Research On Bridge Marketplaces Of The Two Capitals In Song Dynasty

In the Song Dynasty,the two capitals had great advantages in waterway transportation.Kaifeng and Lin'an had a developed water transportation network inside and outside.Kaifeng and Lin'an became the places of convergence,where the goods from all over the world were transported to by water transportation.The canal and many waterways had brought convenience to the two capitals.At the same time,the two capitals were divided into several areas.In order to promote exchanges between the regions,Kaifeng and Lin'an had built a large number of bridges inside and outside.Compared with the Tang and Five Dynasties,the number of bridges in the capitals of Song Dynasties had increased greatly.Those bridges were located over major waterways inside and outside the city,which had greatly improved the traffic condition between the regions.As a result,the traffic grid of the Song Dynasty capitals became dense.The bridges in Kaifeng and Lin'an were scattered everywhere.They were located not only over the canals,but also over the water channels and gardens.The convenient transportation brought by the bridges caused a large flow of population and a frequent cargo transport around the area.As a result,the area around bridges became an important place ofeconomic in the Song Dynasty society.This was the bridge city.Unlike the bridge cities of capital before Song Dynasty,which were mostly official-run recorded by historical materials,the bridge cities of capitals of the Song Dynasty were mostly spontaneous formed economic area.It was not necessary to comply with the city system of regular opening and closing,branching and listing,which was different from the regulations of Tang Dynasty and before.The important bridge cities on the Weihe River in Kaifeng City included Xiangguosiqiao City,Zhouqiaoqiao City,Puyiqiaoqiao City,Zhujiaqiao Bridge City,etc.Duchengqiao City got a further development up to Lin'an,and three riverway bridge cities formed in Lin'an City,which were called Bridge Road Bridge City,Xiaohe Bridge Road Bridge City and Xihe Bridge Road Bridge City.The atmosphere of economics and trade was the thickest in the area of these bridge cities in Lin'an City.There were many kinds of transactions in the trade of the bridge city.In bridge cities of the two capitals,there were not only the daily wine cellars,tea pots,rice shops,etc.,but also the convenient stores for travel.In addition,there were also entertainment places,making people's spare time colorful.Due to the prosperity of trade in bridge cities and the bridge as a water and land transportation hub,in and around the area of bridges or the town arising from the bridges,tax was set up,which was aimed to facilitate the taxation of past goods.The development of thebridge city had also had a great impact on the social life of the capital.The establishment of trading venues was based on the convenience of life,which not only enabled the people in the city to purchase goods more conveniently,but also provided space for the lower classes of society to survive.It also made urban residents urbanized.This was an important reason why the Song Dynasty capital culture was different from the Tang Dynasty.