Qingli Reforms

The Qingli Reforms or Qingli New Policies(simplified Chinese: 庆历新政; traditional Chinese: 慶曆新政; pinyin: Qìnglì xīnzhèng),took place in China’s Song dynasty under the leadership of Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, Fu Bi, and Ouyang Xiu. Taking place from 1043 to 1045 during the Qingli era (1041–1048) under Emperor Renzong of Song, it was a short-lived attempt to introduce reforms into the traditional way of conducting governmental affairs in China. It was a precursor to a grander effort three decades later led by Wang Anshi.

Qingli Reforms was the first political reform of the Northern Song dynasty which lasted for one year and four months, eventually ended in defeat due to resistance of the opponents and the power struggle between the emperor and the emerging literati officials. Following the defeat, Fan Zhongyan was deported to Dengzhou.

Fan Zhongyan

Main article: Fan Zhongyan

Fan Zhongyan was the leading figure of the Qingli Reform. He passed the imperial examination in 1015, followed by a long official career serving various regional posts until the early 1040s. Before appointed the Vice Grand Chancellor in 1043 by Emperor Renzong, Fan entered central politics only briefly, including serving as the prefect of Kaifeng (the imperial capital) in 1035. His outspoken demeanor and bold criticism against Emperor Renzong, regent Empress Liu, and the Chief Chancellor often ended in his demotion to regional posts. Fan embraced the penalties as he believed a good official shall fear no blames as a setback to his honest suggestion to the sovereign.

In 1040, when the Western Xia threatened Song security, Fan was dispatched to the frontier to organize a strong defense. By 1043, Fan's defence strategy started to work out, and he was summoned back to central court to lead the Qingli Reforms.

Ouyang Xiu

Main article: Ouyang Xiu

Ouyang Xiu was posted to Kaifeng four years after passing his jinshi examination in 1030. He began his association with Fan from this time in Kaifeng. Following Fan's demotion in 1036, Ouyang criticized Fan's principle critic, resulting in himself being sent to a minor post in Hubei. When Emperor Renzong decided to launch reforms, Ouyang Xiu was brought back to the capital in the 1040s where he was assigned to work on cataloguing the entire imperial library.

Ten-Point Memorial

Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi submitted to the emperor a joint ten-point memorial in 1043 outlining reform agendas. They can be largely divided into the following categories:

1. Increase administrative efficiency by improving the appointment, evaluation, and compensation of officials;
2. Reform the education and civil examination system;
3. Promote agricultural activities and strengthen military defense;
4. Properly and fully implement laws and regulations.

Implementation

The first measure undertaken was to allow competent officials to stay in one post for more than three years and for unable or treacherous officials to be removed more easily. Sons and relatives of state officials were banned from automatically inheriting the post of their father. The importance of poetry in the imperial examinations was reduced in favour of essays and the Confucian classics. Supervision over officials in the provinces responsible for the transport of tax grains was increased and appointed directly by the central government. Land allotted to officials was redistributed more adequately. Agricultural productivity was enhanced by the construction of dykes and canals to improve irrigation. Troops garrisoned around the capital were to engage in agriculture and be trained in a more effective way. Service corvée was to be reduced. Proclamations and edicts issued by the court were to be followed by imminent implementation, with greater control over their implementation.

Many of these reforms were put into effect in the two-year period from 1043 to 1045. However, without the full support of the emperor, there never was complete implementation of the reforms. Not long after they began, backlash from groups of officials, large land owners, and the wealthy in general resulted in the dismissal Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi in 1045.

Changes in the school and the examination system endured to the extent that local schools at prefecture levels were enhanced; the ancient style of writing focusing on plain prose and statecraft discussions were given preference over ornamental literature. Further more, the Imperial University was created as part of the reforms for the education of the children of commoners and low-ranking officials, which was the only institution that survived the reversal of the reforms.

Legacy

The Qingli Reforms was the dynasty's first Confucian political movement, highlighting a revival of Confucian ideas and the rise of regional elites who gained advanced social status through learning, civil exams, and government services. While traditional scholarship attributed the failure of the reforms to the strong opposition from the conservative faction and the career bureaucrats, recent studies have highlighted that the underlying cause of the defeat was the power struggle between the emperor and the emerging literati class in a novel attempt to "co-rule" the empire. While Emperor Renzong temporarily allowed scholar-officials to participate in central decision-making, he was hesitant to fully entrust the reformers or to dismantle entrenched imperial protocols.

Wang Anshi would take up the banner of reform in the 1070s, not only pushing for many of the Qingli Reforms, but going even further. However, while they remained in place longer than the Qingli Reforms, with the exception of some reforms to the examination system, this reform effort similarly met a dead end.

See also

• New Policies (Song dynasty)

Bibliography

• Fang, Jian (2001). 范仲淹评传(Fan Zhongyan ping zhuan) [A Critical Biography of Fan Zhongyan]. Critical biography series of Chinese thinkers (1st ed.). Nanjing: Nanjing University Press. ISBN 978-7-305-03657-6.
• McGrath, Michael (2009). Twitchett, Denis; Smith, Paul Jakov (eds.). The Cambridge history of China. Vol. 5, Part One: The Sung Dynasty and Its Precursors, 907–1279. Cambridge [Eng.] ; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-21447-6.
• Liu, James T.C. (1957). "An early song reformer: Fan Chung-yen". In Fairbank, John K. (ed.). Chinese Thought and Institution. Chicago: The university of chicago press.

Further reading

• Zhao, Dongyan (1 April 2013). 中国王朝内争实录变法悲歌 [Chinese Dynasties' Internal Controversies: A Lament for the Change of Law]. Liaoning Nationalities Press. pp. 62–. ISBN 978-7-205-07621-4.
• Li, Chunqing (1995). 乌托邦与诗: 中国古代士人文化与文学价值观 [Utopia and poetry: ancient Chinese scholarly culture and literary values]. Beijing Normal University Press. ISBN 978-7-303-04166-4.
• Chen, Yingzhao (1985). 论庆历新政: 北宋第一次政治改革 [On Qingli Reforms: The First Political Reform of the Northern Song Dynasty] (in Chinese). Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore. ISBN 978-9971-62-113-1.
• Mote, Frederick W. (1999). Imperial China, 900-1800. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-25651-4.
• Lin, Jiawen (2016). 忧乐为天下: 范仲淹与庆历新政 [Sorrow and happiness for the Tianxia: Fan Zhongyan and the Qingli New Deal] (in Chinese). Shanxi People's Publishing House. ISBN 978-7-203-09321-3.
• Mote, F.W. (1999). Imperial China: 900-1800. Harvard University Press. pp. 124, 136–138.
• Yuan, Zheng (Summer 1994). "Local Government Schools in Sung China: A Reassessment". History of Education Quarterly. 34 (2): 193–213. doi:10.2307/369121. JSTOR 369121.
• Zhang, Cong Ellen (2016). "Bureaucratic Politics and Commemorative Biography - The Epitaphs of Fan Zhongyan". In Ebrey, Patricia Buckley; Smith, Paul Jakov (eds.). State power in China, 900-1325. A China Program book. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-99810-7.
• Wu, Gou (2020). Songrenzong, Gongzhi Shidai 宋仁宗，共治时代 [Emperor Renzong, an era of Collective Governance] (in Chinese). Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press. ISBN 9787559826725.