There is a saying called the Northern Song Dynasty without a good subject, the Southern Song Dynasty without a good general. It can be seen that it is not easy to be an official in the Northern Song Dynasty, and if you are not careful, you can be discredited. Even Wang Anshi, one of our Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, was once regarded as a traitor and was insulted for a long time.
The Northern Song Dynasty had all kinds of traitors, five ghosts, six thieves. However, Wang Anshi turned out to be a traitor of the Northern Song Dynasty, which is very incredible. However, the facts are there, and Wang Anshi in the history of the Song Dynasty is directly in the biography of the traitor. The Southern Song Dynasty also directly believed that the root cause of the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty was Wang Anshi's transformation of the law. Since then, future generations have also held this view, and Wang Anshi cannot wash himself at all.
Those who have studied history know that Wang Anshi is not only a leader in the literary world, but also very successful in politics. Throughout his life, he studied diligently and worked hard to make the Northern Song Dynasty rich and strong through changing the law. He himself was even more honest and honest, indifferent to fame and fortune, and for many moments put the country first.
Wang Anshi wanted to change the shortcomings accumulated by the Northern Song Dynasty over the years by changing the law. Yet many things offend vested interests and are hindered. In the end, the change of law failed, the country was more chaotic, and Wang Anshi himself slipped down from power. In the end, the Northern Song Dynasty became more and more chaotic, and was destroyed by the Jin Dynasty.
At the beginning of the reform, the implementation of the law was still good, not only enriching the government's finances, but also increasing the national defense strength, and the crackdown by feudal landlords and big businessmen was also relatively large. However, in the process of implementation, there are many inappropriate places, which harm the interests of the people and make there are more refugees. In the end, as soon as Song Shenzong died and the emperor changed, the change of law was completely over.
The evaluation of Wang Anshi has always been mixed. However, after him, Song Zhezong used Sima Guang, and the old law was still implemented. In the dispute between the old and the new, there is a person who is the most unlucky, that is, Su Shi. Su Shi's evaluation of Wang Anshi can be said to be the most objective. He initially opposed the change of law, so he was repeatedly belittled. When the new party stepped down and the old party came to power and wanted to use him, he affirmed that many of Wang Anshi's correct measures were taken. Eventually it was degraded again.
From Su Shi's attitude and encounters, it can be clearly seen that Wang Anshi had some bad measures when he changed the law, but he could not be completely denied, and there were many policies for the benefit of the country. Su Shi was not right about things, he wanted the less deformed development of the Song Dynasty, but no one paid attention to him, only dealt with him.
Su Shi's father, Su Xun, was more rude to Wang Anshi, he thought that Wang Anshi couldn't even do small things well, people were sloppy, how could they prevent things that were getting worse when doing big things! In fact, it is true that in the end, Wang Anshi failed because of many details.
Wang Anshi also had a failure because of bad luck, his change of law was originally opposed by many people, and people wanted to grab his pigtails to deal with him. As a result, God did not give a damn, and a large disaster came in the fourth year of the change. Ancient people felt that large-scale disasters were all dissatisfaction of God with the ruling class, and felt that the change of law was opposed by God.
At that time, many farmers were killed by the famine, and there were displaced people outside Kaifeng. Displaced people not only need to eat chaff vegetables, but also have to sell their children and daughters. Even if this kind of law does not change, it will also suffer disasters, but in order to catch up with the change of law, it is necessary to carry the new law to carry the pot. In the end, the new law was abolished, and the Song Dynasty remained poor and weak. In the end, the pot of annihilation of the country was actually thrown to Wang Anshi.
Nowadays, we objectively evaluate Wang Anshi as a famous person throughout the ages, and he has changed the law to become stronger, which has improved the situation of poverty and weakness in the Northern Song Dynasty to a certain extent. But in the end, the change failed, and everything was destroyed. It is possible that the policy was implemented incorrectly at that time, but the change itself is correct! Therefore, Wang Anshi is the most difficult person to evaluate, and both evaluations are too extreme.