This article is excerpted from the fourth lecture "The Brewing and Implementation of the Xining Reform" in Liang Gengyao's book "Reform and Reform in the Northern Song Dynasty: The Origin, Rheology and Influence of the Xining Reform Law on the History of the Southern Song Dynasty". The simplified Chinese version of the book will be published by Oriental Publishing Center Moment Humanities in June 2024. The title of the article is the editor's own design, please refer to the original book for citation.
Song Shenzong entrusted Wang Anshi with the heavy responsibility of financial management and foreign policy planning. Wang Anshi's knowledge and virtue were already well-known among the scholars and doctors at that time. He served as a magistrate and was also quite effective in political affairs. From the seventh year of Song Renzong's Qingli (1047) to the first year of Huangyou (1049), he served as the magistrate of Yinxian County, and built embankments and dredging canals during his tenure; The official grain was lent to the peasants, and after the harvest was repaid, a slight interest was added to the government; The Confucian Temple was used to set up the Yinxian County School, and the local respected Confucian Du Alcohol was hired to preside over it. Later, the farmland water conservancy law and the seedling law he promoted all originated from this. His emphasis on educating talent was also evident at this time.
Wang Anshi had served as a local official many times, and he was deeply aware of the disadvantages caused by the merger of the rich and wealthy in the people, and at a time when the country's financial embarrassment was getting bigger and bigger. He has a deep cultivation in scriptures, and has his own opinions on the scriptures such as "Yi", "Poems", "Books", and "Rites", except for the "Spring and Autumn Period". In the course of implementing the new law, some of the measures he took in order to ensure the smooth implementation of the new law were tantamount to the art of management and commerce in the eyes of others, and he did not care about or deny such criticism. In the third year of Xining (1070), when the Qingmiao Law was first practiced, he and Chen Shengzhi had an argument in front of Song Shenzong, and Chen Shengzhi accused Wang Anshi and said: "The person who makes the order is guilty, and it is the Shang Yang Law." Chen Shengzhi's statement can be seen in the "Historical Records: The Biography of Shang Ying" that ordinary scholars would read at that time. Wang Anshi replied, "The one who ordered the order is dead, and Guan Zi has said so." According to the "Guanzi, Heavy Order, Foreign Words", there is a text of "those who lose the order die, those who benefit the order die, those who do not obey the order die, those who do not follow the order die, and the five have death without forgiveness"; The later "Shang Junshu Dingfen" also has similar words, "If you dare to make a decree, the profit or loss is more than one word, and the crime will not be forgiven." Wang Anshi is familiar with "Guanzi" and "Shangjunshu" in order to reply like this; And his answer in this way confirmed the criticism of others that he used the art of management and business to implement the new law. In the second year of Xining (1069), that is, a year before Chen Shengzhi accused him, he wrote a well-known poem "Shang Ying": "Since ancient times, the people have been driven in faithfulness, and a word is heavy and light." Today's people can not be Shang Ying, and Shang Yang can make the government must be done. ("Mr. Linchuan's Collected Works" Volume 32) learned from Confucianism and admired Shang Yang or the art of management and commerce to govern, for him, in fact, it was also based on Confucianism's "power", that is, what he said in the article "The Rite of Indecency": "The sage is so valuable that the power of the time is also changed." …… Tang Wu let go of it because of the unkindness, and the world did not think it was unjust. As for the basis of "quan" in the Confucian classics, he believes that it comes from the Yi, that is, what he called "Xun to exercise power" (ibid. 66) in the Nine Hexagrams.
