At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhongxiang, Wu Lingren of Dingzhou, used religious activities to organize people in his hometown. Farmers who join his organization, the rural cooperatives, can "thrive in the fields and have rich physiology" as long as they pay a little money and food and the cooperatives help each other. He declared: "The law divides the rich and the poor, and the law is not good. I am a lawyer, and I will wait for the rich and the poor. "
This represents the peasants' political proposition of equality in wealth and social status, which is a step further than Wang Xiaobo's thought of "equalizing the rich and the poor" in the early Northern Song Dynasty.
The strict gap between the rich and the poor and the disparity between the rich and the poor in feudal society will inevitably lead to farmers' struggle for personal freedom and against economic exploitation. The insurgents headed by Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao are large in scale and deeply supported by the people.
Extended data
Reasons for the failure of Yao uprising
1, which is difficult to achieve "equal wealth"
Shortly after Zhong Xiang's uprising, he proclaimed himself the King of Chu, changed his title to Tian Zhan, made his wife Yin Shi the queen and his son Zhong Ang the prince, imitating the imperial edict issued by the King of Song Dynasty. Only 40 days after the establishment of the Dachu regime, Zhong Xiang was killed, and his successor, Yang Yao, established a new King Dasheng regime. Zhong Yi, Zhong Xiang's youngest son, was made a prince. Everyone should bow to Yang Yao from now on.
Yang Yao regime also set up official posts, whose names, costumes and etiquette specifications were the same as those of the Southern Song Dynasty imperial court. The residence of Yang Yao and Zhong Yi is also called "Inner" like the imperial palace in the Song Dynasty, and there are also three loyalists. To show nobility, Prince Zhong also decorated the dragon bed, dragon and golden chair on the dragon boat. Waiting for the Noble and the Inferior seems to be "different inside and outside".
In addition, as early as before Yao Uprising, Dongting Lake area was riddled with long-term extortion and looting by nomadic people, and its economy was seriously damaged. In order to wipe out the insurgents, the Song Dynasty sent Li Gang to occupy the rich villages near Dongting Lake, leaving the insurgents with no rivers to fish, no land to farm and a serious shortage of food. It also caught up with the catastrophic drought in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the farmland was barren. Countless people starved to death in the country, and many people had to sell their wives to live.
The purpose of "balancing the rich and the poor" is to improve people's lives, but farmers are even worse. Instead of being "full of silkworms and rich in physiology", they "have no food to eat" and even abandoned their wives and children and were displaced. In order to prevent Cheng Changyu from being stationed in Dingzhou, the rebels set fire to the city, which lasted for several days. Houses in the city are in ashes, and Dingzhou is in ruins.
2. Blind peasant uprising
In ancient China, there were hundreds of peasant uprisings, large and small. Although there are more or less reasonable reasons for the uprising, they all ended up in a strange circle of seizing political power, plundering wealth and improving their hierarchical status. Their ultimate goal is to change the dynasty and establish a new feudal regime.
In this process, on the one hand, due to their own limitations, farmers often have the weakness of arrogance and extravagance. For example, Hong Xiuquan of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, despite the decline of the uprising after the capital Tianjing, was bent on rectifying the government and indulging in beautiful women, and his revolutionary fighting spirit had already been thrown to the outside world.
On the other hand, farmers often vent their dissatisfaction and resentment against the rulers by killing people and killing cities. "Huang Chao killed 8 million people, and Zhang slaughtered all Sichuanese." This extreme behavior will inevitably lead to the strong revenge of the rulers, and then launch a larger-scale extinction action against the insurgents, resulting in a vicious circle of "massacre". Regardless of the war situation between the two sides, the ultimate victims are only the Lebanese people and innocent soldiers.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Waiting for the rich and the poor, whether rich or poor.