Author: Li Dakui
(Wang Anshi)
In the history of the Northern Song Dynasty, the famous Wang Anshi was not only unique in the literary world, one of the famous "Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties", but also stood tall in the political arena for thousands of years, especially the drastic "Wang Anshi Change", which made his name shock the world and became a prominent figure that resounded throughout the world.
However, it is precisely because Wang Anshi carried out the "Wang Anshi Transformation Law" of enriching the country and strengthening the army that people have mixed opinions of him, and those who approve of him believe that Wang Anshi has turned the tide and reversed the situation of the Northern Song Dynasty's weakness and poverty, and although the change of law has failed, it has significantly increased the revenue of the state treasury during the Song Shenzong years, which can be used for the imperial court's financial expenditure for twenty years, showing a prosperous scene that has not been encountered in a hundred years; those who do not recognize him believe that Wang Anshi's change of law has caused the people to boil over and did not achieve the purpose of enriching the country and strengthening the army, but only the money of big bureaucrats, large landlords, and ordinary people." "Pretending" into the pockets of officials is tantamount to skillfully taking advantage of them, and also creating "new and old party struggles", which caused drastic changes in the political ecology of the Northern Song Dynasty, so that the Great Song Dynasty went into decline, and eventually led to the "shame of Jingkang".
Wang Anshi seems to have done anything wrong, and he is also suspected of being a "sinner" of the Great Song Dynasty. Not only were there conservative forces opposed to the "Wang Anshi Changing The Law," but also the upright gentlemen were not optimistic, and Sima Guang did not say anything, even Su Shi, Cheng Yi, Zhu Xi, and others also believed that the "Wang Anshi Changing the Law" and the "restoration measures" had many drawbacks, were too radical, and were not conducive to the social and economic development of the time.
The ''Wang Anshi Transformation Method', which aims to enrich the country and strengthen the army, has achieved success in its achievements and failures, and there is such a contrasting evaluation, which makes people sigh?
1. Wang Anshi and his people
Born in 1021 in Linchuan, Jiangxi Province, Wang Anshi was a young talent who was intelligent and studious from an early age. His father, Wang Yi, was a judge in the Linchuan Army and was transferred to the capital when Wang Anshi was 16 years old.
Wang Anshi then went to live with his father in the capital, and at the age of 21, he took the imperial examination and achieved a good result of 4th place, and later he was appointed as the judge of Huainan Jiedu.
After Wang Anshi's term of office expired, he transferred to Yin County as a zhi county for 4 years. In the year of his establishment, Wang Anshi was transferred to the post of Governor of Shuzhou, and because of his outstanding political achievements, he was recommended by the officials of the dynasty, Wen Yanbo and Ouyang Xiu, but Wang Anshi refused to be promoted on the grounds that he had to serve his elderly grandmother.
As a result, Wang Anshi served as a local official for a long time, and later successively served as a Qunmu Judge, Changzhou Zhizhou, and Duzhi Judge. Under the appointment of the imperial court many times, Wang Anshi, who was not confused, was appointed as the governor of the capital and was responsible for the prison case.
In 1063, when Wang Anshi was 42 years old, his mother died of illness in Jiangning, and Wang Anshi resigned and returned to Jiangning to keep filial piety, and after the expiration of the term of "Ding You", he moved to the prefect of Jiangning. During this period, Wang Anshi, who was full of economy and economy, put forward a series of reform and restoration measures aimed at enriching the country and strengthening the army in view of the weak situation caused by the Northern Song Dynasty's "heavy literature and suppressing force".
(Song Shenzong)
Second, Wang Anshi's transformation method
In 1067, the 17-year-old Emperor Shenzong of Song ascended the throne, a young tianzi who wanted to make a difference in order to achieve the prosperity of the Northern Song Dynasty. He summoned Wang Anshi and was very impressed with his idea.
The two can be described as ''monarchs and subjects joining hands'', which is a one-shot agreement, and the political views are highly compatible.
Therefore, under the weight of Emperor Shenzong of Song, the 48-year-old Wang Anshi became a counselor and began to carry out the most shocking political change during the Northern Song Dynasty, "Xining Change", that is, the famous "Wang Anshi Change Law" in history.