The National Museum of Zao Ann stone statue
His idea of financial management with righteousness is especially based on the book "Zhou Guan" (i.e., "Zhou Li"). He once said: "Political affairs are so financial management, and financial management is the so-called righteousness." A "Zhou Li", financial management accounts for half of it, how can Zhou Gong be profitable. ("Mr. Linchuan's Collected Works", Volume 73, "Answer to Zeng Gongshu") The new laws he promoted can also be traced back to "Zhou Guan". Since the beginning of the Song Dynasty, because of the admiration of Han Yu, and then the admiration of Han Yu's respect for Yangxiong, and because of the admiration of Yangxiong, and the importance of Yangxiong's "Zhou Li", and then because of this, Wang Tong, who played the theory of Yangxiong, was admired. Wang Anshili said that it was based on "Zhou Li", and it also suffered the influence of this trend of the times. There are several places in his poems and essays that praise the beauty and Yangxiong, for example, in the poem "Yangzi", it is said that "there is a Yangxiong in a thousand autumns" (same book 32); In the "Answer to Gong Shen's Father's Book", it is said that "those who promote heroes have not been reached since Meng Ke" (same book 72), which can be said to be highly respected. He once discussed Yangxiong with Zeng Gong, Wang Hui, Chang Zhi and other friends in correspondence. Zeng Gong once wrote a letter questioning his reading of Buddhist scriptures, and he replied to defend himself by citing Yangxiong's extensive reading: "Although Yangxiong is not a good book for non-saints, Yu Mo, Yan, Zou, Zhuang, Shen, and Han also do not read it. Wang Anshi has annotations on Yangxiong's two works, Taixuan and Fayan, and scholars have pointed out that Wang Anshi's Yangzi Explanation, which is included in the bibliography compiled by the Southern Song Dynasty, should contain two parts: Commentary on Fa Yan and Commentary on Taixuan.
In Wang Anshi's poems and texts, I can't see the direct praise of Wang Tong, but there is an article that quotes "Wen Zhongzi", which is Wang Tong's private words to him after his death, and it is also the alias of Wang Tong's work "Zhongshuo"; There are two sentences in another poem, which can be seen more obviously, and their meaning is from the "Wen Zhongzi", which has been pointed out by Li Bi, a native of the Southern Song Dynasty, the annotator of "Wang Anshi's Poem Notes". The most noteworthy is the last two sentences of Wang Anshi's poem "Reading the Book of Tang", "What are the sons of Fen, sit and establish peace with Emperor Wen", according to Li Bi's commentary, it means that Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng and others were all disciples of Wang Tong when he was lecturing in Hefen, and later assisted Tang Taizong to set the world ("Wang Jinggong's Poems Notes" volume 46). According to the fact that Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng and other Wang Tongmen assisted Tang Taizong, the first time I saw the "Record of Tang Taizong and Fang, Wei and Other Discussions on Rites and Pleasures" attached to Wang Tong's "Zhongshuo" compiled in the early Tang Dynasty, which recorded that Wei Zheng suggested to Tang Taizong that "Zhou Li" should be used as the basis for governance. This should also be the source of Wang Anshi's "Emperor Shangrenzong's Book of Words" at the end of the article, Wei Zheng's "thinking about the affairs of the first king and opening Taizong" at the beginning of the reign of Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, it can be considered that Wang Anshi's talk about Wei Zheng's talk about the former kings of Tang Taizong is the book "Zhou Li" that Wang Tong and his disciples regarded as a record of Zhou's public undertakings, and this book is also the theoretical basis for Wang Anshi to promote the reform of the law, and it is the source of Yiyi's financial management thought.
