Introduction
Speaking of Wang Anshi, most people know that he is one of the "Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties", and he is also a famous politician and reformer in history. . However, because of a reform and reform, Wang Anshi was completely hacked, and directly rose to an attack on his personality. In fact, if you don't talk about reforms, and just talk about character, Wang Anshi is an upright and upright official who is very frugal. When it comes to dressing, he is always arbitrary and undressed. He believes that he should focus his time and energy on work, not on pleasure.
Briefly introduce this "sloppy uncle". Wang Anshi, Zi Jiefu, passed the Jinshi examination in the second year of Qingli, served as magistrate, judge and other officials, and achieved good political achievements. In 1069 AD, Wang Anshi presided over a vigorous reform called "熙宁变法" in history. But this reform ended in failure. In fact, as early as 1058 AD, Wang Anshi wrote Wanzi Admonition to Song Renzong, analyzing the internal and external troubles of the Northern Song Dynasty, and demanding reform and reform, but Song Renzong ignored him.
王安石像
Then why is Wang Anshi’s reform not recognized by the world, and why it failed?
The background and reason of Wang Anshi’s reform
I was an unassuming farmer in the Xining period of the Northern Song Dynasty. My family had a few acres of thin fields, which were mainly used to grow food crops. I don’t know what the hard work is when I travel to and from the fields every day. Fortunately, at home, I married a daughter-in-law for the first two years. I just gave birth to a fat boy this year. This is the only happy event. However, the burden on the family has also become heavier. Previously, my wife could help reel the silk and weaving cloth and sell it to the owner of the market in exchange for some money. Now the family of four depends on me to support it.
But even if we work hard every day, we can barely fill our stomachs because we have to face heavy labor. I only hope that when my children grow up in the future, they will not be as unpromising as me. They will study hard and get fame. They will definitely make a difference in the dynasty of the Northern Song Dynasty where civil officials are so important. Some people may find it strange, isn't the Northern Song Dynasty that the commodity economy was prosperous, and why the peasants' lives were so miserable? In fact, behind the seeming prosperity of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was already a situation of poverty and weakness.
In the early days, even small countries like Xixia were rampant, and harassed us from time to time. In fact, not only the peasants were poor, the court also had no money, and the entire Song Dynasty was poor. Taizu Song established the Great Song Dynasty after the "Chen Qiao Mutiny". He inherited the territory of the Later Zhou Dynasty and retained the former court officials. In fact, he also transferred those problems. So after development, the officials of the Northern Song Dynasty were like a hodgepodge, with all officials. There were more than 17,000 officials in the reign of Song Renzong.
The seemingly prosperous Northern Song Dynasty
This is only an official official, and the other seven or eighty-eight alternates are not included. Moreover, the treatment of officials in the Northern Song Dynasty was really good. Like our farmers, we can earn 1,800 yuan in a month of hard work, which is only enough for a family to eat. However, the monthly salary of a Jiupin Zhima official is as much as 12,000 yuan. The prime minister's monthly income is even more amazing, 400,000 yuan! This is just the basic salary. Therefore, the phenomenon of redundant officials in the Northern Song Dynasty is still very serious. Some officials enjoy high salaries, but they are in a mess.
There is another big problem in the Song Dynasty, which is the phenomenon of redundant soldiers. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, several small countries often came to provoke the frontiers, and the court sent heavy troops to guard them. However, they were afraid that the Central Plains was unguarded, so they recruited a large number of young men to serve as the forbidden army. At the same time, every disaster year, the court was afraid that our farmers would engage in an uprising, and would send people to our disaster-stricken areas to recruit young adults as soldiers. During the reign of Song Renzong, the number of ordinary soldiers and the forbidden army totaled more than two million. How could the court afford it?
is of course exploited layer by layer on our farmers, making the big guys complain. Not only that, the imperial court often held a big banquet to marry a princess, and the officials were extravagant and wasteful. In this way, no matter how prosperous the economy is, it will be destroyed.. Not only that, the economy of our Great Song Dynasty is completely in a state of being unable to cover expenditure. Three generations of our family are self-cultivating farmers, so we have to pay land taxes to the court. However, due to land mergers by those officials and their relatives, 70% of the land during the Song Renzong period was not taxed.
The extravagant life of the officials of the Northern Song Dynasty
But fortunately, the main source of income of the imperial court is not the land tax, but the government, such as salt, tea and other essential products for the common people, as long as the monopoly Make money right away. The commodity economy boom in the early Northern Song Dynasty also mostly originated from this, because monopoly can make a lot of profits. However, since the later production technology has not been improved and upgraded, the monopoly system is gradually unable to continue, and no dividends can be earned. By the time Song Shenzong succeeded to the throne, the imperial court was so poor that there was no money to pay the officials.
At this time, Wang Anshi stepped onto the stage of history and initiated reforms. Generally speaking, there were many reformers in the past dynasties. If the reforms are done well, the Song Dynasty can really stand up. But in fact, the reform of the great prime minister Wang Anshi didn't work at all. My father experienced the reform personally. He said that after the reform, the majority of farmers became even poorer.
Wang Anshi Reform measures related to agriculture
青苗法
Wang Anshi believes that promoting agricultural production is the best solution to financial problems The method, as long as the farmers' annual harvest increases, taxes will naturally increase. The most difficult season for our farmers is spring, when the grain harvested last year has already been eaten, and there is no new grain to harvest. The peasants who can't survive will borrow usury from the rich landlords. In response to this phenomenon, Wang Anshi implemented "青苗法", which counts the grain in the granary as capital and lends it to farmers in need.
