Friends who are familiar with history know that Wang Anshi was an outstanding politician and reformer in the history of our country, who saved the social crisis of the Northern Song Dynasty and maintained the Northern Song Dynasty for more than half a century. So what are the specific contents of Wang Anshi's transformation method? Today, let's select a few parts to explore and deeply understand Wang Anshi's outstanding ideas on changing the law and economic thinking.
First, Wang Anshi's financial management ideas
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Taizu formulated a series of anti-fraud measures to prevent all the potential crises he could think of, and the subsequent emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty seriously abided by the anti-malpractice policy, which contemporary scholars called "the law of the ancestors". Following these measures in the early stage did play a very good role in maintaining the stability of the Northern Song Dynasty, but in the middle and late period, the shortcomings of the anti-malpractice government gradually appeared, and various problems emerged, and if you want to rule for a longer time, you must carry out reforms.
The detailed background of the reform has been introduced before and will not be repeated here. In 1067, the twenty-year-old Emperor Shenzong took the throne, and the young emperor was surging with enthusiasm and wanted to do something, and in the face of irreconcilable social contradictions, Song Shenzong made up his mind to reform. Before Emperor Shenzong ascended the throne, he had heard of Wang Anshi and had great trust in his abilities, and in the second year of Xi Ning (1069), Wang Anshi was appointed as a counselor to carry out political affairs to carry out changes.
Since the change of law was carried out during the Xining period, The Wang Anshi transformation method is also known as the Xining transformation method. It should be noted here that at the end of the following year, when Wang Anshi was appointed as a counselor and governor, he was promoted to Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi (equivalent to the prime minister) to comprehensively promote the change of the law, which shows the determination of the Song Shenzong to change the law and his strong support for Wang Anshi. The focus of Wang Anshi's reform is on the economic side, and the goal is to reverse the situation of poverty and weakness in the country and change the embarrassing situation of the current government's perennial fiscal deficit.
Traditional scholars and masters believe that all the wealth under the heavens belongs to the state, and the total amount of this wealth is only this, in order to solve the country's financial crisis, it is necessary to strengthen the looting of the people from elsewhere to increase the accumulation of wealth. Compared with them, Wang Anshi's financial thinking is more advanced. Wang Anshi believes that those who are good at managing money, the taxes borne by the people do not need to be increased, and the national wealth can be enriched, and this idea has always been implemented by Wang Anshi's measures to change the law.
The specific method is: "Because of the power of the world, the wealth of the world is generated, and the wealth of the world is taken for the expenses of the world", that is, wealth is created through the development of natural resources and human resources, which can be summarized into two aspects: open source and throttling. From this, we can see that Wang Anshi was more outstanding than other bureaucrats of the same period, and his reforms in the rich countries were based on this idea and in response to the prominent problems in society at that time.
Second, the content of the Xining transformation law - the rich country chapter
First, in July of the second year of The Xining Dynasty (1069), the Equal Loss Law was promulgated. In the past, when the Northern Song Government collected taxes, it often designated various places to hand over a certain number of goods, but sometimes the items that needed to be handed in were not local products, and they needed to spend high prices to buy and hand over, and the cost naturally fell on the people. Moreover, the government's annual demand is uncertain, and it is very inconvenient to implement it specifically.
In view of this problem, Wang Anshi specially dispatched a post to grasp the production situation of the southeast sixth road and the demand situation of the government and the palace, and rationally arranged the supply of materials. At the same time, a certain amount of working capital is allocated to the shipment so that the whole procedure can proceed normally. Shipping is carried out according to the principle of "moving expensive and cheap, using near and far", such as the high price of goods that need to be levied in a certain place, collect reasonable currency, and buy and hand over to the area where the goods are abundant; at the same time, choose a place with a closer distance and convenient transportation to buy.
This move is conducive to reducing the unnecessary burden of the people, but also to meet the needs of the government and the royal family, while preventing merchants from taking advantage of the opportunity to make huge profits, ensuring the normal operation of social production. Wang Anshi's later promulgation of the Municipal Easy Law is also through the means of the government to regulate prices, while preventing businessmen from speculating and making profits, so that the government in the process of adjusting the price difference to obtain fiscal revenue, is one of the means of open source.
In September of the second year of Xi Ning, Wang Anshi promulgated the Green Shoots Law. This law was already partially implemented when Wang Anshi was a local official, and certain results were achieved, and this time it was implemented to the whole country on the basis of local implementation. The specific method is: the grain accumulated throughout the country, such as Changping Warehouse and Guanghui Warehouse, which are used to store grain for the needs of the famine year, is used as the capital, and when the crops are not in full bloom and the people's lives are difficult, they will lend money and grain to them. The specific amount is determined by the household, etc., and the higher the household, the more money and grain can be borrowed. The government will levy the corresponding interest according to the term of the loan, which will be repaid by the people with the summer and autumn taxes.
This move is mainly to prevent the people from being forced to accept usurious loans and exploitation by rich businessmen in the year of famine, which is a move to benefit the people. Under the natural economy, the harvest of farmers depends to a large extent on the natural climate, which has great uncertainty. If there is a famine year, not only will the government's fiscal revenue be affected, but the number of social displaced people will also increase, and the government will recruit displaced people into the army, and the financial expenditure will be further increased. This not only guarantees the basic production of the people, but also increases the government's revenue, and from a certain point of view, the government reduces unnecessary expenditures.
