Wang Anshi's political reform was completely denied by the history books because Wang Anshi mobilized the interests of the big landlord class and bureaucrats. The main purpose of Wang Anshi's political reform is to enrich Qiang Bing and get rid of the present situation of poverty and weakness in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the officials, soldiers and expenses are redundant. The main contents of Wang Anshi's reform are young crops law, equal loss law, market exchange law, Garbo law, recruitment law and horse protection law, many of which use the power of state power to support the development of agriculture and industry and commerce, with profit as the main purpose. In addition, Wang Anshi carried out a large number of military reforms, which greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the Northern Song army.
During Wang Anshi's reign, water conservancy was built. Hundreds of years have passed, and the people still have no interest. In the past, during the slack season, farmers had to bear both taxes and corvee, which was a heavy burden. Wang Anshi changed this practice, farmers can avoid corvee, pay a small amount of money to help corvee, and the state hires specialized personnel to engage in corvee, which greatly reduces the burden on farmers and improves the quality of labor. Garbo law is essentially a policy of hiding soldiers for the people and making everyone a soldier. In a word, Wang Anshi made great achievements in political reform, which greatly enhanced the comprehensive national strength of the Northern Song Dynasty. This is something that even the dirty history books of the Song Dynasty have to admit, such as distorting facts and recording a lot of false information.
During the reign of Wang Anshi, the rebellion against Tubo, Vietnam and ethnic minorities in the Northern Song Dynasty achieved brilliant results, which was unprecedented in the Northern Song Dynasty. Even after Wang Anshi, the Northern Song Dynasty maintained a strong military strength and achieved a series of great achievements in the battle with Xixia. The Northern Song Dynasty is not dead, and the summer extinction is just around the corner. The conservative Sima Guang should be responsible for the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty. As soon as Sima Guang came to power, he abandoned all Wang Anshi's new laws, good or bad, and even almost gave up the lost land recovered by Wang Anshi. Sima Guang's conservative and decadent line weakened the influence of the Northern Song Dynasty.
After Cai Jing and others came to power, they purged conservative officials and reactivated reformists. However, the political reform at this time has become a tool for Cai Jing and others to seek personal gain, losing the nature of Wang Anshi's period. Therefore, some people take this opportunity to frame Wang Anshi's new law as the cause of the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty. In fact, although Cai Jing was a political reformer and a relative of Wang Anshi, Wang Anshi did not reuse Cai Jing before his death, but Sima Guang did reuse Cai Jing. After Sima Guang came to power, he demanded the abolition of the new law. Leading to chaos in the world, Cai Jing completely abandoned the new law within three days, and quickly fell to Sima Guang, who appreciated it and soared. Eventually led to the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty. Therefore, Cai Jing and others were the direct culprits of the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Sima Guang, who abandoned the new law and reused Cai Jing, was behind it.
Wang Anshi is a great politician. Although there were mistakes in the process of political reform and some new laws were obstructed or misinterpreted by local officials for personal gain, Wang Anshi's political reform did greatly improve all aspects of the Northern Song Dynasty. It was not Wang Anshi's reform that killed the Northern Song Dynasty, but Wang Anshi's new law was not adhered to.