Chapter 12 Chapter 11 Northern Song Dynasty: A Bold Experiment

With the rise of the Song Dynasty in 960 A.D., China seemed to have entered the modern age, and a kind of material culture began.The circulation of currency is more popular than before.The invention of gunpowder, the use of flame weapons, the compass for navigation, the astronomical clock, the blast furnace, the hydraulic loom, and the use of watertight bulkheads for ships all appeared in the Song Dynasty.During the 11th and 12th centuries, the standard of living in China's big cities was comparable to that of any other city in the world. The founder of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin, was a soldier. He had no plan to redistribute agricultural land; he also did not design conscription. The Song Dynasty can be said to be the only major dynasty in China that recruited soldiers to meet the needs of military personnel.After Zhao Kuangyin ascended the pole, he excavated a man-made lake in the south of the capital Kaifeng (Kaifeng was only the capital of the Song Dynasty, and was not selected as the capital of other major dynasties in China since then).He didn't often give lectures to his subordinates or listen to Confucian ministers explaining classics and history, but spent a lot of time on this man-made lake observing naval and land warfare exercises.He also often inspected the manufacture of warships in the large dock.Zhao Kuangyin was well aware that military power needed the support of economic power, and he was determined to accumulate 2 million pieces of silk in the warehouse as his financial savings in order to fight against the half-Sinicized dynasties in the north.

The focus of this administration has changed from traditional abstract principles to down-to-earth, from emphasizing agricultural policies to paying attention to business, from a passive situation to striving for the initiative, thus creating a new perception for the Zhao and Song Dynasties.In many respects, this new atmosphere breaks the dull style of traditional China and opens up something new.This new trend can be viewed from the perspective of government organization. In order to maintain a consistent appearance, the Song Dynasty almost restored all the government functions of the Tang Dynasty. At the same time, it also created many new institutions. There are old organizations, and the most important of them are the Privy Council (the main military) and the Three Divisions (the overall finance).With these new institutions, the imperial court intends to deal with various businesses in a practical way, rather than just putting on a facade in the ceremony.Moreover, since the throne does not need to be all in the name of morality, it can also stand on a humanistic standpoint.Zhao Kuangyin, the founder of the business, once determined not to put anyone to death because his subjects disagreed with him, and he took this vow in the Taimiao and passed it on to his descendants.At the same time, in order to prevent the succession of the throne from becoming a problem, Zhao also arranged to pass it on to his younger brother Zhao Guangyi before his death.In this regard, he is much better than Li Shimin about 350 years ago.

But this set-up was only partially successful.Economically speaking, the Song Dynasty faced the most remarkable advances in the history of China: cities flourished, inland rivers were densely populated, and shipbuilding advanced by leaps and bounds.Both mainland China and international trade have reached unprecedented peaks.The circulation of copper coins also set a new record, which has not been broken by the Ren Wen dynasty since then.In addition, because the government promotes the rapid development of mining and refining, the situation of the textile and wine industries is also the same.In terms of administration, the things that Zhao Kuangyin wanted to prevent were largely banned. Even if there were conspiracies in the court, they would not have the depth and scope of the past.Historically speaking, the Song Dynasty supported the development of China's economy for more than 300 years, and it is impossible to say that it made no contribution to China's welfare.But during this period disputes among the civil servants intensified than before, and the performances no longer followed the traditional pattern.At first, different opinions on policy were debated in a business-like manner, but when the two sides persisted, speculators sneaked in, which gave the dispute a bad name, and the outcome became worse in the future.

In addition, there are other unreasonable things.On the one hand, Zhao Kuangyin, the founder of entrepreneurship, did not care about ideology at all. As a result, Neo Confucianism and political philosophy in the Song Dynasty were inseparable, which made the influence of ideology even greater.On the other hand, since the establishment of the dynasty, both the monarch and the courtiers hoped to adopt a more realistic attitude towards military diplomacy and finance than before. As a result, the Song Dynasty's actions in terms of military diplomacy and finance were far inferior to those of other dynasties.

