Celebrate the New Deal?
background
(of a country) very poor and weak
After the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, a series of measures were taken to maintain centralization and prevent local separatism. Politically, a "government hall" was set up in the imperial palace, and the people's political power was controlled by officials of the same school. In order to limit the power of the prime minister, the deputy prime minister was added to "participate in politics"; Militarily, the pre-palace inspection in charge of imperial power was abolished, and the pre-palace division, the Guards Ma Jun Division and the Guards Infantry Division were added, and the "Three Commanders" were in charge of the imperial army respectively. In order to limit the excessive power of the three governors, the Privy Council was set up in the central government to control the transfer of troops. There are three departments in finance (Salt and Iron Department, Expenditure Department and Household Department), and the three ambassadors are held by the emperor's cronies and control the financial power. In order to further strengthen centralization and weaken the power of officials, multiple officials at one post are implemented. At the same time, due to the implementation of the imperial examination, the adoption of the benevolent system and the policy of "a hundred officials are afraid of their shortcomings", officials are more greedy for power and have low administrative efficiency. The bureaucracy is huge and bloated, officials at all levels lack initiative, and the problem of "redundant staff" is prominent.
In order to stabilize the social order and resist the invasion of the northern nationalities, the early Song Dynasty implemented the strategy of "training troops", abolished the system of officers and soldiers and recruited soldiers instead. By the time of Renzong, the total number had reached 6.5438+0.4 million, forming a huge military system, and the cost of raising soldiers actually reached 78/10 of all taxes; At the same time, in order to prevent military commanders from monopolizing power, the "over-defense law" was implemented in the army, which made soldiers unfamiliar with each other. Although there are many soldiers, they are not skilled, which weakens the combat effectiveness of the army and is at a disadvantage in foreign operations, thus forming a "redundant staff."
The surge of troops and officials has led to an increase in financial expenditure, which has made the government's financial resources even more difficult to make ends meet. At the same time, in the wars with Xixia and Liao countries, the rulers of the Song Dynasty often had to pay a lot of gold and silver cloth, and exchanged money and wealth for temporary peace, coupled with the large-scale construction and temple construction of the rulers, which formed "redundant expenses". The three are closely linked, which eventually formed the situation of poverty and weakness in the Northern Song Dynasty.
domestic trouble and foreign invasion
From the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the social crisis in Song Renzong developed with economic growth. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in the Song Dynasty, it not only did not restrain the annexation, but also condoned the heroic generals to annex the land. Land sales are quite common, the trend of land concentration is accelerating, and more and more farmers have lost their land. "The rich have productive fields, and the poor have no place. The strong have no land to plant, and those who have land are unable to plow. " The burden of the people in the Song Dynasty was very heavy. National residents are divided into main households and customers. Taxpayers should not only pay taxes according to the prescribed amount, but also bear the burden of "moving" and "changing". In addition to the two taxes, there are Ding Koufu, various miscellaneous taxes, corvees and officers. This is another heavy burden besides taxes. In 993, Wang Xiaobo launched an uprising in Sichuan, and in 65438+February, he established the "Dashu" regime in Chengdu, which dealt a heavy blow to the Song government. In the third year of Xianping (1000), Wang Jun uprising broke out again.
At the same time, the invasion of foreign enemies brought great survival pressure to the Northern Song Dynasty regime. After the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, wars broke out year after year with the Qidan nationality in the northeast border and the Tangut in the northwest border. Because of political corruption, the army was weak and lax in the Northern Song Dynasty. Although it spent a lot of money and manpower, it often ended in failure.
