Wang Anshi's original intention of initiating the change was for the country and the people, but after the policy was issued, Sima Guang asserted that he had no good end. Why does Sima Guang say this? Is the change of law because the opposition is too strong or because there are some deficiencies in the change of law? Whose idea did Wang Anshi copy? Let's take a look at how Wang Anshi has gradually degenerated from a spring breeze to a street rat.
In 1067 AD, this year Song Shenzong ascended to the throne, but as soon as he ascended to the throne, he had a big problem, that is, there was no money. The Northern Song Dynasty's finances lost money year after year, and the three redundancies of "redundant soldiers, redundant personnel, and redundant expenses" led to a financial deficit of more than 17.5 million. No money is impossible, Song Shenzong thought about wang Anshi. You must know that Wang Anshi has been clamoring for changes in the law, and he also said that he can make the national treasury abundant without additional endowments.
Song Shenzong: "Ai Qing, I heard that you have a way of managing money and can make the country rich?" ”
Wang Anshi: "Your Majesty, I can make the imperial court rich without adding taxes to the people." ”
Sima Guang: "You are so capable, why don't you go to heaven?" ”
Song Shenzong: "Ai Qing, please listen to what people have to say." ”
Wang Anshi: "Your Majesty, I have three strategies to make the country rich, and there are also three strategies that can solve the problem of the army's ineffective combat effectiveness." ”
Sima Guang: "Squeeze the people or grab profits with the people?" ”
Wang Anshi: "How can you defile people's innocence out of thin air, I can do without giving it." ”
Approaching was a quarrel, and Sima Guang's faction all held a negative view, but Wang Anshi actively changed the law. Song Shenzong couldn't help it, now the state financial deficit was so serious, and even the salaries of officials could not be paid, so he simply used the dead horse as a living horse doctor, and let Wang Anshi try it first.
There are three main policies related to the economy, namely: the Equalization of The Market, the Green Shoots Law, and the Exemption from Military Service Law.
All lose to the market easily
Equalization of loss is to allow local governments to abolish the grain tax in the year of disaster, and it should be known that in ancient times, the tax was divided into a poll tax and a land tax, and the poll tax was to pay for white flowers and silver, and the land tax was to pay for grain and white face. Food is scarce in the year of disaster, and if the people are still allowed to pay land taxes, then the burden on the people will be greater. The abolition of the grain tax was not a direct abolition, but was replaced by silver. The local government collected the money and went elsewhere to buy grain, as long as it was finally handed over to the imperial court. The biggest loophole in this policy is that the ancient information is blocked, and the actual implementation of officials has too much room for maneuver.
Shiyi is to set up a municipal yiguan in a big city, and the job is to be responsible for buying goods at a low price and selling at a high price, to put it bluntly, it is to buy low and sell high. Unlike other merchants, other merchants follow the laws of the market, "cheap as pearls and jade, expensive as dung", but the city officials have power, they can know the inside information of the imperial court in advance, so the operability is very large. Although the municipal yiguan did make a profit for the imperial court, there were more than 50,000 small and medium-sized merchants in Kaifeng alone, which shows how much damage the municipal yiguan has done to the private economy.
This policy was not new at all, so after Wang Anshi changed the law, Sima Guang directly opened his mouth. Sima Guang: Song Shenzong is young and foolish, but I'm not stupid, you just want to engage in Sang Hongyang's set! However, Sima Guang was not wrong, because this set was too similar to the Han Dynasty's "all lose and level accurate".
The GREEN SHOOTS Method
The Green Shoots Law is the official lending, before the grain harvest, if the people have no money, they can go to the government to borrow money, and after the grain harvest, they can repay the money with interest (two points of interest). Originally, the people sold their children and daughters to sell land, and went to the landlords and merchants to borrow money. However, the imperial court saw that the landlords had made a lot of money and were red-eyed, so they directly intervened in the loan matter and came up with the Green Shoots Law. The imperial court made a fortune by relying on the Green Shoots Method, and its annual fiscal revenue was several million taels or even eighteen million taels.
At that time, Sima Guang reprimanded Wang Anshi for dropping money, and guang increased the income of the imperial court without considering the interests of the people. It should be known that at that time, there were some places where the interest rate was as high as eight points, and historian Zhao Yi believed that local officials generally raised interest rates to 40%-50% during the Qingmiao Law, and this income was entirely a loan forced by officials to negotiate for political performance. Therefore, every time Wang Anshi mentioned changing the law, Sima Guang scolded Wang Anshi for fighting with the people for profit, and there was a reason for this, but it was not Sima Guang who specifically targeted Wang Anshi.
Exemption Act
Exemption from military service is not simply to exempt from labor, but to let the people spend money to be exempted from forced labor. Sometimes the people are reluctant to serve in the military, so they directly give some money, and the imperial court finds someone to serve you in the military service. The advantage of this is that it allows the people to cultivate with peace of mind, increases the income of the land, and also solves the employment problem of the unemployed homeless. But there is a problem, that is, there is a group of people (princes and nobles, scholars) who do not need to serve in military service. But Wang Anshi revoked their privileges and demanded that they pay money, which led to the dissatisfaction of the scholar class.
