There was a watershed in Chinese history, and this watershed was in the Song Dynasty. Before the Song Dynasty, it was a gentry society, and after the Song Dynasty, it was a gentry society. Although there is a difference of one word, the identity of the social elite is very different. Before the Song Dynasty, no matter how rampant the nomads were, they could not unify China for a while, so there is a saying that the Hu people have no national fortune for a hundred years. For example, Fu Jian of the former Qin Dynasty, who spent his whole life unifying North China, experienced a hundred battles, but was a soldier in the fertile water, grass and trees, and was defeated in the first war and his country fell apart, making the world laugh. There is also An Lushan, who raised troops from Hebei for only a few months, and conquered the two capitals, so that Tang Xuanzong, who had been pampered for decades, fled from Chang'an like a lost dog, and as the respect of the world, he couldn't even keep his own woman, but An Lushan died in the hands of his son in a few months before he was happy. Another example is that Li Cunmiao, the Later Tang Dynasty Zhuangzong, is known as Li Yazi, in the early days, like Fu Jian, a young hero in the battle of Sanzhuigang extinguished the ambition of Zhu Wen, the Taizu of the Later Liang Dynasty, making him lament that "giving birth to a son should be like Li Yazi", and then Li Cunmiao's youthful ambition has the heart to sweep the universe, but he suddenly died at the hands of the servants. If these things happen in a single event, it can be called accidental, but if they happen again and again, it is not accidental, but inevitable!The driving force behind these things was the scholars of medieval China.
In the Middle Ages, no matter how big or small, the scholars had their own territories, and the small food towns and townships were large or several counties. They have their own mode of production and their own armament. This is very similar to the feudal lords of Europe, except that Europe is united by religion, while China is united by Confucianism. Therefore, the kings of Europe need to be crowned by the pope to be legitimate, while the emperors of China need to follow the Confucian norms to be legitimate. This can explain why the Hu people do not have a century-old national fortune, and it can also explain why Fu Jian and Li Cunmiao, who are nomads, cannot dominate China no matter how hard they work and how talented they are. Because Fu Jian and Li Cunmiao couldn't jump out of their nomadic nature, they probably needed to cooperate with the medieval Chinese gate lord clan in order to strengthen themselves at the beginning, so as to respect Confucianism, and after a little development, they engaged in the nomadic style. led to the backlash of the Confucian clan who were fooled into joining, and then suddenly died from the peak, and the country was destroyed for the world to laugh!