About Wang Anshi

1. The reform violated the interests of big landowners and big bureaucrats

In view of the "poverty" phenomenon in the Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi proposed that the reform should focus on financial management. He believed that "the country's financial situation is not good." Well, it is not a top priority. The reason for this situation is that there are no people who are good at financial management. Those who are good at financial management can fill the national treasury without increasing taxes. "In feudal society, the concept of "emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business" is deeply rooted, and for people who are born. For Wang Anshi in the south, he attached great importance to the role of merchants in social development, and vaguely realized that to make a country rich and its army strong, it should start from the economic field, starting with financial management. However, this measure seriously harmed the interests of big landowners and big bureaucrats. For example, the Young Crops Law restricted the development of private usury. It replaced "private loans" with "state loans" to protect farmers from the exploitation of usury and also inhibited land annexation; the Service Law collected free money from bureaucrats and landlords who did not serve in the service. ; The Fangtian Equalization Tax Law collects taxes based on the amount and fertility of the land each household owns, with no exceptions for bureaucratic landlords, and expands the tax standards and scope; the Equalization Tax Law implements compulsory purchase, transportation and sales of goods across the country through state-owned commercial institutions, limiting the Businessmen operate; the Market Exchange Law limits the control of the market by big businessmen. Therefore, the reform was strongly opposed by them. Some local officials refused to implement the new law. Sima Guang, a representative of the conservative faction, believed that the people Wang Anshi said were good at managing money were just clever names to increase taxes on the people. After Song Shenzong's death, the conservatives When Sima Guang came to power, he abolished all Wang Anshi's new laws, and members of the reform faction were expelled from the court one after another.

2. The vacillation and death of the backer of the reform (Song Shenzong)

Wang Anshi’s reform was carried out in the fierce struggle between the reformists and the conservatives. The reformists represented the landlord class. In long-term interests, in order to promote the development of production and use the power of the world to generate wealth for the world, it is necessary to reform the current laws and regulations, and it is bound to limit or damage some local interests of big landowners and big bureaucrats. In fact, the conservatives only care about immediate interests, are content with the status quo, and have an overwhelming advantage over the reformists. Therefore, in order to reform, it is necessary to break through the obstruction of the conservatives, to resist the powerful attack of the Baozong faction, and to ensure the implementation of the new law, it must have the strong support of the emperor. Therefore, Song Shenzong became the backer of the reform.

After the implementation of the new law, conservatives attacked the reform and destroyed the social stability, causing chaos in the world. "From the government and the opposition, to the fields, from the capital inside, to the sea outside, there are chaos, and no one can live in peace." . The reform faction was in embarrassment on all sides, relying entirely on the support of Song Shenzong. The censor Cheng Lujie impeached Wang Anshi for ten crimes, and Song Shenzong dismissed Lujie. Censors Liu Shu, Liu Qi, and Qian Kai wrote letters attacking Wang Anshi and were demoted. The Su brothers also published long speeches against the reform, and Shenzong did not waver.

But no one is perfect, and Song Shenzong still has great limitations, which are mainly reflected in his lack of ambition, his character not being resolute and decisive, and his tendency to waver in the face of difficulties and setbacks. For example, when abnormal natural phenomena continue to occur in various places (strong winds suddenly blew in Jingdong and Hebei, and Huashan Mountain in Shaanxi collapsed, causing panic for a while). Those with ulterior motives use these measures to criticize the reform, saying that these are warnings from God to the world. In the seventh year of Xining (1074), there was a severe drought in the north and people were in dire straits. Shenzong was very worried about this. He also began to believe that this was some kind of early warning from God, and reflected on a series of new laws he had implemented since he succeeded to the throne. At this time, an official named Zheng Xia presented a picture of refugees to Shenzong. The scene depicted in the picture shocked Shenzong greatly. Countless people were displaced and sold their sons and daughters. It was too miserable to see. Shenzong originally wanted to make the people live and work in peace and contentment through reforms, but he never expected that it would end like this. The next day Shenzong ordered the temporary suspension of 18 decrees such as Qingmiao, exemption from service, Fangtian, and Baojia. Although these laws were soon restored at the request of Lu Huiqing, Deng Wan and others, it fully demonstrated that Shenzong had insufficient confidence in the new laws and was wavering. Later, he dismissed Wang Anshi twice.

