Wang Anshi, a native of Linchuan, Jiangxi, was a famous politician and writer of the Northern Song Dynasty. In 1047, the twenty-six-year-old Wang Anshi was appointed as the county magistrate of Yin County. He built water conservancy in the local area, developed agriculture, opened wide schools, developed education, and achieved outstanding political achievements.
In view of the fact that the peasants were in short supply of grain at the turn of spring and summer, Wang Anshi took out the grain stored in the official warehouse and distributed it to the peasant households who were short of grain in the form of "grain loans" to let them survive the spring famine. After the summer grain and autumn grain are harvested, the peasants will use the new grain to return it to the official warehouse. But to pay a little interest, about 15-20%. This was the beginning of the "Green Shoots Law" in the later reforms, and this practice of benefiting the country and the people was approved and supported by many peasants because it was in line with reality.
In 1067, Emperor Shenzong of Song succeeded to the throne. At this time, the Northern Song Dynasty was a prosperous scene on the surface, but in fact the national treasury was empty, the social contradictions were numerous, and every year it had to "give" a large amount of gold and silver silk to the Liao, Jin, and Western Xia in exchange for false peace, which made the country's financial resources worse. In order to fundamentally reverse this unfavorable situation, in 1068, The Song Dynasty worshiped Wang Anshi, who had repeatedly advocated the change of law, and wanted to make the country strong and prosperous through the change of law.
In 1069, Wang Anshi began to carry out comprehensive reforms from the aspects of agriculture, military, education, and finance, and was known in history as Wang Anshi's transformation of the law. Objectively speaking, changing the law was an urgent need of the society at that time, and the measures were also very targeted, but the effect was not satisfactory. In addition to the reasons such as haste in practice and improper employment, it is mainly because the reform has touched the vested interests of the conservative elite and has been strongly opposed by them; at the same time, it has been distorted by local officials, and even they have enriched themselves in the name of reform. For example, the grain loan policy has become a kind of forced apportionment of farmers. Local officials demanded grain from peasants, whether they needed them or not. Moreover, interest is attached to various harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, up to 50% in some places, forcing some farmers to sell their children and daughters. In this way, the moral government of the imperial court became a harsh government, and the people complained. A man named Zheng Xia then painted a "Picture of displaced people", and the empress dowager burst into tears after seeing it, but she did not expect that the life of the low-level people was still so bitter! The rulers of the Great Song Dynasty began to shake their determination to reform, and the opposition even took advantage of the problem to calculate these accounts on the Wang An stone. In 1085, Emperor Shenzong of Song died, Wang Anshi lost the support of the top, and the change of law came to an end.
In terms of educational reform, the Song people's examination was mainly based on the examination of the Four Books and Five Classics. However, some have been divorced from social reality and cannot keep up with the requirements of the development of the times. In view of this situation, Wang Anshi changed from the original study of the Four Books and Five Classics and the Zi Yue Shiyun to the study of agricultural technology, criminal names and financial management that society needs. The content of the examination was changed from poetry to the study of the world, case adjudication, and financial management. However, many readers believe that the scriptures and analects are useless, and Wang Linchuan's articles have become a new classic they read, and they have gone from Wang Anshi's articles to find chapters and questions in order to seek fame and wealth. The opposition also pushed the responsibility for this kind of "counting and forgetting ancestors" to Wang Anshi.
It is said that Wang Anshi had many white eyes, and conservatives and opponents said that from the perspective of xiangshu, this was a "reverse phase", and personal and reputational attacks were carried out on him to further obstruct the transformation law.