Zhang Yansong
Brief introduction of Wang Anshi's life;
Wang Anshi (102 1 year1February 81May 2, 0861day) was born in Linchuan (now Linchuan District, Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province) at the age of 65.
Wang Anshi's growing experience;
Wang Anshi was born in a scholarly family and received a good family education since childhood. He read a lot of ancient books and documents very early, and went in and out of various social occasions. He has a solid cultural foundation and a wide range of knowledge. Being able to write poetry has far-reaching influence. At the age of 8, he was praised as a "prodigy" by people at that time. Because of his quick thinking and quick writing, he was described as "out of the water" and his reputation soon spread to Ouyang Xiu, the literary leader at that time. Ouyang Xiu didn't believe it at first, so he took the opportunity to give him a question and test it. Unexpectedly, Wang Anshi completed three articles in a short time, all of which were splendid articles, and Ouyang Xiu was completely convinced.
However, because Wang Anshi is young and has no contact with the outside world, his poems are all rhetoric, nothing more than romantic themes, flowers and plants appreciation, flashy, irrelevant, neither profound nor true, and of little help to society. But he is self-righteous, carried away by others' flattery, and even complacent. His father said to him, "The article on mountains and rivers you wrote is good, but it doesn't explain anything, so it is difficult to spread all over the world." Wang Anshi was unconvinced and thought that his father was deliberately finding fault.
When Wang Anshi 17 years old, his father was transferred to Jiankang (now Nanjing) for sentencing. Thinking of Wang Anshi's youthful spirit, little social experience and flashy style, he said to his son, "As a father, I'm going to take office in Jiankang. I want to take you with me. What do you think? " Wang Anshi was very happy to hear that. He said to his father, "I've had enough stay in Beijing, and I just take this opportunity to enjoy the scenery along the way, which will definitely add a lot of color to my article." Father said, "Well, I hope you can look more carefully." However, along the way, Wang Anshi saw not only the beautiful natural scenery, but also the society he had never touched: the hard life of ordinary people and social injustice ... these phenomena flashed before his eyes from time to time. The real social picture is quite different from the life of the prince and grandson he enjoyed when he was in Beijing, which made him feel heavier and heavier and began to think. One day, he went into his father's study and said to his father, "Dad, now I think my previous articles are too naive and worthless. From now on, I will write articles that are useful to society and the people. " The father was very pleased and felt that his son was sensible. He said, "Yes, you finally understand the defects of your article. This is your progress." Remember, if you are a father, only articles that are beneficial to society are the best articles. "This experience not only changed Wang Anshi's writing style, but also made him pay attention to people's livelihood and start thinking about the disadvantages of society. All these laid a good ideological foundation for his later political reform.
Wang Anshi's living habits:
Don't pay attention to eating, just eat enough. Once, Wang Anshi's friend chatted with Wang Anshi's wife. Mrs. Wang complained that she couldn't know what kind of food Xianggong really liked. That friend is strange. He thinks Wang Anshi especially likes to eat shredded deer. The reason is that at lunch that day, he saw Wang Anshi eat a plate of shredded deer. Mrs. Wang asked, "Where is the dish of deer silk?" The friend replied, "In front of Wang Anshi." Lady Wang said, "Then try to put the broken deer away tomorrow." At dinner the next day, everyone put the shredded deer away and put another dish in front of Wang Anshi. As a result, Wang Anshi also ate the food in front of him. After dinner, everyone asked, and he realized that there was a plate of deer silk on the table just now.
Disdressed, once when Wang Anshi was taking a bath, one of his friends changed Wang Anshi's dirty clothes into clean robes to see how he reacted. Who knows, Wang Anshi didn't respond at all, just installed it. People asked him whose clothes he was wearing, but he didn't know that his clothes had been changed. Wang Anshi often reads books and practices calligraphy in the middle of the night, then insists on sleeping on his stomach when he is really sleepy, or reads books all night, and finally goes to court at dawn. Wang Anshi doesn't think there is anything wrong with not loving cleanliness at all. During a court visit, Wang Anshi was as dirty as usual. He didn't wash his face, brush his teeth or comb his hair. When he was talking about something, it was probably because he hadn't taken a bath for too long and had fleas on him. Then the flea climbed onto Wang Anshi's beard and was just seen by others, but he couldn't laugh directly in front of the emperor, so he could only hold back his laughter. After he went down to the imperial court, Wang Anshi asked the others. I'm not embarrassed to know the cause and effect.