In November of the second year of Xining, Wang Anshi implemented the Farmland Water Conservancy Law. This law stipulates that if all localities need to build water conservancy, the local government shall calculate the materials and funds required for the project, and the households in the area shall jointly fund the construction, and the amount of capital contribution shall be apportioned according to the level of the household. If the joint venture of the household is still unable to build, it can borrow money from the government and repay the loan according to the Green Shoots Law. This law is conducive to encouraging the construction of water conservancy, which is very beneficial to the production and development of agriculture, and it is also beneficial to the people.
In addition to the above economic measures, Wang Anshi also implemented measures such as the Conscription Law and the Fangtian Equal Tax Law, which were all from the perspective of increasing government revenue, alleviating economic exploitation suffered by the people, and making full use of human and natural resources to create wealth. Although it touched the current interests of large landlord groups, to a certain extent, the goals set by Wang Anshi at the beginning of the reform were achieved, and the overall economic strength of the Northern Song Dynasty was enhanced.
III. The content of the xining new law - military and education
The ultimate goal of Wang Anshi's change of law is to make the country rich and the army strong, and then we will talk about the measures taken to achieve the goal of strengthening the army. It mainly starts with enhancing the combat effectiveness of the army and reducing the huge military expenditure. From the very beginning of the reform, Wang Anshi began to reorganize the army, such as eliminating the old and the weak and strengthening the training of the army. In the seventh year of Xi Ning (1074), Wang Anshi implemented the Law of Placing Generals, which was a solution to the shortcomings of the More Shu Law.
The general law changed the practice in the past that the army had to change its garrisons regularly, soldiers did not need to rotate, their garrisons were fixed, the government selected outstanding generals with combat experience to lead the troops, and the army had to be strictly trained in peacetime. This has helped to improve the combat effectiveness of the army, the generals have become familiar with the soldiers under their command, and can better use the troops in battle, while the government has reduced the expenditure of the army when moving. To a certain extent, this has changed the situation of poverty and weakness.
In addition, Wang Anshi also implemented the Armor Protection Law at the grass-roots level, which aims to gradually replace mercenaries with militias, which can not only strengthen the government's management of the grass-roots level, but also reduce the government's military expenditure. The specific method is: the people are organized by household, and if each household has two or more dings in the home, one person should be selected as a baoding. Baoding should take turns patrolling at night according to the organization, maintain public order, and strengthen military training to enhance combat effectiveness when the peasants are idle.
To a certain extent, the implementation of the Law of Placing Generals and the Law of Armor Protection embodied Wang Anshi's financial thinking of throttling expenditure, and its main purpose was to enhance the combat effectiveness of the army to resist foreign invasions and realize the great blueprint of annexing Western Xia and Liao. In addition, in the military field, the horse protection law has also been implemented, and the people have raised horses on behalf of the government, and an institution specializing in the manufacture of weapons has been set up---- ordnance supervisors, and military equipment has been upgraded.
In order to select the talents needed for the change of law and to create a theoretical basis for the change of law, Wang Anshi also carried out reforms in education. For example, the scriptures were re-annotated and compiled into the "Three Classics and New Meanings", which was compiled on the one hand to break the monopoly of the conservative forces in ideology, and on the other hand, to provide a theoretical basis for changing the law, so as to better implement the change of law. Wang Anshi stipulated that Taixue should use the "Three Classics and New Meanings" to teach and examine and cultivate outstanding talents needed to change the law.
In addition, he also reformed the examination system, abolished the Ming And economics section, attached importance to the examination of policy theory, and stipulated that the examination of the jingyi section in the imperial examination should be based on the "Three Classics and New Righteousness" as the standard. Obviously, this move is to further expand the bureaucratic base of the law reform faction and increase the forces that oppose the old-fashioned faction, and the more like-minded people there are, the more effective the implementation of the new law will be greater. Wang Anshi's measures have set off a new current in the ideological circles and have a far-reaching impact.
epilogue:
Wang Anshi's change of law was to save the northern Song government's ruling crisis and alleviate the sharp class contradictions, so its essence was still to safeguard the interests of the large landlord class. This also dooms it to fail to completely solve the problem of land annexation, then the contradiction between the people and the ruling class will never be eliminated. Moreover, Wang Anshi violated the interests of the conservative forces in the process of changing the law, and the reform faction attracted a fierce attack from the conservatives, and the change of law was greatly resisted, coupled with some problems with the change of law itself, And the Xining change of law eventually failed.
But we cannot deny Wang Anshi's personal merits and his own outstanding abilities. For example, after the implementation of the law change measures, the exploitation of the people has indeed been alleviated, and some benefits have been obtained. For example, the construction of water conservancy projects irrigated a large amount of farmland, increased grain production, and improved the economic level of the people; in the year of famine, there was a certain guarantee that the family would not be easily destroyed. Wang Anshi's spirit of keen reform has inspired future generations of reformers to move forward without fear, which is worthy of our admiration.
Resources:
"Mr. Linchuan's Collected Writings"
History of the Song Dynasty