In February of the fourth year of Chunhua in the Northern Song Dynasty (993), there was a drought in Xichuan, and the government chased and killed the people, forcing them to collect grain, making life difficult. Wang Xiaobo, a citizen of Qingcheng County, led 100 farmers to light the fire of struggle and put forward the slogan of "all rich" to encourage the people, and the surrounding farmers gathered in response. The rebel army quickly grew to more than 10,000 people and captured Qingcheng County (now Dujiangyan City West) in one fell swoop. The thunder and lightning of the rebel army shook Sichuan and moved to the western Sichuan States. Soon, the insurgents captured pengshan county, Meizhou. 1February, Wang Xiaobo led an army to wage war with Song Jun, the main force of Xichuan, in Jiangyuan County (now southeast of Chongqing County) in southwest Chengdu. Regardless of his personal safety, he bravely commanded the battle, defeated the enemy with high momentum, and won a great victory in the source of western Sichuan. Unfortunately, he was shot by an arrow, seriously injured and died heroically.
The insurgents immediately elected Wang Xiaobo's brother-in-law Li Shun as the leader, continued to fight bravely, and conquered Zhou Shu and Qiongzhou with victory. Song Jun is losing ground. The rebels punished corrupt officials everywhere, and the momentum swept through the richest counties in Shanxi Plain. At the beginning of the second year, he captured Chengdu and sent troops to expand the results. Its sphere of influence "north to Jiange and south to Wuxia" is under the control of the peasant army. Soon, the "Dashu" regime was established and the Yuan Dynasty was formed. The insurgents tattooed "punctuality Xiong Jun" on their faces, appointed relevant official positions, appointed talents, established a set of administrative institutions, and also minted "punctuality ingot" copper coins and "punctuality Bao Tong" iron coins to invigorate the economy. Thanks to strict orders and popular support, the momentum of the insurgents has been growing.
Then, why did such a large-scale peasant uprising break out in Sichuan at this time?
It is generally believed that Sichuan is rich in silk, hemp and tea, and many farmers, craftsmen and traders make a living from it. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the central government took forty soldiers as the key link and combined transportation by land and water. In more than ten years, it was returned to the central treasury, which made local finance in a tight situation and accumulated people's resentment. During the Chunhua period, the government set up a "Bo Selling House" there to monopolize the trade of various main commodities, and cloth, silk and tea were all controlled by the government, which led to many professional farmers, craftsmen and businessmen in a difficult situation. Wang Xiaobo's hometown, Qingcheng County, Yongkang, is a famous tea producing area. Tea farmers make a living by picking and making tea, and tea merchants make a living by transporting and selling tea. However, "Bomaiwu" forced to buy tea, monopolized the sale of tea and blackmailed the people, which made tea farmers and tea merchants face bankruptcy and unemployment. Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun are tea farmers or tea vendors. According to Lu You's Notes on the Old Learning Temple, Wang Xiaobo claimed to be a villager with a crock, that is, a pot for making tea, and was finally forced to rise up because of unemployment. Su Zhe later said in "On the Five Harms of Shu Tea": "I heard that the Meng family stole Shu soil in the Five Dynasties, and the country used it narrowly, so there was a tea method. After the ancestor of art razed Shu, he let go of everything, and the people could not help but take it. Later, between Chunhua, the ministers who made profits began to discuss it, and the thieves Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun were so poor that they were robbed because of their dereliction of duty in selling tea ... "Together with Longping Collection, Notes on Swallows in Lushui, History as a Mirror, Records of the History of the Song Dynasty, Chronicles of the Past Dynasties and History of the Song Dynasty, it can be seen that the main reason for this peasant uprising is that" Bermaiwu "monopolized patents. This theory has a long history and has been repeatedly mentioned in various books, gradually becoming a conclusion.
In the 1980s, some scholars questioned this statement. I think Su Zhe's statement is just an isolated evidence. Shen Kuo, Ceng Gong, Li Xinchuan and others who were familiar with Sichuan at that time did not have similar records, and there was no relevant evidence in the official records. At that time, there was no law prohibiting the sale of tea in Shu, and Wang Xiaobo and he were neither tea farmers nor tea merchants. Many history books only say that they are "citizens of Qingcheng County", and there is no record of tea farmers selling tea, so it is difficult to establish the theory of "dereliction of duty in selling tea". According to the Records of All-Shu Literature and Art, before the uprising, it was predicted from time to time that "Shu will change". The Biography of Cheng Kun in the History of Song Dynasty also states: "People say that when they were eighteen, Shu has changed. Meng Zhixiang's separatist regime, Li Shunzhi's rise as a thief, is also at this time. " It shows that the uprising was brewing for a long time and was not caused by Bomaiwu's monopoly of tea trading. In a word, the uprisings of Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun were caused by many factors. For example, the uprising should also be related to local land annexation and religious worship, and should not be limited to "dereliction of duty in selling tea."
In response to the above opinions, some scholars pointed out that "dereliction of duty in selling tea" was not the main cause of the uprising, but it could be established as the leading cause of the uprising. Su Zhe, a native of Sichuan, is very familiar with the society of Sichuan Gorge and has always been concerned about Shu tea. The seemingly isolated proof he wrote actually has a lot of relevant materials to prove it. Shu tea is not prohibited in Chuanxia, but it is forbidden to leave the country. "Negligence in selling tea" can be understood as follows: Tea farmers Wang Xiaobo, Li Shun and others "went bankrupt and lost their jobs because they could not pay enough money for tea". It is close to the historical fact that tea farmers are poor and rebel because of bankruptcy and unemployment. Insurgents will certainly use folk religion as a means to organize the people, but folk belief is not the direct cause of the uprising. In a word, "dereliction of duty in selling tea" is the real reason for this uprising, and Su Zhe's summary is very reasonable.
