At the end of December 2021, the lecture hall wrote about the lecture of Professor Cui Ming of the Department of Chinese of Tongji University, ""Courageous" Wang Anshi: Although tens of millions of people are looking forward to it! "Despite All Difficulties to Preside Over Reform" caused a thousand waves. This Northern Song Reformer, who was born 1,000 years ago, caused extensive discussion in the audience of the lecture hall, as a writer, thinker, and then to a reformer who could be called a Confucian "brave", he denied himself at a young age, a doer who visited 14 townships for eight days as an official, refused to donate a house in his twilight years in middle age; after his death, he was either condemned, or honored as a banner of the imperial court, or characterized as the head of the subjugation of the country in the three dynasties of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, until modern Liang Qichao praised him as a perfect person.
With the heart of solving the mystery of Wang Anshi, the understanding of the specific environment of the reform of the law, and the management of the ancient Chinese political system, on January 21, the core of the lecture hall, the bi-weekly hot forum of the core listeners of the lecture hall ushered in an expanded version on the occasion of the two years of spontaneous organization, and invited Wang Rui, associate professor of the Department of History of East China Normal University, and Xiao Wu, a researcher of the Reform and Development Research Foundation, to conduct a historical covenant "From Wang Anshi's Transformation of the Law to see the Reform of China's Dynasties".
The host Li Nian and the listener reviewed the contents of Associate Professor Cui Ming's lecture draft based on the book "Wang Anshi"
Why is Wang Anshi quite vocal about changing the law of the government and the opposition when he is in phase?
Although his career is now mainly to study modern and contemporary Chinese history, Wang Rui has always paid more attention to the history of ancient Chinese thought and politics, especially the reform movement in Chinese history. Among them, the importance of Wang Anshi's transformation method goes without saying. Regardless of political gains and losses, from the perspective of article style alone, compared with the others known as the "Eight Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties", Wang Anshi inherited the style of the Xunzi-Han Fei series, that is, logical, well-organized, unimpressive, and cold wording.
In this regard, as Liu Shipei said in the "Miscellaneous Papers", "The text of the introduction of the fu, the extravagant legal system, according to the conditions of the times, and the words are strange, the exposition is deep, and the text of the legalist is also." In the 1970s, the mainland published many ancient books classified as legal scholars, including the "Collected Works of Wang Wengong" published by the Shanghai People's Publishing House, which is still a vertical simplified version rarely seen today. More than a decade ago, Wang Rui, who was still in college, had the privilege of buying a set at a used book stall and often flipped through it. Among them, the "Book of Ten Thousand Words of Emperor Shangshenzong" and "On the Hundred Years of Nothing in the Dynasty" can be called the best works in ancient Chinese political treatises.
The vertical edition of Wang Wen's Collected Writings published by the Shanghai People's Publishing House is Wang Rui's favorite book
* In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Confucian concept of the scriptures was re-advocated, and Confucians made a difference to influence the scholars
Yan Fu, who has experienced a series of political changes in modern China, once said, "From the perspective of Yu Zhi, among the history books of our country, it is most suitable for scholars to ponder and interrogate, and those who must seek the truth and seek it are nothing like The Change of Law in Xi Ning." The reason why Wang Anshi advocates drastic reforms, Wang Rui believes that from the perspective of historical context, there are mainly the following two factors:
First of all, in the face of the situation in which feudal towns have been divided since the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the impact of the forces of ethnic minorities in the frontier areas, and the popularity of Buddhist thought, Han Yu and others sang the Taoist unification theory, hoping to revitalize the vitality of Confucianism, especially the content of Confucian thought that attaches importance to the order of the program and the "distinction between Yixia and Yixia". After experiencing the turbulent world of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, scholars such as Hu Yan, Sun Fu, Shi Jie, and Li Qian advocated the practice of the Confucian concept of the classics, highlighting the orthodox status of the Northern Song Dynasty, and those who advocated Confucianism should do something. Such a confucian trend of thought had a considerable influence on Wang Anshi and others.
