That was Wang Anshi's student Zheng Xia who wrote to Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty to oppose the reform. Instead, he used the "Refugee Picture" to depict the suffering of the people, believing that this was the harm of the reform, and requested that Wang Anshi be removed f

The reform of Wang Anshi during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song Dynasty eventually ended in failure, but this reform also had a profound impact on the history of Song Dynasty. Looking back at the entire reform process, there is an important turning point that must be mentioned. That was Zheng Xia, a student of Wang Anshi , who wrote to Song Shenzong to oppose the reform. Instead, he used the "Refugee Picture" to depict the suffering of the people, believing that this was the harm of the reform, and requested that Wang Anshi be removed from the position of prime minister. The whole incident caused a stir at the time, shaking the government and the public, and ultimately forced Wang Anshi to resign as prime minister for the first time. Xining's new law suffered a major setback. However, what is puzzling in the whole incident is that as a student of Wang Anshi, why did Zheng Xia not support his teacher's reform, but instead helped the conservative snobbery to force Wang Anshi to resign?

Zheng Xia is from Fuqing, Fuzhou. Because his father worked as a wine tax supervisor in Jiangning, he moved to Jiangning with him. Zheng Xia studied very hard since he was a child and became famous in Jiangning literary circles. At that time, Wang Anshi was mourning for his mother in Jiangning. Hearing about Zheng Xia's reputation, he invited him to meet him and offered him praise and comfort. Zheng Xia often wrote articles to ask Wang Anshi for advice. His knowledge increased rapidly and he was also appreciated by Wang Anshi. Wang Anshi heard that Zheng Xia was studying at Qingliang Temple, so he sent his disciple Yang Ji to accompany him as a student. He valued Zheng Xia's talent very much. Zheng Xia was awarded Jinshi in the fourth year of Zhiping, the same year as Wang Anshi's son Wang Yu, and the two families had very close contacts. After Zheng Xia passed the Jinshi examination, he was awarded the official positions of General Secretary and Secretary Provincial Secretary, and officially entered the officialdom of the Song Dynasty.

After Song Shenzong came to the throne, he appointed Wang Anshi as counselor for political affairs , and began to reform and strengthen himself. After Wang Anshi took office, he issued a series of new laws, officially kicking off the Xining Reform . Wang Anshi took great care of his students. He first promoted Zheng Xia to the Guangzhou Judicial Army and asked him to manage Guangzhou's civil and criminal cases. Wang Anshi carefully approved all the suspicious cases reported by Zheng Xia, and the relationship between the two was very close. After Zheng Xia's term expired, he went to Bianliang City in Tokyo to report on his duties. Wang Anshi wanted to promote Zheng Xia to a Beijing official, but Zheng Xia declined. At that time, Wang Anshi needed a lot of talents to implement the new law, and many young officials were promoted, including Li Ding, Deng Wan and others. However, Zheng Xia did not want to take advantage of the teacher's power and refused to be promoted.

Not only that, Zheng Xia expressed doubts about the new law implemented by Wang Anshi. When Wang Anshi invited him, he declined on the grounds that he was not good at law. He also told Wang Anshi many of the shortcomings of the new law that he had seen in the local area, and hoped that Wang Anshi would stop the new law, but Wang Anshi did not adopt it. Wang Anshi asked Li Dongmei, a relative of Zheng Xia, to speak with him, hoping that he would serve as a reviewer in the Bible Review Bureau, and his job would be to be responsible for writing and editing Wang Anshi's "New Meanings of the Three Classics". This is a new Confucian classics textbook launched by Wang Anshi. Those who participated in the compilation are important figures among the new law officials, including Wang Anshi's deputy Lu Huiqing, son Wang Yu and other important officials. At this time, Zheng Xia was completely opposed to the new law. Not only did he reject the teacher's kindness again, he also persuaded Wang Anshi to repeal the new law.

