The Xifeng Reform of the Northern Song Dynasty occupies an important position in both the history of China's reform movement and the history of ancient China, and is a hot issue in the study of Song history. However, when people study this reform, they always focus on Wang Anshi's reform and the role it plays, while Song Shenzong's reform thought has not received sufficient attention. This paper intends to make a preliminary discussion on the background of the Song Shenzong's reform thought before the Xifeng reform, the germination of the reform thought, and the final formation of the reform thought, so as to learn from the Fang family.
1. The background of the formation of Song Shenzong's idea of changing the law
Song Shenzong's idea of changing the law was formed under the influence of a specific era background and the environmental background of its growth, and its background factors can be summarized into the following three aspects:
(1) Background of the times
In order to correct the disadvantages of the division and disputes and frequent changes of political power since the end of the Tang Dynasty and the five dynasties, the rulers of the early Song Dynasty adopted a series of specific measures in the political, economic, and military fields, concentrating political power, financial power, military power, judicial and other major powers in the emperor's body, and at the same time reforming the bureaucracy and military institutions, thus establishing a complete set of unprecedentedly strengthened absolutist centralized ruling system. This kind of system has undoubtedly played a positive role in promoting the maintenance of political stability, national unity, and economic recovery and development for a certain period of time, but this overkill centralized system itself has latent contradictions and negative factors, and has become more and more obvious with the passage of time, and finally in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, the three major social diseases of redundant officials, redundant soldiers, and redundant expenses and the social situation of poverty and weakness have been formed, and this has led to a serious social crisis.
First, there is a serious financial crisis. As a result of the increasingly large and bloated bureaucracy, "the bureaucracy was ten times more redundant than at the beginning of the country" during the Jiayou period. A situation has been formed in which there are many officials and mediocrity. The number of troops also increased dramatically, and the number of soldiers in Qingli was six times that of the Song Dynasty, resulting in a situation where there were many soldiers and they were weak. In addition, the ruling group's profligacy has exacerbated the tight fiscal situation. During the reign of Renzong, the state's finances were already beyond their means, and in the second year of Yingzong's reign, the financial deficit reached 15 million!
Second, there is a serious crisis of governance. Internally, in order to make up for the financial deficit, the Song rulers intensified the exploitation and oppression of the common people, coupled with the Song Dynasty's land policy of not establishing a land system and not suppressing annexation, so that the land was highly concentrated, and the poor people had "no place to stand", so in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, the class contradictions continued to intensify. Peasants and soldiers revolted one after another, "more than a year is like a year, and a fire (gang) is stronger than a fire (gang)". They "go public during the day, open the treasury without permission, and their momentum is growing day by day." It seriously affected the ruling order of the Northern Song Dynasty. Externally, the military strategy of "guarding the inside and the outside" made the Song army unfavorable to the enemy, and after Song Taizong "did not dare to go north", the Song army was not only unable to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun, but was constantly attacked. Border troubles also seriously threatened the rule of the Song dynasty, and the huge cost of war, indemnities, and military support exacerbated the Song's financial crisis. The Song Dynasty was faced with a serious situation of financial difficulties and weak soldiers, internal and external troubles. Ouyang Xiu once sighed: "The lack of money for the top and bottom has been disadvantaged, the lack of soldiers is powerful outside and dare to be arrogant inside, and the system cannot become more and more complicated for the law of eternity." This is exactly the portrayal of the social contradictions at that time.
(2) The background of social ideological trends
In the face of the increasingly serious situation of accumulation of poverty and weakness, the sense of crisis of some people of insight has gradually strengthened, and they have broken the political style of following the practice of being silent and decadent and lax under the influence of the Huang Lao trend of thought since the early Song Dynasty, and have increasingly strongly issued a call for eliminating malpractices and changing the law to make it stronger, and the trend of thinking of changing the law has gradually risen.