* Supporting redundant officials and redundant personnel, forcing the imperial court to expand tax channels and causing exploitation of the people
The Redundancy of officials in the Northern Song Dynasty was caused by the fact that the old system had not been changed and the new imperial court needed to operate
Secondly, in line with the Confucian trend of thought, Wang Rui believes that the Northern Song Dynasty formulated a policy of enveloping scholars and doctors politically, which was reflected in the design of the system, which appeared to be stacked on top of each other and contained each other, which led to a sharp increase in the number of officials compared with the previous dynasties, that is, the so-called "redundant officials" and "redundant personnel", and for retired high-ranking officials, the imperial court also did its best to treat them, so the cost was huge.
For this point, Xiao Wu, a guest of dialogue and a researcher at the CITIC Reform and Development Research Foundation, made a full supplement. He believes that redundant soldiers, redundant officials, and redundant expenses are the famous "three redundancies" problem of the Northern Song Dynasty. After the outbreak of the war with the Western Xia, the Northern Song Dynasty lost consecutive battles, and the crisis was completely exposed.
He analyzed specifically the reasons for the redundancy. Because the Northern Song Dynasty was victorious from the situation of national division and division, and at the same time had to deal with the threat of the Khitan in the north, during the period of Taizu and Taizong' founding of the two foundations, it never got a relatively stable environment to thoroughly reform the financial, military and administrative systems of the whole country, as well as various systems, but followed the system of stacked bed frame houses formed since the middle and late Tang Dynasties to the five dynasties, resulting in an extremely large bureaucratic system of the Song Dynasty. Usually, after each dynasty has suffered a crisis, if the old bureaucracy does not work, it should be removed from the old and established a new one. The situation formed from the middle and late Tang Dynasty to the five dynasties was that the original system did not play much role and still existed, and another set of bureaucratic systems was established to maintain the normal operation of the country. That is to say, the Northern Song Dynasty financed many idle officials who did not participate in specific work. This is also the famous problem of redundant officials in the Northern Song Dynasty.
* The border is unstable, resulting in a conscription system at the beginning, but the number of people is low
Xiao Wu and Tingyou introduced in detail the social contradictions caused by border instability in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty
Xiao Wu, who has published the book "The Great Road to the Sky: The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Road", is familiar with ancient politics, especially the history of the Song Dynasty, and he analyzes the military dynamics of Wang Anshi and Song Shenzong to work together to change the law.
At the beginning of the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, the whole country had not yet completed unification, and there was still a Khitan outside, and the national defense pressure was very great. The Song Dynasty was one of the few dynasties that had a conscription system at the beginning, and usually, each dynasty gradually became a conscription system in the middle and late periods, so the cost of raising soldiers in the Song Dynasty was extremely high. For example, Xiao Wu gave the example that at the founding of the country, Zhao Kuangyin himself was able to control more than 30,000 forbidden troops, and when he died, it also increased to more than 100,000 people; after Emperor Taizong destroyed the Northern Han Dynasty, the number of forbidden troops also reached more than 200,000 people; after the Song and Liao reached the alliance of Liaoyuan during the Zhenzong period, because the Northern Song Dynasty never controlled the Great Wall line and had no geographical barriers to use, they could only gather heavy troops in the plains of Hebei to build a defensive line and confront the Liao state. By the time of Emperor Renzong, the number of forbidden troops in the country had increased to more than 400,000. However, after the outbreak of the war with the Western Xia, he still felt that the strength of the troops was very tight, and he could only continue to increase the number of troops. After the front between the Western Xia and the Northern Song Dynasty had basically stabilized, more than 100,000 forbidden troops had been added to the northwest, and the number of troops in the whole country had reached more than 600,000. In years of famine, some officials even recruited displaced people into the army to provide relief to the victims. As a result, the army system of the Northern Song Dynasty became larger and larger, but the combat effectiveness became lower and lower.
* Why did the Northern Song Dynasty not pay as much attention to curbing land annexation as its predecessors?
The Northern Song Dynasty paid less attention to curbing land occupation and annexation
Another famous topic that emerged during the Northern Song Dynasty was the non-suppression of annexation. Wang Rui believes that the Northern Song Dynasty put an end to the chaotic situation of warlords in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, restored the productive forces, and saved the vast number of peasants from the pain of war. However, the Northern Song Dynasty did not curb land occupation and land annexation too much in economic policy, resulting in the so-called "Shu landlord" class occupying a large amount of land through economic and political means, and many peasants became sharecroppers. In the period of Emperor Renzong of Song, according to the "History of Song Dynasty and Food Goods", "the powerful officials and rich surnames occupied the field infinitely, and the merger of false habits became customs, and the heavy prohibition could not be stopped."