There was a rift in the relationship between teacher and student, and they argued endlessly in letters over the new law. Zheng Xia pointed out many shortcomings of the new law and opposed Wang Anshi in various ways. Wang Anshi was also very dissatisfied with Zheng Xia, and the two almost became tit-for-tat. Later, in the sixth year of Xining, a large-scale drought occurred in the north of the Song Dynasty. Agricultural production failed, and people's lives were difficult, forming a large number of refugees. There were even refugees gathering in Bianliang City, Tokyo, which put great pressure on the imperial court. Faced with this situation, Zheng Xia deeply felt the hardship of people's livelihood, painted "Refugee Picture", and wrote to Song Shenzong requesting Wang Anshi to be dismissed. Seeing the tragic situation in the "Refugee Picture" and facing political pressure from conservatives inside and outside the court, Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty finally decided to overturn the new law and issued the "Edict of Responsibility."

Coincidentally, heavy rain fell three days after the incident, and the drought was alleviated, and conservatives celebrated universally. So Wang Anshi could no longer continue as prime minister, so he wrote a letter asking for his resignation.Lu Huiqing, Deng Wan and others who supported the new law asked for Zheng Xia to be handed over to the Yushitai for punishment after learning the truth, thinking that he had used a horse to deliver the letter without authorization. At the same time, they took turns stating the benefits of the new law to Song Shenzong and requesting its restoration. Song Shenzong was persuaded, so he announced the restoration of the new law and accepted Lu Huiqing, recommended by Wang Anshi, as a political advisor. After Zheng Xia heard about it, he wrote to Song Shenzong again, this time sending the "Picture of the Upright Gentleman and the Officials of the State" and "The Picture of the Evil and Crooked Villain's Rongyue Officials". He compared Lu Huiqing and others to treacherous ministers such as Li Linfu of the Tang Dynasty , and asked Song Shenzong to "be close to virtuous ministers and stay away from villains".

Zheng Xia’s second petition once again ignited the explosive tension between the old and the new parties, immediately shaking the government and the opposition. Lu Huiqing impeached Zheng Xia for "slandering the imperial court" and demoted him to Tingzhou for custody. Then Lu Huiqing intensified his crime and wanted to kill Zheng Xia for Luo Zhi's crime. Song Shenzong ignored it, so Zheng Xia was exiled to Yingzhou. As a result, the first round of the struggle between the old and new parties ended. Wang Anshi was exiled to the prefect of Jiangning, Zheng Xia was exiled to Yingzhou, and Lu Huiqing entered the political affairs hall as a leading figure of the new party. The Zheng Xia case became a turning point in the reform during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty. Since then, the political struggle between the old and the new parties over the reform has evolved from a battle focusing on the content of the new law to a party struggle between the two parties to fight against the different parties, and the struggle situation has become increasingly cruel and fierce.

There are many discussions about Zheng Xia's case in later articles studying Wang Anshi's reform, and many divergent conclusions have been drawn. Mainstream history believes that Zheng Xia was an official who sympathized with the sufferings of the people. He could not stand the damage caused by the new law to the people, and the people were also suffering from drought, so he rose up to oppose Wang Anshi's reform. In the end, he was politically persecuted by New Party officials headed by Lu Huiqing. . Therefore, they believed that Zheng Xia ignored his teacher-student friendship with Wang Anshi, opposed joining the ranks of the new party, and forcibly wrote a letter to force Wang Anshi to resign out of sympathy for the suffering of the people. Therefore, this view holds that Zheng Xia was not a member of the conservative feudal bureaucracy, but was used by the bureaucracy as a tool to oppose the reform, and finally succeeded in unseating Wang Anshi.

However, judging from various historical data, the above statement is difficult to hold up. Because judging from Zheng Xia's behavior in all aspects, he is too unified with the conservative forces of the old party. It is hard to believe that he is not from the old party. Moreover, when the struggle between the old and new parties became increasingly fierce in the later period, Zheng Xia was included among the representatives of the old party, which shows that the old party recognized his achievements in this political struggle.