Wang Anshi's literary talent;
Wang Anshi has made outstanding achievements in literature. His prose is clear, logical and persuasive, which gives full play to the practical functions of ancient Chinese prose. The article is concise, short and pithy, and ranks among the "eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties". His poems are good at reasoning and rhetoric. In his later years, his poetic style was subtle and profound, profound and unpretentious, and he was unique in the poetic circles of the Northern Song Dynasty with his spirit and rhyme.
Although Su Shi disapproved of Wang Anshi's political reform, he admired Wang Anshi's integrity and talent.
We study Wang Anshi's poems as follows:
Chinese plum
There are some plums in the corner, and cold ling opens them alone.
I knew from a distance that it wasn't snow, because there was a smell coming.
Apricot blossom with northern skin?
A vicious spring water surrounds the flower body, and the flower shadow is enchanting, occupying the spring.
It is better to be blown into snow by the spring breeze than to be crushed into dust by Nanmo.
Berthing in Guazhou?
Jingkou and Guazhou are just separated by a water, and Zhongshan has only a few heavy green mountains.
The gentle spring breeze turns green again, but, moon in the sky, when can you take me home?
Yuanri?
The roar of firecrackers, the old year has passed; The warm spring breeze ushered in the New Year, and people happily drank the newly brewed Tu Su wine.
The rising sun sheds light on doors of each household, New peachwood charm is put up to replace the old.
Wang Anshi's political talent;
1042, the second year of Li Qing in Song Renzong, Wang Anshi was 22 years old. This year, he entered high school with the fourth place. Since then, he has been an official all his life, and the official has lived in the high position of prime minister for 8 years. However, he never used his power to seek personal gain for himself and his relatives. Even his critics, who are quite disgusted with him in later generations, admit that they are dealing with a sincere and pious person.
Wang Anshi's political activity is Wang Anshi's political reform. The main purpose is to enrich Qiang Bing and improve the poverty and the weak in the Northern Song Dynasty. The content mainly includes military, economic and cultural reforms. Militarily, there are mainly the Art of War and the Garbo Law, and economically, there are mainly the Young Crops Law, the Conscription Law, the Urban Change Law, the Land Average Tax Law, and the Farmland Water Conservancy Law. At the same time, actively improve the agricultural production environment, culturally reform the imperial examination system, rectify schools and train practical talents. Military reform enhanced the military strength of the Northern Song Dynasty to a certain extent, while economic reform increased the revenue of the national treasury, and some policies also reduced the burden on farmers. In addition, the educational reform also trained some practical talents for the Northern Song Dynasty.
Reasons for the failure of Wang Anshi's political reform;
A country is like a machine. Reform means repair. If a component is dropped casually, millions of people's jobs may be destroyed. Therefore, reform has been very difficult since ancient times. Wang Anshi's political reform is very advanced, but:
1, his reform touched the interests of the scholar-officials and the landlord class (the scholar-officials were the backbone of the ruling class, and the landlord class was the ruling foundation of the feudal dynasty, with great resistance)
2. In the late period of the political reform, loopholes and unreasonable places were magnified, which caused people's dissatisfaction (for example, the Young Crop Law was originally intended to curb mergers and help the people when the young crops were not harvested, but the actual implementation was biased: local officials forced the people to borrow money from the government, and they raised interest at will. In addition, officials took credit for extortion in various names, and the people were miserable. In this way, the young crops law degenerated into the tyranny of usury and interest collection by the government. The death penalty was suspended in the first year of Yuan You (1086).
The emperor was under great pressure (the Empress Dowager explicitly opposed it), which made him waver.
4. Reform is not a matter for one person. Wang Anshi also had some deviations in employing people, which led to failure.
My evaluation of Wang Anshi:
I especially admire Wang Anshi, who is especially upright and talented. His idea of reform is good, that is, it becomes too urgent and too fast, and there is no buffer period. His poetry has also changed from romance to worrying about the country and the people. In a word, Wang Anshi is a great man.