The Study Of Personal Expedition And Related Ceremony In Song Dynasty

The phenomenon of Emperor going out to battle by himself was existed in Chinese history for a long time which Almost occurred in every dynasty. Before the Song Dynasty, most of the pioneering emperors started the war because of unification, other reasons such as showing the emperor’s authority、overawing other enemies were included. Combined with history of Song Dynasty, due to disappearing of the group of military glory and strategy of "emphasizing literature and restricting military", Song Dynasty was defeated by Liao Dynasty, emperor had to lead the army personally. Since Liao Dynasty launched offensives in fifth year of Taiping Xingguo, Song Dynasty had to defend. The strategy of leading military by emperor arose and continued through the Southern Song Dynasty.Affected by specific era, there were several features during this period. Most of the wars were passive, emperors were not interested in the war. Emperors hardly arrived battlefront. The wars coincided with peace negotiations, which influenced the policy of ruling classes. The strategy of emperors leading military could not be a long-term solution of foreign affairs, but soldiers were encouraged by it and negotiations could go smoothly.The ceremony held with the war. The ceremony in<The ceremony in Kaiyuan of Tang Dynasty> was grand, on the contrary, the ceremony was ignored in Song Dynasty. As a whole, the reason lay in the concept of governing a state and sued for peace.Though the song dynasty personal expedition number is more, but not personal expedition ceremony in tang dynasty, on the gift book compilation, song dynasty followed the tang kaiyuan ritual "without formulated in line with the actual needs of ritual, just change the ritual records of evolution; In actual use, the location, the outcome by the war, the influence of the Taoist belief and constantly changing. But overall, personal expedition ritual sacrifice to heaven and earth, ancestral temple, the state still is given priority to, are at the mercy of the Confucian tradition.