As early as the time of Zhenzong, Wang Yu put forward a series of proposals of "changing the rules and changing the rules and legislating according to the times", and then Song Qi also put forward the reform proposal of "removing three redundancies and saving three fees". When he arrived in Renzong, the call for reform converged into a climax, "Fang Qingli, Jia, the world's famous people often suffer from the law of unchanged." Fan Zhongyan was a representative figure among the scholars and doctors who demanded change during this period, and he played an important role in advocating for changing the political style of following the past and opening up the political style of "making a big name and boosting morale". He takes the world as his own responsibility, "the worries of the world first", "every time he is grateful to talk about the affairs of the world, he does not care about himself, and for a while, the scholars and doctors are pretentious, and they advocate it". Then put forward the reform proposal of "consolidating the country, strengthening the people's strength, renaming the instrument, preparing Rong Di, Du Traitor, and Ming Guoting". Song Renzong was forced by a serious social crisis, "Fang Rui is peaceful", and in the third year of Qingli (1043), Fan Zhongyan was appointed as a governor to plan to change the law. At the same time, a group of scholars with innovative ideas also stepped into the forefront of the political arena, such as Fu Bi, Han Qi, Ouyang Xiu and others. Fan Zhongyan proposed: Ming deposed Zhizhi, suppressed luck, Jinggongju, selected officials, Jungongtian, Hounongsang, repaired military equipment, reduced forced labor, Qin Enxin, heavy orders and other ten reform plans, which focused on rectifying the rule of officials, Renzong basically adopted and promulgated the whole country, known as the "Qingli New Deal" in history. Although the New Deal failed, it had a great impact on the government and the opposition. The ministers who participated in the new policy, represented by Fan Zhongyan, later became widely respected by the scholars as models of concern for the country and the people, and the atmosphere of reform and revitalization has also begun, and it has gradually become the strongest voice of the times.
In the more than 20 years from the Qingli New Deal to the Xifeng Reform launched by Song Shenzong, the trend of reform of the law continued, and scholars and doctors put forward proposals for reform in response to the current situation. Among the many voices of reform, the most influential is Wang Anshi's reform proposal. In the third year of Jiayou (1058), Wang Anshi presented the "Book of Words of Emperor Shangrenzong", which was known as the "Book of Ten Thousand Words". He believed that "the urgency of the present" was to cultivate and select "those who can speak the will of the previous kings in line with the changes of the time" through the way of "teaching, raising, taking, and appointing them", and to carry out a comprehensive reform of the education and imperial examination system. The Book of Ten Thousand Words was not valued by Renzong in his later years, but it had a great repercussion among scholars, and Wang Anshi was therefore respected by the majority of scholars and doctors who advocated innovation, and became a representative figure among the reformers in this period. Sima Guang said that he "has been famous in the world for 30 years, and he is highly educated and rich", and Liu Anshi also said that "at that time, the theory of the world was that Jinling (Wang Anshi) was not in power." It can be seen that changing the law and trying to become strong has become a popular trend of thought among scholars and doctors in that era. Under the influence of this trend of reform, some magistrates made some attempts at reform in their jurisdictions, which opened the precursor of many reform contents in the Xifeng Reform Law.
Song Shenzong grew up in such an era of internal and external troubles, and the trend of law change thought was in the ascendant, and this environment and atmosphere became the soil for Song Shenzong's law change thought to brew and produce.
(3) Family influence
Song Shenzong grew up in the clan, and as the great-grandson of Taizong, he often had a strong sense of mission and worry. Hou Mi once said: "Every time I think of my ancestors, I have won the world in a hundred battles, and now I am a state of life, pay a mediocre person, and taste the pain of heart", "The country inherits the business of the ancestors, and the level is so, and my heirs guard the great weapon, fear day and night, and think as the way to cure... In the period before and after the accession of Emperor Shenzong, the reformist ministers in the new policy of Qingli became important ministers in the court, and this magnificent reform movement is bound to leave a deep impression on Emperor Shenzong.