Xiao Wu analyzed that because successive dynasties would take certain measures to curb land annexation in order to protect the small peasant economy, the Song Dynasty never took measures to curb annexation. From the perspective of the state, whether to curb mergers depends mainly on the country's financial ability to absorb. Dynasties suppressed annexation, nominally to protect small farmers, but in reality mainly to compete for the source of taxation. Because annexations accompanied by a large amount of land and population hiding, the country's tax base has become smaller. If the annexation state can also be taxed normally, it will not make the country's tax base smaller.
Xiao Wu believes that on the one hand, from the perspective of the tax base, the Northern Song Dynasty does not need to suppress mergers. After the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, from the perspective of territorial area, it was far less powerful than the heyday of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but in terms of the degree of internal development, it was far more than that of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and the tax base was much larger than that of the previous dynasties. On the other hand, in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the original aristocratic class gradually withdrew from the stage of history, and the Northern Song Dynasty faced a situation dominated by a small peasant economy. Therefore, even land annexations were mostly done through at least formal legal means, rather than voluntarily defecting to the door valve family and avoiding taxation and labor for the state, as was the case in the previous Wei and Jin dynasties. Therefore, the Song Dynasty did not attach too much importance to annexation. However, the small-scale peasant economy is relatively vulnerable to natural disasters, and once there is a flood disaster, it will form a large-scale displaced person and affect the stability of the country.
In addition, the handicraft and commercial development of the Song Dynasty reached a new height, and also formed some commercial cities, and on this basis formed a certain degree of citizen and civilian class that was separated from agricultural production, and completely relied on handicrafts and commerce in the city to maintain their livelihood.
*From the New Deal of the Qing Calendar to the Xining Reform Law, it began with the changes in the social and economic foundations of the Northern Song Dynasty
In many film and television dramas, the new policy of celebrating the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty is presented
In summary, Wang Rui and Xiao Wu believe that the Northern Song Dynasty is in an era in which the social and economic foundations have undergone major changes, which requires drastic reforms in all aspects of politics, economy, culture and society to adapt to this change. However, the Song Dynasty faced severe external threats in the early period, basically continuing the bloated and inefficient systems formed from the middle and late Tang To the Five Dynasties, maintaining its rule only through partial repairs and unable to cope with major crises. Therefore, after the outbreak of the war against the Western Xia, many crises of the Song Dynasty were quickly exposed, and the government and the opposition formed a consensus on the need for reform.
Wang Rui believes that Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Xiu, and others advocated reform during the Song Renzong period, which is known in history as the "Qingli New Deal," but because the content of the New Deal involved improving the election system and reducing the phenomenon of shading, it touched the interests of the high-ranking and powerful bureaucrats in the DPRK, so Fan Zhongyan and others were attacked by the latter as "friends", and the reform had to end hastily. After Emperor Shenzong of Song ascended the throne, he made a lot of achievements, so he reused Wang Anshi and began a change that was more powerful and wide-ranging in content than the "New Deal for celebrating the calendar". As for how to reform, it is another question.
Why did Wang Anshi's transformation method fail?
In the process of changing the law, Wang Anshi once said, "The heavens are not enough to be afraid, the ancestors are not enough to fa, and the words of the people are not enough to be sympathetic", which shows Wang Anshi's grandeur in changing the fa, or perhaps from another point of view, it may also be the reason for the failure of Wang Anshi's change of law. When Xiao Wu and Wang Rui analyzed the reasons for the failure of Wang Anshi's transformation method, they put forward a three-point argument:
* Advocate "throttling" rather than "open source", Sima Guang and other reasons for opposition
First, Confucianism did not advocate that the imperial court collect too many taxes. Xiao Wu believes that a major background for the realization of Wang Anshi's transformation method lies in the rise of Confucianism in the middle and late Tang Dynasty and the awakening of the political consciousness of the Song Dynasty scholars. Sima Guang was a well-known conservative leader who opposed Wang Anshi's change, but during the Qingli New Deal, he enthusiastically supported the change presided over by Fan Zhongyan. Wang Anshi believes that the country does not lack wealth, but wealth is scattered in the private sector, so it is necessary to "manage money", that is, to strengthen the country's financial absorption capacity through various means and concentrate wealth in the hands of the state. Sima Guang, on the other hand, believes that if the state draws too much, there will be too little left for the common people, so he opposes Wang Anshi's "financial management" theory. To put it simply, Sima Guang and others believe that the focus of reform should be on "throttling" and reducing expenditures; while Wang Anshi advocates "open source" and increases income.
