Wang Anshi

Also known as Zi Jiefu · Hao Banshan · Linchuan Xiansheng · Jingguo Gong · Wen

Wang Anshi, courtesy name Jiefu, styled Banshan, was from Linchuan in Fuzhou and passed the jinshi examination in 1042. After serving as magistrate of Yin county, he sent Emperor Renzong a long memorial in 1058 urging reform. In 1069 Emperor Shenzong made him assistant chief minister; he set up a finance planning commission and introduced in turn the green-sprouts loans, the hired-service levy, the state trade bureaus, the baojia mutual-security system and the square-field land survey, becoming chief minister the next year. Opposed by Sima Guang and others, he left office in 1074, returned in 1075 and resigned for good in 1076, retiring to Jiangning, and in the Yuanfeng era he was made Duke of Jing. In 1086 most of his laws were repealed, and he died at Jiangning that year, posthumously named Wen. The Ming editor Mao Kun included him among the eight masters in his *Prose of Eight Masters of Tang and Song* (*Tang Song ba dajia wenchao*).