The following year, Wang Anshi was promoted to Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi and officially implemented the "Wang Anshi Transformation Law" nationwide:
In terms of increasing fiscal revenue, the Qingmiao Law, the Municipal Easy Law, the Exemption Law, the Equal Loss Law, the Fangtian Average Tax Law, the Farmland Water Conservancy Law, and so on were implemented; in terms of strengthening the army, the Baojia Law, the Baoma Law, and the General Placement Law were implemented; two years later (that is, in 1071), the examination system was reformed, and the Taixue Sanshe Law was implemented.
In order to break through the resistance encountered by the implementation of the change, Wang Anshi, who has a stubborn personality, also issued a Zhengzheng oath of "three deficiencies", saying that he will unswervingly carry out reforms:
Heaven is not enough to be afraid, ancestors are not enough to fear, and people are not afraid of words.
With the strong support of Emperor Shenzong of Song, the "Wang Anshi Transformation Law" was implemented intermittently and uninterruptedly for fifteen years, which to a certain extent suppressed the powerful forces of big bureaucrats and large landlords, made them have certain restrictions on the exploitation of peasants, increased the revenue of the state treasury, and promoted agricultural production at that time.
Undoubtedly, this is positive.
Third, the struggle between friends and parties
To be fair, Wang Anshi's original intention in changing the law was good, and to a certain extent, it reversed the situation of poverty and weakness during the Northern Song Dynasty, and also changed the passive situation of repeated defeats in the northwest border defense for a long time.
However, the ideal is very full, and the reality is very bone.
With the deepening of the reform, it naturally burns the vested interests of big bureaucrats and big landlords; it also hurts the interests of ordinary people.
As a result, the upper and lower levels are not so recognized by the "Wang Anshi Transformation Method".
What is even more serious is that the "Wang Anshi Change law" also caused a fierce "partisan dispute", and the conservatives with Empress Cao and Empress Gao as the backers strongly opposed the "Wang Anshi Change Law", and the representative figure among them, Sima Guang, specially wrote a "Letter with Wang Jiefu" for this purpose, directly explaining the various drawbacks of Wang Anshi's change of law.
The reform faction led by Wang Anshi, with the support of the emperor, did not show weakness, and according to reason, Wang Anshi replied to Sima Guang's "Reply to Sima Guang's Consultation", and the accusations against Sima Guang were refuted one by one.
For a time, the old and new parties were at war with each other, and the struggle between the old and the new parties was fierce, and the partisan struggle reached a white-hot level.
Unfortunately, Wang Anshi's overly radical approach and inaccurate vision of people have sown hidden dangers for his failure to change the law.
On the one hand, Wang Anshi was indiscriminate against the courtiers who opposed the change of law, could not hear the noise, and all of them were included in the opposition to suppress. For example, in the imperial history, Lü Shi accused Wang Anshi of ten major mistakes in changing the law, and Wang Anshi did not ask the reason, instigating Emperor Shenzong to demote him to a local place; later, Cheng Hao, Liu Shu, Fan Chunzheng, Lin Dan and others did not support the change of law, and they were quickly demoted from the court. As a result, a large number of courtiers in the court were squeezed out. The power of the "righteous" is weakened, and the power of the 'evil' grows. This is also the inducement that Wang Anshi can't push and can't push away in the later period.
On the other hand, Wang Anshi did not examine anyone who echoed and poured in with the "Wang Anshi Change of Law", and entrusted him with all heavy responsibilities, so that some opportunistic villains, the so-called "rookies in the official field," quickly entered the camp of "Wang Anshi's change of law" and became politicians who were grass on the wall and flattered, but instead led the original intention of "Wang Anshi's change of law" to political struggle, so that the ""partisan dispute" intensified and eventually buried the reform completely.
(Cheng Hao)
For example, Lü Gongshu, recommended by Wang Anshi, replaced Lü Zhi in the imperial history and promoted Li Ding, Lü Huiqing, Zeng Bu, Zheng Xia, Zhang Huan, Cai Qing, Cai Jing, and others, but did not push the change method deeper as Wang Anshi wanted.
In 1074, a drought displaced many ordinary people, and Emperor Shenzong hesitated to change Wang Anshi's law. Zheng Xia, who was nominated by Wang Anshi, sensed it and took the opportunity to draw a map of the drought and hardships of the displaced people and present it to the emperor, trying to prevent the change of the law, and planned to take the opportunity to impeach Wang Anshi.