cause
In the first year of Baoyuan (1038), Li Yuanhao, a Tangut, proclaimed himself emperor, with the title Daxia (known as Xixia in history) and its capital Xingqing (now Yinchuan). Diplomatic relations with the Song Dynasty officially broke down. The following year, in order to force the Song Dynasty to recognize the status of Xixia, Li Yuanhao invaded the border of the Northern Song Dynasty, defeated Song Bing in Sanchuankou (the Battle of Sanchuankou), and assembled troops at the gates of Yanzhou to prepare for the siege. The news reached the capital and shocked the ruling and opposition parties. In the second year of Kangding (104 1), Yuan Hao invaded Weizhou (now Pingliang, Gansu), and Han Qi sent the assistant commander of Huanqing Road to deploy Ren Fu to lead the troops to attack. In Haoshuichuan, Ren Fu and other 16 generals were killed and more than 10,000 soldiers were lost (the Battle of Haoshuichuan). In September of the second year of Li Qing (1042), Yuan Hao split his troops and attacked the Song Dynasty again. Arrived in Dingchuan Village, the battle of Song and Xia, Song Jun was defeated, Ge Huaimin and others 16 people and other people were killed, and more than 9,400 people were lost (the battle of Dingchuan Village). After Yuan Hao's victory, he sent his troops south to Yuan Pan, and Guanzhong was shocked. The Khitan, who has been in peace since the alliance of the single source, also sent an envoy to ask for the land of Guannan in 1042, "gathering troops and speaking south." Finally, Song Renzong sent Fu Bi as ambassador, and the problem of "increasing silver by 100,000 silks every year" was solved.
The intense ethnic contradictions and class contradictions are intertwined, which shocked Song Tinglan. According to inference 3, the political atmosphere that has been boring for many years began to come alive. Ouyang Xiu wrote a letter demanding the reform of official management, and Athena Chu pointed out in the letter that "if it is not changed, the harm will be greater". Driven by the call for reform, Song Renzong "wants to make the world worse". The supreme ruler of the Song Dynasty finally started to act.
During the reign of Renzong, peasant uprisings and mutinies broke out one after another in various places, as Ouyang Xiu said, "A group is not as good as a year."
Fan Zhongyan's reform came into being in the period when the well-off situation had been reversed and deteriorated in the early Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, redundant officials, soldiers and expenses were serious, and the situation of poverty and weakness was formed, and the ruling crisis intensified. In the first year of Injong's accession to the throne, the phenomenon of land annexation became more serious, farmers fled in large numbers, class contradictions were sharp, and peasant uprisings broke out constantly. "Year after year, a group is not as good as a group." Even Kaifeng, two counties with capital cities, is often haunted by bandits. At that time, some officials felt that the crisis was serious. Fu Bi once said, "Since then, only worry has turned into enthusiasm. If we don't prepare early, we won't know! "
Go through ten things
Song Renzong gave special courtesy to Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi. During the call, he urged the ruling minister to come up with a plan to make the world peaceful once. In the third year of Li Qing (1043), the sensational Qingli New Deal in the history of the Northern Song Dynasty was implemented under the leadership of Fan Zhongyan, and Fan Zhongyan's reform thought was put into practice.
In the third year of Qing dynasty (1043), Yuan Hao made peace, and things in the west were a little more peaceful. Renzong called Fan Zhongyan back to Beijing, awarded him the title of deputy envoy, and promoted Ouyang Xiu, Yu Jing, Wang Su and Cai Xiang as admonishers (commonly known as "four remonstrances"), which made progress. In August, Renzong dismissed Wang, the deputy prime minister, and then worshipped Fan Zhongyan as a political commissar. In September, Song Renzong summoned Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi to write a letter and ordered them to play politics. Fan and Fu immediately put forward ten reform suggestions, and Ouyang Xiu, the remonstrator, and others also talked about it. Most of them were adopted by Song Renzong, and gradually promulgated and implemented, awarded to the whole country.
1, clarifying bureaucracy
(1) Ming (strict officials rise and fall). In the Renzong era, the promotion of officials relied on the "grinding test" system, which only talked about seniority and ignored political achievements, leading to the intransigence and inaction of officials. Fan Zhongyan put forward a new performance appraisal, promoted officials with outstanding performance and replaced guilty and incompetent officials; It is also stipulated that Beijing-DPRK officials and county officials will be recommended for promotion after their three-year term ends, otherwise they will have to wait until five years later.
