From "Event History" To "Event Approach":A Restudy Of Lingzhou Event In Early Song Dynasty

Since late Taizong period of the Northern Song Dynasty,Li Jiqian kept plotting Lingzhou.Finally,Lingzhou was captured in March,the fifth year of Xianping(1002)during the period of Zhenzong.With the attention of the academic community to this event,the research trend gradually shifts from "Event history" to "Event Approach".On the basis of this research trend,further investigation is necessary.There is a risk of putting this event in a simple,dichotomous mode,either by advocating the negative or active side of the Northern Song Dynasty in the Lingzhou event.The defense of Lingzhou is bound to produce too much cost,which is inconsistent with the idea of pursuing Taiping(太平).Finally,the measures taken by the Northern Song Dynasty were to try their best to balance between defense and cost,hoping to protect Lingzhou,but not to generate excessive cost.The measures were reflected in that the Northern Song Dynasty did not blindly passive defense in the process of this event,but also took many positive measures.This contradictory behavior is only the external manifestation of the contradiction between defense and cost.As a result,the Northern Song neither strengthened the defense of Lingzhou nor reduced cost.It was not until the two sides signed the Jingde settlement(景德和议)that the Northern Song Dynasty temporarily solved this problem.Around the Lingzhou event,various factors such as the central and local levels are also entangled in this process.The Lingzhou event is just in the transition from decision-making mechanism of "independent confer with Privy Council "(独与枢密院计议)to the decision-making mechanism of "stressing Secretariat-Chancellary(中书)",which reflected the dualism opposition in the decision-making mechanism of erfu(二府).In the Lingzhou event,the prime minister of Secretariat-Chancellary held the opinion of abandoning Lingzhou,which made ZhenZong find it difficult to make a decision,and then came the delayed situation for Lingzhou’s defense.At the local level,it is related to the establishment and operation of Dubushu(都部署)system.From the beginning of Lingzhou event,the Northern Song Dynasty set up a lot of Dubushu in the Shaanxi Lu(陕西路),especially Jingyuan Lu(泾原路)and Huanqing Lu(环庆路).However,the rescue efficiency was seriously affected by the harsh geographical environment.More importantly,there was no linkage defense to built indeed among them,which the dominant factor behind it was decentralization and balance for power.And this was the implementation for concept of avoiding drawback.In general,every factor that leaded to Lingzhou event can be traced back to the contents of the political and social mechanism in the early Northern Song Dynasty,such as ideas and institutions,so this event can be regarded as a "microscope" to observe these contents.