Wang Anshi
| Names | | Xìng ": | Wáng 王 |
| Míng 名: | Ānshí 安石 |
| Zì 字: | Jièf" 介" |
| Hào 號: | Bànshān Lǎorén 半山老人
(Oldman Half-a-Mountain) |
| Shì 謚: | Wén 文¹ |
| title: | Jīngguógōng 荊國公² |
| 1. hence referred to as Wáng Wéngōng 王文公 |
| 2. hence referred to as Wáng Jīnggōng 王荊公 |
|
Wáng Ānshí () (
1021 -
May 21,
1086) was a
Chinese economist, statesman,
chancellor and poet of the
Song Dynasty who attempted some controversial, major
socioeconomic reforms.
Under 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 falling on the
peasantry. The drop in state revenues, a succession of
budget deficits, and widespread
inflation prompted the
Emperor Shenzong of Song to seek advice from Wang.
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."
Accordingly, under his direction the state initiated agricultural
loans to relieve the farming peasants of the burden of interest extracted from them by moneylenders, and thus prevent agricultural development from being impeded by a lack of
capital. To destroy
speculation and break up the
monopolies, he initiated a system of fixed commodity prices; and he appointed boards to
regulate wages and plan pensions for the aged and unemployed. Wang Anshi also revamped the
imperial examination system so that less emphasis was placed on literary style and memorization of the
Chinese classic texts and more on practical knowledge, irking the
Confucian scholar gentry and state bureaucracy. These reforms were known as the "new laws," New Policies, or
xin fa.
Imperial scholar-officials, such as
Su Dongpo and
Ouyang Xiu, bitterly opposed these reforms on 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 but was reinstated with the support of the emperor. With Shenzhong's death in
1085, Anshi was permanently ousted and the New Policies rolled back.
Modern observers have noted how remarkably close his theories were to modern concepts of the
welfare state and
planned economy.
In addition to his political achievements, Wang Anshi was a noted poet. He wrote poems in the
shi form, modelled on those of
Du Fu. He was traditionally classed as one of the
Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song ("宋八大家).
Anderson, Gregory E., "
To Change China: A Tale of Three Reformers",
Asia Pacific: Perspectives, 1:1 (2001).