And Yingzong, the father of Shenzong, although he reigned for less than four years, he was an emperor who "had a temperament and wanted to change". In view of the maladministration since Renzong, he raised the question of "how to save the accumulated defects" to the ruling government, and he also issued an edict to extend the transfer period of officials of all grades in view of the situation of "the years are deep, and the officials are accumulating" and "there are many multiples", which has alleviated the pressure on the imperial court finances caused by "redundant officials" to a certain extent. In order to promote talents, Yingzong ordered the minister to recommend talented people to fill the museum position.
He said: "The first emperor has been in power for 40 years, and the world has been peaceful, and he has been able to do nothing. I am a lot of things, how dare I be at ease, so I changed the name of this palace. "And let the favored minister Wang Guangyuan write "Hong Fan" on the screen, saying: I meet the subordinates who are always humble and gentle, and between listening to and accepting, they will judge themselves clearly. It shows that Yingzong was an aspiring emperor, but unfortunately died young, and his ambitions could not be realized. From the above description, it can be seen that the hard work of the fathers and ancestors and the ambition of innovation and strength undoubtedly had a subtle influence on the emergence of Song Shenzong's idea of changing the law.
Second, the germ of the idea of changing the law
When Song Shenzong was young, he "knew that his ancestors would swallow the secluded, thistle, Lingwu, and count the defeated soldiers", and determined to "snow the shame of several generations", and when he was more than ten years old, Shenzong was "full of ambition and promising, and wanted to ask about the crimes of the two realms in the northwest". The weakness of the army, the defeat of foreign wars, and the humiliation of national prestige were the initial reasons and fundamental driving forces for Shenzong's ambition.
When Song Shenzong was studying in the East Palace, he admired the doctrine of Legalism very much. Among the Legalists, he especially likes Han Fei. In October of the second year of Zhiping, Shenzong took out a newly transcribed version of "Han Feizi" and asked the government officials to proofread it. Reading Sun Yong said: "Han Fei is dangerous and insignificant", and Shenzong excused himself: "It is not good to record the number of books in this collection." "Nothing is liked" is obviously just a pretext, otherwise he would not have copied it himself. In fact, the Legalist doctrine did have a great influence on the Divine Sect. Later, when talking about the way of governing the country, Song Shenzong often mentioned some ancient Legalist figures who were determined to change the law, "If the ancient meritorious and famous, Guan Zhong is in Qi, Shang Yang is in Qin, and Wu Qi is in Chu, all make the government decree must be implemented." The idea of strengthening the absolute monarchy by combining the spirit of reform and enterprising spirit with "law", "technique" and "potential" in Legalist doctrine had a profound impact on the life of Song Shenzong. It was this kind of influence that made Song Shenzong achieve the great cause of vigorous law change in the future.
In the era of the prince of Song Shenzong, Wang Anshi was a minister who had a great influence on him. When his father Yingzong ascended the throne, Shenzong was 16 years old, and during this period, Wang Anshi's reform theory had a wider influence in society. In addition, Han Wei, Sun Yong and others who served in Yingdi were admirers of Wang Anshi, and between their daily speeches, Shenzong would also be influenced by them, and pay more attention to Wang Anshi. Especially Han Wei, who is a friend of Wang Anshi, "Every time he talks about it, he says: This is not Weizhi's statement, and Wang Anshi's friend's theory is also." He even wanted to recommend Wang Anshi to replace his position as the "prince's concubine". In this regard, "the emperor wanted to see him", and he became more and more interested in Wang Anshi and his political views, especially the reform ideas. Wang Anshi's reform proposition is bound to play an important role in enlightening and encouraging the emergence of Song Shenzong's reform thought.
