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98-508: Sima Guang was named after Guang Prefecture , his birthplace, and where his father Sima Chi ( 司馬池 ) served as a county magistrate . The Sima family were originally from Xia County in Shǎn Prefecture , and claimed descent from the 3rd century Cao Wei official Sima Fu . A famous anecdote relates the young Sima Guang saving a playmate who had fallen into an enormous vat full of water. As other children scattered in panic, Sima calmly picked up

196-568: A 1096 invasion by the restored Zhang Dun. Sima Guang is best remembered for his masterwork, Zizhi Tongjian , and the Australian sinologist Rafe de Crespigny describes him as "perhaps the greatest of all Chinese historians" ( de Crespigny 1973 :65). In 1064, Sima presented to Emperor Yingzong of Song the five-volume Liniantu ("Chart of Successive Years"). It chronologically summarized events in Chinese history from 403 BCE to 959 CE and served as

294-708: A Middle Course", failed to please either factions. Cai Jing remained in power from 1101 to 1125, two years before the Northern Song was ended by the Jin invasion and capture of Kaifeng , known as the Jingkang Incident . Cai intensified political persecution of the Conservatives. There was increasing corruption and deterioration of the government under his administration, marring the New Policies with criticisms identified with

392-524: A decrease in government expenditures, since the local population was responsible for its own protection. In 1075 they were also charged with collecting tax and offering Green Sprouts loans. Wang saw the ultimate goal of the Baojia system as "making farmers and soldiers as one." In some places it sanctioned pre-existing militias while in others it created new ones, but in practice, the baojia was never effective at creating strong fighting troops and it never replaced

490-417: A framework for the replacement system should be formulated first. Su Shi, Su Che's older brother, formed a third faction and proposed that the funds from the labor recruitment law should be used to buy up public lands to grant to volunteer laborers in addition to their wages. Sima did not accept dissent from either group. The green sprouts law was intended to give low-interest loans to farmers but, like many of

588-436: A great deal of commercialization, privatization of land, and urbanization. Around 40–60 percent of the rural households were small farmers who possessed only 20 percent of cultivated land. They were unable to secure sufficient income to support their families and took out loans from landowners who possessed 80 percent of the land. The interest rate was very high: the government set the ceiling at 100 percent p.a. The beneficiaries,

686-457: A jinshi degree in 1042. He began his career in the Song bureaucracy as a secretary ( qianshu ) in the office of the assistant military commissioner ( jiedu panguan tinggonshi ) of Huainan ( Yangzhou , Jiangsu province). He was then promoted to district magistrate ( zhixian ) of Yinxian ( Ningbo , Zhejiang province ), where he reorganized hydrological projects for irrigation and gave credits to

784-456: A key position for general administration, and a year later was made chancellor ( zaixiang ; 宰相). In recent decades, farmers have always lived very hard lives. Government only puts a burden on them but seldom relieves them. Take the capital’s suburbs as example: most of the irrigation projects like dykes and canals have not been maintained; deserted arable lands contiguously stretch for hundreds of square miles; family after family goes bankrupt and

882-584: A more detailed eight-volume Tongzhi ( 通志 ; 'Comprehensive Records'), which chronicled Chinese history from 403 BCE to 207 BCE (the end of the Qin dynasty). The emperor issued an edict for the compilation of a groundbreaking universal history of China, granting full access to imperial libraries, and allocating funds for the costs of compilation, including research assistance by experienced historians such as Liu Ban (劉攽, 1022–88), Liu Shu (劉恕, 1032–78), and Fan Zuyu (范祖禹, 1041–98). After Yingzong died in 1067, Sima

980-461: A mourning period from 1063 to 1066. In 1067, he became governor of Jiangning ( Nanjing ). During his time in the local administration, Wang Anshi gained an understanding of the difficulties experienced by local officials and the common people. In 1058, he sent a letter ten thousand characters long ( Wanyanshu ; 万言书/ Yanshishu ; 言事书/ Shang Renzong Huangdi yanshi shu ; 上仁宗皇帝言事书) to Emperor Renzong of Song (r. 1022–1063), in which he suggested reforms to

1078-460: A peak of 81 percent of central government revenues during the New Policies era, compared to 48 percent c. 1000. At the same time tax receipts in cloth, a staple of state finance since the Eastern Han, virtually disappeared. From this time forward silver essentially replaced textiles in the Song fiscal system, and silk ceased to serve any monetary functions. The balanced delivery law ( junshufa ; 均输法)

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1176-407: A premium of 20 percent in years of crop failures. Effectively, it transformed labor service to the government into a monetary payment, increasing tax revenue. However, people who were previously exempt from corvée labor were forced to pay taxes for labor on official projects, and thus protested the new law. Although officially abolished in 1086, the new labor recruitment system existed in practice until