The content of the idea of financial management with righteousness has been successively expressed in the poems and essays before Wang Anshi took power. During his tenure in Zhishu Prefecture in the third year of Huangyou (1051), he wrote the "Judgment with Ma Yun", which said:
The reason why Fang Jin is poor and empty is not only because he has no money, but also because he has lost the way to make money. Those who are rich are in the country, those who are rich in the country are in the world, and those who want to be rich in the world are in the world. Those who build a family do not make money for their sons, and if they have the strictness of their fathers and their sons are rich, why should they not ask for it? Now close the door and its sub-city, and do not enter outside the door, although the wealth of the son, it is still not rich. Although the words of the modern world are good, they all have the skills of the country and the world, and the city is just in the door, so it is difficult to be. (The Collected Works of Mr. Linchuan, Vol. 75)
The so-called "direct phase of the city is within the door" means that if you are confined to a fixed source of money, the burden will have a certain limit, and it is naturally easy to be exhausted. Therefore, the way to make money should be to go beyond the existing financial resources and provide the funds of the state on a broader scale. How to make money beyond the existing financial resources, from the later Wang Anshi's new law: first, expand production, such as farmland water conservancy law; The first is to destroy and merge, such as green seedlings, exemption from military service, and market changes. Of the two, he clearly prefers the latter. Wang Anshi's emphasis on the destruction of mergers is that he is dissatisfied with the mergers and acquisitions of the wealthy in society, believing that they have taken away the interests and powers that should be used by the public. He has a poem entitled "Annexation":
Three generations of people, public and private are no different from wealth. The master of man is good at manipulating the handle, like the heavens holding the leader. Give all self, merger is treacherous. There is a punishment for treachery, and there is no momentum. Later generations began to hold it upside down, and it was difficult to judge the head of Qian. King Qin didn't know this, and built a clear platform. The day of propriety and righteousness has been stolen, and the Bible has been lost for a long time. There are still those who live in the law, and they can do it when they want to speak. The layman doesn't know the way, and the gram is the material. Vulgar Confucianism does not know how to change, and mergers can be indestructible. Likong is out of the way, and the villain is privately opened. There is a division to fight with, and the people are more pitiful. (Same as Book 4)
The poem points out that because later generations did not know how to suppress annexation, the profit was reversed, and the income of private production flowed into the hands of the mergers, while the government's financial resources were limited to those small people who suffered from annexation, and their lives became increasingly difficult under the continuous extortion. It follows from this that the way to manage money is to take back the profits from the hands of the annexed family and return them to the government, and the government's financial resources can naturally be greatly expanded, and no longer have to be limited to the poor people. However, the merger cannot be said in vain, and the reason why the merger houses can exercise their authority lies in the fact that their funds play a key role in the private economy, and the living expenses and production capital of the small people have to be borrowed from them, and the products are all purchased by them. Therefore, in a poem entitled "Fable", Wang Anshi put forward a further view: "If you don't provide for marriage and funeral, you will be exempted from borrowing money." If you don't give the harvest, you will be able to make a living. I will take the things that win, and the things will be embarrassed to go out of the camp. Later generations did not do this, and they were only frustrated and merged. The meaning of this poem is not to accuse "frustration of annexation" as wrong, but to believe that the government must replace the original function of the annexation house in society and assume the responsibility of financing funds in order to achieve the goal of rejuvenating annexation. Wang Anshi's thinking is completely expressed in various new laws. The Seedlings Law and the Market Law both use the financing of government funds to achieve the purpose of financial management through mergers and acquisitions. Mergers and acquisitions are the so-called righteousness in Wang Anshi's financial management thoughts.
