Wang Anshi

Wang Anshi a Chinese statesman, economist and man of letters of the Northern Song dynasty (1021-1086) whose sweeping reform programme, the New Policies, sought to strengthen the empire and to relieve the poor. He is one of the most controversial and consequential figures in Chinese imperial history.

Early Life and Education

Wang Anshi was born in 1021 in Linchuan, in Jiangxi province, the son of an official who served in a series of provincial posts. The family moved frequently, and the young Wang acquired a wide knowledge of the practical conditions of local government and of the hardships of the peasantry, which later shaped his reforming ideas.

He passed the imperial examination in 1042 and chose to serve in local office rather than to seek the quick promotion of a career at court. In the prefectures he experimented with agricultural policy, water conservancy and the relief of poverty, and he built a reputation as a capable and scrupulous administrator.

His essays brought him literary fame, and he was counted among the finest prose writers of the dynasty. In a famous memorial to the throne he argued that the empire could be reformed only by a ruler determined to act with the courage and energy of the ancient kings, and that half-measures would accomplish nothing.

The New Policies

In 1069, after the accession of the emperor Shenzong, Wang Anshi was appointed chief councillor and given the authority to carry out a far-reaching reform. His New Policies, as they were called, aimed to increase state revenue, to strengthen the military, and to extend relief and opportunity to the poorer classes.

Among the measures were state loans to farmers at the planting season, the commutation of corvee labour into a tax, a system of local militias, state regulation of markets and prices, and a revised system of land measurement. A new bureau was created to administer the programme, and a school and examination system was refashioned around his interpretations of the classics.

The reforms provoked intense opposition from conservative officials, who argued that the state loans amounted to usury and that the rapid changes disrupted village life. Wang Anshi held his ground, insisting that only decisive action could rescue the empire from decline, and he dismissed his critics as selfish defenders of privilege.

Economic and Political Thought

Wang Anshi's thought rested on the belief that the state had a duty to secure the livelihood of the people and that an active government could expand production as well as redistribute it. He held that the wealth of the realm was not fixed, and that proper management could increase it so that both the treasury and the peasantry might benefit.

He drew on the classical texts, especially the rites and the records of the ancient kings, to argue that the sage rulers had managed markets, credit and relief in ways that later dynasties had neglected. His programme was thus presented not as novelty but as the restoration of an older and better order.

His reforms also had a military and foreign-policy dimension. He sought to replace the unreliable mercenary armies with locally raised militia, and he favoured a vigorous frontier policy. The ambition to recover lost territory and to assert imperial power against the northern neighbours was central to his vision of a strong and self-reliant state.

Opposition and Later Career

The opposition to Wang Anshi was formidable and included some of the most respected men of the age. The historian Sima Guang and the writer Su Dongpo were among his critics, and the court divided into two bitter factions whose quarrels lasted for decades and poisoned the political life of the late Northern Song.

Wang Anshi was dismissed from office more than once and recalled when the emperor's favour returned, but the death of Shenzong in 1085 ended the ascendancy of the reform party. The old policies were largely reversed by the regency that followed, and Wang Anshi retired to Nanjing, where he lived quietly until his death in 1086.

His later years were marked by disappointment and by the deaths of those close to him. He devoted his time to scholarship and to the interpretation of the classics, and he is said to have borne his reverses with a stern composure that his enemies as well as his friends found impressive.

Legacy

Wang Anshi remains one of the most debated figures in Chinese history. To his admirers he was a statesman of vision who dared to attack entrenched privilege and to plan for the welfare of the common people. To his critics he was a rigid doctrinaire whose schemes caused suffering and whose methods divided the empire.

His fiscal and administrative experiments influenced later reformers, and the questions he raised about the role of the state in the economy were taken up again in the Ming and Qing and by Chinese thinkers of the twentieth century. His literary works, especially his essays and poems, are still read as classics of the Song.

He died in 1086 in Nanjing. The factional conflict that his policies set in motion contributed to the political instability of the late Northern Song, and historians have seen in his career both the promise and the peril of reform imposed from above without broad consent.

References

^[1] ^[2] ^[3] ^[4]

↑ Wang Anshi, Collected Works of Wang Anshi, Zhonghua Book Company, 1959.
↑ James T. C. Liu, Reform in Sung China: Wang An-shih and His New Policies, Harvard University Press, 1959.
↑ Peter K. Bol, This Culture of Ours: Intellectual Transitions in T'ang and Sung China, Stanford University Press, 1992.
↑ Etienne Balazs, Chinese Civilization and Bureaucracy, Yale University Press, 1964.

[r1-1] Wang Anshi, Collected Works of Wang Anshi, Zhonghua Book Company, 1959.

[r2-2] James T. C. Liu, Reform in Sung China: Wang An-shih and His New Policies, Harvard University Press, 1959.

[r3-3] Peter K. Bol, This Culture of Ours: Intellectual Transitions in T'ang and Sung China, Stanford University Press, 1992.

[r4-4] Etienne Balazs, Chinese Civilization and Bureaucracy, Yale University Press, 1964.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]