Song: The west wind withers the green trees

Author: Zhao Yi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: The best combination of history and literature, understanding the hidden rules of political rise and fall through the decline of dynasties. The Song Dynasty fell, and its excessive confidence and reliance on its own culture led it to suffer unprecedented bloodshed and suffering. However, the second time China was ruled by foreign powers was like a school whose door had been opened, educating and melting all who entered this glorious hall with its unparalleled splendid civilization and broad-mindedness. It was the unique spirit of the Song Dynasty that laid the foundation for China's long-term stability and unity thereafter. After the Han and Tang dynasties, there would be no more Han and Tang dynasties, but after the Song, China would always be China. This series, based on detailed historical materials, records the rise and fall of several major feudal dynasties in Chinese history with a grand conception. Based on an insight into the subtleties of human nature, it explores the complex reasons for the rise and fall of these former dynasties, radiating the fervent light of wisdom. The innovative presentation style is an important attempt of this series. It seeks to find a new path between historians and novelists: drawing on the perspectives and achievements of history while avoiding dry and lengthy narration; borrowing the narrative and charm of literature without fictional plots. Thus, it gives life to history, integrating moral passion and aesthetic poetry into the granite of history, with the demeanor and style of "guiding the nation and stirring the words." Here, history does not merely mean the past; it is in the light of human rational thinking, moral judgment, and aesthetic observation. In Chinese history, no dynasty was as filled with the air of decline from the very beginning as the Great Song Empire, making people feel oppressed, frustrated, and disappointed. The empire's foundation was successively threatened and impacted by the powerful military threats and attacks of northern states like Liao and Jin, remaining in a state of turmoil, and ultimately fell to the of the Mongol cavalry. This book, with its profound historical vision, spans nearly three centuries from the chaos of the Five Dynasties to the founding of the Song Dynasty by its founder and the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, uncovering the internal causes of the Great Song's decline: militarily, from being at a disadvantage in battle to losing confidence to unconditionally seeking peace; politically, from determined reform to acting impulsively to rampant self-interest; psychologically, from benevolence and kindness to feeling mediocre to shamelessness—this all recreates the decline of the Great Song Dynasty's own helplessness, incompetence, boredom, and ultimately, inaction, giving a sense of desolate and melancholic beauty like "crows urging the setting sun, the west wind withering green trees."