This uncannyness can only be properly explained by modern historical experience.The Zhao and Song Dynasties used the large land of the Asian continent as the background, and before the society was prepared, they first tried to use the technology of financial control as an administrative tool, which resulted in the above-mentioned contradictions. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the downfall of the Tang Dynasty was not due to the corruption of morality, nor was it the total abolition of discipline, but the failure of the organizational structure at the beginning of the founding of the country to change with the times, and the inability to make proper adjustments to the bureaucratic form-based control. The thorough decentralization of power at the end of the dynasties only led to warlord separatism.A Jiedushi, that is, a local military chief, may take all the land in a state as his own and have complete freedom of movement within the territory.If he himself wants to lead troops to conquer, he will appoint a subordinate as "stay behind", so the foundation of power remains unchanged.Over time, the position of him and his subordinates can be inherited.In addition, the taxation in the state and roads is also controlled by military officers. They set the tax rate of the old tax and announce the name of the new tax.This is why Zhu Quanzhong was not able to shock the teachers and mobilize the public when he succeeded the Li Tang Dynasty in 907 AD, because the system established by Li Yuan and Li Shimin had lost its meaning of existence after 288 years.

But Zhu Quanzhong couldn't make the broken urn reunite.In the middle of 54 years from 906 AD, Chinese historians called the stage of "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms", which seemed to turn over the split situation before the Sui and Tang Dynasties (but this time the five short dynasties were changed in the north and not in the south. And Except for one exception, the so-called ten countries appeared in the south at the same time, and some alternately.To put it simply, when the northern dynasties wishing to build a unified empire were unable to do what they wanted, the southern generals also took the opportunity to become kings and act independently.

It took less than 54 years for the situation to be completely divided, which shows that the situation left over from the Tang Dynasty is not completely out of control.In a nutshell, China is still mainly a country with small farmers as the main body, but the size of the industries controlled by each person is different, and there are also regional differences in productivity—sometimes there are huge disparities within the same region.New wealth can be obtained from commerce, produce, brewing, mining, and outback commerce, and even coining can be profitable.This is no longer the situation in the past where a conceptual plan can be operated and managed or a wealthy family can control a small area and form an independent facade.Under such conditions, warlord separatism is actually the answer provided by history to current problems.

The development of the fact is that the local military chiefs advocate their legal status in various names, and all conscription in the territory.But in fact, the soldiers are still recruited, but all the expenses are shared by households in the country.In many areas, as noted in several local chronicles, taxation reached unprecedented heights.It's just that this is different from a nationally consistent tax system that is centrally determined.The host is not only a local authority, but also hereditary. He is naturally closely related to each region. Taxes can also be apportioned according to the actual situation of each place and the ability of the taxpayers.

During this period, the chiefs of these regions adopted the technique of mobilizing elite soldiers. They continued to select excellent officers and soldiers from the lower-level troops to form the pro-army, so that the lower-level troops could only keep inferior personnel and supplies, and the senior officers became the chief's brothers or righteous. son.In this way, there is a fixed relationship between the upper and lower levels. As long as the state of competition between the various regions does not lead to long-term large-scale wars, this balanced situation can keep the entire arrangement as it is.There are indeed some similarities between China's Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and Japan's medieval situation.

Is this situation good or bad?Traditional historians unanimously summed up this period with the comment that "theft and burglary are flourishing, and the titles are diverse", that is, it is shameful that it lacks a central authority worthy of respect, so that "prisoners, bandits and dealers" can also be called The king proclaims himself emperor, but those who practice prudence have no way out.High taxes were often criticized at that time.However, these writers failed to see that when the government's center of gravity shifted to provincial units, the administration would pay more attention to local realities.And financially speaking, eliminating the expenses of two levels of government can save a lot of money.Therefore, those who benefit the most are the areas south of the Yangtze River.At that time, the area was generally peaceful, and the heads of the various areas who were kings agreed to marry each other, and they also helped each other when there was a famine in the area.At the same time, the development of the local area also started successively. For example, the Ma family made tea an export product in today's Hunan, the Qian family developed water conservancy in Zhejiang, and the Wang family fully promoted international trade in Fujian.These achievements are not something a centralized bureaucratic organization could possibly be happy with.They will inevitably focus on the most backward aspects of economic efficiency in order to maintain a comprehensive balance, thereby avoiding friction between regions.