Some mistakes caused by these limitations caused serious setbacks for the new law. If there are profound social reasons for the failure of Wang Anshi's reform, then the limitations of Song Shenzong are the subjective factors for the failure of the reform.

3. Improper employment of personnel has harmed the common people

The mainstream view is that the reform has touched the interests of big landowners and big chaebols, thus arousing the interests of the two empress dowagers. The group's counterattack led to the failure of the reform. But few people are willing to notice another fact, that is, Wang Anshi's reforms have not been understood and supported by the poor people. There is a joke among the people. When the village women feed the chickens, they mutter "Anshi, eat." ! Why does this happen? The main reason is improper employment.

Chairman Mao once said a famous saying: "After the correct line is determined, cadres are the decisive factor." Wang Anshi's reform made a big mistake in recruiting people. He hired a large number of people who were docile but cunning. This ultimately leads to "villains disrupting government" and "treacherous people breaking the law."

What is a villain? In Sima Guang's opinion, it means that a person cannot be virtuous, no matter how talented he is. Villains usually have two outstanding characteristics: they can do anything to seek fame and fame, and they can do anything to express their selfish desires regardless of the consequences. Wang Anshi's most important supporters and assistants, Lu Huiqing, Zhang Dun, Zeng Bu, Cai Bian, Lu Jiawen, Cai Jing, Li Ding, Deng Wan, Xue Xiang, etc., were all notorious in later generations, and most of them were listed. He was included in the list of traitorous ministers in the official revised history "History of the Song Dynasty". When these people first enter the officialdom, most of them work with all their heart and soul and show their talents; but over time, they employ people based on nepotism, exclude dissidents, and are eager for quick success and profit.

For example, Lu Huiqing was Wang Anshi's staunchest confidant and a very talented official. But later, in order to seek his own promotion, he actually designed to frame Wang Anshi, which greatly reduced Emperor Shenzong's trust in Wang Anshi. Zhang Dun was once Wang Anshi's right-hand man, but when he later persecuted the "Yuanyou Party members" (those who opposed radical reforms), he was extremely vicious, unprecedented, and showed no gentlemanly demeanor at all. Another right-hand man of Wang Anshi, Deng Wan, was unscrupulous and shameless. He once said: "Let others laugh and scold, but I am a good official." This sentence became a special phrase for later generations to criticize shameless behavior in officialdom. As for Cai Jing, he became a rare treacherous official in Chinese history, and made the politics of the late Northern Song Dynasty sour.

4. Wang Anshi has a paranoid personality and has made too many enemies

Wang Anshi, known as the "sister-in-law", has very prominent personality traits and excellent quality. Such as being indifferent to fame and fortune, loving reading, being honest and simple, etc. Even his opponent, Sima Guang, admitted that his personal qualities were noble. But some personalities hinder governance in the officialdom. Don't talk to others, laugh by yourself when you understand something, and act as if no one else is around. He plays Go, but when playing against others, he won't play if he feels he is going to lose. He is usually informal. Once when he went to court, a louse crawled out of his collar. Song Shenzong laughed when he saw it, but he didn't know it. These trivial matters would be fine for ordinary people, but if you hold a high official position and perform legal affairs, it is easy to form a situation of fighting alone.

During the reform process, Wang Anshi also always went his own way, which led to many ministers in the court breaking with him. Some of them turned out to be his backers, such as Han Wei, Lu Gongzhu and others; some turned out to be his recommenders, such as Wen Yanbo, Ouyang Xiu and others; some turned out to be his superiors, such as Fu Bi, Han Qi and others. ; Some people turned out to be his friends, such as Fan Zhen, Sima Guang and others. Although they were all heroes and important ministers of the court, they were kicked out of the court one by one because they disagreed with some of Wang Anshi's actions. In particular, Sima Guang, remembering his friendship with Wang Anshi for several years, wrote to Wang Anshi three times to persuade him to adjust his strategy of governing the country. It's a pity that Wang Anshi was stubborn and refused to understand, which led to Sima Guang finally parting ways with him and never having any contact with him for life.

