What is the impact and significance of the political reform of the Northern Song Dynasty, taking Wang Anshi's transformation method as an example to analyze and discuss
During the song dynasty, the economy and national strength of the Song Dynasty began to decline continuously. In particular, perennial wars and internal official corruption had a great negative impact on the development of the country, so the Northern Song Dynasty Was bent on changing this tension. If we want to save the political crisis at that time, we can only alleviate the situation by changing the law. Under the initiative of Wang Anshi, Song Shenzong carried out various military and political system reforms.
The so-called "people who are poor think, think is general, change is general, change is standing", anything develops to a certain stage, once it loses the meaning of continuing to develop, it is necessary to break the deadlock through change. When the situation during the Northern Song Dynasty developed to the point of unsustainability, it was necessary to reverse the situation through appropriate changes.
At this time, the significance of changing the law is highlighted, and through the change of law, the people's living standards can be improved, and to a certain extent, the productivity can be improved, so as to achieve the purpose of enriching the country and strengthening the army. Reform policies can bring about new ones, which can continuously improve agricultural development and increase government revenues.
Wang Anshi was a famous thinker and writer of the Northern Song Dynasty, and left many famous poems for posterity. At the same time, Wang Anshi was also a famous reformer during the Northern Song Dynasty, and in order to reverse the unfavorable situation in the Northern Song Dynasty, he put forward a series of policy changes in politics, military and other aspects, and was implemented and developed in a certain period. However, due to the fact that the change of law touched the fundamental interests of the feudal bureaucracy and the big landlords, there were also some drawbacks in the operation and implementation, resulting in the failure of the policy of changing the law.
First, the historical background of Wang Anshi's transformation method
After the establishment of the Song Dynasty, in order to avoid the power of the emperor from being affected by the division of the princes, the state took back the military and administrative powers of the divided territories and implemented the policy of governing the country with civilians. In order to weaken the power in the hands of each official, the emperor set up multiple officials for each official position, who could supervise each other and adopt the "grace system".
Under this system, the number of officials has increased, and many officials have competed for power and profit, coveted power and interests, and not only privately annexed land to continuously expand their own power, but also created a situation in which "powerful officials are rich and surnamed, and occupy unlimited land." People have no land, no land, are displaced and live in poverty.
The peasants would rise up without a way to live, which led to the continuous peasant uprisings in various places, which urgently required the restraint and restriction of the power of officials, and Wang Anshi's change of law came into being under this premise. However, because Wang Anshi belonged to the representative figure of the landlord class, his law-changing behavior did not touch the interests of his own class.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the policy of "raising soldiers" was always implemented, and in order to prevent military power from falling into the hands of individual generals and affecting the emperor's dominance, soldiers could not learn from each other. However, the troops are relatively weak, and they can neither resist foreign enemies nor have to be fed with money.
The cost of "raising soldiers" gradually increased, the state's financial revenue was once in a state of constraint, and local officials would supplement this financial deficit by increasing taxes, causing a serious burden on people's lives, which was also one of the fundamental reasons for the people's poor livelihood during the Northern Song Dynasty.
After the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Khitan people in the northeast, the Dangxiang clan in the northwest and the Song Dynasty had wars for many years, coupled with the internal corruption of the Northern Song Dynasty and the low strength of the army, each war ended in failure, and the Song Dynasty would divide the land like a border nation or pay a lot of tribute, resulting in a more severe situation in the Song Dynasty at that time.
From the establishment of the Song Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty has ruled for more than a hundred years, due to the intensification of internal contradictions and frequent external wars, the peasants lost a large amount of land, the amount of land hidden in the hands of large landlords and big bureaucrats reduced taxes, resulting in economic backwardness and weak national strength, and in the middle and late period of the reign of Song Shenzong, the country can be described as internal and external troubles, so it is urgent to need a new legal system to reverse the situation.
Second, the relationship between Wang Anshi's change of law and the political crisis of the Northern Song Dynasty
After Emperor Shenzong of Song succeeded to the throne, the Northern Song Dynasty was actually internally devastated and corrupt, and on the surface it seemed to be prosperous, but in fact, internal contradictions and problems were very strict. In order to improve this situation, An Shi, the king of the Northern Song Dynasty, with the support of Emperor Shenzong, began to implement a system of changing the law. The main purpose is to achieve the effect of a rich country and a strong army through financial and military rectification, and then change the weakening situation of the Northern Song Dynasty.
In the first year of the Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi put forward the policy of "the way of the country, first of all, to imitate the previous generation and innovate the existing law". By changing the agricultural, military, and official systems from several aspects to achieve a certain role of rich countries and strong soldiers, the political crisis of the Northern Song Dynasty was reversed.
The examination system has been reformed in the selection of officials and the selection of talents, through which the state selects officials, and at the same time promotes and reuses talented officials at the middle or lower levels, so that officials at different levels can give full play to their talents.