1274-562: A prospectus for sponsorship of his ambitious project in historiography . These dates were chosen because 403 BCE was the beginning of the Warring States period, when the ancient State of Jin was subdivided, which eventually led to the establishment of the Qin dynasty —959 CE was the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and the beginning of the Song dynasty. In 1066, he presented

1372-471: A provincial exam graduate. In 1104, the prefectural examinations were abolished in favor of the three-colleges system, which required each prefecture to send an annual quota of students to the Taixue. This drew criticism from some officials who claimed that the new system benefited the rich and young, and was less fair because the relatives of officials could enroll without being examined for their skills. In 1121,

1470-449: A recommendation-based imperial examination system. Rulers were supposed to only determine official assignments, reward achievement, punish failure, care about their servants, have good morals, and be immune to outside influence. On a wider level, a society with clear inferior-superior roles would be stable. His deeply anti-change perspective made him a political conservative (in contrast with Wang Anshi's reformism). For Sima, to be ethical

1568-471: A rock and smashed a hole in the base of the pot. Water leaked out, and his friend was saved. At the age of 6, Sima heard a lecture concerning the Zuo Zhuan , a work of history dating to the 4th century BC. Fascinated, he was able to retell the stories to his family when he returned home. He became an avid reader, "to the point of not recognizing hunger, thirst, coldness or heat". Sima obtained early success as

1666-684: A scathing report that criticized the oversized bureaucracy, imperial extravagance, and an inefficient army and which called for imperial discussion rather than offering specific solutions. Shenzong quickly dissolved the office but continued to accept Sima's counsel. By 1070, Sima was part of the Hanlin Academy , the Bureau of Military Affairs , and the Council of State . Frustrated with Wang Anshi's dominance over court and despite Shenzong's urging for him to stay, Sima retired to Luoyang in 1071, which would become

1764-487: A scholar and officer. When he was barely twenty, he passed the Imperial examination with the highest rank of jìnshì ( 進士 ; 'metropolitan graduate'), and spent the next several years in official positions. Sima believed that civilization was created when the sage kings transformed humans from their original animal state using hierarchical order, property rights, moral instruction, and penal law. He believed that

1862-413: A scholar. For 40 years following the death of Shenzong, the reformist and conservative factions alternated control over the Song government. Both factions engaged in "ethical factionalism" as they engaged in ruthless purges against each other. An attempted coup by the reformist faction (including Cai Que , Zhang Dun , Xing Shu , and Cai Jing ) intended to dethrone Emperor Zhezong failed and aggravated

1960-590: A situation, Wang considered any claim that the emperor had control of the people to be just words. Above all, Wang saw himself as the defender of family farms and small shopkeepers against rapacious rentier landowners and the great merchant houses, whom he castigated as “aggrandizers.” Wang feared that unbridled market exchange created imbalances in the distribution in wealth and was vulnerable to manipulation by merchant cartels. To forestall such inequities he advocated state intervention in commerce and moneylending. Wang created new state agencies to manage wholesale trade at

2058-694: A statesman and historian, Sima Guang was also a lexicographer (who perhaps edited the Jiyun ), and spent decades compiling his 1066 Leipian ("Classified Chapters", cf. the Yupian ) dictionary. It was based on the Shuowen Jiezi , and included 31,319 Chinese characters , many of which were coined in the Song and Tang dynasty . His Family Precepts of Sima Guang (司馬溫公家訓) is also widely known and studied in China and Japan. Gu%C4%81ng Prefecture Guang Prefecture (光州)

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2156-405: A two-year period on which the students were graded. Those who achieved the superior grade on both exams were directly appointed to office equal to that of a metropolitan exam graduate. Those who achieved an excellent grade on one exam but slightly worse on the other could still be considered for promotion, and having a good grade in one exam but mediocre in another still awarded merit equal to that of

2254-471: A way that promotes these theories. Sima and the other Yuanyou faction conservatives (except for Su Shi , who had an unorthodox interpretation of the Tao ) would be positively associated with Neo-confucianism . Liu Anshi , an important Neoconfucian, was Sima's disciple. Emperor Shenzong died in 1085, shortly after Sima had submitted Zizhi Tongjian to the throne. Sima was recalled to court and appointed to lead

2352-405: A work of reference and guidance, indicating that Shenzong accepted Sima as his guide in the study of history and its application to government. The emperor maintained his support for the compilation of this comprehensive history until its completion in 1084. From the late 1060s, Sima came to assume a role as leader of what has been identified as a conservative faction at court, resolutely opposed to