For example, as a student of Wang Anshi, Zheng Xia saw problems in the implementation of the new law, but his stance in opposing the new law was highly consistent with that of the old party officials. Many of the problems in the implementation of the new law were caused by old party officials deliberately using corruption to intensify conflicts. Zheng Xia was not unaware of this kind of thing. However, in his letter to the emperor, he did not focus on the corruption problem, but blamed the problem on Wang Anshi for making heaven angry.

This kind of behavior is obviously not the attitude that a student of Wang Anshi should have, at least it is a betrayal of Wang Anshi. As a student, even if you have different political opinions from your teacher, you should not engage in any weird things. The normal approach as a student is to seek truth from facts and solve problems on a case-by-case basis. If you don't want to, don't express your opinions randomly, let alone make nonsense. Officials of the old party led by Feng Jing impeached Wang Anshi. The most important reason was that Wang Anshi's appointment as prime minister caused heaven to be angry, which led to the severe drought in the north. Zheng Xia not only agreed with this statement, but also said that as long as Wang Anshi is dismissed as prime minister, it will rain from the sky. Although this kind of incident coincided with the dismissal of the new law by Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, it should not be considered a solution to the problem.

If blaming Wang Anshi and the new law for the severe drought in the north is an endorsement of the old party, then impeaching Wang Anshi and Lu Huiqing has exposed Zheng Xia's identity as an old party member. Zheng Xia submitted a letter to "Picture of Refugees". The first time he took the normal route through the pavilion gate, but it was sealed back. Then he pretended to be a secret and urgent side report, sent it directly to the Yintai department by horse delivery, and reported it directly to Song Shenzong.In fact, this path of Banking Division is not something that a middle- and lower-level official like him can take, and it cannot be done without the cooperation of others. Although the Banking Department is an official office of the Menxia Province, it was subordinate to the Privy Council before the restructuring. As one of the leaders of the old party, Feng Jing happened to be the deputy privy envoy. Feng Jing was also the son-in-law of the conservative leader Fu Bi , and was the one who invited Empress Dowager Cao and Empress Dowager Gao to put pressure on Song Shenzong.

The most surprising thing is that Zheng Xia strongly supported Feng Jing and others in the subsequent impeachment of Lu Huiqing and others. He compared Lu Huiqing and other New Party officials to Li Linfu, the treacherous prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, and compared Feng Jing and others to the famous Tang Dynasty prime ministers Wei Zheng, Yao Chong, Song Jing. After mentioning the replacements after the removal of Lu Huiqing and others, Zheng Xia also listed a series of old party officials headed by Feng Jing. This shows that Zheng Xia has a close relationship with the old party and is very clear about his hierarchical status. From this point of view, Zheng Xia and Feng Jing were obviously working together from the inside out. Zheng Xia went to the Banking Department to submit a letter, and Feng Jing went to the harem to exert pressure, forming a pincer attack on Song Shenzong. Under such a political offensive, the young Shenzong of the Song Dynasty finally couldn't bear it anymore, so he decided to depose the new law and issue the "Edict of Responsibility".

So here comes the question. As a student of Wang Anshi and promoted by Wang Anshi, why would Zheng Xia join the ranks of the old party and go against the teacher? The mainstream view of history says that the reason is that Zheng Xia does not want to see the people suffer. From the above discussion, it can be seen that this is all a statement made by the old party to whitewash public opinion. Because only in this way can Zheng Xia, as a student of Wang Anshi, oppose the new law and play a divisive role in the new party. In fact, judging from Zheng Xia's background and his opposition to the new law, his opposition to Wang Anshi's reform has a very close relationship with the fundamental interests of his family. Wang Anshi's reforms infringed on the interests of Zheng Xia's family, so he stood on the opposite side of his teacher and did not hesitate to become a tool of the old party to attack Wang Anshi.