Wang Anshi has ideals in mind and hopes to be able to do the right thing. In the third year of Jiayou (1058), before he was appointed as the commander of the Jiangdong Prison, he went to Beijing and wrote a letter of 10,000 words to the emperor, which was the first time that he gave the emperor a detailed opinion on the revival of current affairs. This book of 10,000 words pointed out that the problem of the country at that time was that "the wealth of the world is becoming poorer and poorer, and the customs are decaying day by day", which briefly mentions his financial management proposition, "because of the power of the world, to give birth to the wealth of the world, and to take the wealth of the world for the expenses of the world", and still emphasizes the need to make good use of financial resources; He believes that the education, upbringing, taking, and appointment of talented people must be done in the right way in order to establish the law, and only after the establishment of the law can we save the crisis of "the world's financial resources are becoming poorer and the customs are declining day by day." In short, Wang Anshi's view is that the method of selecting and employing talents at that time could not cultivate talents who are responsible for financial management for the country. After this 10,000-word book was submitted, it did not receive any reply (for the original text, see "Mr. Linchuan's Collected Works", volume 39). In the fifth year of Jiayou (1060), Wang Anshi was transferred back to Beijing to serve as the judge of the three divisions, during which he wrote a "Inscription on the Wall of the Deputy Embassy of the Degree Branch", in which the combination of financial management, law and talents was also said:
Those who are in harmony with the wealth of the world, those who manage the wealth of the world, and those who keep the laws of the world. If the officials are bad, there is a law but they do not abide by it, and if the law is not good, they have wealth and do not care. If you have wealth and don't care, then the sluts in the alleys can all take the power of private giving, and be good at the benefits of all things, so as to compete with the master. Qianshou and let go of his infinite desires, not necessarily expensive and strong, and then can be like this. And the Son of Heaven is still the one who does not lose his people, and the gate is only an ear. (Same as Vol. 82)
At this time, he had clearly expressed that he wanted to establish a decree so that the annexation house could not "take the power of private giving and take advantage of all things" to achieve the purpose of financial management. And after the decree is established, it must be carried out by good officials. Several items in the new law that attach importance to talent training and selection, such as changing the tribute method and the Taixue three-way method, can be found in Wang Anshi's remarks. And he attaches so much importance to talents, which is obviously closely related to financial management.
In the first year of Xining (1068), Wang Anshi was promoted by Song Shenzong and was recruited from Jiangning Mansion to serve as a bachelor and attendant of Hanlin. After entering Beijing, Song Shenzong summoned him to talk about world affairs, and Wang Anshi wrote an article "A Hundred Years of Nothing to Do in this Dynasty" ("Mr. Linchuan's Anthology" Volume 41), pointing out that over the past hundred years, politics has been stubborn, and financial management is impossible, so it can be peaceful, although it cannot be said that there is no manpower, in fact, it is more from heaven's help, so he advised Song Shenzong to take great action, discuss the legal system, put it into practice, and can no longer go with the flow. From then on, Wang Anshi won the trust of Song Shenzong, and the following year he was promoted to the governor of political affairs and began to promote the reform of the law. More than a year later, he was promoted to the same Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, and his actions were more active.
However, Wang Anshi's actions still had to be coordinated with Song Shenzong's intentions. Song Shenzong had the ambition to attack Liao, avenge his ancestors, and even restore Youyan. The Liao State was strong and could not be suddenly conquered, so under Wang Anshi's planning, the Xia State was the target first. If you can take Western Xia, you can envelop the Liao State. In order to attack the Xia Kingdom, he was engaged in the management of Hehuang. In the first year of Xining, there were three strategies for Wang Shao to Pingrong, "he slightly thought that Western Xia was desirable, and if he wanted to take Western Xia, he should first restore Hehuang." After that, Wang Shao was reused by Wang Anshi and presided over the development of Hehuang. Hehuang development is quite fruitful, from the fifth year of Xining (1072), successively from the hands of Xifan to obtain the borderland, and set up prefectures and counties, but also for the Song Dynasty to bring a heavy financial burden, after the development of Hehuang success, the next target is the Xia State. Therefore, in the sixth year of Xining (1073), Song Shenzong and Wang Anshi talked about the Xia State in a dialogue, and Song Shenzong said: "Things want to be timely, but it is rare to have a handsome general and Shaanxi is just short of money." The so-called "timely" refers to the early completion of the goal of conquering the Western Xia to contain the Liao State, and the conquest of the Western Xia also requires a huge amount of funds. The foreign policy turned positive, and did not stop at the north, during the Xining period, it had opened up Jinghu Lake and Shubian barbarian lands, and had the southern expedition to Jiaozhi, and the military expenditure used was also considerable.