2450-400: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to the history of China is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . New Policies (Song dynasty) The New Policies ( Chinese : 新法 ; pinyin : xīnfǎ ), also known as Xining Reforms (熙寧變法; Xining being the first era name used by Emperor Shenzong), Xifeng Reforms (熙豐變法; Xifeng being

2548-468: Is a matter of great concern. Now we wish to revive the ancient institutions and rectify the misdeeds, though it is worried that we do not have a gradual reform plan. The rhyming-couplets and parallel-phrasing style of essay should firstly be eliminated so that students can concentrate on the meanings of the Confucian Classics. In the meantime the court should build schools, after which we can deliberate

2646-409: Is forced to abandon its village and move elsewhere. This is what the situation looks like nearest to us, so we can imagine what it is like in the more remote regions. Once a disaster happens, corpses of victims of starvation are piled one upon the other, and the roads are filled with refugees. The primary objectives of Wang Anshi's New Policies ( xinfa ) were to cut government expenditure and strengthen

2744-687: The Analects , the Mencius , and one of the Five Classics . The Spring and Autumn Annals were excluded due to their low contemporary political value. To emphasize legal expertise, the "new degree in law" was introduced in 1071. These reforms were intended to be more relevant, promote critical thinking, and increase support for the New Policies. The examination reforms disrupted the studies of many candidates and were thus quickly repealed following Emperor Shenzong's death. The reforms created political factions in

2842-630: The New Policies of Chancellor Wang Anshi . Sima presented increasingly critical memorials to the throne until 1070, when he refused further appointment and withdrew from court. In 1071, he took up residence in Luoyang , where he remained with an official sinecure, providing sufficient time and resources to continue the compilation of Zizhi Tongjian . Though the historian and the emperor continued to disagree on policies, Sima's enforced retirement proved essential for him to complete his chronological history over

2940-528: The Secretariat and the Chancellery , arguing that the latter was redundant: "[The Chancellery] serves no purpose except to double the number of clerks and multiply paperwork." The two departments would be combined in 1129. Cai Que and Zhang Dun would lead the reformist opposition against the conservative restoration. The compulsory Baojia village defense system trained and enrolled nearly 7 million men across

3038-542: The "barbarians" would commend the Song dynasty's good government. Since the end of the Qingli Reforms in 1045 did not end the Song dynasty's problems, factions developed around how to solve these issues. Conservatives like Sima Guang advocated for a smaller government budget and gradual reform. As such, Sima opposed the New Policies of Wang Anshi , which increased government authority and spending. Sima argued that more state revenue would mean less money for farmers and that

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3136-425: The 1080s the program began to suffer deficits. The state’s injection of new credit into the rural economy apparently reinforced rather than remedied the perpetual cycle of indebtedness that afflicted many farming families. The hydraulic works law ( shuilifa ; 水利法) was meant to improve local organization of irrigation works. Instead of using corvée labor, each circuit was supposed to appoint officials to loan money to

3234-477: The New Policies were revived and extended in geographical extent. The Conservative faction suffered political persecution and exiled to local government posts far away. During the early reign of Emperor Huizong (r. 1100–1126), one of Wang's early associates, Zeng Bu, tried to reconcile the Reformers and Conservatives by recommending some of the latter to high offices. This short-lived policy, known as "Establishment of

3332-552: The New Policies' implementation on Shenzong's wish to extend Song borders to match the Han and Tang dynasties, that they were only a tool for irredentism. The pro-New policies faction regained power when Emperor Zhezong (r. 1085–1100) came of age in 1093. The policies largely continued under the reign of Emperor Huizong until the end of the Northern Song dynasty in 1126. Following the deaths of Wang Anshi and Shenzong in 1085, Wang’s enemies came to power and began to dismantle his reforms in

3430-484: The New Policies/New Laws. The reforms had three main components: 1) state finance and trade, 2) defense and social order, and 3) education and improving governance. The equal tax law ( junshuifa ; 均税法), also known as the square field law ( fangtianfa ; 方田法) was a land registration project meant to reveal hidden land (untaxed land). Fields were divided into squares 1,000 paces in length on each side. The corners of

3528-469: The Song dynasty's defeat at Yongle City during the war with the Western Xia on poor, glory-oriented leadership, while presenting himself as the "savior of the dynasty". As the conservative leader, he headed his coalition to demote reformist leaders to lowly prefectural -level posts (while promoting conservatives into high positions and, one by one, abolished many of the New Policies. He also wanted to combine