3. The formation of the idea of changing the law
The period from the accession of Song Shenzong in the fourth year of Zhiping (1067) to the second year of Xining (1069) when Wang Anshi was appointed as a counselor and governor and launched the Xifeng reform was the period from the germination to the initial formation of Song Shenzong's reform thought. After Song Shenzong ascended the throne and took charge of the country's politics, he was faced with an increasingly embarrassing financial crisis. The cost is incalculable", and the treasury is "more profitable" than Renzong in his later years. The ministers shouted: "The money is insufficient, and the people are helpless." The country is not its country. "Song Shenzong had to start focusing on the real problem: financial scarcity. He realized that in order to "strengthen the army", he must first "enrich the country", and enriching the country was the first problem that Song Shenzong had to solve. Although Song Shenzong had the ambition to innovate, he lacked a mature concrete concept. So in the administration, Shenzong pondered and explored.
(1) Issue an edict to seek governance and open up the way of speech
In order to brainstorm and seek good strategies for governing the country, Shenzong issued an edict to seek governance. The edict said: "Only the rule is suddenly bowing down, dreaming of the night and conscientious, thinking about the order of heaven, and thinking about the unity of political affairs", "The husband opens up the way, leads to the will of the upper and lower levels, and the lord who wants to govern is also interested." "Wei'er Wenwu, its various bodies are not in vain." thus showing the people of the world his firm determination to make great efforts. Shenzong is eager to seek governance, and often expresses to the ministers that he is eager to rule, "When the beginning of the heir to the throne of the king, it is the autumn of the king's promise", "At the beginning of the government, stop Lai Qing and I to try to govern", "The country's relatives should be with me". In this regard, Han Wei advised Shenzong to "do not act suddenly on major events in the world, and the people and kings should set up their own priorities, but they should be cautious." Shenzong accepted his advice and sought a more prudent approach to governing the country.
After the edict was issued, the ministers offered advice one after another. Among them, Zhang Fangping and Sima Guang's Shangshu are the most typical, and they also have a greater impact on Shenzong. Zhang Fangping advocated that in view of the lack of financial resources, various floating fees should be reduced; He encouraged Song Shenzong to reform the current situation and "change it to the fullest"; advocate "saving the system does not hurt the money and does not harm the people"; Advocating that the imperial court attach importance to food and goods and develop the economy had an important impact on Shenzong's idea of changing the law. Sima Guang also analyzed the reasons for the lack of state use for Shenzong, "the use is too extravagant, the rewards are not modest, the clans are numerous, the official positions are redundant, and the military is not refined", and put forward the idea of saving money. Shenzong also asked Sima Guang about the art of enriching the people, and Sima Guang believed that "the foundation of enriching the people is to win people", and these suggestions undoubtedly played a certain enlightening role in Song Shenzong's thinking of changing the law.
(2) Continuous exploration and reform attempts
In addition to absorbing and drawing on the suggestions of the ministers, Song Shenzong also continued to explore and make reform attempts in the actual process of governance, thus promoting the gradual formation of his ideas on changing the law. The reform attempts can be summarized in the following three areas:
1. Pay attention to financial management.
Song Shenzong's financial management thinking was mainly based on "saving money", but it also promoted the development of production and reduced the burden on peasants. In the first year of Xining (1068), he said to Wen Yanbo: "Today's financial management is the most urgent task, raising troops and preparing for the border, and the treasury cannot be abundant, so the ministers should pay attention to saving money." In addition, the Divine Sect also took certain reform measures on the problems of redundant officials, excessive grace and shade, and the clan. Song Shenzong also paid great attention to the production of private agriculture and attached importance to the construction and repair of water conservancy facilities. In June of the first year of Xining (1068), he ordered the construction of water conservancy projects such as construction and ditching in Baozhou. After that, he ordered the road supervisors to visit the ruins of water conservancy projects that could be revived in various states and counties, and to build them. In addition, those who have made achievements in the construction of water conservancy projects are commended and rewarded. This measure will undoubtedly play a positive role in developing production, increasing agricultural output, and increasing social wealth. Shenzong issued two edicts, ordering that "officials who know the benefits and harms of the errand can be relieved should analyze the actual seals and hear about them." As a result, Han Jiang, Sima Guang, Wu Chong and others offered suggestions and suggestions, and conducted extensive discussions on the reform of the service law. After that, Shenzong ordered Zhao and Chen to summarize the performance of the "Chinese and foreign ministers" and made full preparations for the future reform of the service law. The reform of the forced labor has played a certain positive role in ensuring the peasants' production time and promoting the development of production. We can see that the combination of open source and throttling is a characteristic of Song Shenzong's financial management thought.
