Wang Anshi - Wikipedia Wang Anshi From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search In this Chinese name, the family name is Wang (王). Wang Anshi Duke of Jing (Jīngguógōng) 荊國公[1] Chancellor of Song Dynasty In Office 1070-1074;1075–1076 Monarch Emperor Shenzong Born 8 December 1021 Linchuan, Song Died 21 May 1086(1086-05-21) (aged 64) Jiangning Full name Family name: Wáng 王 Given name: Ānshí 安石 Courtesy name: Jièfǔ 介甫 Art name: Bànshān Lǎorén 半山老人 Posthumous name Wén 文[2] Father Wang Yi Wang Anshi "Wang Anshi" in Chinese characters Chinese 王安石 Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wáng Ānshí Gwoyeu Romatzyh Wang Anshyr Wade–Giles Wang2 An1-shih2 IPA [wǎŋ án.ʂɨ̌] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Wòhng Ōn-sehk Jyutping Wong4 On1-sek6 IPA [wɔ̏ːŋ ɔ́ːn.sɛ̀ːk̚] Southern Min Tâi-lô Ông An-se̍k (col.) {{{2}}} (lit.) Middle Chinese Middle Chinese hüang ʔan-d͡ʒjak Wang Anshi [wǎŋ ánʂɨ̌]; Chinese: 王安石; December 8, 1021 – May 21, 1086), courtesy name Jiefu (Chinese: 介甫), was a Chinese politician, poet and prose writer during the Song dynasty. He served as chancellor who attempted major and controversial socioeconomic reforms known as the New Policies.[3][4] These reforms constituted the core concepts of the Song-Dynasty Reformists, in contrast to their rivals, the Conservatives, led by the Chancellor Sima Guang. Wang Anshi's ideas are usually analyzed in terms of the influence the Rites of Zhou or Legalism had on him.[5] His economic reforms included increase currency circulation, breaking up of private monopolies, and early forms of government regulation and social welfare. His military reforms expanded the use of local militias and his government reforms expanded the civil service examination system and attempted to suppress nepotism in government. Although successful for a while, he eventually fell out of favor of the emperor. Contents 1 Background 2 Early career 3 Major reform 4 Wang’s downfall 5 Poet 6 Poems 7 Legacy 8 See also 9 References 10 Works cited 11 Further reading 12 External links Background[edit] During the Song Dynasty, the unprecedented development of large estates, whose owners managed to evade paying their share of taxes, resulted in an increasingly heavy burden of taxation on commoners. The drop in state revenues, a succession of budget deficits, and widespread inflation prompted the Emperor Shenzong of Song to seek advice from Wang. Early career[edit] Wang Anshi came from a family of imperial scholars (進士 Jìnshì) and was placed fourth in the imperial exam of 1042. He spent the first twenty years of his career in the regional government of the lower Yangtze region. During this period, he gained practical experience in local governance. This experience guided his analysis in formulating solutions to revitalize the ailing Song society.[6] Major reform[edit] Main article: New Policies (Song dynasty) Illustration of Wang Anshi from the Wan Xiao Tang, 1743. Wang believed that the state has the responsibility to provide for its people the essentials for a decent living standard: "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 the dust by the rich."[7] Wang came to power as 2nd privy councilor in 1069.[8] It was there that he introduced and promulgated his reform policy (xin fa 新法). There were three main components to this policy: 1) state finance and trade, 2) defense and social order, and 3) education and improving of governance. Some of the finance reforms included paying cash for labor in place of corvee labor, increase the supply of copper coins, improve management of trade, direct government loan to farmers during planting seasons and to be repaid at harvest. He believed that foundation of the state rests on the well being of the common people.[9] To limit speculation and eliminate private monopolies, he initiated price control and regulated wages and set up pensions for the aged and unemployed. The state also began to institute public orphanages, hospitals, dispensaries, hospices, cemeteries, and reserve granaries.[10] The military reform centered on a new institution of the baojia system or organized households. This was done to ensure collective responsibility in society and was later used to strengthen local defense. He also proposed the creation of systems to breed military horses, the more efficient manufacture of weapons and training of the militia.[11] To improve education and government, he sought to break down the barrier between clerical and official careers as well as improving their supervision to prevent connections being used for personal gain. Tests in law, military affairs and medicine were added to the examination system, with mathematics added in 1104. The National Academy was transformed into a real school rather than simply a holding place for officials waiting for appointments. However, there was deep-seated resistance to the education reforms as it hurt bureaucrats coming in under the old system.