I believe that when everyone mentions Wang Mang, his first reaction is that he is an out-and-out "crosser", and the reason why Wang Mang is a crosser is also very simple, first of all, Wang Mang changed the era name to the first year of the Yuan Dynasty after usurping the Han Dynasty, and this year is also the first year of the beginning of the Western era. At the same time, the semi-serfdom system of the Han Dynasty was also the reason why Wang Mang deeply hated it, and the first thing Wang Mang did after ascending the throne was to abolish serfdom and prohibit all slave trade. So why is Wang Mang's seemingly serious reform and change method being madly smeared by many literati and scholars?
Wang Mang
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > whether Wang Mang's transformation method is right or wrong</h1>
Some people will say that Wang Mang's change of law is too hasty and does not conform to the footsteps of the times, so failure is also a matter of course, and even some people evaluate that Wang Mang's new dynasty change of law is an outright stupid act, and Wang Mang also buried his life because of his own stupidity. In fact, we have all forgotten one thing, that is, the reform of the law is to be bloody, which has nothing to do with the times, but only has an inevitable connection with the social phenomenon at that time! At that time, the Han Dynasty that Wang Mang took over was already in internal and external troubles, the problem of the annexation of land by the large landlord bureaucratic class was very serious, and the people in many areas rose up, so Wang Mang had to change the law in order to maintain social stability! The following is an example of two powerful countries that failed to change the law.
Peasant revolt
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > Wang Anshi transformation method (1069, during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song).</h1>
In 1069, during the song shenzong period, the Song dynasty was worried about internal and external troubles, and the Khitan and Dangxiang tribes launched wars to invade the border areas of the Northern Song Dynasty for many years, and some people inside rebelled against the rule of the Great Song Dynasty because of the increasing taxes and land annexations, in order to actively change this situation, Song Shenzong appointed Wang Anshi as the prefect of Jiangning and a scholar and attendant of Hanlin, and more systematically put forward the idea of changing the law and the problem of eliminating the long-standing shortcomings of the Song Dynasty after the change. Wang Anshi believes that the core of the problem of poverty in the Northern Song Dynasty lies in the fact that the productive forces are too small, and the bureaucratic rich and the rich have annexed most of the rich land, and the change of law during the reform of the Song Shenzong changed the current situation of the Northern Song Dynasty's poverty and weakness to a certain extent, enriched the government finances and improved the national defense strength, but at the same time caused a serious blow to the large landlord class in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the end, the behavior of Wang Anshi and his colleagues in the change of law seriously violated the rights and interests of the conservatives of the Northern Song Dynasty, and in the end, except for the safety of the main members of the change of law, almost all of the rest were in danger of life!
Wang Anshi transformation method
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" > pentagram (1898).</h1>
Perhaps the Wang Anshi reform method mentioned above is not well understood, but when it comes to the Penghu reform method, I believe that everyone already knows it, and the Penghu Reform Law, also known as the Hundred Days Restoration, was a comprehensive reform and reform action represented by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao in the late Qing Dynasty through the Guangxu Emperor. The reason for the trigger of the Wushu Reform Law is that after the signing of the "Maguan Treaty", the fiasco of the Sino-Japanese War caused China to accelerate the semi-colonization of society, and in the face of the crisis of national subjugation and extinction, some advanced Chinese began to look for a way to save the country and save the people, and finally the end of the Wushu Reform Law was familiar to everyone, just like Tan Sitong believed: "All reforms can only succeed if they are shedding blood"!
Pentagram variation
From the above two cases of law change, it is not difficult to see that the only way to completely change the status quo of society is to reform and change the law, and the bloody failure of reform and change law is also a very normal thing, just like the truth is often in the hands of a small number of people. The Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi has a poem: "The Duke of Zhou feared the rumor day, and Wang Mang was humble and did not usurp the time." Xiang Xiang died in the first place, and who knows the truth or falsity of his life? In Bai Juyi's view, Wang Mang was an out-and-out usurper, and he couldn't bear to hang Wang Mang's name to condemn him when writing poetry.
Bai Juyi
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="19" > Hu Shi overturned Wang Mang's case twice! </h1>
In ancient times, even poets and literary heroes like Bai Juyi hung Wang Mang as a "conspirator", which especially shows that the public's view of Wang Mang is not much better. However, after modern times, people's intellectual circles have undergone a great change, hu shi has twice overturned the case for Wang Mang, he wrote in the article: "Wang Mang Wang Mang has been wronged for 1,900 years, and there is still no fair conclusion... However, Wang Mang was indeed a great politician, and his courage and wrist were far above Wang Anshi. "Recently, I have carefully studied the Biography of Wang Mang, the Chronicle of Food and Goods, and the Zhou Li, and only then have I learned that Wang Mang's group of people are indeed socialists." However, it is a pity that even if Wang Mang's thoughts were crowned by that era, he did not lose unjustly when he met such an opponent as Liu Xiu.
Do you have any views on Wang Mang's reform and change of law? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area!