Wang Anshi

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Names
Xìng 姓:	Wáng 王
Míng 名:	Ānshí 安石
Zì 字:	Jièfǔ 介甫
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

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Wang (王).

Wáng Ānshí (Chinese: 王安石; Wade-Giles: Wang An-shih) (1021 - May 21, 1086 ^[1]) was a Chinese economist, statesman, chancellor and poet of the Song Dynasty who attempted some controversial, major socioeconomic reforms. These reforms constituted the core concepts and motives of the Reformists, while their nemesis, Chancellor Sima Guang, led the Conservative faction against them.

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 (唐宋八大家).

[edit] Further reading

Anderson, Gregory E., "To Change China: A Tale of Three Reformers", Asia Pacific: Perspectives, 1:1 (2001).

[edit] Footnotes

Preceded by to be added	Prime Minister of China 1070–1075	Succeeded by to be added
Preceded by to be added	Prime Minister of China 1076–1085	Succeeded by Sima Guang