1 Wang Anshi's political reform played a positive role in increasing national income, and the situation of poverty and weakness in the Northern Song Dynasty was alleviated. In the sixth year of Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty (1073), under the command of Wang Anshi, he led an army to attack Tubo and recover the battles in five states, such as He (Linxia, Gansu) and Min (now Minxian, Gansu). Song Jun recovered five states, expanded its territory to more than 2,000 miles, took care of 300,000 registered households of Qiang people, and established a favorable front for attacking Xixia region.
result
In the sixth year of Xining (1073), there was a great drought, and the door owner Xia Zheng drew a picture of refugees. In the picture, refugees lock their arms or eat grass roots, telling the emperor that the drought was caused by Wang Anshi, and religious sects were greatly stimulated, which made them seriously doubt the political reform. Wang Anshi thought that "Yao and Tang dynasties are inevitable in times of floods and droughts", and Sima Guang went to "the imperial court was absent". With the deepening of the reform, Song Shenzong, the biggest supporter of the reform, wavered. In the seventh year of Xining (1074), Wang Anshi went on strike for the first time and learned about jiangning house. The political reform movement was continued by Han Jiang, Lv Huiqing and others, while Lv Huiqing devoted himself to his own use, which caused dissatisfaction among the DPRK ministers. In February of the eighth year of Xining, Wang Anshi was recalled to Beijing to resume his post and continue to implement the new law. In the ninth year of Xining (1076), his beloved son Wang Kan died of illness, and Wang Anshi begged to retire from Jinling and devote himself to learning and stay in the world.
3 Reasons for failure
(1) The political reform touched the interests of big landlords and bureaucrats and was strongly opposed by them. Sima guang wrote to the emperor many times, demanding the cancellation of the new law. Effective recruitment laws have also been abolished. The new law more or less infringes on the interests of middle-level officials, royalty, tycoons and usurers. Therefore, in the process of implementing each new law, they will always encounter obstacles and opposition. After Song Shenzong's death, Tanaka unified tax law cleared the land hidden by the big landlords, increased the national fiscal revenue and reduced the burden on farmers, but at the same time it seriously harmed the interests of big bureaucrats and big landlords and was strongly opposed by them.
At the same time, Song Shenzong, the main supporter of the reform, wavered at the critical moment. After Song Shenzong's death, Sima Guang became prime minister and completely abolished the new law. As can be seen from the contents of various economic reforms, Wang Anshi's new law is large in scale, in which financial management is the most important and criticized by people of that time. In all fairness, the failure of Wang Anshi's political reform cannot be entirely attributed to the opposition of the old school. His policies and practices deserve to be reviewed. The following can be discussed from four aspects:
2. Lack of publicity before political reform, leading to the failure to attract outstanding talents in the process of political reform. In the opposition camp of political reform, there are a large number of well-known figures. After full publicity and persuasion, the elite of them should be absorbed into the political reform camp.
3. Poor policy implementation-for example, the implementation of the Young Crop Law and the Exemption Law is far from ideal. If poor households voluntarily ask for official loans, there is still something to say, but in fact, local officials force five farmers to protect each other, and then each household issues a certain amount, which is called scattered young crops. In order to ensure that all principal and interest can be recovered after autumn, local officials distributed scattered crops to upper-middle class families instead of poor ones, fearing that poor households could not repay them. What else can we talk about benefiting the people? In the young crop law, the interest is charged at half, that is, 20%, which is beyond the affordability of ordinary people. The root cause of poor policy implementation is that there are no suitable talents to implement the new law. Young crops law protects farmers from usury when the "merger house" is out of date, and makes farmers "keep pace with the times". However, the phenomenon of compulsory lending in concrete implementation is the most controversial content in Wang Anshi's political reform measures.
4 headstrong-Wang Anshi is upright and upright, discussing state affairs with Zongshen, defending himself and expressing his feelings, and Zongshen is willing to listen every time. At the beginning of the political reform, Sima Guang wrote to tell him not to be too careful and not to be too confident. An Shi wrote a letter of protest, expressing deep disagreement. They were very good friends, passed the buck and broke up. For example, Su Shi was originally the best candidate to support the new law, but many of his correct opinions were not adopted by Wang Anshi. After the failure of the Qingli New Deal, the serious class contradictions and ethnic contradictions in the Song Dynasty did not ease, and the situation of poverty and weakness was still developing, and the ruling group felt the crisis. Therefore, after a period of silence, the call for reform rose rapidly, and finally set off a greater political reform activity. The most fundamental reason for failure: the new law did not touch the fundamental problems of society. Only the internal system improvement of the main classes aimed at the ruling crisis in the Northern Song Dynasty did not fundamentally touch the core, so it was impossible to fundamentally solve the contradictions in feudal society. In the first month of the fourth year of Zhiping (1067), Song Shenzong Zhao Yong ascended the throne. Zongshen is determined to innovate. He asked Fu Bi, the prime minister, and others about the strategy of winning over Liao and Xixia. They advised Zongshen not to mention the word "fighting" for 20 years. Song Shenzong is no longer dependent on the elders of this class. In April of the first year of Xining (1068), Wang Anshi, who was famous for more than 30 years in the world, was called into Beijing to participate in politics, and relied on him to reform the political system, enrich Qiang Bing and change the status quo of poverty and weakness. At that time, Wang Anshi had become a popular figure, and most scholars thought that as long as Wang Anshi came to power, he would be peaceful and his life would be ruined. In order to promote the political reform, in February of the second year of Xining (1069), Wang Anshi set up a new organization to guide the political reform-the Sandu Department of Planning (which was later abolished and presided over by the Sinong Temple of the Ministry of Finance), drafted a new law together with Lv Huiqing, Ceng Bu and others, promoted Changping officials of various departments, and urged counties to implement the new law. Wang Anshi's political reform, which had a far-reaching influence in the history of China, was launched with great fanfare. During the eight years from the second year of Xining to the ninth year of Xining (1076), around the goal of Qiang Bing becoming a rich country, new laws such as equal damage, young crops, farmland water conservancy, conscription, easy market, exemption from travel, land average tax, soldier protection, armor protection and horse protection were successively implemented.
