Wang Mang is a controversial figure in history. Ancient historians regard it as a "giant traitor" who usurped the throne with the concept of "orthodoxy" But after the end of modern monarchy, Wang Mang was praised by many historians as "the first social reformer in the history of China". He is regarded as a visionary and selfless social reformer. Hu Shi thought he was a socialist emperor 1900 years ago.
Wang Mang (65438 BC+65438 BC+02 BC-23 AD 65438+10/0.6): Zi Jun, born in Yuancheng, Wei County (now Daming East, Hebei Province), the eldest son of the new king, the nephew of the filial queen of the Western Han Dynasty. The founding emperor of the new dynasty was in office from AD 8 to AD 23.
He is an important member of the Wang family in the Western Han Dynasty. He is humble and courteous, and enjoys a high reputation in the ruling and opposition circles. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, social contradictions intensified unprecedentedly, and Wang Mang was regarded as the only person who could save the crisis. In 8AD 65438+February 1, Wang Mang built a new building on behalf of Han Dynasty, established the Yuan Dynasty and implemented the New Deal, which was called "Wang Mang's restructuring" in history. Later, a peasant uprising broke out and the new dynasty fell.
Wang Mang attaches great importance to the development of science and technology. At that time, the technology was just strange and ingenious to people at that time, and it was not orthodox at all. Ancient emperors all hoped that the country they governed could be stable and ruled for a long time. These emperors will attach importance to law, Confucianism and science and technology, which are unorthodox. But follwed attached great importance to it and dissected the human body with his own hands. At that time, someone invented the flying machine, and Wang Mang also met that person and gave him money to support it. He also invented the precision instrument vernier caliper.
Let's talk about why Wang Mang is like a person who travels through the past.
The first thing, the first caliper
Everything looks like a vernier caliper, which is earlier than the west 1700 years; It is hard to imagine that the ancients had such a mind, and combined with his New Deal policy, it was linked with today's popular drama of wandering immortals, so Wang Mang was the great socialist successor of wandering immortals back to Han Dynasty.
The second thing.
Wang Mang hates Huns and Koguryo people very much. After unifying the world, he led troops to attack Xiongnu many times, trying to drive Xiongnu out of the northern grassland. Moreover, he changed the name of Xiongnu Khan to "surrender slaves to serve slaves" and reduced the princes previously sealed by the court to marquis. For Goguryeo, he changed "Goguryeo" to "Xiagouli". This way of insulting Koguryo is really.
The third thing is land redistribution.
Wang Mang first stipulated that no matter rich or poor, each family can only own 100 mu of land, and all the surplus land must be unconditionally handed over to the state and distributed to the poor who have no land. Moreover, from now on, the land belongs to the state, and no private person is allowed to take it as collateral. Wang Mang's idea is as vivid as modern land reform, taking out the land of the rich and giving it to the poor. However, Wang Mang's actions undoubtedly harmed the interests of the landlords and the rich, which made them rise up against Wang Mang. So Wang Mang's regime was quickly overthrown, because his thoughts were too advanced!
The fourth thing is human anatomy.
This basis is mainly recorded in "Biography of Wang Mang": "The king of the righteous party, the wise, and the foolish made the doctor too much and the clever butcher cut it, measured the five internal organs, and guided the pulse with bamboo slips until the end. Clouds can cure diseases. " Yan Shigu commented, "If you know its blood source, you should try your best to attack it and cure it." Generally speaking, we also think that this human anatomy record is the earliest existing important anatomical data in China. However, Wang Mang just wanted to retaliate and punish the king who followed against him, and he didn't really pursue science. Of course, there is no Wang Mang's personal anatomy advocated by some people, and the understanding is wrong.
The fifth thing is to ban handmaiden trading.
Wang Mang banned the sale of handmaiden in order to curb the expansion of the number of handmaiden, advocate equality and rebuild a harmonious social order. But this measure is unpopular. Prohibiting the sale of handmaiden will inevitably endanger the interests of bureaucratic strongmen and cut off the livelihood of civilians who have lost their land and have no choice but to sell themselves into slavery.
The sixth thing
In the economic reform, Wang Mang set up the city division of the Fifth Military Division, which is popularly called the material adjustment officer; Every quarter, the five senses in various places will set a standard price, which is called "market price" and the price can only be lower than the market price. Planned economy, government macro-control. At the same time, businessmen are unprofitable, so they are not popular with businessmen.
Strategic resources such as salt, iron and minerals are nationalized, and the central government issues currency in a unified way. This was similar to monopoly capitalism, but it was nearly 1800 years earlier than the west, which broke the situation that the nobles made their own money, and the local gentry were very dissatisfied with Wang Mang.
The seventh thing
Farmers who run enterprises can borrow money from the state, and the state collects one-tenth of the profits. For sacrifice or funeral, the state can borrow money without interest. Is it very similar to the current bank loan? Income tax is levied on industrialists or commercial activities involving buying and selling to stabilize prices and loan expenses. Implement the policy of low-rent housing, and invest in five 200 low-rent housing communities in Chang 'an, targeting the poor.
These policies are familiar to us today-isn't this socialism? ! This is what we did decades ago.
This sounds beautiful, but this ideal social system has not been realized in the contemporary era, not to mention in the Han Dynasty when productivity was still low and the upper class was still ignorant.
In the process of policy implementation, officials are generally corrupt, and the original vested interests rebound seriously. In addition, Wang Mang's foreign policy mistakes led to foreign aggression, and large-scale wars in turn caused domestic worries, and the people soon got up.
Politicians with ideals are often paranoid, such as Wang Mang. He used a high-handed policy to deal with the rebellion, and as a result, the resistance intensified. 15, the rebel army headed by Liu Xuan captured the capital Chang 'an, and Wang Mang was killed, and his ideal society disappeared.
According to the above ruling measures, Wang Mang's thought should not have appeared at that time, because his thought was completely out of touch with the productive forces of the society at that time, and the emergence of any new thought should be related to the social development at that time, but Wang Mang's thought was too advanced to be explained by normal logic for Wang Mang's ruling measures, so there was the saying that Wang Mang said that he was a traveler.