(2) Restrain fluky psychology (limit bureaucratic abuse). Since the early Song Dynasty, the abuse of power by bureaucrats caused by the benevolent system has become more and more serious. 20 people who have held positions above the undergraduate level have been honored in 20 years, and their brothers and descendants have become Beijing officials. Fan Zhongan suggested limiting the privileges of middle and senior officials to prevent relatives of powerful children from monopolizing official positions.
(3) Fine tribute (strict imperial examination). Reform the content of the imperial examination, change the original Jinshi branch from focusing only on poetry and fu to focusing on strategic theory, and change the Mingjing branch from only reciting Confucian classic words to explaining the meaning and truth of classics. In order to establish schools in counties, scholars must study in schools for a period of time before they are allowed to do so. Only in this way can students be truly talented and practical, and they can truly seek truth.
(4) Choose the chief executive (carefully choose the local chief executive). In view of the fact that officials at the state and county levels were nine times out of ten incompetent at that time, Fan Zhongyan believed that the promotion of officials should be strictly in accordance with their achievements, suggested strengthening the assessment of officials, rewarding competent officials and dismissing incompetent officials, and advocated that officials at all levels should sponsor their subordinates.
⑤ Divide public land equally: Re-stipulate that officials should give a certain amount of professional land according to grades and allocate it to officials who lack professional land, so as to "blame them for being honest and frugal" and prevent corruption and perverting the law. Public land, that is, professional land, is one of the fixed incomes of local officials in the Northern Song Dynasty, but its distribution is often uneven. Fan Zhongyan suggested that the court balance their professional income; What is not given in the professional field is given according to the results, so that they can earn enough to support themselves. Then, you can blame them for being honest; People who break the law may also be punished or fired.
2. Rich country Qiang Bing
(1) thick agricultural mulberry (attach importance to agricultural production). Fan Zhongyan suggested that the imperial court should issue imperial edicts, strengthen the legislation on agriculture and mulberry, and order all roads in the country to make the townships and counties under its jurisdiction really pay attention to agriculture and mulberry, and regard the quality of agriculture as an important content of inspecting officials.
(2) reduce corvee. Taxation and labor in Song Dynasty basically followed the system of late Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties. Although some adjustments were made in the early Song Dynasty, taxation was cruel and labor was troublesome. Taxes and labor forced poor farmers to go bankrupt one after another, which also aroused farmers' uprising and resistance. In this regard, Fan Zhongyan advocated merging counties and cities with few registered permanent residence to reduce the labor of the people there; Save frugality, cut down the extravagant expenses of rulers, equalize taxes, relax corvee and reduce people's burden.
(3) armament. (armament renovation). Fan Zhongyan advocated the restoration of the system of officers and men, and suggested recruiting strong men near Beijing to serve as guards in Gyeonggi to assist the regular army. These guards spend about three quarters of their time on farming and one quarter on training and fighting every year. The implementation of this system can save material costs (this item was abandoned because of the opposition of the assistant minister).
3. Implementing the rule of law
(1) heavy command (issuing court orders carefully). In view of the disadvantages of "annoying and breaking promises" in the decrees promulgated by the court in the past, Fan Zhongyan proposed that the decrees promulgated by the court in the future must be discussed in detail in advance and "red tape should be removed" before being promulgated to the world after the approval is mature. Once promulgated, it must be observed and not changed at will, otherwise it will be punished. In this way, the court's orders will not change frequently.
(2) Push a thank-you letter (implementing the government's loyalty to the people). As usual, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty sacrificed to a suburb for three years, pardoning the world and exempting the people from taxes accumulated over the years, but it was not fully implemented. Fan Zhongyan wants to win the trust of the people. Anyone who delays or violates the execution of the Amnesty order should be severely punished according to law. In addition, envoys must be sent to all walks of life to check whether various preferential policies should be implemented. In this way, there will be no phenomenon of blocking the favor of the emperor.
