An Shi traveled north and south with his father as an official since he was a child, and he knew something about the hidden social crisis in the mid-Northern Song Dynasty. As a local official, he stepped into his official career, was able to care about people's livelihood and sufferings, and repeatedly wrote to suggest promoting advantages and eliminating disadvantages and reducing the burden on the people. Because of long-term contact and understanding of social reality, "I have the ambition to change the world." In the book "Last Words of Renzong" written by Jiayou for three years (1058), he systematically put forward the idea of political reform, demanding to change the situation of "accumulating poverty and accumulating weakness" in the Northern Song Dynasty, restrain the merger and privilege of bureaucratic landlords, and carry out the policy of enriching the people in Qiang Bing. During his tenure as a political adviser and prime minister, he won the support of Zong Shen, grasped the two major topics of "financial management" and "army consolidation", and actively promoted new laws such as farmland water conservancy, young crops, equal loss, equal tax on land, tax exemption, easy market, and armor protection, which was called "Wang Anshi Reform" or "Xining Reform" in history. Due to the resolute opposition of big bureaucrats and big landlord groups represented by Sima Guang, Zongshen later wavered and compromised, and cracks appeared in the reformists, and the new law was finally abolished. Although the Anshi Rebellion was ultimately aimed at strengthening imperial power and consolidating the dominant position of feudal landlords, it did play a role in promoting the development of productive forces and enriching Qiang Bing at that time, and also reduced the burden on the people to a certain extent, which was of progressive significance in history. Lenin, the great revolutionary teacher, praised Wang Anshi as "a reformer in China in the1/century" (The Complete Works of Lenin, vol. 10, p. 152).
In order to establish a theoretical basis for the reform and counter the old school, An Shi put forward that "the change of nature is not enough for fear" and "those who still change are heaven", and refuted the metaphysical argument of the old school that "the Tao remains unchanged" with the evolutionary view of "distinguishing the old from the new". At the same time, he openly put forward that "the law of ancestors is not enough" and thought that "the law of ancestors may not be perfect, but it is not enough to follow" ("Sima Wen Chuan Jia Bao". Li Qingchen and other undergraduate examination policies "). In the process of political reform, he even set up a special bureau to let Zifang and his disciples compile the new meanings of the Three Classics of Poetry, Shu and Zhou Guan, explain and expound the New Deal in theory, and take government power as the final version of school recitation, which is called "new learning", directly or indirectly serving the implementation of the new law. These thoughts have certain progressive significance.
An Shi is not only a famous politician, thinker, but also an outstanding writer. In order to realize his political ideal, he closely linked literary creation with political activities, emphasizing that the role of literature lies in serving the society first. He opposed the vague and powerless style of Yang Yi and Liu Yun of Quincy School, and thought that "the so-called writers are just doing something to make up for the world." The so-called resignation, there are still sculptures. Really be a clever fairy China, there is no need to apply it; If you apply it, you don't have to be smart and flashy. It should be application-oriented and painting-oriented. "It is precisely because Anshi regards the concept of" application "of" serving the world "as the foundation of literary creation that his works reveal the drawbacks of the times, reflect social contradictions and have a strong political color. Today, there are Wang Linchuan's collections, Linchuan's collections and Mr. Linchuan's songs.
An Shi is one of the eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties. His prose is vigorous and concise, extraordinary and steep. Most of them are essays in the form of books, tables, notes, preface, etc., which explain political opinions and opinions and serve the reform and innovation. These articles have clear views and profound analysis on current political or social issues. Long articles are horizontal but not concise, short ones are broken but not detailed. Quotations from Emperor Ren Shang is a masterpiece advocating social change. On the basis of in-depth analysis of the diplomatic dilemma of internal troubles and foreign invasion in the Northern Song Dynasty, it put forward a complete political reform proposal, which showed the author's progressive thought of "ruling the country from the people's diseases". "Nothing happened in this century", while describing and explaining the peaceful situation and reasons in the early Song Dynasty for more than a hundred years, pointed out sharply the social problems that were at stake at that time, expected the Sect to make political achievements, and thought that "the promising day is today". It played the overture of the government, which began in the second year. Answering Sima Zhi's remonstrance, he refuted Sima Guang's accusation that the new law invaded officials, caused trouble, demanded benefits and refused to remonstrate. It is short and clear, and its wording is appropriate, which reflects the author's firm and principled statesmanship. An Shi's political essays, whether long or short, are very rigorous in structure, excellent in thinking, thorough in reasoning and concise in language. "It only takes one or two sentences to wipe out a large number of others" (Liu Xizai's Art Outline). Text outline), with strong generality and logic. At this time, it played a positive role in promoting the political reform and consolidating the achievements of the poetry innovation movement in the Northern Song Dynasty. Some of Anshi's essays, such as Moxibustion Population, Gun Theory, Reading Biography, Biography of Assassins, and Shang, etc. , evaluation of characters, strong brushwork, profound style, full of emotion, giving people a fresh and clear feeling. He also has a part of landscape travel prose "The Creation of the City Pit Courtyard", which is concise, lively and labor-saving, just like Liu Zongyuan; A Journey to Baochan Mountain not only records the journey, but also explains the truth. The combination of the two makes the abstract truth vivid, increases the ideological depth of specific notes, and makes the layout flexible and tortuous.
