Problems Of The Southern Song Dynasty Spy

Spies, which belong to a professional group, obtain intelligence on politic, military and so on for their instigators, which is their main work, and are asked to performe special task sometimes. The Southern Song Dynasty period to the special environment of espionages is active, this paper mainly talk about it. This article study some things about espionages in the Southern Song Dynasty by three main sections.In the first section, it is expounded that the tense situation of exterior warfares and internal infightings offered espionages a wide stage in the Southern Song Dynasty. In continual wars, for maintaining the governing, rulers of the Song dynasty paid more and more attention steadily and established special setups, which gradually improved the administration of intelligence. Meanwhile, there was some progress of measures of defending spies, with the formation of a systematized defending-spies system taking consensus-controled as the principle and combined with multiple defences such as maritime defence, Bao-jia system and so on.The second one discuss the activity and effects of espionages of the South Song Dynasty on military, politic and so on. In the military, the influence of spies on the total history of the South Song dynasty with the study of espionages in the Southern Song Dynasty wars against the Jing Dynasty and the Mongolians or the Yuan Dynasty, counter-insurgencies. In the politic, in the light of the contradictions between emperors and prime ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty, it’s pointer out that emperors acquirement of the throne is very hard, which forced them to controlled their subordinates by expanding the Infobahn and using clever spy methods. And, prime ministers monitored emperors by ultilizing people around emperors and solidified their power by monitoring their subordinates. Thus, it can be seen that using-spy conflicts politically were sublimated during the secret conflicts between emperors and prime ministers.The third one mainly discuss theoretical and practical changes compared with other dynasties in the Southern Song Dynasty. Especially, ministers Coushus of which often pointed out the importance of conducting espionages strengthened the focus on gathering intelligences about enemies. Morever, the highly development of the economy and culture also boosted the espionages then, which generated progress, such as on passing intelligences. Hua Yue, who won the first in a military examination in the age of Emperor Ming, reasonably systematically introduces the specificity and significance of espionages and elevates the theory in the time to another level with The Recordation of Mr Cui Wei’s Northern Expedition. Therefore, reflections of espionages in the Southern Song Dynasty made the era a peak of espionages in our ancient history.