Wang Anshi reformed the policy of "raising soldiers" in accordance with the military level of the state at that time, and the elderly soldiers over the age of 50 and soldiers with poor physical fitness were changed to civilian status, and the old, weak, sick and disabled soldiers left the army, which improved the overall quality of the army, significantly reduced the number of soldiers in the army, and reduced the additional expenses needed to "raise soldiers."
Due to the lack of training of the song dynasty's army for a long time, resulting in poor combat ability, the peasants were encouraged to concentrate on military training when the peasants were idle, which increased the reserve strength of the army at that time. The military strength has been enhanced through the Law of War, the Law of Horse Protection, and the Law on the Supervision of Military Equipment, and has also led to an increase and enhancement in the production of weapons.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the country was mainly weak in internal and external troubles, and externally it was necessary to strengthen military training to resist foreign enemies, and internally to enrich the country and strengthen the people by reducing taxes and encouraging farming, etc. At the same time, it also reduced the occurrence of peasant uprisings, encouraged the people to reclaim barren land and build water conservancy, thereby increasing the area of cultivated land and agricultural productivity at that time, and also increasing a certain amount of taxes for the government.
Third, the influence and significance of Wang Anshi's transformation method
Wang Anshi's policy of changing the law alleviated the class contradictions of the time to a certain extent by encouraging farming and reclamation, and the people could directly borrow money and grain from the state for daily living expenses and land reclamation, thus increasing government revenue.
To a certain extent, this policy reduced the exploitation of the people by the landlords and bureaucratic classes at that time, enabling the people to live and work in peace and contentment for a certain period of time, thus reducing the probability of peasant uprisings and having a certain appeasement effect on the lives of the people, but it did not fundamentally change this situation.
Through changes in industry, commerce, agriculture, and the military, Wang Anshi's reform method improved the situation of corruption and backwardness at that time, and encouraged new water conservancy projects to increase the cultivated area through the reform law, and also enabled agricultural production to develop to a certain extent. During the Northern Song Dynasty, although there was no restriction on business, the law was changed to avoid the control of the market by large merchants for a long time, and at the same time, taxes and government revenues increased.
Wang Anshi achieved to a certain extent the purpose of strengthening the army and enriching the country by issuing various policies to change the law, increasing government revenues, alleviating the tension between internal and external troubles at that time, and having a great impact on the state system and economic development.
Wang Anshi's transformation was a movement of change in response to the economic crisis of the Northern Song Dynasty, which ostensibly promoted the development of the country's national strength, continuously increased government revenues, and also increased the country's military strength at that time.
However, this change of law is a change based on the ideology of the feudal landlord class, which not only promotes social progress, but also increases the burden on the peasants, and does not fundamentally improve the people's living difficulties, but on the whole, Wang Anshi's change of law has promoted the development of the country.
IV. Conclusion
Wang Anshi constantly improved the state policy, military strength, and the system of taking soldiers through changing the law, and through these reforms played a certain role in enriching the country and strengthening the army. Especially for the improvement of the military strength backwardness and slow economic development during the Northern Song Dynasty.
In agriculture, through tax reductions and exemptions, and encouragement of land reclamation, farmers have a certain amount of land themselves, but these policies have not fundamentally improved the problem of poor agricultural productivity. Some lending policies and service methods also bring certain burdens to the lives of peasants, because the entire social environment is relatively poor when Wang Anshi changed the law, and there is no unity of people's hearts, so the change has certain limitations.
Wang Anshi's change of law limited the power of the landlords and conservatives at that time, and most people were opposed, making the implementation of some of the reform policies unsuccessful, causing political chaos, and the new legal system was abolished after the death of Song Shenzong.
In fact, Wang Anshi's change of law only superficially improved the national situation at that time, but because the conservative forces were deeply rooted, coupled with the fact that the change did not solve the fundamental problems of the peasants, some of Wang Anshi's new policies were not promoted and used in the end.
It takes a certain amount of time and historical background to renew our thinking and overthrow the old irrational system, and only by implementing the new system can we fundamentally solve the living problems of the working people in order to raise the level of productive forces, promote the gradual rise of economic and military strength, and achieve the goal of a strong and rich country.
【Reference】
1. Xiao Hui, "A Brief Discussion on the Historical Value of the "Wang Anshi Transformation Method":Taking the "Three-Fold Method" as an Example"
2. Lin Xiaojing, "Teaching Ideas for the Elective Course of the New High School History Curriculum: Taking "Wang Anshi's Transformation Method" as an Example"
3. Li Tongle, "The Political Ideals and Practices of the Northern Song Dynasty Scholars"
4. Yin Zhilin, Yin Chenglin, "Wang Anshi's Creation of the "Jinggong New School" and the Reform of Imperial Examination and Education"