Gengzi was forced to stay at home in the first month, after reading the online shopping "Information Dissemination and Control in Song Dynasty: A Survey Centered on Rumors".(Fang Yan, Zhonghua Book Company, November 2019; The following quotation is called "Gossip" for short.Try to make a brief comment on this new book from the perspective of Song history.

Since the beginning of the new century, information dissemination and control has become a hot spot in the study of Song history. Professor Deng Xiaonan has presided over many seminars and workshops on information channels in Tang and Song Dynasties and even longer. Of course, as Gossip said, previous studies paid more attention to the dissemination and control of institutional information channels, while "the research on the domination and management of informal information dissemination was neglected", especially the gossip phenomenon involving "people’s assembly behavior, interaction between officials and people, and regional activities" and its "relationship with social, cultural and psychological" lacked detailed analysis and revelation.(47 pages). Gossip is a social phenomenon that exists in any society and any era. Its specific directionality, wide audience, anonymity of communication and variability of communication not only make the hearers feel at a loss, but also make the politicians feel deeply embarrassed. The author describes himself and writes a thesis, hoping to provide valuable historical reference for the understanding, prevention, elimination and control of rumors in today’s society in transition.(48 pages).

Apart from the introduction and conclusion, the book is divided into six chapters. The first chapter discusses the information dissemination and government regulation in the Song Dynasty, and the next five chapters discuss the context of the birth of rumors in the Song Dynasty and its relationship with politics, economy, military affairs, border management and disasters. Perhaps limited by the main title of Information Dissemination and Control in Song Dynasty, the extension of information discussed in the first chapter is a little too broad in terms of reading sense. If we study the functions, communication forms, control and regulation of official information in a relatively in-depth way, we can directly focus on the subtitle "Investigation centered on rumors", which may highlight the main idea.

There is no doubt that rumors and rumors belong to the information category. The author reminds that "there are different definitions of rumors and rumors in academic circles, and there is no clear distinction". The reason why the book uses the neutral concept of "rumors" is: "First, the part of speech is more derogatory when people use rumors today, and second, the rumors are partly related to facts", which is desirable. But it then interprets "gossip" as "an unconfirmed story about people and things spread through private or public channels,inexactInformation "(8 pages, highlighted in bold)I think that the word "inaccurate" is not accurate, just as there is the same problem in judging the "inaccurate" of rumors, so it should be changed to "I don’t know the exact", which is almost in line with the principle of neutral definition. This paper will also discuss the rumors and political responses of the Song Dynasty discussed in the book under the principle of neutrality.

one

One of the deepest impressions of Gossip is the rich and detailed collection of historical facts, which is closely related to the fact that the number of historical materials handed down from ancient times in the Song Dynasty almost exceeded the sum of its previous documents because of the popularity of printing. However, the strength and frequency of rumors in an era must have a subtle interaction with social history. Investigating the rumors in the Song Dynasty, we should bring the social transformation between the Tang and Song Dynasties into our field of vision. This transformation directly or indirectly formed the historical background of rumors in Song Dynasty in many aspects, and showed new characteristics of the times in the generation subject, communication mode and interaction form of rumors.

First of all, the Song Dynasty recognized that "the four are the common people’s businesses".("Jiading Chicheng Zhi Tiantai Order Zheng Zhidao’s Seven Stories")There is a trend of relatively equal among all social strata. The profound changes in class structure have led to the gradual equalization of the right to speak, including rumors. Compared with the autocratic dynasties before and after it, the public opinion environment and ideological control in the Song Dynasty are relatively relaxed (of course, the obvious differences in different periods should also be distinguished). Although the bureaucratic intelligentsia, as the backbone of society and the imperial elite, is still the main class leading public opinion, farmers, craftsmen and businessmen have the right to speak in law compared with the previous generation, and may also become one of the main bodies of rumors, transforming their likes and dislikes into rumors and spreading them to the world in due course. Compared with the previous generation, the rumors often focused on the upper level of the ruling and opposition parties, and the political rumors reflecting the demands of the lower level generally surfaced only when the society changed greatly. The rumors in the Song Dynasty highlighted the various aspects of their daily society and had more social and historical value.