But even so, a divided China also leaves the defense of the North insecure.In AD 936, still within the schism described here, one of the five short dynasties made a pact with the Khitan.The Khitan are a semi-nomadic people originating in the Northeast of China.Shi Jingtang's begging for help has no long-term historical significance, but the price he paid has far-reaching significance. The agreement in 936 ceded Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures to Khitan, including the territory south of the Great Wall, including today's Beijing.Since then, the northern gate has been opened, affecting China for 400 years.Only then did the Chinese realize that the nomads were different from the previous ones, and they already had considerable agricultural experience.From now on, they used the land they cut off as a kind of training ground, so that the managers from the north and northeast were skilled in controlling a large number of people engaged in agriculture, which resulted in a continued development trend to the south. The rise of the Song dynasty can be seen as a response to this challenge.In the past, the regional chiefs who actually operated independently had continuously improved the quality of their troops and strengthened the financial rule of the region, but it was not until the Song Dynasty that they were merged and unified.Although the Zhao family dynasty still calls for a unified empire in name, it has a nation-state style in some respects.Especially in uniting the South against the North, it takes a competitive position. In the spring of 960 A.D., Zhao Kuangyin was the last short dynasty in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms—the general of the Zhou Dynasty. His army camped in Chenqiaoyi (this place is a small town, only a short distance from the capital Kaifeng) distance).One morning, he was awakened by his subordinates, who put a yellow robe on Zhao Kuangyin and proclaimed him emperor.The affair of the support of the sergeant happened in the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and it also happened in the West in the Roman Empire, but Zhao Kuangyin was different.Since the downfall of the Tang Dynasty, the various movements launched by the strongmen in various regions were not without connections and agreements. It was Zhao Kuangyin who brought them together, and finally made them a centralized bureaucracy.No other dynasty in the history of China was born under similar circumstances. When Zhao led the army back to Kaifeng, the work of replacing Zhou was completed without difficulty.The leader of the new dynasty, knowing that a divided China cannot oppose its strong neighbor in the north, gave up the original plan of the Northern Expedition to Khitan.From then on, Zhao Kuangyin took it as his duty to merge the independent countries in the south.The middle reaches of the Yangtze River were acquired in 963 AD, today's Sichuan was acquired in 965, and Guangzhou was acquired in 971.Today's Zhejiang and Fujian are not within his unified territory, and they were not taken over until his younger brother Zhao Guangyi succeeded him. Where Zhao Kuangyin was within his power, centralization measures were carried out quickly and thoroughly.The new emperor's vigilance, not going to extremes, and his generosity with money made it easy for his plans to be realized.Only a year and a half after ascending to the throne, Zhao Kuangyin negotiated with the uprising generals who embraced him as the emperor, asking them to retire from the military, and the emperor gave them generous rewards and honorary titles, so the "yellow robe plus body" comedy that was enough to shake the throne could not be found elsewhere The main character repeats itself. The army of the Song Dynasty was divided into three levels.The highest rank is "Forbidden Army", the second is "Xiang Bing", and the third is "Xiang Bing".Teams at the top often absorb excellent people from the bottom and weed out to them those who are themselves unqualified.In the past, the focus of warlord separatism was changed to civilian guards, and a rule of inspection every three years was planned. Taxation was also changed to be received and managed by civil servants, and the previous account receipts were reviewed in great detail.The edict in 965 AD: All the gold and silk should be sent to the central government, except for the expenditures of the states.So all the deposits of the coffers were sent from time to time to Kaifeng, making that one of the most remarkable inland ports in the world.In order to send these materials, the whole country is divided into 6 financial regions, and each region is called a "road".Managed by a "transporter".They "go to the department at the age of the year, inspect the savings, examine the account records, and all the officials and the people are notified, and they have more than one report."During Zhao Guangyi's reign (976-997 A.D.), it is said that "tens of thousands of sections" of materials for raincoats and tents in the warehouse were damaged, which shows that the wealth was concentrated on that day, and the wealth of materials controlled by Kaifeng may be unmatched in the world. But even with the above preparations, Zhao Song has become a weak