Carry out reform
In October of the third year (1043), the imperial court appointed Hebei as the secretariat, Wang Su as the secretariat of Huainan, Shen invited as the secretariat, and Shi as the secretariat of Hedong. In this way, the first thing we see is the fourth measure (election of the Chief Executive). When selecting provincial judges, Fan Zhongyan turned over the class books and found that the incompetent ones were ruthlessly ticked off. Fu Bi said worriedly, "If you cross it, there will be a family crying." Fan Zhongyan replied: "It is better for a family to cry than for people in a region."
1On October 28th, Injong issued an imperial edict to implement the new grinding prospecting law. After the implementation of the new law, we will see it in action.
1 1 month 19, the court made new regulations on the system of harmony and shade; On 23rd, the second son wrote that the age limit and the scope of grace were increased, but the descendants of senior and middle-level bureaucrats, their relatives and their families still used the old system without any restrictions.
On March 13th, 4th year of Qing Dynasty (1044), a new tribute law was promulgated, which strengthened the proportion of Confucian classics in imperial examinations, allowed counties to establish schools, and combined school education with imperial examinations.
result
In April of the fourth year of Qing Dynasty (1044), after the implementation of the New Deal, people who wanted to get away with it were deeply inconvenienced, so the remarks of slandering the New Deal gradually increased, and the remarks of accusing Fan Zhongyan and others of being "cronies" rose again. Injong also began to doubt the clique theory. Fan Zhongyan put forward the idea of "the party of villains, the party of gentlemen" to fight back, and Ouyang Xiu also wrote a clique article to fight Renzong.
In May, Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi Shangshu Renzong discussed seven things, such as "reconsidering the garrison, repairing the outer city of the capital, and secretly making a crusade", demanding that the minister's power be expanded, and the assistant minister be in charge of military affairs and official promotion, thus further increasing the breadth and depth of the reform.
In June, Xia Song slandered Fu Bi for wanting to work in Iho according to the handwriting of Shijie, and wrote a letter to Cao privately. Although Injong didn't believe it, Fan Zhongyan and others were terrified and things started again. Fan Zhongyan asked for a tour, and Renzong was appointed as the ambassador of Fu Xuan in Shaanxi and Hedong, and still retained the title of political participation. In August, Fu Bi also left Beijing as a special envoy of the Tang Dynasty and was appointed as the special envoy of Fu Xuan, Hebei Province.
On the 28th day of the first month of the fifth year of Qing Dynasty (1045), Fan Zhongyan was stopped from participating in politics, got to know the situation in Thailand, and served as an Anfu ambassador in Shaanxi No.4 Road. On the same day, Fu Bi was also dismissed as the envoy of the Tang Dynasty and was appointed as the envoy of peace and understanding on Jingdong West Road. The next day, Du Yan was demoted to Zuo Cheng, and he knew Yanzhou.
On the fourth day of February, stop grinding and explore new methods, and stop Renzi's new method. On the fifth day of March, Han Qi went to Tommy as an agreement, added a bachelor's degree in Shangshutang, and learned about Yangzhou. At this point, all the main figures who presided over the political reform were expelled from the court. On the 23rd, the new imperial examination law was abolished and the old system was restored. On August 2 1 day, Ouyang Xiu stopped moving the capital of Hebei and changed to Chuzhou. At this point, the Qingli New Deal was a complete failure.
affect
Fan Zhongyan's six measures to rectify bureaucracy are only minor reforms. As for the other four items, such as "leveling fields", "thick ploughing mulberry", "repairing military equipment" and "reducing shaking service", not to mention thorough reform. After the publication of "Ten Things", the item "Armament Training" was cancelled due to the opposition of many ministers. Although other projects were implemented in October of the third year of Injong (1043), they could not be carried out. At that time, ordinary officials thought that such a weak reform was "too broad to be implemented by critics". "Ren Zien's thin grinding method is secret, which is inconvenient for the lucky ones, so he slanders and destroys the immersion, and the theory of cronies is insoluble." L. In the end, the Qingli New Deal was defeated by fierce opposition from conservative bureaucrats.