After Wang Anshi's reform policy was carried out, it did become a way of exploiting the common people in some places, which aroused strong opposition. For example, the original meaning of the Green Shoots Law was that when the green and yellow were not received, the state gave low interest to peasants with housing loans to help them tide over this difficult period, and then repay the principal and interest after the autumn harvest. Theoretically, this is to help the peasants and avoid being exploited when they borrow usurious loans from the rich. During the reign of Emperor Renzong, this method was implemented in some areas such as Zhejiang, and it was generally successful. But when Wang Anshi extended this method to the whole country, local officials found that mortgages were profitable, and the imperial court hoped to obtain higher returns, so it became that local officials forcibly apportioned the peasants, while the peasants who really needed them did not get the loans. In the end, a policy that was originally intended for the convenience of the people became a policy of exploiting the peasants.
* Wang Anshi pays attention to administrative ability and cannot take into account ideals and beliefs
The second is the shortcomings of the bureaucracy of the Northern Song Dynasty itself. Wang Rui believes that as far as the leader of the change of law is concerned, just as the analysis of liu Zijian, a famous song historian, although Wang Anshi has always attached importance to cultivating people with virtue to become the pillars of the state, in the actual environment of many opponents of the law change within the bureaucratic clique, in order to effectively implement his proposal to change the law, he often chooses those who have a relatively strong ability to handle things and can follow his own political line as his right hand. However, in this way, many people who are keen on eunuchs and lack integrity will take the opportunity to enter the camp of the new party.
This has led to frequent confrontations within the New Party, and the contradiction between Zeng Bu and Lu Huiqing is a typical example. More crucially, because Wang Anshi paid too much attention to the administrative ability of the people he used and lacked an examination of his ideals and beliefs, the people he used could only help him handle government affairs, but could not realize the Confucian political ideal's vision of improving customs and enhancing people's morality. In other words, most of the officials he used were those who had more than enough "skills" but insufficient "Taoism." No matter how good the law is, it is difficult to ensure that it will not deviate from the pattern when it is handed over to such and such people.
* The lack of guarantees of the information circulation system such as the equalization method has resulted in poor results in good wishes
Finally, the technical means at the time could not support the need for reform. An important step of Wang Anshi's reforms was the hope that the imperial court would regulate the supply of materials. However, the technical disadvantage is that the Song Dynasty did not have the current information collection technology. The technology for the transmission of information is quite backward. In other words, as a centralized government, it was difficult for the imperial court to make precise and rapid responses to material regulation and control when it was difficult to grasp information.
Cai Yu, Liu Zhengning, and Chai Jun, three question listeners, were awarded the prize book "Ten Lectures on the History of Modern Chinese Thought" (by Wang Rui)
Wang Rui and Xiao Wu's discussion sparked questions from the audience. The discussion also inspired listeners how to view Chinese politics over the ages. Wang Rui suggested that the first study of history should start from reading institutional history, and less indulged in anecdotal gossip. Second, although it is necessary to borrow various modern social science tools, we must not ignore the evolutionary characteristics of ancient history and blindly fill in some contemporary political imaginations. For example, some people today think that the Northern Song Dynasty had a so-called "co-governance" situation between emperors and scholars, but Qian Mu pointed out long ago in "The Political Gains and Losses of Chinese Dynasties" that the characteristics of the politics of the Northern Song Dynasty are "the encroachment of the monarchy" and the "division of the power of the relative power". For another example, the northern Song Dynasty's officials were very loud on the surface, but the Taiwanese counsel were all aimed at the bureaucracy in the DPRK and China, and no longer corrected the emperor, resulting in often becoming a tool of party struggle "for the sake of opposition". How can these histories be arbitrarily compared to certain political trends after the end of the Cold War?
On the evening of January 14, after the lecture, I listened to the video of youkai and took a group photo with the guests
Author: Tong Yiying
Lecture screenshot: Zhang Qin, poster design: Pingyuanhai
Editor: Jin Jiuchao Li Nian