dynasty in Chinese history. Its military flag has never been deployed in the northern grasslands, let alone extended to the northeast or northwest corners into the hinterland of Central Asia. .It has never occupied a corner of today's Vietnam like Han and Tang.If we are not afraid of being too simplistic, we can generally point out that the records of the 319 years of the Song Dynasty are nothing more than military defeats and retreats, and all exceptions are the peace purchased from the northern minorities in the name of "year-old coins".This seemingly bizarre situation is not difficult to explain, but we must review some plots that the ancient historians neglected to mention. To the northeast of the Northern Song Dynasty is the dynasty established by Khitan - Liao.The Khitan belongs to the Mongolian language family, and they have been active in the area on the map for more than 300 years. Even the Liao, which was established after the Chinese dynasty, appeared 53 years earlier than the Song Dynasty.The monarchs of the Liao Dynasty were proficient in writing and ink, and their characters appeared in 920 AD, and they had received tribute from Goryeo, Huihe, and Tubo.Before the emergence of the Song Dynasty, even the Qian family, known as the King of Wuyue in Zhejiang, paid tribute to the Liao Dynasty in Khitan.Not only the territory of the Central Plains occupied by the Khitan was governed by Han bureaucrats, but also in the rear of the Liao territory, according to eyewitness reports, countless officials, literati, craftsmen, You Lian, martial artists, monks and nuns also came from the Central Plains. The degree of Sinicization is deep.The organizational ability of this semi-Sinicized country is much stronger than that of the simple nomads that Han and Tang fought against.Those simple nomads relied on the charging power of the wind and thunder. Xixia is not a simple barbarian either.The semi-Sinicized state they organized had been active in the areas it later occupied in the early Tang Dynasty. When it competed with the Song people 400 years later, a Sinicized government had already existed.Xixia script is based on Tibetan, and important Confucian classics have already been translated into books.The Qiang people belonged to the Tibetan nationality, and most of them were already engaged in agriculture at this time. So in the 10th century AD, these ethnic minorities had obviously been instructed by the Han people to raise their cultural level, so that the frontier defense problem faced by the Song Dynasty was different from that of its previous dynasties.These nomads already had agricultural bases, and they had built cities for defensive warfare.The difficult terrain in the north is beneficial to them, and at the same time they retain the rapidity of mobilization and mobility on the battlefield. These advantages are closely related to their living habits on the grasslands.Although the Khitan and the Qiang often had conflicts, they were consistent with each other when fighting against the Song Dynasty. The Chinese people's lack of a strong national concept also constituted a major weakness of the Zhao and Song Dynasties.It was obvious that all Han Chinese were determined to be liberated from outsider yoke, and such a war of liberation would of course benefit Song's military operations.In fact, however, the rivalry between the two sides was only generally regarded as a conflict between dynasties. This phenomenon is the consequence of the development of cosmopolitanism over 1000 years.The Chinese themselves promote a myth that all Asian nations are descendants of the Yellow Emperor, and that race differences only arise due to geographical barriers.Classical literature emphasizes "culturism" rather than nationalism.Mencius, known as the sub-sage, once emphasized that if it can make the life of ordinary people beneficial, submitting to the foreign master is neither unscrupulous nor servile.There is a passage in his book that mentions that Shun is a barbarian in the east, and King Wen of Zhou is a barbarian in the west.This sentence is familiar to all learned Han people and constitutes the basis for merging with other races.If the attitude of educated people is like this, the ethnic origin of ordinary people and the reigning emperor is not important, and of course there is no need to worry about ethnic concepts.And the ruler of Khitan has seen through the situation of the day and did not give the Han people under his rule any reason to oppose him. What is less understood so far is that the Zhao Dynasty still has its weakness in supplies.On the surface it seems impossible.Because generally speaking, the south has a large area, abundant products, a large population, relatively advanced technology, and the convenience of waterways.However, to obtain the above advantages must be achieved by a thoroughly modern organization, which was impossible in the 11th century AD, and it still has not been achieved even hundreds of years later. The Song Dynasty had a lot of supplies, but the supply routes were also long.In terms of military deployment, listing most items together in military supplies violates the principle of simple similarity.The ability to keep journals does not guarantee perfect