Alienated as a "proper" means for officials to fish for the people, it lacks effective supervision and guarantee. For example, when the young crops law was implemented, the government set the interest rate at 20%, and officials mentioned 30% without authorization. Results After the implementation of the new law, natural disasters occurred every year, officials forced debts, farmers went bankrupt one after another, and even rich households were not spared. If the government wants to stabilize prices and curb private enterprises, officials will replace them with worse private enterprises. The market, supply and price are highly monopolized by the government, and the people are exploited more seriously. Although the political reform has increased the fiscal revenue, the national wealth based on the poor livelihood of the people is unsustainable, and the society is full of complaints and the people are poor.
Among the reasons for the failure of many political reforms in history, there is one thing in common: only a few sober people left the grassroots from top to bottom, such as Shang Yang's political reform, Wang Anshi's political reform and the Reform Movement of 1898. If the reform can't benefit all the people and can't get their sincere support and support, the so-called reform results will only be a pile of bubbles, which will eventually drift away in the long river of history.
The first manifestation of his abuse of power was 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.
It is also a manifestation of more serious consequences, that is, he implemented a one-sided employment policy of obeying the new law and dismissing those who opposed it. 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!
Northern Song Dynasty
Three evaluations
1 Wang Anshi's political reform, known as the "Xining Political Reform" in history, was basically denied in China's traditional historical criticism, which led to the failure of the political reform, and his person was also labeled by the old party as "disturbing the ancestral law and endangering the country and the people", further accelerating the party struggle in the Northern Song Dynasty.
In order to absolve his father and brother from their historical guilt, Song Gaozong traced the "loss of state affairs" from Cai Jing to Wang Anshi according to the discussion of scholars since the first year of Jingkang. In May of the 4th year of Shaoxing, Song Gaozong ordered the reconstruction of A Record of Zongshen, with the keynote of denying Wang Anshi's political reform, which must have a far-reaching impact on later generations. Wang Anshi's statement, as the chief culprit of the national subjugation in the Northern Song Dynasty, was inherited by the History of the Song Dynasty and compiled by the Yuan Dynasty, which became the official conclusion of the feudal era.
After the Southern Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi's political reform was generally denied, but he had different degrees of positive views on some new measures of Wang Anshi. In the new laws and measures, especially the imperial examination reform, the exemption law, the Jiabao law and the Mabao law have been affirmed.
There were Lu Jiuyuan in the Southern Song Dynasty, Wu Cheng and Yu Ji in the Yuan Dynasty, Chen Rukun and Gun Zhang in the Ming Dynasty, and Yan Yuan, Gu Li, Cai Shangxiang, Yang Ximin, Gong Zizhen and Lu Xinyuan after entering the Qing Dynasty. Wang Fuzhi thinks that Wang Anshi's theory of "three deficiencies" is "harming the world and being accused of teaching". For example, Cai Shangxiang thinks that "when Gong Jing was in power, the country was prosperous, the Xihe River was successful and expanded thousands of miles, which is unprecedented since the founding of the People's Republic of China a hundred years ago. After the Southern Crossing, the descendants of Yuan You's sages, as well as Su Cheng's followers, were all angry at the disaster of party ban, which was not enough to attack Cai Jing. It's all nonsense on the grounds of overthrowing the chaos. In fact, the disaster in Qin Hui was caused by Cai Jing. Cai Jing's use is due to Wen Gong. The use of Guishan is due to Cai Jing and has nothing to do with Gong Jing. " There are two main reasons why they spoke highly of Wang Anshi: First, most of them are from Linchuan, Jiangxi Province, and their admiration for Wang Anshi is actually a manifestation of China's respect and admiration for the fine tradition of "sages in his hometown" in ancient times; Secondly, Yan Yuan and Gong Zizhen's affirmation of Wang Anshi and his reform is inseparable from their similar ideological path. The most representative criticisms from the Southern Song Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty are as follows:
One is that Wang Anshi disturbed his ancestors' statutes and "ruined the country and the people", which eventually led to the national subjugation of the Northern Song Dynasty. This view was recorded in Records of Zongshen in the early years of Southern Song Dynasty, and was inherited by people from Song Dynasty to Yuan Dynasty. It became an official conclusion in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, which was not only recognized by historians, but also widely accepted by the society.
