Buddha statue and wrote an inscription on it: "May China be born in the future". The "alliance of monasteries" is a mutually beneficial, peaceful and friendly agreement signed by the Song and Liao Dynasties on territorial disputes after long-term war confrontation and consumption, which has created a new situation of peaceful and friendly coexistence in the history of Song and Liao relations.
Lao Tie asks for praise.