The historical background of the Wang Anshi Reform
The annual interest rate is 20%. When the loan is repaid, you can pay back the grain or money. But this "青苗法" seems to solve our farmers' urgent needs, but in fact it greatly increases our burden. Although Wang Anshi tested "青苗法" in other counties earlier, it was because the test area was small and Wang Anshi was easy to control. Today, the entire Song Dynasty implemented the Young Miao Law, and some officials had their own ghosts, and some even forced us to obtain loans in order to obtain political achievements, so that we were required to repay the loans for no reason.
In addition, some rich households have to give guarantees to poor households. If the poor cannot repay the money and run away, the burden on the rich will be heavier. There were also farmers who had to pay not only the court’s debts, but also the landlord’s usury. They were heavily indebted and suffered double exploitation. In short, the original purpose of the Young Crop Law was good, in order to relieve the pressure and burden of our ordinary farmers, but the final result was not to mention terrible, it also let the corrupt officials take advantage of the loopholes, and made the life of the farmers more difficult.
Recruitment Law
Let’s talk about " 征援法". In simple terms, you can exempt you from corvee by paying money. Everyone knows that corvee is free labor, and all expenses incurred during the period have to be borne by themselves, so many people want to escape corvee. As soon as the recruitment law was introduced, farmers would not have to think about how to escape from the army all day long, but would spend more time thinking about how to increase grain production, etc. They also had a lot of time to work in the fields. It can increase the grain harvest and increase the government's fiscal revenue. Why not?
The main measures of Wang Anshi’s reform
However, Wang Anshi never expected that this method would seriously damage the interests of the landlord class because they did not need to serve at all, but Wang Anshi let They must all obey the military service and pay according to the population if they don't want to serve. Moreover, the large family has a very large population, and the money is not a small amount. In this way, how can the big landlords be happy? In the end, due to strong resistance and counterattack from the big landlords and conservatives, the recruitment law failed.end.
Farmland Water Conservancy Law
and "农田水利法". Simply put, it is to open up wasteland and build water conservancy projects. If you want a good harvest on farmland, you have to have more developed water conservancy, and the two are complementary. The cost of building water conservancy projects is paid by those households according to the ranks of the rich and poor. If the money is still not enough, they can borrow money from the court to repair them. It is said that within a few years after the implementation of the Farmland Water Conservancy Law, more than 10,000 water conservancy projects were built throughout the Song Dynasty and countless fertile fields were irrigated.
方田均税法
Finally talk about "方田均税法", this move is mainly to solve the problem of unfair taxation. Because at that time, many local powerful landlords held a lot of fertile land, but in order to pay less tax, they deliberately hid some land to avoid the collection of land tax. But like our ordinary farmers, they have to be oppressed by big landlords, and they have to bear heavy taxes. After the Fangtian Tax Law was implemented, the government sent yamen with tools to re-measure the land.
Wang Anshi was opposed by conservatives
and then classified according to the fertility and color of the land, and then charged different fees according to these grades. The highest taxes are collected on first-class land, and so on. However, this measure still seriously violated the interests of wealthy businessmen and landlords, and was strongly opposed by them. In a few years, this measure was also forced to be suspended.
The impact of the Wang Anshi Reform
The Wang Anshi Reform did bring some dividends to the Song Dynasty, and the Young Seed Law and the Law of Recruitment for several years have brought it. The income of nearly 7 million yuan, and the combined profits of other reforms are enough for the court to spend more than 20 years. However, as mentioned earlier, Wang Anshi's reform actually harmed the interests of feudal bureaucrats and the nobility, and the essence of the reform was "robbing the rich and helping the poor" in disguise. In Wang Anshi's ideal world, poor people like us do not need to increase taxes at all, but the court needs money.
therefore can only take money from the pockets of the rich. At that time, no one in the bureaucracy supported Wang Anshi, and even his friends Sima Guang, Han Qi, Fu Bi, etc. strongly opposed the reform, and Song Shenzong was an unreliable monarch. Facing collective opposition from hundreds of officials, he could only Interrupt the reform. Speaking of the impact of Wang Anshi's reform, objectively speaking, it is a relatively failed reform, not even a reform, but Wang Anshi's "idealism".
Wang Anshi Statue
Conclusion
The Wang Anshi Reform has changed the situation of the Northern Song Dynasty to a certain extent for the impoverishment of the Song Dynasty. The tax increase made a little contribution. The reform also eased the problem of weakness, improved the strength of the army, and cultivated a group of horses that could be used in war. However, at the same time, Wang Anshi continued to expand the bureaucracy and increase the number of officials when the phenomenon of redundant officials in the Northern Song Dynasty was very serious, which made the problem of redundant officials even more serious. In addition, the method of reform was to exploit the wealth of the bureaucratic landlord class, but Wang Anshi did not expect it.
These landlords will eventually harm the peasants, and it is the people at the bottom who really suffer. Not everyone who participated in Wang Anshi's Reform was as cool as Wang Anshi, and regarded money as dung. The content of the reforms can be used by these people to plunder the wealth of ordinary people in a large amount, making the reforms of the rich and powerful and "disturbing the people". In short, the starting point of Wang Anshi's reform was good. He also accumulated wealth to a certain extent and consolidated the rule of the court. However, in the long run, he planted trouble for the demise of our Song Dynasty.
References
Tutuo, "Song History", Zhonghua Book Company, 1982
Hu Jichuang, "History of Chinese Economic Thought", Shanghai Finance University Press,1998
Qi Xia, "Chinese Reform History", Hebei Education Press, 1997
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-