2. Reform of the librarianship examination.
Song Shenzong has always attached importance to "selecting people" and selecting outstanding officials. In the leap month of the fourth year of Zhiping (1067), Emperor Shenzong issued an edict to reform the examination method of the librarianship, abolishing the previous method of admitting librarians only by examining poems, and replacing it with the examination related to current politics. This initiative is not only for embassy officers
The improvement of political quality has also made scholars pay more attention to practical political issues. This reform became the precursor of the reform of the imperial examination in the Xifeng Reform Law, which also showed Song Shenzong's pragmatic thinking on the reform of the education and official election system.
3. The formation of military strategic thinking.
After Song Shenzong ascended the throne, he was concerned about military and foreign strategy. For this reason, he consulted Fu Bi, the minister of the reform faction at the time of the Qingli New Deal, and his answer of "I wish to be silent for twenty years" disappointed Song Shenzong. Song Shenzong's long-term desire to strengthen the army made him unwilling to defend and do nothing, and he wanted to forge ahead and open the border. In the fourth year of Zhiping, Xue Shangshu, the Shaanxi transfer envoy, suggested that the Hengshan patriarch be recruited, so as to gradually take an offensive against Western Xia. Shenzong appreciated and valued his ideas very much, and rewarded Xue Xiang. In July of the first year of Xining (1068), Han Qi asked for the construction of the city, so that it could be connected with Jichuan Village and Guwei Village, and "become the trend of foreign royalty". At the same time, it also eliminated the danger of Western Xia's annexation of various Tibetan tribes in the Guwei area, and cut off the ties between Western Xia and the blind medicine, Muzheng, Qingtang and other ethnic groups, which is the strategy of "breaking the right arm of Western Xia". Song Shenzong immediately adopted this suggestion and personally named the city "Gangu City". This measure was conducive to strengthening the ability of the northwest region to resist the Western Xia, and strategically started the operation of "breaking the right arm of the Western Xia". In the same year, Wang Shao, the manager of the Jianchang Army of Xin'an, joined the army, and after conducting a field investigation in the northwest, he played three articles of "Pingrong Policy". He thought that "Western Xia was desirable". He proposed: first recover the river and Huang, and hold the northwest gate of the Song Dynasty, so that the Xia people have no chance to take advantage of it, and the belly and back are subject to the enemy; Secondly, to subjugate Tibet, annex Zhuqiang, avoid the union of Western Xia and Tibet, and isolate Western Xia, so that Western Xia could not pose a threat to Song, and Song was not afraid of Western Xia disobedience. Wang Shao's strategic suggestion coincided with Song Shenzong's wishes. After Shenzong saw it, he "said something different", and summoned Wang Shao for an interview, and promoted him to be the driver of Qinfeng Road. Wang Shao's suggestion made the idea of "breaking the right arm of Western Xia" a big step forward, so as to have a more positive and enterprising attitude. This strategy had a great impact on Song Shenzong's military thinking and became the guiding ideology of Song Shenzong's strategy for Western Xia during the Xifeng period.
From the reform attempts in the early days of Song Shenzong's accession to the throne, we can see that before Xifeng's reform, Song Shenzong had initially formed the idea of changing the law in terms of enriching the country, strengthening the army, and selecting officials.