After a rigorous examination, a large number of mediocre or corrupt officials were eliminated, a number of pragmatic officials were promoted to important positions, the administrative efficiency of the government was improved, the financial and grain transportation conditions were improved, and the depressed political situation began to improve. Honest scholar-officials wrote poems and lyrics in succession, praising the New Deal. The people also cheered for it, as if they saw the hope of revival.
After the failure of Li Qing's political reform, social contradictions have not been alleviated, land annexation has intensified, the cost of redundant personnel and soldiers has doubled, and ethnic contradictions have become very acute. Song ting's financial emptiness, he tried his best to search. During the Li Qing War, as soon as the struggle between farmers and soldiers ended, farmers everywhere started a new struggle. In April of the 4th year of Jiayou, the bureaucrats of the Ministry of Punishment reported that there were as many as 970 "robberies" in one year because of the people's lack of food!
In this case, the voices calling for reform are one after another, and a bigger and deeper reform movement is already brewing, which is Wang Anshi's political reform. Li Qing's political reform had a direct impact on Wang Anshi's Xining political reform. Wang Anshi's Xining Reform was expanded and deepened on the basis of Qingli New Deal.
evaluate
The two reforms in the Northern Song Dynasty played a certain role in standardizing and perfecting the integration of centralized rule. For example, Fan Zhongyan advocated the establishment of "ancestral hall", "righteous village", "clan property", "clan rules" and "village contract", which played a leading role in the patriarchal clan system. Fan Zhongyan and Wang Anshi not only carried out some reforms in the political system and thought, but also carried out some economic rectifications in different degrees, such as "equalizing farmland", "cultivating mulberry intensively" and "reducing shaking service" in Li Qing's New Deal.
The above trends are all measures to adjust and strengthen the integration of autocracy and centralization in book and song dynasties. From the perspective of social improvement and historical development, the measures taken by Fan Zhongyan and Wang Anshi are all failures. However, from the perspective of strengthening centralized integration of feudal absolutism in Song Dynasty, such as adjusting bureaucracy, financial and economic governance, emphasizing agriculture and mulberry, sharing the common land equally, reducing labor, young crops law, labor-free law, field tax law, loss-sharing law and easy market law, the merger was restricted and the financial tax sources were expanded.
The Qingli New Deal is mainly limited to some superficial minor reforms in the political mechanism, and does not dare to touch the fundamental problems of social economy too much.
Cause of failure
feudality
In the feudal society of China, it was easy to reform the feudal bureaucracy, but it seemed very difficult to really do it, especially in the Song Dynasty. Because in the Song Dynasty, when officials lost their hereditary titles and the privilege of sealing households, the bureaucratic landlord class formulated and expanded the "shadow" system of supplementing relatives for middle and senior officials with reference to the Tang system. Through nepotism, a large number of children of middle and senior officials get low-level titles or are assigned every year. The nepotism in Song Dynasty is not only extremely extensive, but also extremely excessive. Every big gift, "courtiers' families, relatives of the royal family, and foreigners from the mother family are all recommended, and there is no fixed number, ranging from ten to twenty people to five or seven people." (E8) According to Mr. Zhu Ruixi's statistics in the article "The Complex and Changing Official System in the Song Dynasty", the middle and low-level positions such as state and county officials, financial officials and governors in the Song Dynasty, This system, which is equivalent to bureaucratic inheritance, makes the bureaucracy full of children of dignitaries who live on bread and rice, resulting in "people with shady backgrounds are stuck on the official road" and "children of dignitaries rarely leave the country" [1. ] (volume. Therefore, if we want to break or limit the privileges of bureaucrats and nobles, we will undoubtedly be fiercely opposed by them because we touch their interests. This is why Wang Anshi's political reform first started with the reform of economic and military systems, bypassing the clarification of the most sensitive social issues such as bureaucracy (of course, there are also factors that reduce the resistance to reform).
