After the outbreak of the world economic crisis in 1929, the entire capitalist world was on the verge of collapse, and Roosevelt boldly adopted the state intervention model to turn the tide and was revered as a great hero. His system of state intervention in the economy was regarded as the only choice for economic governance for the next forty years.
But this kind of means, which the West regards as a guideline, has been around since the Song Dynasty in China. At that time, the Song Dynasty experienced an unprecedented drought, and then famine spread widely. Merchants took the opportunity to hoard a large amount of grain and manipulate prices, and the people were miserable, and Fan Zhongyan ordered the price of rice to double in the face of such a situation.
Fan Zhongyan, as a parent official of the imperial court, not only did not use his power to make decisions for the people under such crises, but instead acted perversely. What surprised everyone was that this move cleverly solved the problem of food shortage, and was even commented by experts: this move saved millions of disaster victims!
Early life
Fan Zhong's ancestors were a famous and prestigious family of the Tang Dynasty, and the ancestor Fan Lubing was even more in the position of Tang Zai chancellor, and later with the war in the last years of the Tang Dynasty, the Fan family began to settle far away from the Central Plains in the Wu County area. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the Fan family became the vassals of Wu Yueguo.
When the Song Dynasty was established, the head of the family, Fan Yong, defected with his family and served as the secretary of the Wulin Army, who was Fan Zhongyan's father.
However, he died unexpectedly when Fan Zhongyan was only one year old, and the Fan family lost his protection. His wife, Xie Shi, was also poor and helpless, so she remarried with her infant son.
After Fan Zhongyan grew up and heard about his family lineage, he was overwhelmed with emotion, and he knew that he had a heavy responsibility and needed to take on the heavy responsibility of shining lintels and rich countries and strong soldiers. He bid farewell to his mother to go out to study, and after several years of hard study, he has mastered the Five Classics and has the ambition to help the world.
In 1015, Fan Zhongyan participated in the imperial examination, ranked 97th in the Middle B Section, officially entered the career and joined the army as the commander of the Guangde Army.
Later, his mother Xie Shi died of illness, and during his resignation from office and filial piety, he was invited to give a lecture at Yingtian Academy. Years of hard study and diligence in government affairs have made his vision much higher than ordinary people, and whenever he lectures, there are many people in the audience.
Fan Zhongyan was deeply distressed by the worldly trend at that time, so he wrote to the imperial court "The Book of The Ruling Of the Lord", requesting that the officials be reformed, redundant officials eliminated, and the generals appeased. He was also praised by the chancellor Wang Zeng for this book, and was recruited to the capital.
At that time, the military and political power of the Song Dynasty was controlled by Empress Zhang Xian, and Emperor Renzong, who was only 19 years old, became a puppet. Fan Zhongyan believed that this move was contrary to the code of ethics and a blasphemy against imperial power, so he wrote to the empress dowager and requested that he return to the government of Emperor Renzong.
Although this move was disgusted by Empress Dowager Zhang Xian, it made it difficult for him to move forward. However, when Emperor Renzong was pro-government, he remembered his loyalty and worshipped him as a right counselor, allowing him to enter and leave the emperor's flanks.
Celebrating the New Deal
In 1038, Li Yuanhao, a member of the Dangxiang clan, declared himself emperor and established Western Xia, and diplomatic relations with the Song Dynasty officially broke down. In order to gain the recognition of the Song Dynasty and seek benefits, the Western Xia repeatedly invaded the borders of the Northern Song Dynasty. The Northern Song Dynasty had to rush into battle, but with the superiority of numbers, the Song army was defeated and retreated. The Western Xia army went all the way south, and the Central Plains were in danger.
Seeing the strength of the Western Xia, the Khitan in the north also began to stir and send envoys to claim the land of Guannan.
In order to alleviate the urgent need, Song Renzong had to increase the number of coins in exchange for the two countries to truce and win a moment of respite for the Song Dynasty.
