First of all, the main purpose of Wang Anshi's political reform is to "enrich the country" and "Qiang Bing". Although the reform has not been implemented for a long time, it has achieved good results. During the six or seven years of Zaixi Ningjian, more than 17,000 water conservancy projects were built in both the capital and various roads, and more than 360,000 hectares of farmland were irrigated, equivalent to nearly one tenth of the total cultivated land in China, which benefited the people. The initial implementation of laws such as "equal loss, young crops, exemption from service, easy market, and equal distribution of land tax" is conducive to curbing the landlord, usurer and wealthy businessman dajia and bringing certain benefits to the poor. The national budget formulated by the three departments has greatly reduced the redundant expenditure and saved four tenths of the administrative expenditure every year. The reclamation of wasteland and the measurement of square fields have also increased government taxes. The reduction of redundant personnel and elite soldiers not only enriched the national treasury, but also improved the combat effectiveness of the army. At that time, there were more than 7 million Jiabao militia in China, which was six times the number of soldiers in Renzong Dynasty, but the training cost only accounted for one-fifth of the previous recruitment cost. Although Zongshen fought against Liao and Xixia, Xining recovered Xizhou, Hezhou, Zhou Tao and Zhou Min in six years, and the national defense was slightly improved, while Zongshen and Zhezong gained temporary stability. However, innovation is not easy. First, someone should dare to innovate. Later, because people are used to old things and don't accept new things, they will try their best to stop the emergence of new things. The contents of the political reform violated the interests of big landlords and bureaucrats, restricted their exploitation of farmers and hit their economic privileges, so they handed over letters and documents to Zongshen one after another and criticized the political reform. Therefore, this is the fuse. Before the political reform, Wang Anshi was headstrong and failed to accept the opinions of the Paul faction, which made Sima Guang and other "old party" ministers rise up and attack, making it more difficult to implement the New Deal. In Wang Anshi's political reform, courtiers believed that the New Deal violated the patriarchal clan system, and some rich people strongly opposed it because it harmed their interests. And Wang Anshi is eager for success. In just a few years, he promulgated countless laws for the second time, and it is difficult to have practical results. Other employers tried to support the new law, but did not ask about its nature. Therefore, Ceng Bu, Wei Jizong and other lucky villains were used, and they played a role in splitting and destroying the reformists in the future. Since the early Song Dynasty, officials at all levels have been redundant and incompetent, and grassroots officials have been greedy for ink and perverted the law. Therefore, to enrich Qiang Bing, it is necessary to clarify bureaucracy at first. Wang Anshi's reform focused on financial management and neglected administrative reform. It is impossible to expect administrative departments at all levels to be responsible for implementing major reforms. In the situation that the internal affairs were in urgent need of reform, Wang Anshi repeatedly provoked border troubles and used troops to crusade against Xixia and others. As a result, the defeat made Liao lose its national prestige and consumed its national strength. After the long drought, the hungry people were displaced, and the conservatives attacked the New Deal on the pretext of widespread indignation and discontent, which greatly shook Song Shenzong who supported the political reform. The new law itself has shortcomings, such as the interest rate for loans to farmers is still too high; It is easy for farmers to borrow money, but it is often difficult to pay back if they borrow too much. All the above factors led to the failure of Huang Anshi's political reform, in which the political reform mainly failed in the fierce struggle with the power to protect the word.

The political reform touched the interests of the big landlords and bureaucrats and was strongly opposed by them. Sima guang wrote to the emperor many times, demanding the cancellation of the new law.

At the same time, Song Shenzong, the main supporter of the reform, wavered at the critical moment. After Song Shenzong's death, Sima Guang became prime minister, completely abolishing the new law and even the effective recruitment law.

As can be seen from the contents of various economic reforms, Wang Anshi's new law is large in scale, among which financial management is the most important and has been criticized by people of that time. In all fairness, the failure of Wang Anshi's political reform cannot be entirely attributed to the opposition of the old school. His policies and practices deserve to be reviewed. The following can be discussed from four aspects:

(A) the lack of prior publicity, resulting in the process of political reform can not attract outstanding talents. In the opposition camp of political reform, there are a large number of well-known figures. After full publicity and persuasion, the elite of them should be absorbed into the political reform camp.

(2) Poor policy implementation-for example, the implementation of the Young Crop Law and the Exemption Law is far from ideal. If poor households voluntarily ask for official loans, there is still something to say, but in fact, local officials force five farmers to protect each other, and then each household issues a certain amount, which is called scattered young crops. In order to ensure that all principal and interest can be recovered after autumn, local officials distributed scattered crops to upper-middle class families instead of poor ones, fearing that poor households could not repay them. What else can we talk about benefiting the people? In the young crop law, the interest is charged at half, that is, 20%, which is beyond the affordability of ordinary people. The root cause of poor policy implementation is that there are no suitable talents to implement the new law.

(3) headstrong-Wang Anshi is upright and upright. He talks about state affairs with Zongshen, defends himself and expresses his emotions. Zongshen is willing to listen every time. At the beginning of the political reform, Sima Guang wrote to tell him not to be too careful and not to be too confident. An Shi wrote a letter of protest, expressing deep disagreement. They were very good friends, passed the buck and broke up. For example, Su Shi was originally the best candidate to support the new law, but many of his correct opinions were not adopted by Wang Anshi.

After the failure of the Qingli New Deal, the serious class contradictions and ethnic contradictions in the Song Dynasty did not ease, and the situation of poverty and weakness was still developing, and the ruling group felt the crisis. Therefore, after a period of silence, the call for reform rose rapidly, and finally set off a greater political reform activity. The most fundamental reason for failure: the new law did not touch the fundamental problems of society. It is only an institutional improvement of the main class against the ruling crisis of the Northern Song Dynasty, and it is impossible to fundamentally solve the contradictions in feudal society.