3626-720: The Song government went through an anti-reform period. Many of the New Policies were rescinded or drastically altered. Supporters of the New Policies were denounced. Even those who were against the New Policies but did not favor a sudden swing to the extreme such as Fan Chunren, Su Shi , and Su Che were dismissed. After Sima Guang died in 1086, power was left in the hands of Lü Gongzhu, Lü Dafang (1028–1097), and Liu Zhi (1030–1097). After Dowager Empress Gao died in 1093 and Emperor Zhezong came of age, New Policies supporters were recalled and put in power. These included Zhang Chun (1034–1105) (should be Zhang Dun 章惇), Wang Anshi's son-in-law Cai Bian, and his brother Cai Jing (1046–1126). Many of

3724-450: The administration in order to solve financial and organizational problems. In the letter he blamed the downfall of previous dynasties on the refusal of their emperors to deviate from traditional patterns of rule. He criticized the imperial examination system for failing to create specialized workers. Wang believed that there should not be generalists but that people should specialize in their roles and not study extraneous teachings. His letter

3822-428: The administrator of Chenzhou . Zhang Dun continued to resist and pointed out Sima's hypocrisy regarding the law: in early 1086, Sima said that rich households were harmed by the law, while just 14 days later he said that rich households benefitted from their preferential treatment under the law. Zhang also criticized Sima's demand to abolish the law country-wide in a mere 5 days. Indeed, Sima was impressed when Cai Jing ,

3920-492: The aforementioned policies, became a method of revenue extraction. Conservative opposition to this policy was unified and Fan Chunren, the son of Fan Zhongyan , was the only dissenter. His argument that the law could boost the dynasty's base revenue annoyed Sima Guang and he was only saved by Wang Yansou's intervention. This incident revealed the deepening divisions within Sima's coalition that would exacerbate after his death. Following

4018-579: The aims of the three-colleges was to provide a more balanced education for students and to de-emphasize Confucian learning. Students were taught in only one of the Confucian classics, depending on the college, as well as arithmetics and medicine. Students of the Outer College who passed a public and institutional examination were allowed to enter the Inner College. At the Inner College there were two exams over

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4116-439: The capital and provide credit for retail businesses, turned private brokers into government agents, tightened the state’s control of foreign trade, and extended the existing monopoly on salt production to include much tea cultivation as well. Wang Anshi was promoted to vice counselor in 1069. He served as the sole chief councilor in 1071–1074 and 1075–1076. He introduced and promulgated a series of reforms, collectively known as

4214-636: The center of the conservative opposition. This made Wang largely unopposed in government. Sima was disturbed by the New Policy's control over the dynasty's people and resources. Sima had multiple objections to the New Policies. He believed that: Sima retired in Luoyang from 1071 to 1085. While there, he wrote the Zizhi Tongjian and cultivated friendships with Shao Yong , Cheng Yi , and Cheng Hao . Massive famines and droughts fueled resentment towards Wang Anshi and garnered support for Sima, contributing to

4312-527: The conservative faction. Sima was an old and tired man in Luoyang and was reluctant to return to the capital, but Cheng Hao convinced him to do so. When Sima arrived in Kaifeng , a large crowd swarmed to touch his horse, and palace guardsmen saluted him as "Prime Minister Sima". He encouraged people to openly express their grievances about the New Policies. Sima was soon made chief councilor by Empress Dowager Gao ,

4410-476: The conservative restoration of 1085. However, Sima was not restored to power following the unpopular Wang's retirement in 1076 since Shenzong took personal control over the New Policies. Cai Que , a semi-reformist leader, blocked Sima's re-appointment to power despite the failure of the war against the Western Xia . Cai nonetheless ingratiated him to the influential Sima by appointing Sima's disciple, Xing Shu , as

4508-416: The court. Wang Anshi's faction, known as the "Reformers", were opposed by the ministers in the "Conservative" faction led by the historian and Chancellor Sima Guang (1019–1086). As one faction supplanted another in the majority position of the court ministers, it would demote rival officials and exile them to govern remote frontier regions of the empire. One of the prominent victims of the political rivalry,

4606-446: The dust by the rich." Wang proposed that "to manage wealth the ruler should see public and private [wealth] as a single whole." Wang believed that it was wealth that united the people and if wealth could not be administered properly, then even the lowliest men who did not possess political power would rise to take advantage of the situation, take control of the economy, monopolize it, and use it to advance their unlimited greed. Under such

4704-399: The dynasty. Sima criticized the system's detracting from agricultural productivity and its potential for creating bandits. Wang Yansou criticized the unnecessary brutality of the system. In mid-1085, an imperial edict abolished the system in the capital and its surrounding areas, with more restrictions imposed on this system in the following months. Reformist opposition to the system's abolition

