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Northern Song historian and statesman who compiled the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government and, as chief minister, repealed Wang Anshi's new laws
Mural of the event “Wang Anshi's Reforms”, which this person took part in.
The structural illness of Northern Song's accumulated weakness deepened, and the Liao and Western Xia in the north repeatedly produced military pressure. On ascension Emperor Shenzong resolved to reform outside the norm, to enrich the country and strengthen the military, and save society from crisis.
Also known as Zi Junshi · Hao Yusou · Sushui Xiansheng · Wenguo Gong · Wen Zheng
Sima Guang, courtesy name Junshi, came from Sushui in Xia county, Shanzhou, and was known as Master Sushui. He passed the jinshi examination in 1038, and in 1066 presented eight chapters of a chronicle to Emperor Yingzong, who set up an office for him to continue it; Emperor Shenzong named the work Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government (Zizhi tongjian) and wrote its preface. Opposing Wang Anshi's green-sprouts loans and other new laws, he refused appointment to the Bureau of Military Affairs and from 1071 lived in Luoyang for fifteen years, working on the book. Completed in 1084 in 294 chapters, it runs from 403 BC to AD 959. When Emperor Zhezong came to the throne, Empress Dowager Gao recalled him, and as chief minister in 1086 he abolished the hired-service law and other reforms before dying that autumn; he was posthumously made Duke of Wen and named Wenzheng. Later his honours were stripped, and the stele of the Yuanyou faction erected under Huizong listed him first.
Dates 1019 CE–1086 CE
The Song History says that under Emperor Zhezong Sima Guang was appointed prefect of Chenzhou, was kept at the capital on his way and made deputy of the chancellery, and that in 1086 he was made left vice director of the Department of State Affairs and deputy of the chancellery, excused from court audiences and allowed a sedan chair; he died in the ninth month of that year aged sixty-eight.
The Song History says that, troubled by the length of the dynastic histories, Sima Guang wrote eight juan of Tongzhi and presented them; Emperor Yingzong then ordered an office set up in the palace library for him to continue the work, and Emperor Shenzong named it Zizhi tongjian, wrote its preface himself and had him read from it daily.