coordination, and even the most basic figures do not agree with each other in the Privy Council in charge of military affairs and the three departments in charge of finance.Modern readers must see clearly here: For Zhao Song’s experiment to be realized at this juncture and to be fruitful, all financial clues must be controlled by commercial customs, the units of various weights and measures must be standardized, and the items and degrees that may be exchanged It also needs to be recognized and can be supervised by an independent agency; bureaucrats must be dominated by technology, and cannot change their original intentions with ideology and personnel relations.The scope of its actions is so large, including supporting millions of troops, it is impossible without the participation of non-governmental enterprises.Therefore, it seems that most non-governmental undertakings that support from the sidelines must also be corporatized and take the status of a legal person in order to be responsible to the public.In general, everything can be managed in numbers. In fact, the Song Dynasty initiated a military deployment on its own initiative, and its success depended entirely on logistical support, which China was still unable to adequately supply until the early 20th century.Therefore, this attempt can be said to have been put forward prematurely and exceeded the capabilities of the time.Except for the considerable ship traffic on the inland rivers and canals, the functions of the government and private enterprises of the Song Dynasty showed no signs of being dominated by commerce. Therefore, the Zhao family dynasty inevitably had to bear the consequences of its own premature prominence.If that is not clear enough, then Wang Anshi's reforms during the reign of Zhao Xu, the sixth emperor of the Song Dynasty, can best reveal the plot at a glance. The Song Dynasty attempted to eradicate the Liao Dynasty very early.However, the two campaigns in 979 and 986 AD were completely defeated.Song Lord Zhao Guangyi was almost captured in the first battle, and he was wounded by an arrow when he personally commanded the battle in the second battle.Numerous border conflicts ensued when the Khitan retaliated.In 1004 AD they made a full-scale invasion.Because Kaifeng is located in a plain area, and Khitan is approaching the capital, the third emperor Zhao Heng hastily approved a peace agreement.During the peace talks, although Song and Liao treated each other equally as brothers, the Song Dynasty was forced to supply 200,000 taels of silk and 100,000 taels of silver every year. On the back end of history, the 1004 Agreement had its role.This "year-old currency" only accounted for a small part of the government's revenue in the Song Dynasty, and it could be regarded as a kind of assistance to the poorer neighbors to make up for the trade deficit between the two sides.This price paid for peace is undoubtedly lower than the cost of war.However, this kind of view must completely abandon the perception of the parties and accept geopolitical arbitration. The Song Dynasty monarchs and officials could not have such a reaction of staying out of the matter; they could not accept this compromise as a matter of course.In the history of China, there has never been a great empire that unified the world and bowed down to pay tribute to a border country with a low level of education.At the same time, Khitan also believed that the old coin was the compensation for the defeated country, and it was impossible to feel that it was a generous gift and expressed gratitude.Therefore, in 1042 A.D. when they asked for an increase in the old currency, they backed it with force. China in the Song Dynasty did not take Xixia seriously.In theory, Xixia occupied part of the territory of the Central Plains and became a vassal to the Song Dynasty.When Xixia became independent and proclaimed itself emperor in 1038 AD, the Song court immediately called it "anti" and stopped trading.However, China sent troops to conquer and suppress, and even the war was lost.The Song Dynasty sent troops repeatedly, but they lost the city and suffered heavy casualties. It was postponed to 1044. The only end China could get was to make the Lord of Xixia call himself "male" in the documents and write to "Father Emperor Song", Its own country is called the emperor as before, because China also "gifts" a total of 255,000 taels of silk silver tea every year. Against this background, Zhao Xu ascended the throne in 1067.He was eighteen at the time, but already had a reputation for hard work.His life's wish is to wash away the national humiliation, wipe out the barbarian states on the northern border, and recover China's territory.Following in the footsteps of Zhao Kuangyin, the founder of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Xu also felt that China's resources were sufficient to mobilize to achieve this goal.He built a number of warehouses in the palace, and wrote a poem by himself, using each character as the name of the warehouse.Read it like this: 〖Five Seasons Lost Maps, Xuan Yun Kongchi.The ancestor of art made a country, thinking about punishing AI. Yuan set up the inner government, based on recruiting scholars.Great-grandson Baozhi, dare to forget Jue Zhi. 