4802-674: The end of the Northern Song dynasty in 1127. Certainly the New Policies increased government revenues substantially, by at least 18 million guan annually. Tax receipts in coin rose by nearly 40 percent, primarily as a result of the monetization of labor services and the income generated by the Green Sprouts program; commercial sources, apart from the Sichuan tea monopoly, yielded only modest revenues. Although we lack complete figures for national accounts, estimates suggest that money payments reached

4900-457: The end of the Northern Song. In some ways, it continued the policies of the aborted Qingli Reforms from two decades earlier. Government statistics show that in 1034, 80 percent of the Song dynasty 's population consisted of rural households. However because the state had given up ownership and distribution of land in the villages and deregulated the markets, the 11th century rural and urban economy saw

4998-428: The established agencies cornered the market in staple goods and became focused on generating revenue. Throughout 1085, executive orders forgave debt owed to the agencies and abolished loan bureaus before abolishing the law altogether. This signaled the turning point for the reformist-conservative conflict. The labor recruitment law replaced corvée labor with professional laborers funded by service exemption fees paid by

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5096-505: The face of the Jurchen invasion in 1126 was widely blamed on the fiscal mismanagement and private venality of Wang Anshi’s self-anointed disciples. The refugee court that reconstituted Song rule in South China after the fall of Kaifeng in 1127 repudiated Wang Anshi’s political philosophy and repealed most of the New Policies. But the powerful presence of the fiscal state endured. From 1085–1093,

5194-591: The failure of the Qingli Reforms under an unenthusiastic Emperor Renzong , the future reformist Wang Anshi submitted a 10,000-word memorial in 1058 detailing a system of comprehensive reform. Sima Guang did the same thing in 1061, but his proposals were more conservative. In 1064, Sima, then just a policy critic, raised the issue between performing rituals for Zhao Yurang , Emperor Yingzong's biological father, and Emperor Renzong. This issue would dominate Yingzong's reign and cause political gridlock. Sima himself believed that priority should be given to Renzong since he

5292-412: The fall of the dynasty. In China Wang Anshi is generally seen as a practical failure. From a Chinese Marxist perspective he was a reformer. In 1944, Henry A. Wallace called Wang Anshi a "Chinese New Dealer who lived about 900 years ago." Wang's economic policies have been compared to Keynesian economics and described as "proto-Keynesian economic policy." It was ten years ago that I learned for

5390-415: The famous poet and statesman Su Shi (1037–1101), was jailed and eventually exiled for criticizing Wang's reforms. One point of contention over the New Policies was fiscal management. Wang made it clear that he was not concerned about deficits and promised the emperor that revenues would be adequate even without increasing taxes. Sima did not agree and did not believe that the economy could grow faster than

5488-492: The fields were marked by earth piles or trees. In the autumn, an official was dispatched to supervise the surveying of the land and to place the soil quality in one of five categories. This information was written in a ledger declared legally binding for the purposes of sale and purchase, and the taxation value assessed appropriately. The law was highly unpopular with land owners, who complained that it restricted their freedom of distribution and other purposes (avoiding tax). Although

5586-460: The following one and a half decades. Contemporary accounts relate that, in order to work more and sleep less when he was writing his great opus, the Zizhi Tongjian, he had a wooden pillow made from a log that was designed to slip from under his head whenever he rolled over. He called this Jingzhen 警枕 (Alert Pillow), and used it throughout the period of Zizhi Tongjian 's compilation. Sima rejected

5684-490: The government and stored for later sale at a lower price, disrupting price manipulation by merchant monopolies. Merchant guilds that cooperated with the market exchange bureau were allowed to sell goods to the government and buy commodities from government storehouses using money or credit at an interest rate of 10 percent for six months or 20 percent for a year. Small or mid-sized companies and groups of five merchants could provide guarantee with their assets for credit. After 1085,

5782-544: The government under Emperor Zhezong of Song . He used this time in power to repeal many of the New Policies , but he died the following year, in 1086. His death fractured the conservative coalition, which split into the Shuo ( Hebei ) faction, the Luo ( Henan ) faction, and the Shu ( Sichuan ) faction. This ushered in a period of political gridlock from 1086 to 1093. As well as his achievements as

5880-453: The government was immoral for competing with merchants. Somewhat counterintuitively, he emphasized the unifying role of the emperor more than the reformists; he wanted the emperor to manage the bureaucracy and control officials with rewards and punishments, while the reformists wanted to implement new policies for new problems. In response to Emperor Shenzong of Song appointing him as head of the new Office of Expenditure Reduction, Sima released