Secondly, the society in Song Dynasty showed unprecedented mobility. In the fields of agriculture, handicrafts and commerce, workers from all walks of life establish the labor relationship between employers and employees through contracts, and they all have the right to choose and stay independently after the expiration; The class mobility between scholars, peasants, industry and commerce is also a social phenomenon from time to time. The appointment system drives national officials to go to their posts, or report to the capital and serve on the road. The scientific research system regularly promotes the directional flow of students and scholars, and the prosperity of urban economy and the active business behavior lead to the frequent flow of traders. In the pre-modern traditional society, the unprecedented strengthening of this kind of social mobility has brought an impact on the generation frequency and spread rate of rumors.

Thirdly, with the continuous development of social economy, rumors in the Song Dynasty have clearly highlighted the characteristics of the times in terms of diffusion channels and means. With the popularity of printing, rumors spread widely by printing paper media. For example, unofficial history’s novels published by bookshops were greatly favored by the government and people in the ruling and opposition, and folk tabloids imitating Dibao also tried printing methods. With the help of urban economy and civic culture, Washe Goulan, Teahouses and Restaurants are the exchange platforms for gossip from all directions, and the civic literature and art such as speaking, nonsense, singing, zaju, movies and other performances on these platforms have also become the deduction means and communication channels of gossip. In crowded city gate thoroughfares and hostels where people flow, anonymous posts and anonymous topic walls are also common forms of rumors.

Finally, as the central plains regime, the Song Dynasty has always faced the severe situation of the strong enemy in the north. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, there were Song Liao wars, Song Xia wars in the middle period, Yanshan Battle and Song Jin wars in the late period, and so on. And the whole Southern Song Dynasty was under the cloud of wartime system. The sharp confrontation between the North and the South and the bitter national war have left the subjects in the ruling and opposition parties in a state of anxiety, perplexity and even fear and panic for a long time. And the anxious situation and anxious mentality are the most suitable hotbeds for rumors to breed. As the fourth chapter of "Gossip" shows, the number of military rumors is one of the characteristics of the Song Dynasty which is different from other dynasties.

The characteristics of the times of rumors in the Song Dynasty put forward a new topic for the rulers to govern the country, and Gossip fully revealed its success and failure.

two

In terms of political civilization, the Song Dynasty did make progress compared with the previous generation, but after all, it was still a monarchy bureaucracy. When evaluating its relatively relaxed public opinion environment, we should not only grasp the scale, but also distinguish the differences of political ecology in different periods, especially when investigating the relationship between rumors and politics in the Song Dynasty. In Song Dynasty, political rumors were generally dealt with by means of persuasion, utilization and control.

Let’s talk about grooming first. Under the monarchical bureaucracy, the supreme ruler generally hopes to master accurate and comprehensive information resources in time, so as to effectively operate the ruling machine and avoid breeding unfavorable rumors. The ways of obtaining information resources in Song Dynasty can be divided into normal channels and abnormal channels. The normal channel is that bureaucrats at all levels declare relevant information. However, as the first accountable person for information declaration, officials at all levels tend to weaken or even block the information feedback in normal channels for official career considerations such as whitewashing peace, catering to superiors, maintaining political achievements and shirking responsibility. "Gossip" takes the disaster as an example, and divides the local officials’ misrepresentation of the disaster into common forms such as delaying reporting, false reporting, concealing, and not reporting.(142 pages). These types of false declarations are not only limited to disaster response, but also the normal state of bureaucracy in any authoritarian regime. In Song Dynasty, another set of procedures was designed on abnormal channels, in order to avoid the obstruction and congestion of normal channels, which eventually led to rumors confusing people and endangering political security. In the Song Dynasty, officials and civilians were allowed to have the right to direct and cross-sue on the premise that the reasons were sufficient and the information was true. Direct complaints are divided into inviting the imperial coach (that is, blocking the emperor’s driving to sue the imperial court), climbing the drums (going to the Jingshi Dengwen Drum Academy and Dengwen Inspection Institute to complain about drums) and sending a letter (that is, sending a report letter); Leapfrogging means allowing leapfrog complaints outside the routine of step-by-step appeals.(pages 143-146). In terms of system regulations, although the abnormal channel reserves the right to appeal to the people who have been wronged, according to historical data, although there are occasional cases, it is not appropriate to exaggerate its effectiveness. The strategy of dealing with rumors in Song Dynasty depends on two points. First, the advantages and disadvantages of the official management of specific officials. Being virtuous, the information feedback from normal channels is basically timely and effective; On the other hand, normal channels will be useless. The second is the political ecology in different periods. If we take the Northern Song Dynasty as an example, during the period of Qingli and Jiayou in Song Renzong where the political ecology was relatively clear (1041-1063), the feedback of gossip information obviously could not be compared with the period of Zhenghe and Xuanhe in Song Huizong (1111-1125).