〗 Translated into the vernacular, it is "there was a lack of strategy between the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, so that the barbarians were rampant. The ancestors with creative geniuses established dynasties in an attempt to restore this decadent situation. Therefore, the treasury in the inner hall was opened as the basis for recruiting soldiers and paying wages. As a great-grandson who inherits this business, how dare I forget his will?" When he talked with Wang Anshi, the minister of literature (the latter has an excellent reputation), because both of them have the goal of enriching armaments and national defense with economic power, Because it's like seeing each other. Wang Anshi's plan for reforming finance is called "New Law".One of the creations is called "green seedling money", that is, the government lends to farmers during the season of planting seedlings, and 20% interest is added to the repayment after the autumn harvest, which is not too much at the time.Another method is called "exemption money", because some errands in the Yamen of the Song Dynasty, such as Yaqian (Dianfu treasury or foreign class Zaoli), scribes, archers, and casual servants, were not recruited by recruitment, and they were not given value. They are dispatched by the people, and they are responsible for the financial responsibility. If there is a mistake, the person who served must pay for it.Wang Anshi advocated that the people generally lose money to help the laborers, and their personnel are openly recruited.The accumulation of items in the government warehouse cannot generate profit, and the king's "Market Exchange Law" loaned them to merchants, and returned the principal with interest when the sale was completed, or used gold and silver real estate as a security deposit in advance.Similarly, the "equal transportation method" allows the transshipment envoys to sell the items that should be sent to Kaifeng locally, and buy items that are not easy to get in the capital.Wang Anshi used the "Fangtian method" when sorting out land taxes.This method is based on a comprehensive land survey, with 5,000 feet on each side as a square, and within it, it is divided into five grades according to the fertility of the land so as to levy taxes according to the output.In addition, in order to ensure the source of soldiers, Wang Anshi made "Baojia", that is, the militia system. Since the announcement of the new law, Wang Anshi has encountered opposition from his colleagues, and various criticisms have been raging for a while.None of the items in the new law have been definitely effective. It only split the bureaucracy, and the reformer was recalled and reused after he was dismissed. Insignificant official titles are given to retire in the name of the duke. The occurrence of this series of love affairs made Emperor Zhao Xu unhappy all his life.The purpose of the new law is to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and then deal with the powerful enemy in the north, but this purpose has never been realized.An outspoken minister in the DPRK even wrote a letter, hoping that he would devote himself to maintaining peace, and it would be best not to talk about war for 20 years.During Zhao Xu's reign as emperor, Shang then ceded land to Khitan.Although the Song army finally defeated the Qiang in the northwest, this victory was preceded by a series of defeats.When the information about the unfavorable military front reached the court, Zhao Xu could not sleep at night and just walked around the couch.In the offensive in 1081 AD, it is said that 320,000 people were put into the battlefield. After suffering an unprecedented large number of casualties, the Song army only captured four fortresses.When Zhao Xu died at the age of 36 in 1085 AD, the courtiers of Zhuhe decided to return the four lands to Xixia to overcome the catastrophe.They knew that in a long-term war, the Song army could not win. Zhao Xu was succeeded by Prince Zhao Xu, who was not yet 10 years old at the time, and his grandmother, the Empress Dowager Gao, was in charge. During this period, Wang Anshi's new laws were all stopped, and all the people he used were dismissed, so as to welcome the courtiers of the opposition. (The most famous among them is Sima Guang, the historian who served as prime minister).Gao died in 1093 AD, and Zhao Xu was 17 years old. In actual administration, he made another change.He reintroduced new laws and dismissed opposition figures.His reforms involved many courtiers, and sometimes those who had died for many years were still affected. Even the contents of the scientific examinations were quite different, except for a proposal to deprive the title of empress dowager, which was not adopted, and even the emperor Zhao Xu's reign. The memorandum was also rewritten in its entirety to support the great change in government. It's not over yet.Zhao Xu passed away in 1110 AD at the age of 23, and was positioned to be succeeded by his half-brother Zhao Ji.This is the eighth emperor of Song Dynasty and also a famous painter.He took two different approaches to the new law: for the first two years he sided with the opposition, then he switched sides in favor of the reformers.At