5978-451: The guild avoidance law ( mianshangfa ; 免商法), targeted large trading companies and monopolies. A metropolitan market exchange bureau was set up in Kaifeng and 21 market exchange offices in other cities. They were headed by supervisors and office managers who dealt with merchants, merchant guilds, and brokerage houses. These institutions fixed prices for not only resident merchants but also itinerant traders. Surplus commodities were purchased by

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6076-428: The imperial army. The general and troops law ( jiangbingfa ; 将兵法), also known as the creation of commands law ( zhijiangfa ; 置将法) targeted improving the relationship between high officials and common troops. The army was divided into units of 2,500 to 3,000 men that combined a mixed force of infantry, cavalry, archers, as well as tribal troops, instead of each belonging to their own individual unit. This did not include

6174-591: The local three-college system was abolished but retained at the national level. In ancient times, the method for selecting officials depended essentially on schools, which unified people’s morality from above and cultivated customs among the people from below. Talented people could apply their knowledge to state affairs. Yet after the beneficence of the sage-kings was exhausted, the way of teaching no longer followed these fundamental principles. Even though literati possessed talent, they had yet to be perfected since they lacked support from teachers and friends in schools. This

6272-476: The market exchange bureau and offices became profit making institutions, and bought cheap goods and sold at higher prices. The system stayed in place until the end of the Northern Song dynasty in 1127. The baojia system , also known as the village defense law or security group law, was a project to improve local security and relieve local government of administrative duties. It ordered groups of ten, fifty, and five hundred men security groups to be organized. Each

6370-601: The mayor of Kaifeng , was the only one who abolished the law in under 5 days. 21 days after Cai Que resigned, Zhang Dun was demoted to a prefectural-level post after offending Empress Gao during a debate. In spring 1086, Wang Anshi died. The conservative restoration was complete. Nonetheless, the debate over how to remove the labor recruitment law revealed cracks in the conservative coalition. For example, Su Che (and many other conservatives who were typically closely aligned with Sima) argued that "an entire system could not be abolished overnight without serious repercussions" and that

6468-564: The metropolitan and palace army. The system continued until the end of the Song dynasty . The three college law ( sanshefa ; 三舍法), also called the Three Hall system, regulated the education of future officials in the Taixue (National University). It divided the Taixue into three colleges. Students first attended the Outer College, then the Inner College, and finally the Superior College. One of

6566-509: The military in the north. To do this, Wang advocated for policies intended to alleviate suffering among the peasantry and to prevent the consolidation of large land estates which would deprive small peasants of their livelihood. He called social elements that came between the people and the government jianbing , translated as "engrossers." By "engrossers" he meant people who monopolized land and wealth and made others their dependents in wealth and agriculture. Wang believed that suppressing jianbing

6664-399: The name of fiscal austerity. In 1093, however, proponents of the New Policies regained control of the court and revived the reform agenda. But incompetent leadership, a deteriorating military situation, and factional struggles at the court resulted in increasingly erratic fiscal policies and predatory taxation that inflicted enormous damage on the economy. The rapid collapse of the Song state in

6762-536: The officials of the Ever-Normal Granaries who were managing the program were evaluated based on the revenue they could generate, this resulted in forced loans and lack of focus on the disaster relief, which was the original task of the Ever-Normal Granaries. In 1074, a famine in northern China drove many farmers off their lands. Their circumstances were made worse by the debts they had incurred from

6860-612: The peasant. Later he was promoted to controller general ( tongpan ) of Shezhou ( Qianshan , Anhui province). In 1060, he was sent to Kaifeng as assistant in the herd office ( qunmusi panguan ) and then prefect ( zhizhou ) of Changzhou, commissioner for judificial affairs ( tidian xingyu gongshi ) in Jiangnan East, assistant in the Financial Commission ( sansi duzhi panguan ), and finally editor of imperial edicts ( zhi zhigao ). Wang's mother died and he observed

6958-434: The people using the local treasury, so that they could hire laborers. The government also encouraged planting mulberry trees to increase silk production. The labor recruitment law ( muyifa ; 募役法) aimed at replacing corvée labor as a form of tax service with hired labor. Each prefecture calculated the funds needed for official projects in advance so that the funds could be distributed appropriately. The government also paid

7056-463: The population. Sima was concerned with the breakdown of the boundary between institutional responsibilities and the private domain. While Wang attacked the power of private wealth, Sima defended the rich as socially and politically useful. Wang was also in favor of more aggressive foreign policy such as recovering territory and assimilating people to the northwest while Sima preferred a more balanced foreign policy. Sima did not believe that managing wealth