After Wang Anshi came to power, the increase in government expenditure, as well as the expansion of Dilu expenditure. In the Song Dynasty, the officials in the central and local government organs originally enjoyed the benefits, only the deputy Chengzhi of the Privy Council of the central government, the deputy Chengzhi of Zhufang, and the deputy Chengzhi of each room, the official affairs of the Houguan and the Houguan of the Wufang Hall under the Zhongshu Gate, and the chiefs, recorders, Lingshi, chief secretaries, Shoudang officials, Shuling Shi, and others under the Zhongshu Gate and the Privy Council. Some of these officials, such as the Houguan under the Zhongshu Gate, have been punished for their treachery and corruption since the beginning of the Song Dynasty, and the participating scholars have foreign officials with the branch calendar, who have served for a certain number of years, and are willing to stay in office and be transferred, and gradually there are also those who have been promoted from the junior selection to the middle and high-level Beijing officials and court officials, or even reinstated, but they are still like Xu officials when they see the prime minister. The officials enjoyed the privilege of the Privy Council, and the chief of the Privy Council was earlier, and the officials under the Zhongshu Sect were not given until the first year of the Chunhua reign of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty (990) according to the case of the Privy Council. In addition to the above-mentioned Zhongshu and the Privy Council, including the central government organs and local government organs, the vast majority of other officials did not have any money and relied on bribery to make a living. In the third year of Xining (1070), Wang Anshi forbade the disadvantages of asking for entrustment, so he formulated the official Lu, and imposed heavy punishment on the bribe-taking officials, called the warehouse law, which was initially implemented in the storage of the granary in Bianjing, and then extended to various central government agencies and various road supervision departments and prefectures. At the same time as reinforcing the strict warehouse law, it also eliminated the disadvantages of the previous invasion of military rations, and ordered the soldiers to spend ten buckets of grain per stone. In order to make the income of the lower-level officials sufficient to support their integrity, their income was also increased. In addition, in order to arrange for officials who are tired and inactive and have different opinions, Wang Anshi also increased the number of ancestral officials, and there is no limit to the number of posts. Although the increase in the expenditure of the military is far from being comparable with the military expenditure, it is also a large amount.
Under such circumstances, the new law cannot but have a strong financial overtone. Financial management can be carried out from two aspects: throttling and open source, Wang Anshi did not ignore throttling, he once abolished many counties and counties, the purpose is to save expenses; In the second year of Xining (1069), it was stipulated that after alienating the clan, no officials would be awarded, and they must pass the imperial examination to obtain official positions, also in order to save money. The armor protection law and the horse protection law in the new law also have the intention of reducing expenditure. However, government spending continues to expand, and it is difficult to achieve the goal of financial management by reducing expenditure alone, so the new law pays more attention to how to open up financial resources, and Wang Anshi has also put his consistent belief for many years into practice through the new law.
In February of the second year of Xining, after Wang Anshi was appointed as the governor of the council, he immediately set up the three departments of the regulations department, "the three departments should be read in detail in the text of the regulations, and the events of the joint bank should be heard", with the purpose of "emphasizing the art of financial management". Before the establishment of the Three Divisions and Regulations Department, Song Shenzong and Wang Anshi had a conversation, which is very noteworthy. Yang Zhongliang's "Continuation of the Chronicle of the Tongjian Long Edition" Volume 66 "Emperor Shenzong and the Regulations of the Three Divisions":
First of all, he asked: "Why is Shaanxi so rich that it can accumulate border valleys?" An Shi said: "If you want to make money, you should cultivate the method of opening and closing the world." Because of the words: "An official of Quanfu, the first king destroyed and annexed, helped the poor and weak, changed the wealth of the world, and made the profit come from a hole, so as to also." He said, "That's true." Today, there are few people who know that there is such a reason, and they want to implement it. An Shi said: "Talents are rare and difficult to know. Now the messenger manages the money, then one or two out of ten people can fail, and the messenger who chooses is not one, how can there be no such loss? Shang said: "If there is a person who fails, he will waste the plan, so there is little success." ”
"Quanfu" is an article of "Zhou Guan", which Wang Anshi cites here as the theoretical basis for changing the law. The so-called "profit comes from a hole" refers to the government's control of economic activities through "destroying mergers and helping the poor and weak". If the government can control economic activities, the wealth of the rich can be transferred to the hands of the government, that is, "change the wealth of the world", this proposition is the motive for the establishment of the three departments and regulations, and it is also the fundamental spirit of the new law, which is consistent with the above-mentioned Wang Anshi's idea of financial management with righteousness. Therefore, to do this, in order to achieve "Shaanxi has a lot of money, but can accumulate border valleys", that is, the requirements of side fees, Wang Anshi talked about talents here, and also refers to people with financial management ability.