this time, Wang Anshi had passed away for nearly 20 years, and his reputation also went up and down with the change of government.In 1104 AD, his prestige reached its peak, and an imperial edict promulgated him as the third sage of Confucianism, under Confucius and Mencius, and also in the Confucian Temple.At the same time, the 309 courtiers who opposed him, headed by Sima Guang, were demoted as traitors, and their names were engraved on stones and erected steles, making their treachery obvious for thousands of years. The story of Wang Anshi is a major topic in Chinese history. Over the centuries, there have been countless critics and critics of him, and he still dominates the international audience even in modern times.The books recording his deeds were also published in different languages.Clearly, his exploits are a subject for debate.But many similar publications are of no use to the general reader. The mention of Wang Anshih at the end of the 20th century only adds to our amazement: 900 years before us, China attempted to manipulate state affairs through financial controls on a scale and depth never proposed anywhere else in the world today.When Wang Anshi said to Shenzong Zhao Xu, "The country will be fully used without raising taxes", he undoubtedly knew how to stimulate economic growth by borrowing on credit.When production increases the circulation of goods, even if the same tax rate is used, the result of tax increase can be received in a high-value circulation state.This expansive vision is different from the traditional view, which regarded everything as an unchangeable determinant.Therefore, Wang Anshi is close to modern readers, but far away from his contemporaries. However, an important factor has never been seen through by Wang Anshi, and is rarely taken into account by his later admirers, that is, the modern financial economy is an omnipotent and omnipotent organizational force. It's similar to other factors that stand against each other.Obvious objective values ​​on which property rights are respected and exchange rates of division of labor are based cannot be valid in some respects and invalid in others.If there are two regulations and different customs, a gap will be created, which will not only cause controversy, but will encourage economic factors to escape regulation.For the financial economy to work, things related to money and credit must obtain a legal status that can be exchanged fairly and freely anytime and anywhere, just like liquids are blocked in oil pipes or water pipes and still maintain their endowed pressure.Throughout the history of the world, no country has been able to form such an organizational system without going through a period of hard work.The old system, including the vested interests in it, must be eradicated, and then all goods and services can be fully exchanged, and a new system can be established.Wang Anshi's reform did not cause the social conflict mentioned above, because the society in the Song Dynasty had not yet developed to such a degree that it was enough to entangle the old and new factions for this duel.His reform was just a political impulse, not an economic development, so his disputes only appeared in bureaucratic organizations. With today's historical perspective, we can assert that in order to commercialize the finances of this empire, financial regulation must be in place.Bills of exchange, bills of lading, insurance policies, general average, loans secured by ships, risky loans, shares, salvage rights, etc. must be legislated before they can be implemented without hindrance.More importantly, the legal regulations on inheritance, bankruptcy, foreclosure, counterfeiting, deceit, self-stealing, etc. must also be in line with the fluid state in the commercial society, and everything is governed by money, which makes sense.The reality of inland commercial organizations in the Song Dynasty was far from this requirement. Within the lower institutions of Chinese society, there are more inconsistencies.Wang Anshi's reforms affected farmers across the country, and his ultimate goal was to bring the results of the reforms to the North China battlefield.Such a commercial organization cannot lack the support of the lowest strata in the countryside.But the Song Dynasty, like the previous dynasties, divided the possession of land into countless small pieces, and this situation has a history of hundreds of years.It often happens that farmers abandon their land to flee famine.Except for special cases, there is no fundamental difference between the situation of saving capital in general and agriculture at that time and now.When these conditions continue, the related service business cannot be established and started.No toll roads were built, nor was there a formal postal service.If the court fees cannot be paid, the development of the new civil law will be delayed.Local officials found that farmers could only command and deal with them collectively.Therefore, the unified situation of the entire empire is due to the power of cultural agglomeration, which constitutes the discipline of society, rather than the power of money and the factors that can be shared and exchanged because of the coexistence of everything. Because