7154-414: The portmanteau of the two era names used by Emperor Shenzong, Xining and Yuanfeng ) or Wang Anshi Reforms (王安石變法), were a series of reforms initiated by the Northern Song dynasty politician Wang Anshi when he served as minister under Emperor Shenzong from 1069–1076. The policies were in force until the emperor's death, then repealed, then enacted again and were a focus of court politics until

7252-538: The problem with government was not in its structure, but rather in the people that ran it. He wrote multiple memorials detailing how to make the government more effective and argued that his views were in accord with history (in contrast with Wang Anshi 's emphasis on the Classics ) and Heaven-and-Earth . A static and well-maintained country would, according to him, last forever. Accordingly, he disliked commercial growth (which he believed encouraged social change) and preferred

7350-446: The protracted, expensive, and ultimately disappointing war against the Western Xia , the conservatives wanted to appease the Western Xia for peace. The concession of Lanzhou to the Xia was highly controversial and, along with 4 fortresses that were ostensibly ceded to Xia, remained a source of border tension for the following decades. The official truce was signed in 1089 and was broken by

7448-524: The regent for Emperor Zhezong and herself a staunch conservative. He and other recalled conservatives like Su Shi , Su Che , Cheng Yi , Cheng Hao , Wang Yansou , Fan Chunren , Wen Yanbo , and Lü Gongzhu formed the Yuanyou faction, named after the current era . Sima made ad hominem denunciations against Wang Anshi, saying: "[Wang] was self-satisfied and self-righteous, and considered himself to be unparalleled by figures past and present." Sima also blamed

7546-411: The richest rural households. Similar to the market exchange law, this law primarily became a method for revenue extraction. Sima argued that the law was simply another tax imposed on the commoners. Cai Que's refusal to remove the labor recruitment law led to his character assassination by the conservatives Liu Chi and Su Che; this pushed him to resign as chancellor of the right and he was reappointed as

7644-449: The roles of the dynastic cycle and Five Phases in legitimizing dynastic succession. For Sima, dynastic succession was instead a result of power struggles; dynasties rose and fell according to consistent factors. He believed that history was a "mirror" for the present and could provide the government with historical context for their current situation. Literati could thus use history as an aid to governance. His histories are structured in

7742-457: The seasonal loans granted under Wang’s reform initiatives. Local officials insisted on collecting the loans as the farmers were leaving their land. This crisis was depicted as being Wang’s fault. Wang still had the emperor's favor, though he resigned in 1076. With the emperor's death in 1085 and the return of the opposition leader Sima Guang, the New Policies were abolished under the regency of Dowager Empress Gao . With Sima back in power, he blamed

7840-399: The square field system was only implemented around the region of Kaifeng , the land surveyed made up 54 percent of known arable land in the Song dynasty . The project was discontinued in 1085. Emperor Huizong of Song (r. 1100–1125) tried to revive it but the implementation was too impractical and gave up after 1120. The system of taxation for mining products ( kuangshui difen zhi ; 矿税抽分制)

7938-412: The state to [warrant] enjoying such a good salary? According to Wang, "good organization of finance was the duty of the government, and the organization of finance was nothing else than to fulfill public duties," and "The state should take the entire management of commerce, industry, and agriculture into its own hands, with a view to succoring the working classes and preventing them from being ground into

8036-486: The state, turning the loan program into a regressive tax. It seems that fiscal goals indeed superseded commitments to social welfare. Revenues from the Green Sprouts loan program – which in its early years yielded roughly 3 million guan annually, or a net profit of 27 percent on its capital – were appropriated to finance flood control and famine relief and to provision frontier armies. Despite the lower interest rates, defaults – even after repeated deferrals – were common, and by

8134-455: The system by forcing loans on the peasants or extracting more than 2 percent interest. From the outset the New Policies aroused fierce opposition. Orthodox Confucians condemned the intrusion of state power into the private economy both on principle and because of the deleterious effects of Wang’s initiatives. Perhaps the most vilified initiative was the Green Sprouts program. Critics charged that local officials forced farmers to borrow money from

8232-563: The ways to restore the methods of education and selection under the Three Dynasties. When education is made universal, we shall have approached the goal of restoring antiquity. The New Policies drastically changed the curriculum of the imperial examinations . The "understanding the Classics" and "various field" degrees were abolished. Poetry, memory passages, and written elucidations were removed; candidates were to instead demonstrate mastery of

8330-458: The wealthy landowners, were commonly called jianbing zhijia , which has been translated as plutocrats, engrossers, or exploiters and described as "magnates who preyed on the poor and usurped the fiscal prerogatives of the state." Wang Anshi was born on 8 December 1021, to a family of jinshi degree holders in Linchuan ( Fuzhou , Jiangxi province). He placed fourth in the palace exam and obtained