Anshi's poems can be roughly divided into early and late periods, with obvious differences in content and style. "Wang Jinggong is not so confident, so his poetic language is what he wants, and he is no longer so introverted ... Later, he became a group of shepherds, made a fake collection of poems in the Tang Dynasty from the Song Dynasty, and used it for reference. In his later years, he began to have a deep and unpretentious interest" (Ye Mengde's Shi Lin Shi Hua). The early poems are good at reasoning and have obvious tendencies, involving many important and sharp societies. The problem noticed the sufferings of the lower classes and made an unfair voice for them. Feelings, mergers, reinforcements, etc. Describe and prompt the weakness of the national situation or the corruption of internal affairs in the Song Dynasty from the political, economic and military aspects, point out the harm to the country and people caused by the annexation of land by big landlords and businessmen, and put forward the suggestion of "elite soldiers"; "Collecting Salt" and "Hebei People" reflect the tragic experience of the people being oppressed by the rulers at that time. "In the Examination Room" and "Examination Paper" directly criticized the imperial examination system of giving scholars poems, and demanded the use of talents who can contribute to the country; The new atmosphere and people's joy brought by the enthusiastic reform of Yuan Ri and Song Yuanfeng; Shang Yang and Jia Sheng, etc. By evaluating the merits and demerits of historical figures, their new viewpoints and progressive significance are expressed. An Shi's reclusive life in his later period contributed to his poetry creation. He lingered and reveled in the countryside, with a narrow theme, and a large number of poems about scenery and things replaced the previous political poems, expressing a leisurely interest. But artistic expression is perfect. "Elegant and exquisite, vulgar and unbearable, every irony will sink between the teeth and cheeks." Poems such as The Story of Poems in the Back of the Mountain, Boating in Guazhou, Flowers on the River, Plum Blossoms and Mr. Yin's Wall in the Book Lake are carefully observed, exquisitely carved, with distant and fresh artistic conception, showing praise and love for the beauty of nature, which has always been told by people.
As far as the poetic style is concerned, Anshi's ancient poems mostly use classics and arguments, but like Qu and Taoyuan Xing, they have novel ideas, rich feelings and rich imagination. Rhyme, on the other hand, is steady and appropriate, but sometimes it is inevitable to lose too much carving. Five musts and seven musts are especially famous. "Wang Banshan has many styles and is good at quatrains" (Hanting Poem) and "Gong Jing's quatrains are amazing in the world" (Boat House Poem). His poems have great influence on contemporary and later generations, and are called "Wang Gong Jing Style" (Yan Yu's Poems on Canglang).
There are about twenty poems written by An Shi today. Although he is not a famous poet, his "works are thin and elegant, washing away the old habits of the Five Dynasties" (Liu Xizai's "Art, Ci and Qulue"). The word "Gui Zhi Xiang Jin Mausoleum Nostalgia" reveals the decadent life of the ruling class in the Six Dynasties by describing the magnificent scenery and homesickness of Jinling (now Nanjing, Jiangsu), and is known as the swan song of ancient times. Coupled with Fan Zhongyan's "Fisherman's Passion" and "Qiu Lai's Unique Scenery", Su Dongpo's bold voice was opened, which had a good influence on later ci circles.
From the literary point of view, Anshi's works have made outstanding achievements in poetry, prose and ci. The poetry innovation movement in the mid-Northern Song Dynasty was vigorously promoted by him, which contributed to sweeping away the glitz and splendor that was all the rage in the early Song Dynasty. However, An Shi's literary thought overemphasizes "practicality" and often underestimates the role of art forms. Many of his poems often show that the elements of argument and reasoning are too heavy, thin and stiff, and lack image and charm. There are also some poems about Buddhism and Buddhism that are obscure and dry. These are the limitations of his artistic concept and creation.