Core Tip: "Weather is not enough to fear, ancestors are not enough to learn the law, and people's words are not enough to be compassionate" is the famous slogan of "Three Shortcomings" put forward by Wang Anshi during the political reform in northern Song Shenzong. Over the years, this slogan has been praised as a spiritual representative of courage and continuous innovation. But if you think about it carefully, combined with the specific social and historical background of Wang Anshi's political reform at that time, this slogan is not without deliberation.
This article is taken from the 9th edition of study times 20 10 on July 26th. Author: Zhang Jianfeng, original title: Is it enough to be afraid of changes in the sky?
"Weather is not enough to be feared, ancestors are not enough to learn the law, and people's words are not enough to be compassionate" is the famous slogan of "three deficiencies" put forward by Wang Anshi during the political reform in the north. Over the years, this slogan has been praised as a spiritual representative of courage and continuous innovation. But if you think about it carefully, combined with the specific social and historical background of Wang Anshi's political reform at that time, this slogan is not without deliberation.
From the point of view of pure natural science, natural change is of course fearless (fearless here is the theory of the interaction between man and nature, not to say that there is no need to protect the environment and resist natural disasters). However, if we look at the background of ancient China society, it is worth considering that the weather has become insufficient. The so-called reverence for nature comes from the theory of "the connection between man and nature" put forward by Dong Zhongshu in the Western Han Dynasty. He believes that heaven and people are interlinked and interactive, and that heaven can interfere with personnel and people can interact with heaven. Dong Zhongshu regards heaven as the supreme personality god, and thinks that the son of heaven is against God's will, unkind and unjust, and there will be disaster in heaven to condemn and warn, so the son of heaven should fear and turn to benevolence and righteousness; If the government is reasonable and the people are peaceful, God will send auspicious signs to encourage them. This theory seems to be purely feudal superstition, but it is of great significance. In the world, imperial power is supreme, and no one or power can restrain it. So who can restrict the "son of heaven"? Only "days". And how does "heaven" convey its will? Only through "heaven and man induction". However, "Tian" can't speak human words, and can only express his views through some astronomical changes such as thunder, earthquake and solar eclipse, so someone must translate and interpret it. who the hell are all these people？ It is the literati class.
In this way, the situation is clear. On the surface, it is feudal superstition, but in essence it is a "killer" used by literati to legally restrict imperial power. In the feudal society of China for more than two thousand years, whenever the weather changes, such as solar eclipse, earthquake, fire and water disasters, etc. Scholars often use topics to talk about things in books and criticize the current shortcomings. Emperors who are usually furious at this audacious "anti-Dragon Forest" behavior often have to put down their airs and bow their heads to admit their mistakes in the face of sudden changes. Although mutation did not always happen when the emperor was headstrong, and the literati's interpretation of mutation did not always play a positive role, it was a rare means to restrict imperial power, which had important positive significance in ancient China society where imperial power was dominant.
Wang Anshi's slogan of "three shortages" fundamentally overthrew this restriction mechanism. I want to ask, if the weather is not enough to fear, ancestors are not enough, and people are not enough, what else in the world can bind the emperor? No wonder Fu Bi, the prime minister of the Three Dynasties who actively supported Fan Zhongyan's political reform, was greatly shocked when he heard this, saying, "If people are afraid of heaven, they will do nothing!"
Modern political theory tells us that unconstrained power is extremely dangerous. With absolute power, the temptation to abuse power is almost unstoppable. Wang Anshi's political reform encountered such a situation.
With the slogan of "Three Shortcomings" abolishing all restrictions on imperial power, Song Shenzong and Wang Anshi "kept abreast", and Wang Anshi gained almost unrestricted power in the first few years of the political reform. Wang Anshi, known as "quarrelsome xianggong" by nature, has a sincere heart to reform and strengthen the country, but he can't escape the temptation of absolute power.