Since the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the three powers of the military, government and finance have been separated, with the Zhongshu in charge of civil affairs, the Privy Council in charge of military affairs, and the three divisions in charge of finance. Now, Wang Anshi has received the financial power in his hands by setting up the three departments and regulations to facilitate the formulation and implementation of the new law, and at the same time arrange his own cronies in this institution. He recommended Lu Huiqing to serve as the director of the three departments and regulations to inspect the detailed text. Lu Huiqing once discussed the scriptures with Wang Anshi, and they had the same ideas, so they made friends. Wang Anshi highly admired Lu Huiqing in front of Song Shenzong, thinking that he "has a small number of scholars today, and it seems that the Confucians of the previous life failed to propose", and said that "those who can learn the way of the previous kings and can use it" are only Lu Huiqing. Subsequently, due to the intention of Song Shenzong, Su Zhe also served as the director of the regulations of the three divisions to inspect the detailed text, but in less than half a year, he asked to leave because of disagreement. The reason is that Su Zhe advocates that "those who are rich are not seeking wealth but benefiting, and those who go to harm wealth are just those who do things". With such an attitude, it is naturally difficult to work with Wang Anshi.
However, the establishment of such an abnormal organization as the regulation department of the three departments has aroused opposition from some officials. In May of the third year of Xining (1070), this institution was abolished and the center of the new law was transferred to Sinong Temple. Sinong Temple is only an idle institution since the beginning of the Song Dynasty, during the Song Zhenzong and Renzong periods, the promotion of Chang Ping, Guanghui Cang, and the affairs of this aspect are handed over to the management of Si Nong Temple. During the period of existence of the Regulations Department of the Three Divisions, the Green Seedlings Law was implemented, and the capital of Chang Ping and Guanghui Cang was used as the Green Seedlings Money Fund, so the relevant affairs were transferred to the Department of Regulations of the Three Divisions of the Establishment of the Three Divisions, and the officials of the Regulations Department of the Three Divisions were promoted by Changping and Guanghui Cang and were also in charge of the farmland and water conservancy errands, and the Sinong Temple became an idle institution. At the same time as abolishing the three divisions and regulations, the Qingmiao Law (Changping New Law) and the affairs of Changping and Guanghuicang were returned to Sinong Temple for management, and the chief judge sentenced Sinong Temple or the same judgment Sinong Temple to concurrently receive farmland, errand service, and water conservancy. Most of the prefects of Sinong Temple are concurrently served by the chief prosecutor of the Zhongshu Sect or the official of the Taiwan Counsel, and the officials of the two systems (Hanlin Bachelor and Zhizhi He), which is directly controlled by the prime minister or the emperor. Therefore, after the establishment of the three departments of regulations, Sinong Temple planned, promulgated and implemented various new laws. Mainly under the successive planning of the two institutions of the three departments and the Si Nong Temple, various new laws have been promulgated one after another.
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Reform and reform of the Northern Song Dynasty
The origin and rheology of the Xining Reform and its influence on the history of the Southern Song Dynasty
Author: Liang GengyaoProducer: Moment Humanities Publishing House: Oriental Publishing CenterPublication time: June 2024 Price: 98.00
ISBN：9787547324196
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