(3) Use Wang Anshi to start the change
In Song Shenzong's reform thoughts, financial management is the practical problem he is most concerned about, but the financial management method that focuses on "saving money" is a drop in the bucket for solving the financial crisis and accumulating wealth to open the edge. Song Shenzong wanted to "make great achievements", not to improve bit by bit, and he wanted to find a creative and pioneering way to change the status quo of the country's poverty and weak soldiers. So he thought of Wang Anshi. Wang Anshi's "Book of Ten Thousand Words" left a deep impression on Shenzong, especially his view that "because of the power of the world, to give birth to the wealth of the world, to take the wealth of the world, for the expenses of the world" gave great inspiration to Song Shenzong. So Song Shenzong resolutely used Wang Anshi and summoned him to the capital to inquire about the way to govern the country. Wang Anshi's "open source" financial management technique inspired Shenzong the most. Wang Anshi proposed that "it is probably impossible to manage money, so although it is thrifty and the people are not rich, although they are diligent and the country is not strong", "those who are good at financial management, the people do not give more and the country uses forgiveness", "Your Majesty can manage money, although the world is self-respecting", "the words of keeping money are not right". Shenzong greatly appreciated Wang Anshi's proposition, "There is no way to achieve this." Since then, in Song Shenzong's financial management thoughts, "open source" has become the focus, and "saving" has become secondary, but this has not changed Song Shenzong's insistence on "open source" and "throttling" together. In the Xifeng Reform Law, Song Shenzong cut the army, redundant officials and redundant bureaucracy while widely opening up the law, which is also a manifestation of his insistence on reducing expenditure.
In addition to being a great inspiration to Song Shenzong in terms of financial management and the art of enriching the country, Wang Anshi also had a deep influence on Song Shenzong in terms of culture, education and military affairs. In the field of culture and education, Wang Anshi opposed the idea of "memorizing poetry and memorization" and advocated the establishment of a "school cultivation method" to select talents with practical talents. On the military side, he advocated the training of soldiers and the "selection of generals" for the army in order to increase the power of generals in war. In this regard, Song Shenzong praised: "I have never heard of this, and what others have learned is not as good as this." ”
The reason why Song Shenzong boldly appointed Wang Anshi and started the Xifeng reform was that he had already considered the reform more maturely, and at the same time believed that Wang Anshi was a talent who could assist him in completing the great cause of enriching the country and strengthening the army. Their union mainly stems from two consensuses: First, if we want to make the country rich and the army strong, we must change the law. When Shenzong ascended the throne, faced with the dilemma of poverty and weakness, his reform "the tighter the temperament, the more he wanted to renew it". Wang Anshi has long proposed that "there are many evils in the world, and they must be reformed", and he once said to Shenzong: "Repair my political punishment to make the generals competent, rich in wealth and valley, and strong in soldiers." "Second, if you want to practice the law of enriching the country and strengthening the army, you must manage your finances. Shenzong "pays attention to financial management with the lack of national use" and believes that "those who want to rule the world must be rich and then can". And Wang Anshi has long talked a lot about financial management. Under the inspiration and influence of Wang Anshi, Song Shenzong's idea of changing the law has developed and matured day by day. It can be said that Wang Anshi played a catalytic role in the final formation of Song Shenzong's reform thought.
From the practice of Song Shenzong's reform, we can see that Song Shenzong's reform thinking is not extreme, but strives to be steady. He advocated open source without giving up throttling; It not only attaches importance to the cultivation and selection of talents, but also attaches importance to the reform and construction of the system; It is both positive and enterprising, but also steady and serious; both reuse the reformers and appoint the anti-reformers; not only believed in Wang Anshi, but also never forgot to strengthen the imperial power. It is precisely because of the ideological guidance of Song Shenzong that the Xifeng reform method can be carried out smoothly and persistently.
This article was published in Gansu Social Sciences, No. 5, 2002. Selected by the Editorial Department of the Chinese Historical Review