Song Shenzong: "Ai Qing, the imperial court now has money, and the people have not added money, you are very good." ”
Sima Guang: "Your Majesty, Wang Anshi is fighting with the people for profit, and there will be chaos in the long run." ”
Wang Anshi: "Sima smashed the cylinder brother too much." ”
Sima Guang: "Don't be too desperate, you will definitely not have a good end in the future, and the rebellion and separation of relatives is your end." ”
Wang Anshi: "Ride a donkey to read the record book, walk and see." ”
Wang Anshi and Sima Guang had a personal relationship, and their previous relationship did not reach the point where water and fire were intolerable, and Sima Guang was also calling for a change of law. However, the two men had a disagreement in the change of law, Wang Anshi believed that he was for the country and the people, but Sima Guang believed that he was fighting with the people for profit. The two sides insisted that because Wang Anshi's change of law brought a large amount of silver to Song Shenzong, Song Shenzong was very supportive of Wang Anshi in the early stage of the change. The reason why Song Shenzong abandoned Wang Anshi's transformation method was because Wang Anshi did not solve the substantive things, and the change in the military field did not improve combat effectiveness, but on the contrary, it made the burden on the people heavier.
Armor Preservation Act
The Baojia Law is actually to compile ten households into one bao, and then each family with more than two dings has a bao ding. These people are responsible for farming in the busy farming, receiving military training in their leisure time, and serving as army reserves, which greatly reduces the cost of training the army. But where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and the rules of the rivers and lakes are that the weak eat the strong, and the chief (the strong) forcibly apportions the servitude, and the weak can only be oppressed by them. At that time, some Baoding cut off their arms in order to escape the oppression of Bao chang, which shows how serious the oppression was at that time. And the ascending channel has changed, the original Song Dynasty's ascending passage is to study as a scholar, or to go to the business. At this time, the ascending passage was different, the merchant class was severely hit, and militarism was beginning to emerge. Poor people could not do business or study, and could only improve their status by joining the army and enlisting. Under such circumstances, the imperial court relied more and more on soldiers, and the privileges and rights and interests of scholars and doctors would naturally be damaged, so the armor protection law was still resisted by many scholars.
BaoMa Law
In fact, the horse protection law is that the state pays for horses, and then lets the people be responsible for raising horses, and the families who keep horses can be exempted from part of the tax, and then return them to the imperial court. Of course, if you raise a horse to death, you will lose money. This is the truth of the aquaculture industry, and the risk of breeding is very large, let alone horses. During the implementation of the Horse Protection Law, many people raised horses to death, and instead of receiving high-quality horses, the people also had to compensate a large amount of silver.
The general method
This law stipulates that one army and one general divide the army into several small armies, which are then managed by several minor generals. This is to avoid the recurrence of the situation of "not knowing the soldiers, and the soldiers not knowing the generals", but it led to the emergence of a large number of "redundant soldiers", and the beginning of the imperial court was big again.
Zheng Xia: "Your Majesty, I have a painting here ("Picture of displaced persons") that I want you to see." ”
Song Shenzong: "Bring it over quickly." ”
After reading the "Map of displaced people", Song Shenzong began to reflect on the effect of Wang Anshi's transformation of the law, although it did bring a lot of income to the imperial court, but the people were all mixed up like this, if it went on like this, would there be a peasant uprising? Wang Anshi has been shouting that he is not afraid, he is not afraid, but this Jiangshan is our Zhao family's ah, if I lose jiangshan in my hands, can I still see the ancestors? At this time, the conservatives began to mend the knife, Sima Guang's view is very simple, now that the income has increased, the national treasury should be abundant, right? But why does the treasury have no silver? Why is the overhead higher than before? Is the meaning of the change of law to spend money?
Wang Anshi has no supporters, and there is a voice of opposition in the government and the public, is it worth it to offend the people of the world for a Wang Anshi? I don't think that the failure of the change is caused by Song Shenzong being seduced by villains, I prefer to unload and kill donkeys. At this time, the financial pressure was greatly reduced, but the opposition of the government and the public to Wang Anshi was very loud. Remember how Shang Martin died? Is there something wrong with martingale? Shang Martin was not wrong, but killing a person could stabilize the people of the world, could the emperor not do so? Almost all the reformers of the past have not ended well, and this curse is inevitable. Why didn't Song Shenzong cancel the change earlier? Because at first it was financial pressure that forced Song Shenzong to change the law, and now the financial pressure is not so great, the government and the opposition have forced Song Shenzong to abolish the change. After the trade-offs, Song Shenzong finally decided to abandon the transformation law.
Sima Smashing Brother's words came true, and Wang Anshi's most active opponent of him after losing power was Wang Anshi's confidant. Lu Huiqing, whom he had cultivated with his own hands, borrowed the topic to play a role, and wanted to use the Li Shining case to overthrow Wang Anshi. Although Lu Huiqing did not succeed, Wang Anshi was doomed to not succeed. The opposition will not support him, and now that his confidants are not supporting him, does he still have a play? After that, Wang Anshi visited him again, but there was no one to support him, and it was difficult for the new law to persist. After emperor Shenzong of Song's death, Empress Gao bowed to the government, and Sima Guang was put into use. Sima Guang completely repudiated the new law, but did not target Wang Anshi. It is really ridiculous that the people they have cultivated have become the most active opponents of themselves, while the people who do not support themselves the most do not fall into the well.