Second, use. In the situation that information is not transparent and open, rumors have two sides. On the one hand, in view of the fact that gossip often becomes the public’s form of expressing attitude, evaluation and appeal, the ruling group knows that "if the people have it, the objections will disappear" when they are awake.(Su Zhe’s "Luan Cheng Ji San Lun Respectively Evil and Righteousness Zazi")So as to listen to rumors, master public opinion, examine people’s hearts and improve politics. While perfecting the official information declaration system, the Taiwan remonstrator who was chartered to be responsible for supervision in Song Dynasty had the right to "get wind of things", which was the intention. The so-called "getting wind of it" not only refers to allowing supervisory officials to choose rumors as the basis for rectifying disintegration, but also encourages them to spread rumors to the center, "hoping to widely adopt them to make up for the lack of government."("Song Shi Lu Hui Biography"). My book "Research on the System of Taiwan remonstrance in Song Dynasty" once discussed the pros and cons of hearsay, and the key still depends on whether the political ecology is clear or not. On the other hand, gossip is always used as a political tactic to induce public sentiment, will and inclination, so as to blend and sell their political premeditated. Song Taizu instigated the fabrication of political rumors such as "Being the Emperor", "Khitan’s invasion" and "It’s going to get worse every day" for the sake of the yellow robe, and won the Zhao family’s world in one fell swoop with the Chen Qiao mutiny. In order to strengthen the legitimacy of the throne, Song Zhenzong made a fuss about the gobbledygook event for fourteen years, so that "once the monarch and his subjects were crazy", as the author said, "it was actually a premeditated, prepared, carefully planned and directed gossip farce by the monarch and his subjects"(page 419).

Let’s talk about control. Gossip quoted David Butler, a British scholar, as saying, "No government, democratic or authoritarian, can allow the mass media to develop freely without some form of regulation or restriction."(Page 2)It goes without saying that the control of the Song Dynasty was of course autocratic. Throughout the Song Dynasty, divination, astronomical pictures and other folk printed materials were all banned, and if there were any printing plates and carved stones, they were all recovered, which was "abandoned by officials"; In the later period of Song Huizong, similar regulations also applied to the secret association of "Zoroastrianism people reading scriptures and painting Buddha statues" (pages 131-133). When Qin Gui’s dictatorship stifled dissent for the Shaoxing system, it banned private history by state power, falsely calling it "the theory of evil seeking falsehood", and the dictatorship system even suppressed public opinion and eliminated rumors in a perverse way.(See the book "Self-shaping and Other-shaping of the image of Qin Gui’s dictatorship in Nandu").

In the Song Dynasty, the official mansion newspaper must be pre-examined before it is published, and the right to publish public information is firmly grasped. Not only the political secrets of the dynasty, including the discussion of current politics and matters related to disasters, but all "information that is regarded as sensitive or negative by the rulers is strictly restricted by the government."(pages 128-129). The control of official mansion newspapers in Song Dynasty was quite effective, but it was a headache for folk tabloids. Most of the tabloids reported things that were not reported by the local government, and the local officials "got it from the leakage of the provincial hospital or from the news of the market". Every day, a piece of paper was published, and it was reported far and near, and even openly peddled around the street. Tabloid news, re-inspection afterwards, "maybe or not". Since the reign of Filial Piety in the Southern Song Dynasty, the court has repeatedly awarded awards and strictly banned it, but in the end of the Song Dynasty, tabloids were banned. Regardless of the government and the people, "tabloids are the first, and newspapers in the DPRK are the norm."(pages 134-136). From this, we can infer two points: first, the strictly filtered Dibao (that is, Chaobao) is far from meeting the daily information needs of bureaucrats and scholars, which shows that although the public opinion in Song Dynasty is loose, the public information publishing mechanism is still not perfect and transparent; Secondly, the tabloid information is mixed with truth and falsehood, but it has become one of the most important information sources outside legal channels. Of course, these are the main reasons for the repeated prohibition of gossip tabloids. On the other hand, it also shows that the autocratic centralization of power in the Song Dynasty still belongs to the pre-modern form, and has not yet reached the point where it is omnipotent.

three

It is generally believed in the academic circles that with the formation of the scholar-bureaucrat class and the rise of its conscious consciousness, combined with the leading thought of "taking the world as its own duty" of Neo-Confucianism, a kind of "public discussion" has been formed in the Song Dynasty, which plays an active role in restricting imperial power and upholding righteousness in political life. Only in this way, bureaucratic scholar-officials confidently warned the emperor: "public discussion is the spirit of the country."("Memorials of Celebrities in Past Dynasties", volume 152, and Mou Zicai’s "Cuozi due to Disasters").

