WANG AN-SHIH

born 1021, Kiangsi province, China died 1086 Pinyin Wang Anshi, courtesy name (tzu) Chiai-fu, literary name (hao) Pan-shan Chinese poet and prose writer, best known as a governmental reformer who implemented his unconventional idealism through the "New Laws," or "New Policies," of 1069-76. The academic controversy sparked by his reforms continued for centuries. Wang emerged from a rising new group of southern bureaucrats with a strong utilitarian bent, who challenged their more conservative, large-landholding colleagues from the north. At the age of 21 Wang earned his chin shih ("doctorate") degree in the civil service examinations, and for nearly two decades he served ably as a local administrator in various posts in the south. In 1058 Wang submitted to the Sung emperor Jen Tsung his "Ten Thousand Word Memorial," which contained rudiments of his later policies and political theories; no action was taken on his proposals. Their thrust was aimed at the bureaucracy-that more capable officials with skills suited for their duties should be trained and recruited. Wang entered the central government in 1060, but not until the succession of a new emperor, Shen Tsung, in 1067/68 did he achieve a powerful rank close to the throne and gain the trusting imperial ear. With his appointment in 1069 as second privy councillor, Wang launched his multifaceted reform program, its cornerstone resting on fiscal policies. He held the view, unconventional by traditional Confucian theories, that a sound state economy, to expand economic growth, required not just measures of economy but also stimulation, whereby both the government and the people would benefit. Accordingly, he first created a fund for agricultural loans at interest to farmers, who were thereby spared the exorbitant demands of moneylenders. To fuel a dynamic money economy and to meet the demand created by expanded state finance, he also pumped more currency into the economy. The two measures that drew particularly heavy fire from conservatives were a land survey to reassess property taxes more equitably and a system that made the government an active agent in trade. Officials were allowed to purchase supplies at the cheapest price and in the most convenient market, thus discontinuing the cumbersome tribute system used to supply the central government. Other areas of reform included the establishment of a village militia system for local policing and for the buildup of army reserves, the replacement of corve (unpaid labour) with a hired service system financed by a graduated tax levied on all families, and the creation of both a directorate of weapons for armament development and a horse-breeding program to obviate importation of cavalry mounts. Wang also reorganized the Hanlin Academy (sometimes known as the National Academy), which trained expectant bureaucrats; emphasized professional courses in law, medicine, and military science; restructured the civil-service examinations around policy discussions and interpretation of the Classics, doing away with the previously required rote recitation of the Classics and poetry composition; and, finally, brought government clerks under stricter supervision and provided incentives for promotion. Increasing popular discontent with some reform measures and a disastrous famine strengthened the conservatives' stand against Wang. His pride wounded, he bowed to pressures to resign in 1074, only to return the following year but with less political power and without imperial carte blanche. This frustration, plus the death of his son, depressed Wang to the point that he retired in late 1076. The framework of the reform remained intact until the emperor's death in 1085/86, when, to Wang's great dismay, a virulent antireform clique dismantled the system. Wang died in 1086. Subsequent decades of continued intense factional politics saw a weakened revival of the reform between 1093 and 1125. Because he was unable to win sufficiently wide cooperation from high-ranking officials and because of unscrupulous or inept men in the lower bureaucracy, Wang and his policies were doomed to eventual rebuff. In retirement he lived a simple, withdrawn life, continuing his literary endeavours and his scholarly pursuits, mostly in etymological study. Desiring to emphasize the practical application of the Confucian Classics, Wang wrote original interpretations of several ancient works and instituted these as standard texts for the state examinations-moves that caused great consternation among conservatives. Friend and foe alike, however, did not deny Wang's skill with the pen. The elegance and depth of his prose earned him fame as one of the "Eight Great Masters of the T'ang and Sung Dynasties." The facile genius of his verses, especially those composed later in his life (with an occasional Zen Buddhist flavour), have also earned high critical acclaim. Wang's reform measures, of unprecedented scope in the imperial era, were idealistically directed-though not always with the desired results-toward the moral and material improvements of the people; but in the end they strengthened the power and finances of the state. In some measure because of Wang's own personal and political shortcomings but mainly due to rabid opposition from conservatives, the reform and Wang himself have with some exceptions been denigrated until the 20th century. Edmund H. Worthy, Jr. Additional reading H.R. Williamson, Wang An Shih, 2 vol. (1935-37, reprinted 1973), still the only comprehensive biography in a Western language, is surpassed in sophisticated analysis of Wang's political career by James T.C. Liu (Tzu-chien Liu), Reform in Sung China: Wang An-shih (1021-1086) and His New Policies (1959). John Thomas Meskill (ed.), Wang An-shih, Practical Reformer? (1963), is a textbook that draws together various interpretations of Wang.