[12] Wang’s downfall[edit] Although Wang had the alliance of such prominent court figures as Shen Kuo, imperial scholar-officials such as Su Dongpo and Ouyang Xiu bitterly opposed these reforms on the grounds of tradition. They believed Wang's reforms were against the moral fundamentals of the Two Emperors and would therefore prevent the Song from experiencing the prosperity and peace of the ancients. The tide tilted in favor of the conservatives due to renewed foreign conflict. He was even temporarily removed from power and imprisoned in 1075.[citation needed] Like many Chinese officials of the era, Wang's career experienced many reversals, but the beginning of the end came 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 the seasonal loans granted under Wang’s reform initiatives. Local officials insisted on collecting on the loans as the farmers were leaving their land. This crisis was depicted as being Wang’s fault. The empress dowager was also an opponent of Wang. Wang wanted to resign, but the emperor still supported him, giving him high honors and an appointment to Jiangning (present-day Nanjing.) He was recalled by the emperor the following year, but now he was seen as vulnerable and was openly attacked from groups of conservatives. Wang returned to Nanjing, which he preferred to Kaifeng. He wrote and engaged in scholarship through to his death in 1086.[13] With Shenzong's death in 1085, Wang was ousted and the New Policies were rolled back - some temporarily, some permanently. Poet[edit] In addition to his political achievements, Wang Anshi was a noted poet. He wrote poems in the shi form, modeled on those of Du Fu. He was later ranked number seven among the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song (唐宋八大家). He was an adherent of the Classical Prose Movement championed by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan, first and second of the Eight Masters of the Tang and Song respectively. His poetry often included social themes along with the traditional observations of nature.[14] Poems[edit] A well-known man-of-letters, Wang Anshi produced many outstanding essays and poems. Lines from one of his most famous pieces: 春风又绿江南岸， 明月何时照我还？ Green in the spring winds the south bank of the Yangtse When will the bright moon light my journey home? One of eight famous literati of Tang－Song period, Wang Anshi was known for writing with succinctness and profundity. He laid stress on literature's social function and that writings should serve a purpose. His essays "A Visit to Baochan Mountain" and "In Reply to Official Censor Sima's Letter" are widely read by posterity. Legacy[edit] Chinese politicians and historians have continued to look back on the reforms of Wang Anshi as either principled and measured or misguided and disastrous. The twentieth-century Chinese warlord Yan Xishan cited the reforms of Wang Anshi to justify his use of a limited form of local democracy in Shanxi. Yan believed that the focus and intent of Wang's reforms was to strengthen the Song dynasty by persuading ordinary Chinese to give the dynasty their active support, instead of merely serving it. The system of "democratic" government that Yan justified via the philosophy of Wang Anshi was mostly focused on improving Yan's own popularity without holding any real power, and never became an effective alternative to military dictatorship.[15] On the other hand, the popular scholar Lin Yutang cast Wang as the equivalent of communist totalitarian government in his biography of Wang's adversary Su Dongpo.[16] See also[edit] China portal Politics portal Poetry portal Biography portal History of the Song Dynasty Chancellor of China Fan Zhongyan Sima Guang Qin Hui Wen Tianxiang References[edit] ^ hence referred to as Wáng Jīnggōng 王荊公 ^ hence referred to as Wáng Wéngōng 王文公 ^ D.B. Boulger (1881). History of China. pp. 388–. ^ Man and the universe. Japan. Siberia. China. Carmelite House. 1907. pp. 771–. ^ Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Paul Jakov Smith 2016 p.237. State Power in China, 900-1325. https://books.google.com/books?id=9SpADAAAQBAJ&pg=PA237 ^ Mote ch. 6 ^ Nourse, Mary A. 1944. A Short History of the Chinese, 3rd edition. P.136 ^ "Wang Anshi | Chinese author and political reformer | Britannica.com". britannica.com. Retrieved 2015-10-23. ^ Mote p. 139 ^ "Ethics of China 7 BC To 1279 by Sanderson Beck | Song Dynasty Renaissance 960-1279". san.beck.org. Retrieved 2015-10-23. ^ Mote p. 140 ^ Mote p. 141 ^ Mote p. 141-42 ^ Jaroslav Průšek and Zbigniew Słupski, eds., Dictionary of Oriental Literatures: East Asia (Charles Tuttle, 1978): 192. ^ Gillin 42 ^ Yutang Lin. Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo. New York: John Day, 1947; rpr. Hesperides 2008 ISBN 978-1-4437-2217-9. Works cited[edit] Mote, F.W. (1999). Imperial China: 900-1800. Harvard University Press. pp. 122, 138–142. Gillin, Donald G. Warlord: Yen Hsi-shan in Shansi Province 1911–1949. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1967. LCCN 66-14308 Further reading[edit] Anderson, Gregory E., To Change China: A Tale of Three Reformers", Asia Pacific: Perspectives, 1:1 (2001). External links[edit] Wikiquote has quotations related to: Wang Anshi Wikisource has original text related to this article: Author:Wang Anshi Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wang Anshi. Works by Wang Anshi at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Preceded by to be added Prime Minister of China 1070–1074 Succeeded by to be added Preceded by to be added Prime Minister of China 1075–1076 Succeeded by Sima Guang v t e Eight Great Literati of Tang and Song Dynasties Tang dynasty Liu Zongyuan Han Yu Song dynasty Wang Anshi Ouyang Xiu Su Zhe Su Shi Su Xun Zeng Gong v t e Social and political philosophy Ancient philosophers Aristotle Chanakya Cicero Confucius Han Fei Lactantius Laozi Mencius Mozi Origen Plato Polybius Shang Socrates Sun Tzu Tertullian Thucydides Valluvar Xenophon Xunzi Medieval philosophers Alpharabius Augustine Averroes Baldus Bartolus Bruni Dante Gelasius al-Ghazali Giles Hostiensis Ibn Khaldun John of Paris John of Salisbury Latini Maimonides Marsilius Nizam al-Mulk Photios Thomas Aquinas Wang William of Ockham Early modern philosophers Beza Bodin Bossuet Botero Buchanan Calvin Cumberland Duplessis-Mornay Erasmus Filmer Grotius Guicciardini Harrington Hayashi Hobbes Hotman Huang Leibniz Locke Luther Machiavelli Malebranche Mariana Milton Montaigne More Müntzer Naudé Pufendorf Rohan Sansovino Sidney Spinoza Suárez 18th–19th-century philosophers Bakunin Bentham Bonald Bosanquet Burke Comte Constant Emerson Engels Fichte Fourier Franklin Godwin Hamann Hegel Herder Hume Jefferson Justi Kant political philosophy Kierkegaard Le Bon Le Play Madison Maistre Marx Mazzini Mill Montesquieu Möser Nietzsche Novalis Paine Renan Rousseau Royce Sade Schiller Smith Spencer Stirner Taine Thoreau Tocqueville Vico Vivekananda Voltaire 20th–21st-century philosophers Adorno Ambedkar Arendt Aurobindo Aron Azurmendi Badiou Baudrillard Bauman Benoist Berlin Bernstein Butler Camus Chomsky De Beauvoir Debord Du Bois Durkheim Dworkin Foucault Gandhi Gauthier Gehlen Gentile Gramsci Habermas Hayek Heidegger Irigaray Kautsky Kirk Kropotkin Laclau Lenin Luxemburg Mao Mansfield Marcuse Maritain Michels Mises Mou Mouffe Negri Niebuhr Nozick Nursî Oakeshott Ortega Pareto Pettit Plamenatz Polanyi Popper Qutb Radhakrishnan Rand Rawls Rothbard Russell Santayana Sartre Scanlon Schmitt Searle Shariati Simmel Simonović Skinner Sombart Sorel Spann Spirito Strauss Sun Taylor Walzer Weber Žižek Social theories Anarchism Authoritarianism Collectivism Communism Communitarianism Conflict theories Confucianism Consensus theory Conservatism Contractualism Cosmopolitanism Culturalism Fascism Feminist political theory Gandhism Individualism Islam Islamism Legalism Liberalism Libertarianism Mohism National liberalism Republicanism Social constructionism Social constructivism Social Darwinism Social determinism Socialism Utilitarianism Concepts Civil disobedience Democracy Four occupations Justice Law Mandate of Heaven Peace Property Revolution Rights Social contract Society War more... Related articles Jurisprudence Philosophy and economics Philosophy of education Philosophy of history Philosophy of love Philosophy of sex Philosophy of social science Political ethics Social epistemology Category Authority control GND: 118764276 ISNI: 0000 0001 2320 6739 LCCN: n80137490 NBL: 1086629 NDL: 00361227 NKC: jo2009330666 NLI: 001790007 NLK: KAC200006992 NTA: 140083537 SUDOC: 074779117 Trove: 1438790 VIAF: 49413576 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n80137490 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wang_Anshi&oldid=998628313" Categories: 1021 births 1086 deaths 11th-century Chinese poets Chinese philosophers Chinese reformers Cultural critics Economists from Jiangxi Philosophers of culture Philosophers of economics Philosophers of education Philosophers of social science Poets from Jiangxi Political philosophers Politicians from Fuzhou, Jiangxi Social critics Social philosophers Song dynasty chancellors Song dynasty economists Song dynasty poets Song dynasty politicians from Jiangxi Hidden categories: Articles containing Chamorro-language text Articles containing Chinese-language text All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from June 2007 Commons category link from Wikidata Articles with LibriVox links Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with NCL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Languages العربية تۆرکجه Bân-lâm-gú Беларуская Català Čeština Deutsch Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français 贛語 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Italiano مصرى Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄ Nederlands 日本語 Norsk bokmål Oʻzbekcha/ўзбекча Polski Português Русский Slovenščina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски ไทย Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 文言 Winaray 吴语 粵語 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 6 January 2021, at 08:13 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Mobile view Developers Statistics Cookie statement