they lack our understanding today, the bureaucrats of the Song Dynasty only argued on the moral standpoint, and exposed the social situation at that time in their words.For example, BBQ has never been presided over in a statutory manner by modern standards.All applications for loans, investigation of the applicant's situation, provision of loan guarantees, disposition of failure to repay the loan when due, and confiscation of the property guaranteed, etc., have not been found.The county magistrate only handed over the whole sum to the farmers and asked them to take responsibility collectively, returning the principal with interest on time, without any consideration of the wishes of the villagers and their relationships and responsibilities.The funds for lending came from warehousing, which was originally used to prepare for famine relief.However, the actual storage of each county is very different. Some counties lack warehouses. Under the requirement of one-piece loan interest recovery, even though these counties have not borrowed money, their county magistrates have to add land tax to offset it. Interest paid to superiors.The Shi Yi Law also failed to attract too many businessmen to do business with the government; most of them were afraid of getting involved with the yamen.So the officials personally supervised the sales, so that the wholesalers disappeared, and the prices of the goods had to be set by these officials.Once, some government officials even sold ice cubes and fruit on the street, which was condemned by the emperor.As for the collection of exemption money, it is tantamount to instructing the villages to implement a financial economy. In fact, the government should have organized banks, promoted insurance, and expanded wholesale business, all of which should be started in the cities. However, the Baojia Law runs counter to Wang Anshi's other new laws.Conscription to all peasants, like previous dynasties, must be based on the equalization of land, because the obligation to serve as a soldier is regarded as an additional condition that every household pays the same tax, and the tax rate is light.The Song Dynasty had already raised the tax rate and promoted the circulation of money, so the general conscription would make the poor families even more miserable.There are also technical difficulties in arranging the field tax by Fangtian method.For example, in 1082 A.D., Kaifeng Prefecture reported that the annual survey only covered two counties, and it took 10 years to complete the survey of the 19 counties in the whole prefecture.When this report was made, 10 years had passed since the Fangtian Act was first proposed in 1072. Now that the new law has encountered such insurmountable obstacles, it is unavoidable to make people wonder, what was the basis for it to be proposed in the first place?And since it has failed, why has it been recovered and reused again and again?When answering this question, we must know that the bureaucrats of the Song Dynasty certainly lacked the vision of today, and had no way of understanding that financial and economic regulation required various preparatory work to be put in place, and such conditions were beyond their time.However, the lack of such vision also makes them afraid to stand in our position and arbitrarily believe that the new law must not be feasible.The new law is an experiment and a struggle.This is their trial and their struggle. If the new law is not promulgated as a national unanimous decree, but some local officials or some bureaucrats with special characteristics propose and implement it partially, its success or failure is uncertain.However, if this is the case, without the supervision of the superior and without fixed goals, these measures are not enough to be called manipulating state affairs through financial control.On a smaller scale, however, it is not at all impracticable for government activities to infiltrate private trade.For example, Liu Yan of the Tang Dynasty once bought and sold the commodities under his management, thus making a profit.Before Wang Anshi implemented the new law throughout the country, he served as the county magistrate of Yin County. He also lent public funds to farmers to make profits, and obtained mutually satisfactory results.Similar deeds made Zhao Xu and his sons think that those who opposed the new law deliberately obstructed it.What makes the situation even more complicated is that no matter whether the new law is suitable for the actual situation or not, once it is promulgated and adopted, it is not easy to withdraw it, and there will be many adverse consequences if it is abolished, so the presiding person has to hesitate.In short, Wang Anshi's advance and retreat disturbed the Northern Song Dynasty for half a century, involving a monarch who was unable to do what he wanted, and indeed introduced ministers with suspicious intentions.It's just that we see the strength and style of the main characters, and they are also involved in the whirlpool, so we can assert that this story is just a contradiction of the times.The extent of China's political unity far exceeds its domestic economic organization, and the result of continued development will only cause setbacks for both.