The original intention of Song Renzong's reform is to solve the financial crisis and military crisis and enrich Qiang Bing. Celebrating the New Deal just violated the interests of the royal family. Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi's various reform measures include "openness", "restraint of luck" and "doing good deeds to accumulate virtue". The central idea is to eliminate incompetent officials, while reducing redundant officials and streamlining institutions are the core contents of the reform. At that time, the bureaucrats in the Northern Song Dynasty were already decadent political groups. If the above reforms are implemented, about 90% of them will have to lose their jobs. Of course, this major operation is impossible. However, Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi had to do more operations in the Northern Song Dynasty. Even competent officials had to reduce their salaries, which was the highest in ancient China. But also decided to reduce the number of places admitted to the imperial examination to solve the problem of more officials. In other words, the interests of scholars all over the world have been touched by the reform. Therefore, the opponents of the political reform are by no means a few conservatives, but the class foundation of the whole literati class-the Northern Song Dynasty. To reform, we must sacrifice the interests of the literati class, which will shake our ruling foundation. The policy of the royal family in the Northern Song Dynasty was to contain military commanders. One way is to reuse literati, another way is to implement more defensive laws and sacrifice national defense for the benefit of the royal family, while abolishing the Qingli New Deal means sacrificing reform for the benefit of the royal family.
Factional struggle
Except for a few people of insight who are determined to forge ahead, bureaucrats, landlords, wealthy businessmen and other vested interests are mostly content with the status quo, only paying attention to personal interests and immediate interests, regardless of national interests and long-term interests. Once the New Deal violated their own interests, they resolutely opposed it and rose up to attack. With the implementation of the New Deal, the voices of opposition are constantly rising, including Zhang Dexiang, the trusted prime minister of Injong, who joined the chorus of opposition and attacked Fan Zhongyan and others as "cronies".
The reason why "cronies" are regarded as a sharp weapon of attack has aroused Renzong's disgust and suspicion, because "cronies" will endanger the authority of the emperor and infringe on the core interests of the emperor. The dispute between cronies has always been a deadlock that plagued the political situation in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it has been dragged on until the Southern Song Dynasty. The Qingli New Deal died because of factional struggle, and Wang Anshi's political reform also failed because of the struggle between the old and new parties. The clique theory is based on the Confucian concept of gentleman and villain, which is a simple opposition, either one or the other, and can not objectively and accurately reflect human nature or personality; In real life, joining a party is not necessarily a villain, and it is not necessarily a gentleman to talk about profit. Once it is promoted to the mainstream ideology of the country, it will be used by some politicians as a weapon against political enemies, which is extremely lethal.
Disadvantages of the New Deal
The reform measures are "too drastic", "more gradual" and "large-scale". The ideological mobilization of reform is not enough, the supporting measures are not in place, the placement of dismissed officials has not been settled, and farmers have not received immediate benefits in the New Deal. Wang Anshi once criticized Fan Zhongyan for "having a good reputation and making friends, thinking that party gangs are extremely bad customs". In fact, people appointed by Fan Zhongyan to implement the New Deal often talk too much and do too little, and some even like to innovate, talk empty words and behave inappropriately. For example, Shijie, even Ouyang Xiu, who supported the New Deal, felt that his self-esteem was too high, too low when he was young, and he chose high with good differences. Opponents of the New Deal even accused Fan Zhongyan and others of "supporting cronies in everything they recommend, advocating by those who love, rejecting by those who don't attach themselves, and fearing the DPRK together".