8428-628: Was a prefecture of imperial China centered on modern Huangchuan County , Henan . It was created in the 6th century under the Liang dynasty and existed intermittently until 1913, after the establishment of the Republic . The administrative region of Guangzhou in the Tang dynasty is in the border area between modern southeastern Henan and western Anhui (as well as northeastern Hubei ). It probably includes parts of modern: This Chinese location article

8526-413: Was a core function of the government or that it was in their best interests to help those dependent on the rich. He saw that as the breakdown of social order which would cause the eventual downfall of the state. Sima did not even like the imperial examinations and argued that only candidates recommended by court officials should be able to sit the examinations. Essentially, Sima Guang believed that government

8624-400: Was a similar project to the equal tax law, except for regulating mining projects. The green sprouts law ( qingmiaofa ; 青苗法) was a loan to peasants. The government loaned money to buy seeds, or seeds themselves from state granaries, in two disbursements at an interest rate of 2 percent calculated at an average of ten years. Recollections occurred in the summer and winter. Local officials abused

8722-440: Was a surplus, their storage, and transport to areas where they were expensive for sale. Critics claimed that Wang was waging a price war with merchants. Who can’t afford wedding and funeral Will be granted loan for relief. Who faced loss in bad harvest Will be lent credit to continue undertakings. Surplus goods will be purchased; And sold out when it became shortage. The market exchange law ( shiyifa ; 市易法), also called

8820-410: Was ignored for ten years until Emperor Shenzong of Song (r. 1067–1085) succeeded the throne. The new emperor faced declining taxes and an increasingly heavy burden of taxation on commoners due to the development of large estates , whose owners managed to evade paying their share of taxes. This led him to seek advice from Wang in 1069. Wang was first appointed vice counsellor ( can zhizheng shi ; 参知政事),

8918-462: Was invited to the palace to introduce his work-in-progress to Emperor Shenzong of Song . The new emperor not only confirmed the interest his father had shown, but showed his favor by bestowing an imperial preface in which he changed the title from Tongzhi ("Comprehensive Records") to Zizhi Tongjian ("Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government"). Scholars interpret the "Mirror" of the title to denote

9016-480: Was meant to curb the prices of commodities purchased by the government and to control the expenditures of the local administration. To do this, the Commissioner of Supply, who was in charge of collecting tributes from the six most prosperous provinces in southeast China, was made responsible for government purchases and their transport. The central treasury provided funds for the purchase of low cost goods wherever there

9114-519: Was one of the most important goals. Included in the category of jianbing were owners of large estates, rural usurers, large urban businessmen, and speculators responsible for instability in the urban market. All of them had ties to bureaucrats and had representatives in the government. Today in every prefecture and subprefecture, there are jianbing [engrossing] families that annually collect interest amounting to several myriad strings of cash without doing anything... What contribution have they made to

9212-408: Was the domain of the pre-existing elite and only the elite. The Green Sprouts program and the baojia system were not conceived as revenue-generating policies but soon were changed to finance new state initiatives and military campaigns. Within a few months of the start of the Green Sprouts program in 1069 the government started to charge an annual interest of 20–30% on the loans it made to farmers. As

9310-520: Was the emperor's ritual father. Yingzong overruled this belief and, partly due to personal affection for his biological father, gave Zhao Yurang high ritual honors in 1066. In the same year, Sima sponsored Su Zhe for a special decree examination . Emperor Shenzong promoted Sima to chief censor in late 1067. He opposed Shenzong's irridentism and favored a defensive stance towards the Uyghurs , Tibetans , Western Xia , and Liao dynasty . Sima hoped that

9408-483: Was to accept one's social status, and personal cultivation meant exercising restraint; indeed Sima interpreted the "investigation of things", a fundamental tenet of the Cheng-Zhu school of Neo-confucianism , as "restraining things". He also agreed with Xunzi's postulation that humans were inherently evil and wrote a work called "Doubting Mencius " that criticized Mencius' encouraging of the overthrow of hierarchy. After

9506-402: Was to be led by a headman. Initially each household with more than two male adults had to provide one security guard, but this unrealistic expectation was decreased to one per five households later on. The security groups exercised police powers, organized night watches, and trained in martial arts when no agricultural work was required. Essentially it was a local militia with the main effect being

9604-509: Was weak and primarily logistical rather than ideological. Zhang Dun's call for moderate abolition was reasonable considering the shock that followed the rapid abolishment of the Baojia system. The equal tax law was a system of land evaluation and taxation that was probably the most successful of the New Policies. The law was removed with little opposition in late 1085. The market exchange law established government monopolies that were intended to buy cheap products and sell dear products. However,

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