For another example, in the fourth year of Xining (1071), Han Wei, the prefect of Kaifeng, reported that in order to circumvent the Baojia Law, some people in the territory had "amputated their fingers and wrists." Song Shenzong asked Wang Anshi about this matter, but Wang Anshi replied: "This matter is unreliable. Even if it is reliable, it is nothing special! Those scholar-bureaucrats can't understand the new law, let alone the common people!" Emperor Shenzong said with displeasure: "People's words If you listen together, you will win, and you must not be afraid of it.

Wang Anshi still disagreed after hearing this, because in his opinion, even the words of scholar-bureaucrats can be ignored, let alone the words of the people! Wang Anshi's extreme view of the problem made him even more isolated, and even Song Shenzong, who trusted him extremely, also ignored him. Unable to withstand deception, Wang Anshi was dismissed twice. This paranoid character made him have too many enemies, and he was unable to fully mobilize all forces to complete the great cause of the "Xining Reform", which laid the foundation for the failure of his reform.

In short, the failure of Wang Anshi’s reform was caused by a combination of factors. The main reason was that it violated the interests of big landlords and big bureaucrats. The improper employment of people during the reform process caused profound harm to the people. The lesson from history is: Reform must not only follow the trend of historical development, but also pay attention to the reform strategy, coordinate various relationships, and be "people-oriented" in the reform process.

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Historical evaluation

The reforms carried out by Wang Anshi have had different historical evaluations. In the Northern Song Dynasty, his opponents used the method of historical revision to criticize his reforms. In the Southern Song Dynasty, they again used the method of historical revision to characterize his reforms and pointed out that Wang Anshi The reform led to the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty (some say it was the Southern Song Dynasty's attempt to shirk the royal family's responsibilities). Later dynasties used this as a basis to make such judgments about the reform, so much so that there were articles dedicated to it in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Irony.

However, some literati in Wang Anshi's hometown had some arguments for reasons of being from the same hometown, such as Lu Jiuyuan.

With the development of history, China has suffered unprecedented changes and reforms. The voice of Wang Anshi’s reform is getting louder and louder, so Wang Anshi’s reform began to be positively evaluated. The main figures include Liang Qichao, Yan Fu, etc. In Liang Qichao’s "The Biography of Wang Anshi", he said: "If we seek perfection in three generations, only the common people can be worthy of it." Come on... There are those who are unparalleled in the world and are criticized by the world, who have changed the world but have not been forgotten. In the West, there is Clingwell, and in our country, there is Duke Jing. " They started from the needs of social reality and called for the spirit of reform. In the future, more and more research was done on Wang Anshi's reform, and it was promoted during the Republic of China.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Wang Anshi's reform The evaluation was mainly from the perspective of class, etc., and later this method was gradually eliminated. The main researchers looked at his reforms from the perspective of specific interests.

Overseas, Americans. Chinese historian Huang Renyu believes that many of Wang Anshi's reforms involved large-scale commerce and digital management in China at that time, but they were not compatible with the official culture of the time and lacked the relevant technical capabilities to succeed.

In the second year of Xining (1069), Wang Anshi began to implement the new law and adopted a series of reform measures. The next year, Sima Guang wrote a long letter of more than 3,300 words to Wang Anshi, listing the implementation of the new law. The shortcomings required Wang Anshi to abandon the new law and restore the old system. "Reply to Sima's Remonstrance" was Wang Anshi's reply: "If you really blame me for being in office for a long time and failing to do much to anoint the people, then you know. It's a sin. If you say that you should do nothing today and just stick to what you did before, it is not what someone dares to know. "The so-called "Don't be afraid of the floating clouds covering your eyes, because you are at the highest level." "It is exactly the portrayal of Wang Anshi.