Second, it severely criticized Gong Jing's new learning. Gong Jing's new learning is the guiding ideology and theoretical basis of Wang Anshi's political reform. Since Song Lizong banned Wang Anshi from sharing the Confucius Temple, Gong Jing's new learning has been criticized more severely than denying the new law measures. Neo-Confucianism's criticism of Gong Jing's new learning in the Southern Song Dynasty is mainly manifested in two aspects:
One is to denounce Gong Jing's new learning as heresy, which is "incorrect learning", "confusing Buddhism with Taoism" or "learning by name"
The second is to take the new learning as the theoretical basis for the death of the country in the Northern Song Dynasty due to the rebellion of ancestors, and give a merciless blow. Because Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties was regarded as the dominant thought in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it was the "mainstream thought at that time", Gong Jing's new learning became an inevitable theory as a heresy.
Third, Wang Anshi's new law is called "the art of convergence". Taking Wang Anshi's financial management thought as the way to promote profits, "stripping the people to promote profits" was the main viewpoint of the anti-reformists in Xining and Yuan You in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it was still one of the basic viewpoints of most historians and thinkers to comment on Wang Anshi's new law from the Southern Song Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty.
2 evaluation of Wang Anshi's political reform.
Appeared in modern times, Wang Anshi and others were positively evaluated. . Liang Qichao gave Wang Anshi and his new law a brand-new evaluation: "To be perfect for three generations, it is enough to be fair." He fully affirmed Wang Anshi's moral sentiment, academic accomplishment and political ambition.
After 3 1949, Wang Anshi's political reform was also positively evaluated. For example, in the fourth volume of A General History of China Thought edited by Mr. Hou Wailu (People's Publishing House, 1959 edition), there is a chapter "Wang Anshi's New Learning, Reform Thought and Materialist Philosophy" in a very prominent position. Outside this chapter, the thoughts of the Northern Song Dynasty, except Li Gou, as the pioneer of Wang Anshi, made a basic negative evaluation. Shang Yang and Wang Anshi were representatives of the "correct line" in the history of China during the Cultural Revolution. However, after the reform and opening up, under the background of "reform is the liberation of productive forces", Wang Anshi's political reform is still highly respected. Wang Anshi originally thought that "destiny is not enough to fear, people's words are not credible, and ancestors are not enough to learn the law."
4 evaluation in the first half of the 20th century
Completely overthrow Wang Anshi's case and its reform
Liang Qichao's Wang Gongjing is the most lasting work to comment on Wang Anshi and his new law in the 20th century. Wang is a complete subversion of Wang Anshi and his political reform. Liang Qichao called Wang Anshi "three generations strive for perfection, but commonality is enough." He regards the Young Crop Law and the Market Easy Law as the banks of modern "civilized countries" and the tax exemption law as "the same as the income tax collection law of modern civilized countries", which is "the most famous social revolution in the history of real countries and the world". He also thinks that Garbo law is "similar to the so-called police in modern times". In short, Liang Qichao compared Wang Anshi's new measures with socialist theory and called Wang Anshi the forerunner of socialist theory. Mr Hu Shizhi holds a similar view. Since then, although researchers have covered all aspects of Wang Anshi and his reform, Liang Qichao's positive comments have been respected by most people and become the mainstream view in the first half of the 20th century.
The earliest scholars who used historical materialism to study Wang Anshi's political reform and had great influence were Mr. Deng Guangming and his master Mr. Qi Xia. Their affirmation of Wang Anshi and the nature of his reform is different from that in the first half of the 20th century. Characterized in that:
One is to emphasize the ideological and class nature of Wang Anshi's reform, that is, to put Wang Anshi's reform in the historical environment of the specific feudal era in the Song Dynasty. It is pointed out that Wang Anshi's reform is a reform movement of the landlord class, and Wang Anshi's new law represents the interests of the landlord class, especially the interests of the small and medium-sized landlord class. Wang Anshi has simple materialism in political philosophy.
Secondly, we basically hold a positive attitude towards the effect of Wang Anshi's political reform, that is, Wang Anshi's political reform promoted the development of social productive forces and historical progress in the Song Dynasty while realizing the prosperity of Qiang Bing and strengthening the feudal autocratic rule in the Song Dynasty.
The third is to deny Sima Guang and his opposition, and think that the conservative political movement headed by Sima Guang has hindered the progress of history. This is a complete denial of the traditional view that Sima Guang is not Wang Anshi since the early Southern Song Dynasty, and it is also different from Liang Qichao's evaluation. Liang Qichao reversed Wang Anshi's political reform and did not deny Sima Guang. Fourthly, the failure of Wang Anshi's political reform is generally attributed to the strength of conservative forces, the division within the reformists and Song Shenzong's vacillation and early death.
"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.
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.