At the time of the country's peril, the atmosphere in the court was suddenly active, and the reform faction represented by Fan Zhongyan constantly spoke to Emperor Renzong, demanding that the government be reformed and the prestige of the country revived. Under such calls, Emperor Renzong had to make compromises and repeatedly urged Fan Zhongyan to come up with a plan to make the world peaceful.
In 1043, the Qingli New Deal, led by Fan Zhongyan, was officially launched. In the same year, he was appointed governor and vice chancellor. He proposed dozens of reform proposals to Emperor Renzong, all of which were adopted and gradually implemented.
The first step is to clarify the rule of officials, to strictly control the promotion and demotion of officials, to prevent the children of the powerful from monopolizing the official field, and to advocate the selection of officials by examination. In order to improve the administrative efficiency of officials, corresponding appraisal policies have also been introduced and officials are regularly inspected. He also promoted high-performing officials and eliminated redundant and inactive officials.
Second, we must encourage nongsang, agriculture is the foundation of the founding of the country, we must ensure that the agricultural time to reduce taxes, in order to stimulate agricultural production, alleviate social contradictions.
The third was to strictly enforce the rule of law, and in view of the problem of the complicated and untrustworthy laws of the imperial court, he removed the complicated branches that affected the issuance of government decrees and emphasized the effectiveness of state decrees.
Under the control of Fan Zhongyan, the Great Song Dynasty greatly increased its national strength and flourished. But this is only a prelude to the storm.
Fan Zhongyan's Qingli New Deal greatly violated the interests of the imperial family and nobles, and it was difficult for his sons to rise to high positions, and if they did so in the long run, they would be excluded from the regime. Therefore, they constantly spoke in front of Emperor Renzong, not only slandering the New Deal, but also accusing Fan Zhongyan of colluding with his friends.
Slowly, Emperor Renzong finally became suspicious and dismissed Fan Zhongyan from his post as governor and transferred him to Hangzhou.
A brilliant plan to calm the famine
When Fan Zhongyan came to Hangzhou, he happened to encounter a great famine that had not been seen in the local area for a hundred years, and the people everywhere he went were not happy, and it was common to abandon his wife and sell his children.
In accordance with past practice, the local government has provided relief to the disaster victims, but the scope of the disaster and the number of people are unprecedented, and the grain stored in the government treasury is really a drop in the bucket.
What is even more heinous is that the merchants saw the sharp shortage of grain in Hangzhou, which was profitable, so they hoarded grain and raised the price of rice, which once again aggravated the famine.
Fan Zhongyun ran around for the disaster situation, constantly writing to the imperial court to request grain transfer, but the stone sank into the sea. In search of a solution to the famine, he had not slept for several nights, and his eyes were covered with blood. After much deliberation, he ordered the price of rice to double again.
This order was so unbelievable that the people could not imagine that his parents and officials had made such a stupid decree, and the crowds were clamoring for being faint and incompetent, a corrupt official who colluded with the adulterers. Immediately afterwards, the court also launched an impeachment against him.
However, Fan Zhongyan gladly accepted the oncoming insults, and seemed to have anticipated it, despite dissuasion to implement the order to the end.
After the merchants heard that the price of rice in the Hangzhou area had risen, in order to make huge profits, they rushed to transport rice from all over the country to the Hangzhou area regardless of the huge freight, which made the local market quickly saturated, and the rice was piled up in the warehouse but it was difficult to sell.
In order to reduce losses, merchants have started a price war. At this time, Fan Zhongyan once again transferred food for disaster relief, causing the people to scramble for it, which undoubtedly lit a fire for the price war again.
Seeing that the rainy season was approaching, merchants had to sell rice at a low price, so that the price of rice fell back to the level before the famine overnight, and the famine in Hangzhou was solved.
Fan Zhongyan made a small plan and used the laws of the market to survive the famine, so that we had to admire the wisdom of the ancients. He was an upright and extremely economical man, and was known as Fan Wenzhenggong by posterity.