Gossip divides the public discussion into two categories, namely, spreading the public discussion among scholars and spreading the public discussion at the bottom of the people, which not only "embodies the public opinion and people’s desire", but also adopts oral communication.(105 pages). Combined with the history of the Song Dynasty, public discussion is also a special form of gossip. In my opinion, it has the following characteristics. First, no matter what kind of public discussion, on the one hand, it may absorb the previous gossip elements, on the other hand, it may become the gossip content after that. Secondly, the boundary between the two kinds of public discussion is not absolutely closed. There are many examples in the Song Dynasty, such as the reasonable integration of the factors of public discussion in the public discussion and the grounded reproduction of the connotation of the public discussion. Thirdly, in the normal period of political ecology, the people’s public discussion can also be presented to the monarch through the scholar-officials and bureaucrats as an information reference for the centralized regime to govern the country; In the period of deteriorating political ecology, even if the scholar-officials discussed it, it was impossible to reach the court, and they were denounced as demagogues by authoritarian or political opponents. Fourthly, in the political history of the Song Dynasty, there was a substitution phenomenon between the strong and weak curves of the two kinds of public consultation: during the period of political clarity, the effective peak of the public consultation increased, while the effective peak of the public consultation decreased; However, during the period of political ecological reversal, the scholar-bureaucrat discussion gradually disappeared, but the people’s discussion took its place. In the 12th year of Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty (1252), Mou Zicai reminded Song Lizong that "there is a way in the world, and public discussion is in the court; There is no way in the world, and public discussion is in the grass. "("Memorials of Celebrities in Past Dynasties", volume 312, "On the five things of yin turbidity")It is this phenomenon that is revealed.

"Gossip" classifies people’s discussion as the folk communication of information and divides it into verbal communication and non-verbal communication (non-verbal communication has little to do with people’s discussion, so there is no theory). Under verbal communication, it is divided into three forms: folk literature and art, excellent words and music and folk proverbs.(pages 109-121). In fact, excellent words and music also belong to the category of folk literature and art, so the modes of public discussion are mainly folk literature and folk proverbs. Relatively speaking, the ballads and proverbs handed down from ancient times in the Song Dynasty are far richer than folk literature and art, and the results in the study of rumors as a public discussion are also more fruitful. This research, besides Gossip, is also worth mentioning: Folk Songs and Social Studies in the Song Dynasty.(Zhao Yaodan, China Social Sciences Press, December 2015, hereinafter referred to as "Folk Proverbs"). Both books regard political ballads and proverbs as a special form of political rumors and public discussion, and explore their interactive relationship with politics in Song Dynasty.

Shortly after Song Huizong ascended the throne, he replaced his former central control mode with the court centralization mode, which was relatively balanced in power and operated effectively, but his political rule was "disastrous"(Liu Zijian’s "China Turning to the Inner" on page 72). In order to strengthen the centralized mode of Song Huizong Group, the bureaucratic elite of the scholar-officials was expelled from the DPRK. At the latest, the bureaucratic scholar-officials who dared to remonstrate even the information channels of normal political participation existed in name only, let alone the discussion of the scholar-officials. In contrast, as a public discussion, the current political ballads and proverbs are unprecedentedly active, commenting on the current situation with the special form of political rumors and attacking the state affairs.

In the first year of Zhenghe (1111), Cai Jing was reunited with Tong Guan, and the proverb "Breaking the barrel (child) and splashing the food (Cai) is a good world on earth" spread all over the world, expressing the public’s worry about "two people dying in chaos". In the third year of Zhenghe, He Zhizhong fawned on Cai Jing, and at the same time, Gao Qiu was promoted to the position of temple commander. Nursery rhymes in Beijing sang: "Kill Artemisia, cut vegetables, and eat lamb lotus leaves." "Artemisia" refers to Tong Guan, while "Cai" still refers to Cai Jing. "Lamb" is homophonic for "Senior Two" (that is, Gao Qiu, the second child of the Gaos), and "Lotus Leaf" refers to He Zhizhong. Verbs such as "hit", "splash", "kill", "cut" and "eat" in ballads and proverbs are clearly defined in love and hate, but they still show irony in homophonic banter.