At the beginning of the promotion of the new law, Zheng Xia still stood on the side of the new law and had a high evaluation of the green seedling method and the immunity method. But with the promotion of new laws, especially the introduction of commercial regulations, Zheng Xia decisively stood against Wang Anshi. Zheng Xia was different from the scholar-officials who represented the big landowners in the north. He was an official who represented the big merchants in the south. Zheng Xia's father was the liquor tax superintendent of Jiangning. According to many books, he was a minor official and could not support Zheng Xia's family, so Zheng Xia lived in poverty when he was a child. However, judging from more historical data, this statement is simply a lie. The wine tax supervisor was one of the most lucrative official positions in the Song Dynasty. With Zheng Xia's father's many years of experience as a liquor tax supervisor, even if he uses legal corruption methods, he is enough to become a wealthy party.

The south of the Song Dynasty was a developed commercial society, which was different from the previous dynasties. Among the commercial taxes in the Song Dynasty, wine tax accounted for a huge proportion. According to statistics, the commercial tax in the Tianxi reign of the Song Dynasty reached 21.44 million guan, while the Xuande dynasty, the most prosperous country in the early Ming Dynasty, only had 2.02 million guan. Among them, alcohol tax accounts for nearly half, reaching 1.07 million yuan, which is one-sixth of the country's total tax revenue. Such a large amount of tax revenue is in the hands of the liquor tax inspectors in various places. The wine industry in the Song Dynasty adopted the "buying and buying system" and the "querying wine system" in parallel, and government-run wineries were spread all over the country. Underneath these legal wineries, there are countless foot shops and private wineries that depend on them for survival.

In the Song Dynasty, government-run wineries were contracted to private individuals for commercial operations, while private foot shops and wineries could continue their business as long as they gave the wine tax supervisor enough money. It can be said that business management in the Song Dynasty was very loose and there was no too strict system. Management officials had great discretion , so it was also a place where commercial corruption occurred frequently. Many people from big families control lucrative jobs such as the Liquor Tax Supervisor, and they have enough channels to make money. Through loopholes in the law, it has become normal to make a fortune legally. Zheng Xia's father serves as the liquor tax supervisor in Jiangning, and Jiangning is one of the richest areas in Jiangnan, so his income can be seen.Wang Anshi's new business law reforms obviously infringed on the interests of these bureaucrats and big businessmen.

Judging from Zheng Xia's performance, he still supported the agricultural regulations when they were first released. When the commercial regulations were released, he immediately joined the old party camp. The reasons are self-evident. Judging from the letters between Wang Anshi and Zheng Xia, Wang Anshi also adopted some of Zheng Xia's suggestions, but Zheng Xia did not appreciate it and asked Wang Anshi to repeal all the new laws. It can be seen from this that this person has a typical villain character. When the interests of the new law have nothing to do with him, he hangs on high. When his family's interests were affected by the new law, he immediately showed his villainous face. He couldn't care less about the friendship between teachers and students, or the friendship between classmates. He decisively joined Feng Jing and others and became a tool of political criticism by the old party.

To sum up, Zheng Xia’s letter to Song Shenzong requesting the removal of Wang Anshi was a deliberate political offensive by the old party. They took advantage of the crisis of a large number of refugees caused by the severe drought in the north, deliberately magnified the disaster, and coerced the people into impeaching Wang Anshi and other reform officials. During this impeachment, Zheng Xia, Feng Jing and others cooperated internally and externally, forming an internal and external pincer attack on Song Shenzong. Due to Zheng Xia's special status as Wang Anshi's student, his accusation had a great impact. Not only did the New Party encounter an unprecedented crisis, but it also shook Wang Anshi's position as prime minister. Under this situation, Song Shenzong had to compromise with the old party, and Wang Anshi also asked to resign as prime minister. The struggle over the new law entered a new level, and the resistance to Xining's reform further expanded.