Wang anshi vs sima guang biography

The Young Seedlings Law stipulates that the state will sell grain according to the price of grain based on the grain accumulated in the Changping and Guanghui warehouses of each state. This measure reduced the economic burden of the people to a certain extent, avoiding their need to borrow usury, and at the same time brought a certain tax revenue to the state.

However, this policy touched the interests of the nobility and provoked strong opposition. The Conscription Law, also known as the "Exemption Law", aims to reduce the burden on the people. Wang Anshi abolished the previous practice of taking turns as a prefecture and county servant by household, and instead the prefecture and county officials hired people to serve at their own expense.

This policy freed the peasants, reduced the tax burden, promoted the development of production, and increased the government's fiscal revenue. However, it has also caused displeasure among local officials, who need to take on greater financial responsibility. Why was Sima Guang so adamantly opposed to Wang Anshi's reforms? First, Wang Anshi's reforms reduced the burden on the people, but touched on the interests of the nobility.

These nobles were in the same party as Sima Guang, so they firmly opposed these reforms. But Sima Guang's opposition was not only for his own interests, but also because he saw the essential problem of Wang Anshi's transformation of the law. Although Wang Anshi's method seems reasonable on the surface, there are actually many problems. Wang Anshi's reforms led the state to harm the interests of the local gentry, who in turn would extract more from the peasants.

As a result, the rights and interests of farmers are not really protected. Sima Guang saw this problem profoundly and therefore resolutely opposed Wang Anshi's reforms. He believed that reform should follow the principles of heaven and should not be carried out in a big way to go against the traditions of the ancestors and be detrimental to the rule of the country.

This experience guided his analysis in formulating solutions to what ailed Song society Mote Wang believed that the state was responsible for providing its citizens 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.

Wang came to power in His reforms were classified into three groups: 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 minting of copper coins, improve management of trade, implementing plans to lend farmers money when they planted to be repaid at harvest.

He believed that the common people and their well being were the key to the strength of the state and thus, he made it a priority to address their needs Mote To destroy speculation and break up the monopolies , he also initiated a system of fixed commodity prices; and he appointed boards to regulate wages and plan pensions for the aged and unemployed.

A centerpiece of defense and social order reforms was the institution of the baojia system of organizing 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 Mote 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 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 Mote Modern observers have noted how remarkably close his theories were to modern concepts of the welfare state and planned economy.

Now we propose to survey the situation in regard to surpluses and shortages in each circuit as a whole, to sell when grain is dear and buy when it is cheap, in order to increase the accumulation in government storage and to stabilize the prices of commodities. This will make it possible for the farmers to go ahead with their work at the proper season, while the monopolists will no longer be able to take advantage of their temporary stringency.

All this is proposed in the interests of the people, and the government derives no advantage therefrom. Moreover, it accords with the idea of the ancient kings, who bestowed blessings upon all impartially and promoted whatever was of benefit by way of encouraging the cultivation and accumulation of grain. Note: This proposal was adopted by the emperor and put into effect first in the limited areas of Hebei Jingtong, and Huainan, as suggested by the Commission to Coordinate Fiscal Administration.

The results obtained were later considered to justify extension of the system to other areas. If one insists on carrying these policies out, certain failure awaits them in the end. Recently, your servant has presented repeated memorials asking for the abolition of the advancing of crop loans at interest1 and abolition of the [Economic] Administrators.

If great numbers of people are opposed, then whatever one may say, one will not be believed; but if all the people are of one accord, then whatever one does will certainly succeed. The mind of Your Majesty does not hesitate to make a change; it is only the minister in charge of the government who still persists in his obstinacy. Moreover, when the system of buying and selling grain is put back into effect, 3 our accumulated reserve will expand.

The government will then be without fault in its administration, and public opinion will have no cause to be aroused. Sima Guang was a contemporary and rival of Wang Anshi. Continued on a regular basis from then on, the art of history saw particularly significant development in the Tang and Northern Song periods with the work of historians such as Liu Zhiji , Du You , and Ouyang Xiu However, the outstanding achievement of this period is that of Sima Guang Sima, who served as a high-ranking official in the imperial government, was also an historian.

His greatest work is a chronological account of all Chinese history prior to the Song in chapters, entitled Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance. These matters were then written up and preserved in the archives as the Diaries of Action and Repose Qijuzhu to provide source material for later historians. Meanwhile, they impressed on the emperor that everything he said or did would be recorded for posterity.

During the Tang it was still the practice to keep the records out of the reach of the imperial glance in order to assure objectivity. This was no longer the case in the Song, but memorialists continued to appeal to emperors to act in a manner that would ensure their posthumous reputation. The emperor in the following anecdote is Taizong, the de facto founder and second emperor of the Tang.

Mencius had charged that these rulers, in contrast to genuine worthies, only pretended to virtue but Sima holds that they met the needs of their time. This, however, does not make him a historical relativist, for he stresses that there is only one Way. But it is unheard of that the ruler himself should see what is written. How could I dare not to record it?

Sima dates the following exchange, which he recapitulates as a basis for his own comment on the subject of the king and the hegemon, to 53 B. The speakers are the heir apparent and future emperor Yuan r. The heir apparent appeals to his father to employ more Confucian scholars and fewer Legalists in his government. If every matter is handled this way, what cause will there be to worry about misgovernment?

That Bei Zhu was given to flattery under the Sui dynasty but to loyalty under the Tang was not because his personality changed: a ruler who resents hearing of his faults turns loyalty into flattery, but one who is pleased by straight talk turns flattery into loyalty.

Wang anshi vs sima guang biography

Thus we know that the ruler is the gnomon [or post for measuring the height of the sun], the minister the shadow. When the gnomon moves, the shadow follows. He liked scholars but observed that many legal officials employed by the emperor used punishments in order to control subordinates. It would be appropriate to employ scholars. How could we possibly rely solely on moral instruction and employ Zhou governance?

One side of the battle was represented by the great historian-Prime Minister Sima Guang, the leader of the Cultural Conservatives. His adversary was a man named Wang Anshi , who is generally remembered either as the greatest of political visionaries, or as a radical and unbalanced man, who led China into a grand misadventure. He came from a family that was well off, but not prominent, and he spent the early part of his career, after passing through the exam system, working his way up the ladder of appointment.

Like Sima Guang, Wang was an independent minded scholar, but his scholarship was rather unorthodox; he tended to concentrate on Confucian texts that were not the focus of the official curriculum, and to interpret them in new and novel ways. One notable incident that exemplified the divide was a public debate in between Wang Anshi and Sima Guang.

The debate centered on a petition from two prefects who wished to decline ceremonial gifts. Wang argued that the gifts were insignificant and that refusing them would damage the prestige of the government. Sima Guang countered that the empire was in financial distress and that reducing unnecessary expenses, including gifts to officials, was essential.

In response to criticism, Wang emphasized the importance of finding a capable financial expert who could avoid burdening the people with excessive taxes. He also defended his policies by citing historical examples of successful rulers who had enacted similar reforms. In , Sima Guang wrote a letter to Wang expressing his belief in Wang's character but criticizing his fiscal policies.