The first manifestation of his abuse of power is that he hastily introduced a new law and enforced it without careful consideration and trial verification. In the short five years from the second year of Xining (1069) to the seventh year of Xining (1074), Wang Anshi promulgated more than a dozen new laws, many of which were promulgated at the early stage of the reform. We should know that many of the new laws promoted by Wang Anshi are not tinkering with the old system, but major adjustments to the whole national system (especially in the economic field), and some of them are even pioneering works never seen in the whole feudal society of China. It cannot be said that such a major reform was put forward and promulgated in a few months. At the beginning of the political reform, Wang Anshi had some tentative arrangements, but he was soon overthrown by himself. This brought the problems that could have been found and corrected in the trial stage to the whole country, which caused serious consequences and had a great impact on the failure of Wang Anshi's political reform.
Another manifestation of Wang Anshi's abuse of power, which is also a manifestation of more serious consequences, is that he implemented a one-sided employment policy of obeying the promotion of the new law and opposing the dismissal of the new law. Under his rule, anyone who has expressed opinions on the new law, regardless of whether the opinions are reasonable, whether they are completely opposed to the new law, and whether they can win the new law, will be dismissed, and those who hold high the banner in favor of the new law will be promoted regardless of their motives, conduct and achievements. On the one hand, the consequence of this practice is to push almost all the famous officials in the DPRK who dare to speak to the opposite side of the new law, such as Han Qi, Fu Bi, Sima Guang, Ouyang Xiu, Wen Yanbo, Su Shi brothers, Shen Kuo and so on. Many people did not oppose the new law in an all-round way, but only put forward objective opinions on some specific issues, such as Han Qi, Su Shi and Shen Kuo. On the other hand, among the so-called supporters of the new law appointed by Wang Anshi, there are many people with ability and morality, and even speculators who try to use the new law to promote their positions and make a fortune. Although they have been promoted by advocating new laws, they are not real reformers. Once they are in high positions, they will either corrupt the people, or fight for power and profit, and even go to the opposition between the new law and Wang Anshi in order to obtain greater benefits! For example, Deng Wan, hand-picked by Wang Anshi, is a typical snob, and even said the famous saying that "a good official needs me to do it". The consequence of this employment policy is to blind Wang Anshi's eyes and ears, so that he can only hear flattery, but can't make necessary adjustments to the implementation policy of the new law according to the objective situation. Secondly, it gave many people the impression that the new party was mostly a traitor, which led to the questioning of the new law itself and ultimately led to the failure of the reform.
Wang Anshi made these mistakes of abusing power, of course, because of his personal character, but more importantly, because he mastered unconstrained power. If his power is limited, he is afraid of a little change, and he sympathizes with people's opinions, he will have to debate with the opposition when every new law is promulgated, and he will have to revise several drafts, so that unless it is perfect, it will not be promulgated, and there will definitely be many fewer loopholes in the new law. Similarly, if Wang Anshi can't promote officials at will and leave a few constructive opponents in the DPRK, such as Shi and Shen Kuo, they will immediately point out that once the new law goes wrong, it will force Wang Anshi to adjust his administration. Absolute power seems to be beneficial to Wang Anshi's implementation of the new law, but in the end it hurts the new law and An Shi!
The experience and lessons of Wang Anshi's political reform still have great reference significance for our reform today. After more than 30 years of reform and opening up, the complexity and comprehensiveness of reform policies are increasing day by day, which requires the government to consider more thoroughly and comprehensively when implementing reforms and policies, and to listen more to different opinions from all sectors of society. The slogan "I am fearless, my ancestors are not law-abiding, and people's words are terrible" can still be used as a battle horn to encourage us to boldly reform and innovate, but in the actual reform process, we should be more afraid and have compassion. Moreover, it is necessary to establish a mechanism of "awe" and "compassion" in the system to ensure the scientific and comprehensive decision-making of reform.
In short, "natural change" itself is not terrible, but we must always be afraid of something and limit our power to ensure better and healthier reform.