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How did the urban management enforce the law in the Song Dynasty
Urban management appeared as early as before the Song Dynasty, and it was called “Jianshi” at that time. In ancient times, the members of Jianshi were all temporary workers. They were formed and dismissed at any time according to the wishes of local officials or the political situation.
In the beginning, the people who supervised the city were basically idlers on the streets and less evil. Therefore, speaking from the source, the ancient urban management team faced the problem of personnel quality from the beginning. In the third year of Emperor Renzong’s Jiayou reign (1058), a “Street Department was set up to manage road soldiers and soldiers”. The specific job was to maintain the sanitation and order of the city’s streets.
“Song Xingtong” stipulates: “Those who invade the streets and alleys will be hit with seventy sticks”, and those who occupy roads and operate them will be hit with seventy sticks. “There are those who penetrate the walls of caves to get out filthy things in the streets and alleys, and the sticks are sixty.” For those who dump garbage in disorder, they will be beaten with sixty sticks.
(From “Song History”) In today’s China, the word “chengguan” has a particularly complicated meaning: they are an embarrassing existence in the process of urbanization in China, and they are regarded as the natural enemy of the weak. Someone once PS a “divine picture” to ridicule today’s urban management—”Surfing the River During the Qingming Festival: The Urban Management is Coming”:
The streets of Bianliang, the capital of the Song Dynasty, were crowded with people and vendors, but suddenly all the people ran away. Shops closed one after another, leaving only a mess and the word “demolition” painted on the walls.
Was the urban management in the Song Dynasty really so fierce? In fact, the city administrators of the Song Dynasty found a delicate balance—to protect the prosperity of civil society and maintain the order of the city. Of course, urban management appeared as early as before the Song Dynasty. The emergence of this profession, of course, presupposes that there is a city first. There is a record in “Zhuangzi Zhibei Tour”: “Zhenghuo asked about the supervision and management of the city, and it went from bad to worse.” The “supervisory market” mentioned here, that is, the regulator of the market, is similar to today’s urban management. It can be seen that in Zhuangzi’s time, there were already prosperous cities, and naturally there were urban management with a bad reputation.
In ancient times, the members of Jianshi were all temporary workers. They were formed and dismissed at any time according to the wishes of local officials or the political situation. Theoretically speaking, supervisors and markets can come from all walks of life, but in ancient times there was a clear division of labor. Farmers were tied to the land, traders were busy with their livelihoods, and officials were high above them. Speaking of it, the ancient urban management team faced the problem of personnel quality from the very beginning. In the Tang Dynasty, the process of urbanization was greatly accelerated. With the most prosperous international metropolis in the world at that time, all countries came to Korea, trade developed, and the work of urban management became more important.
“Old Tang Book” records: “The supervision of the city is practiced by the yamen, and the order of the city is governed.” business”. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, before the war broke out, the city’s commerce was more developed, and “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” is the best witness. The work of the urban management has become even busier. The government has set up a special urban management brigade called the “Street Division”.
Its job is to maintain the sanitation, renovation and daily order of the urban streets. According to research, the members of the “Street Division” were once served by soldiers. According to historical records, there was an urban management brigade composed of 500 soldiers in Bianliang City.
Compared with the prison market in the Tang Dynasty, they are obviously more effective in fighting, and they can subdue rogues like Niu Er. In ancient times, urban management had different names and sources. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, when the bureaucratic system was relatively stable, urban management was mostly held by “subordinate staff”. “Xu” and “official” originally had different divisions of labor, and the status of “official” was slightly higher than that of “Xu”.
Now it seems that “Xu” is a permanent servant hired by local officials, a temporary worker outright, and most of them are filled by shabby households, scoundrels and even local snakes. It is somewhat similar to the “security team” in some places today. Because “xu” and “li” both refer to various clerks and servants representing the government, later generations called them together.
According to the research of later generations, the officialdom in ancient China was actually deeply harmed by the subordinate staff, and the administrative management at that time was actually controlled by the subordinate staff, who were at the bottom of the bureaucratic system. On the one hand, they are accustomed to using tricks such as deceit, deception, deceit, and collusion to selectively perform the tasks assigned to them, bullying the people and extorting money in various “connecting with the masses” work, including urban management.
On the other hand, they are proficient in administrative details and operating procedures, so they can deceive, hinder, mislead, and even intimidate their more prestigious superiors. The subordinate staff have a bad reputation in history, which is inseparable from their status as temporary workers. In fact, it is also a reflection of the shortcomings of the bureaucratic system in the Ming and Qing Dynasties-if soldiers came to play guest roles like the Song Dynasty, the image might be better.
