| During the Song Dynasty,the commercial economy developed rapidly,and commercial awareness spread among all social classes,and the officials’ group was active in this commercial wave.Among the officials of the Song Dynasty,military generals,central officials,and state and county governors all commonly engaged in commercial activities,and this phenomenon was especially prevalent among the military generals.Compared with the business activities of civil officials in the same period,the business activities of military generals were on a large scale and were normalized.The Song government supplemented the inadequate legislation of the Song Penal Code with royal decrees,and the court repeatedly issued bans on business matters for officials,but the widespread involvement of military generals in business remained unabated,and the rulers of the Song dynasty deliberately made light of it.The reason why the rulers of the Song dynasty made light of their own laws was due to the practical needs of national military administration and the ruling philosophy of enlisting military generals.The business activities of military generals had a harmful effect on the state finances,state officials,social order,and military construction of the Song Dynasty,which could not be ignored.The first part of this paper examines the basic situation of business of military generals in Song Dynasty,and analyzes the special characteristics of business activities of military generals in comparison with those of civil officials;the second part analyzes the practical reasons for the Song government’s indulgence in business from the perspective of military expenditure,and analyzes the ruling philosophy of the Song rulers from the perspective of ‘the core interest of the rulers in the imperial era was the stability of their own power’;the third part expounds the harm of such activities to Song Dynasty society in many aspects. |