In the first year of Xuanhe (1119), Wang Fu and Cai Jing merged, and the political affairs were even dirtier. "Selling officials and titles, there is a price", and the folk proverb directly denounced: "Three thousand suo, straight secret cabinet; Five hundred penetration, Zhuo tong sentence "("Old News of Qu Yan"). According to Notes of the Old Learning Temple, the following year, there were "dozens of people wearing gold belts, all of whom were slaves of Zhu’s family" at the guest table in Zhizhou, Hangzhou, and a folk song sang: "Gold belts and silver belts are bad for Zhu’s family in Zhao’s world." The last sentence seems to be a pity for the "Zhao world", but I don’t know that Zhu CuO’s Daxing Hua Shigang pushed against Fang La and pursued the imperial script of Zhao’s regime. In the fifth year of Xuanhe, Song Huizong celebrated by "recovering" Yanshan Mountain, and two folk songs were sung in the capital. One cloud: "If you are happy, you must start;" Sorrow is sorrow, not long. Xin is Xin, and I will stay together. If you are afraid, you will be afraid, and people will break the fight. " The second cloud says, "It’s full of flowers outside, but empty inside. But look at February next year, and there is no master in the city. " Political proverbs express a clear negative public opinion: not only does Yanjing, which started by luck, "not last long", but even Tokyo will "not see the master" next year. As the "Gossip" said: "The hollowed-out inner part of the Song Dynasty can not be concealed by the superficial prosperity."(52 pages)

At the beginning of the first year of Jingkang (1126), Jin Jun Enemy at the Gates and Song Qinzong, who had just acceded to the throne, repeatedly begged for a letter. However, after the situation of Jinbing’s withdrawal from the north eased, they put the defense against gold in Hedong and other places behind them, ignoring the possibility that Jin Shuai Yan Hong Zongwang (the second prince) might invade the south again, but they were eager to establish a prince, and at the same time investigated Chen Dong, the leader of the "Six Thieves", who had fallen into trouble before, and soon spread in Tokyo. Regardless of the second prince, he manages the prince. " There is a proverb that thunders against the court’s "repressors" and suppresses the space of speech: "The city gate is closed, and the road is open; The city gate is open and the road is closed. " The annual money of Song Huizong Dynasty continued to circulate after the reform of Jingkang, but in Jingkang and Jianyan (1126-1130), Qianzhou refused to use the annual money of Xuanhe and Zhenghe, which was called "No money for the emperor" (volume 2 of Chicken Ribs), and directly linked the annual money of Huizong with "No money for the emperor" and nailed Song Huizong to "No money for the emperor".

In the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a period of peace, in which "playing folk songs received holy knowledge". No matter whether they were ordered to be sent out or served in counties, officials had the responsibility to choose folk songs and be sympathetic to public feelings. The so-called "folk songs were collected everywhere, and the people were eager for them." The machine of serving the country is dense, and it is a quiet scene for singing. "(Wang Yucheng’s "Giving an Interview to the Special Envoy"); "Make Yin beg the people, and listen to the road rumors."(Xu Guangyuan’s "He Xu Lingnan New Road Middle"). When it came to politics and propaganda, the political ecology under Song Huizong was extremely deteriorated, and the way of speaking was blocked and the righteousness was not good. "Scholars knew the court’s will and stopped writing."("Three Dynasties North League" Volume 96). As a public discussion, even though political proverbs are close at hand in Beijing, the supreme ruling group either turns a deaf ear or turns a deaf ear.

Compared with the Song Dynasty, "when the ancestors were in their prime, they raised their morale with generosity."("Zhen Wenzhong’s Collection of Official Documents, Wuchen went to the temple in April to play two")Song Huizong Group is a complete failure in dealing with public discussion and political rumors. The profound lesson and unfortunate outcome of this change, as Liu Zijian, a famous scholar of Song history, pointed out: All this was due to "Huizong began to abuse the imperial power, which eventually led to the tragic demise of the Northern Song Dynasty."("China turned to the inside" on page 72).

This article was first published in WeChat official account, Research Information of Song History, and was forwarded with the authorization of the author.