Some scholars believe that this uprising is mainly due to the high concentration of land in Xia Chuan, and the brutal exploitation of farm labourers and tenants by autocratic landlords. Not only is there a big gap between the rich and the poor, but tenants account for 80% to 90% of the population, and their personal bondage is quite serious, resulting in social operation and psychological imbalance. For example, when analyzing the causes of the peasant uprising, Longpingji not only mentioned "buying goods to ban private markets", but also mentioned "while mergers are cheap and expensive, small people lose their homes and fields". The history book Chronicle of the Song Dynasty also said: "Shu is narrow and the people are thick, and the crops are insufficient, because the people are poor, and the benefits are cheap, and the small wave chaos gathers the people." In particular, the so-called "Li Shunzhi's Rebellion, the neighbors gathered together" (Songshi Liu Shidao Biography), "Shu Chuan Zhao Rebellion, the reason why professional tycoons gathered together neighbors" (Volume 78 of Records of Emperor Taizong). "Sidehouse" is the provincial name of "Sidehouse", and it is a tenant whose status is similar to that of slaves or serfs, that is, their status is lower than that of ordinary tenants, and they have a strong hereditary dependence on landlords. The existence of such a large number of border households shows the degree of social injustice, including tenant farmers in Qingcheng area. In response to this situation, Wang Xiaobo shouted: "I've had enough of the inequality between the rich and the poor, and now I'm yours!" " This is a slogan completely aimed at the actual social situation at that time, so it can be echoed by the general public, especially neighboring households, and the uprising team can gather tens of thousands of people at once.
Some scholars also put forward different views, arguing that only emphasizing the high concentration of land in Xia Chuan is not enough to summarize the complex social situation in Xia Chuan in the early Song Dynasty, nor can it accurately explain the main reasons for the outbreak of the anti-Song armed uprising in Sichuan in the early Northern Song Dynasty. It is pointed out that the main social contradiction in Xia Chuan at that time should be the contradiction between the people of Xia Chuan and the ruling class in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the contradiction between the landlord class in Xia Chuan and the local people occupying land is second only to this. For example, when talking about the reasons for the peasant uprising, the long edition of "Continuing Capital Governance as a Mirror" said: Local officials are "quite strict, and the people have violated the law. Although the fine crime cannot be tolerated, it is forbidden to travel for banquets and fun. People are petty, and Wang Xiaobo is a thief. " Emperor Taizong once examined the county magistrate of Xiachuan Prefecture, and there were more than 100 offenders. Only Qi Zhenyuan, the magistrate of Pengshan County, was commended, claiming to be "innocent and strong". In fact, he was a violent and hated corrupt official. It is conceivable that the bureaucracy is dirty. In February of the fifth year of Chunhua, just as the peasant uprising set off stormy waves, the court moved Sichuan's (Zhao, the son of Taizong, served as the magistrate of Chengdu and my ambassador to Xichuan) to the southeast and sealed the prince of Wu. Obviously, the reason is that urgent measures are needed to calm the dissatisfaction of the Sichuan government headed by wangyi and ease the contradiction between the government and the people. After the uprising was put down, it was also recorded in the imperial edict of Emperor Taizong: "The improper appointment of ministers and the unclear principle of candles made them officials who were close to the people, not taking peace as politics, but only taking carving as work, scratching me to steam the people and becoming a madman." At the same time, the biggest obstacle to local social and economic development is the heavy taxes levied by the government. Not only are the two taxes heavier than those in other regions, but there are also various kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous fees, and the government has tried its best. Shipu, a "business pioneer" who participated in the suppression of the uprising, said: "The insurgents in Shu were in a hurry because of the levy, and the farmers were unemployed." (Biography of Shi Shipu in Song Dynasty) So the uprising of Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun was mainly caused by heavy taxes, not the result of land annexation. In fact, farmers in Song Dynasty didn't have a deep understanding of land issues, and their slogan of "equal wealth" was mainly aimed at the dissatisfaction of uneven tax burden.
Some scholars believe that the outbreak of this uprising is related to local folk religious beliefs. For example, it is closely related to the worship of water gods in Qingcheng County. Li Shun, one of the leaders of the uprising, once presided over the ritual activities of Guankou Erlang God. When Cheng and Cheng Lin knew Yizhou in Volume XXIII of Imperial History Fact Garden, they once banned such superstitious activities, saying that "Li Shun was born out of it, rooted in it now, and was acquitted for decades." According to Notes of Old Xuegong, Wang Xiaobo had publicized before the uprising that Li Shun was an orphan of Meng Changjun, the king of Shu. When Song Jun of Shu perished, there was a brocade box containing a baby wrapped in brocade, and a paper book, The Middle School Righteous Man Raised Me. Knowing that he came from the palace, he proposed Li Shun. Wang Xiaobo chose Li Shunlai to pretend to be the orphan of Shu Wang, probably because Li Shun was one of the leaders of the sacrificial activities at Guankou Shrine, and he also had the legal background to publicize his uprising and restore the regime of Dashu. Volume 5 of Notes on the Old Learning Temple says: "Outside the north wall of Jiangdu Temple in Chengdu, there is a beautiful bearded husband. According to Silver Fox Bed, there are many followers. As the saying goes, the thief of Shu is also a thief. " Lu You was an official in Chengdu, and it has been 180 years since the uprising, but this mural is still there, which shows that Li Shunzai and Sichuan still have considerable prestige in folk beliefs. In a word, folk religious belief is also one of the reasons for this peasant uprising.