Ancient urban management regulations were very strict
Zong Ze, a famous minister in the Song Dynasty, was famous in history for calling “Crossing the River” three times before his death. In fact, he was a man of both civil and military skills. Historical materials have recorded the story of him managing prices. “Chunzhu Jiwen” once recorded that when Zongze was an official in Bianjing, “prices were so expensive that they were ten times higher than the former”. He sent a chef to visit the cake market unannounced, and found that a cake was estimated to be worth only 6 yuan, but the market price was 20 yuan.
Zong Ze was furious and ordered sellers not to exceed eight renminbi, and anyone who dared to raise the price would be killed without mercy. As a result, prices in the market plummeted.
In the Song Dynasty, city managers like Zong Ze, in the non-war years, did not mainly attract business and investment, but maintained market order, urban security, etc. That is to say, urban management was the main task of the government at that time. According to research, urban management in the Song Dynasty had many functions, similar to today’s policemen, sanitation workers, tax collectors, firefighters, price inspectors, and industrial and commercial law enforcement officers in Jina…
Anyway, when they go to the streets, they have to manage everything, big and small. Of course they also have to take care of the road occupation business and so on, but it is by no means the focus of their work, they are more comprehensive law enforcement.
There were laws to follow in the urban management and law enforcement in the Song Dynasty.
“Song Xingtong” stipulates: “Those who invade the streets and lanes will be given seventy sticks.” That is to say, seventy sticks will be given to those who occupy the road, which is quite a severe punishment. There are also regulations on littering and affecting environmental sanitation: “Those who have pierced the walls of the caves to discharge filthy things in the streets and alleys have a staff of 60. Those who directly discharge the water are not guilty.
The director can not help but be guilty of the same crime.” Going to the street affected public health. Not only was the person involved unlucky, but even the “urban management captain” was beaten with a cane.
The ancient urban management legislation also has a lot of history. In the Tang Dynasty before the Song Dynasty, the “Law of the Tang Dynasty” stipulated that anyone who invaded the streets or planted plants would be punished with a stick and cane, and had to restore the original appearance before the occupation. And for those who disturb the order of the city, the punishment is more severe: “Those who disturb and disturb each other in the city and the crowd will be given eighty sticks; those who hurt people for the reason will be reduced by the first class; those who lose property and property will be treated as stolen goods.”
It can be seen that the urban management law of the Song Dynasty continued part of the urban management law of the Tang Dynasty. Of course, the most ruthless ancient urban management law was the Ming Dynasty. In addition to the “Minghui Code”, in addition to stipulating severe penalties for road occupation and littering, even if you are caught defecating indiscriminately, you may be “discharged for a month.” , put on instruments of torture, and displayed them on the streets for a month.
The Song Dynasty once banned opening shops through walls
The urbanization process of Tang and Song was very fast, but unlike the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty was a golden age when civil society flourished. The Tang Dynasty implemented a strict fangshi system, and if the common people wanted to break through the walls and open shops, it was resolutely not allowed. But in Bianliang, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, the walls of the squares have been torn down, and the system of the squares has collapsed. People set up cities along the river and opened shops along the streets.
The “night ban” was also broken. “The night market didn’t reopen until the third watch, and then reopened at the fifth watch. If you want to make a fuss, you can know everything.” A more commercial and citizen-like urban lifestyle emerged in the capital of the Song Dynasty.
Of course, this transformation has a process. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, merchants were forbidden to break through walls and open shops. At that time, the important work of urban management was to demolish and relocate illegal buildings. Taxation, so the government put people first and compromised with the spontaneous development of civil society and commodity economy. It should be said that the city administrators in the Song Dynasty found a delicate balance—to protect the prosperity of civil society and maintain the order of the city. Occupying roads has been a chronic problem in urban management throughout the ages.
The government departments of the Song Dynasty measured the distance on both sides of the street and erected “table trees” as a red line prohibiting “street invasion”. Within the red line, stalls and shops are allowed, but not beyond the red line.
This regulation can also be seen in the “Surfing the River During the Qingming Festival”: at both ends of the Hongqiao, there are four “table trees”. Leave a passage for passage. In this way, the livelihood of traders is taken care of, and public transportation will not be hindered. More importantly, the emperor of the Song Dynasty was very pragmatic and would not allow his subordinates to select civilized urban areas, let alone clean streets and prohibition of hawkers as the selection criteria, and his subordinates would not, when the leaders came out, like some places today. Some “wall of shame” or something.
According to historical records, in the first year of Kangding (1040 A.D.), Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty was “fortunate to drive a car”. Although the streets were narrow at that time, Renzong did not order the roads to be closed, let alone widen the streets, but simplified the ceremony. , Down to servants, they all walk in the same way”, “The scholars and common people watching, leading the followers, galloping along the road, shouting uncontrollably.” In the era of imperial power with strict hierarchy, this is indeed a relatively “make do” emperor.
Against this background, the image of urban management in the Song Dynasty was certainly much better than that of today’s counterparts.