The empress dowager, empress dowager, and others, who had long been dissatisfied with Wang Anshi, quickly joined forces to put pressure on Emperor Shenzong: the heavens were already furious and could no longer implement the "Wang Anshi Transformation Law".
In April of that year, Song Shenzong had no choice but to adopt a compromise approach, removing Wang Anshi from his position and replacing him with Shibu Shangshu. Lu Huiqing, who was recommended and trusted by Wang Anshi, took over as the governor of the government to carry out reforms.
Who knew that Lü Huiqing was a complete villain, and after he came to power, he only framed Wang Anshi's younger brother Wang Anguo, and also intended to crush Wang Anshi so that he could not return to the dynasty.
Fortunately, with the impartiality of han dai and others, the elders of the three dynasties, Lü Huiqing's tricks failed to succeed. In August of the following year, Wang Anshi was reinstated and was also crowned by Emperor Shenzong of Song as Shangshu Zuo Servant. Lü Huiqing was demoted and released to Chen Prefecture.
By this time, however, divisions had already emerged within the reformists. Because Wang Anshi did not know people accurately, most of the people who used it were Yang Fengyin violators, and they did not really use their minds on the idea of benefiting the country and the people, but thought about how to fill their own pockets, and changing the law began to be difficult.
In 1076, Wang Anshi, who was lonely and difficult to make a sound, died of illness due to the illness of his eldest son, and had to resign for the second time. Although Wang Anshi was later also active, and was also given the title of Duke of Shu and Duke of Jing, the change of law had entered a dilemma, but it was only a faltering struggle to maintain it.
In 1085, with the death of Emperor Shenzong and the ascension of Emperor Zhezong to the throne, under the emperor's empress dowager, Sima Guang was used as a chancellor, and the "Wang Anshi Transformation Law" was completely abolished.
(Sima Guang)
IV. The Lamentable ''Wang Anshi Transformation Method''
The vigorous "Wang Anshi Transformation Method" was thus accomplished, which made people sigh.
Looking at the fifteen years of changes that Wang Anshi has implemented, his character and upright ideas are all precious. At the same time, under the lofty feelings, he fought hard and indomitablely to the end, did not know how to be flexible, and embodied the image of "demon man", so that Su Shi called him: "'This old man is a wild fox spirit'".
It can be seen that Wang Anshi's life has been magnificent. He went through the five dynasties of Zhenzong, Renzong, Yingzong, Shenzong, and Zhezong, and always fought against the heavens and the earth with the fearless spirit of "three deficiencies", was honest and simple, dared to face the poor and weak Northern Song Dynasty, and faced reforms head-on, with a view to "rich country and strong army".
In this sense, Wang Anshi is remarkable, a respectable reformer and thinker.
However, the problems and serious deficiencies that appeared in the "Wang Anshi Transformation Method" also caused his original visionary ideas to be aborted in the process of implementing one or the other, resulting in the failure of the transformation of the law. Its tragic lessons are worth summarizing:
Wang Anshi is too bookish and arrogant, his personality is paranoid and arrogant, he is self-absorbed, he does not have the arrogance of a prime minister, and he only relies on his enthusiasm and personal talent to make enemies of all the big bureaucrats, big landlords, and other interest groups, and does not pay attention to Tao Strategy, and naturally fights alone, even if he hits his head and breaks the blood.
Such personality defects are difficult to command the great and vigorous "Wang Anshi Transformation Method".
At the same time, he could not tolerate the voice of opposition, seriously ignored the understanding and employment of people, nepotism, and did not distinguish between loyalty and adultery, resulting in "Wang Anshi Changing the Law" was originally a good scripture, but it entered a dead end in radicalism, weakness, and non-correction.
This cannot but be said to be a deep regret.
The failure of "Wang Anshi's transformation of the law" shows that in order to solve internal and external troubles, we must rely solely on our good wishes, rely solely on a tough wrist, "shake off our arms and do a big job", do not pay attention to step-by-step, do not consider overall planning, do not have the arrogance of "being able to tolerate things, and things are also tolerant", do not cultivate and do not rely on a group of talents who are honest and capable, and the end is like "'Mirror Flower Water Moon'", even if it is carried out hard, it is also a flash in the pan. However, it is still very beneficial to leave a lot of places worthy of vigilance and reference.
Is to remember!
【About the author】Li Dakui, male, Han ethnicity, seven O's queen, Bachelor of Laws, Guizhou Meitan people, literature lovers.
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