Wang Mang of the Xin Dynasty, "China's First Socialist"

[SunWuKong]

Wang Mang of the Xin Dynasty, "China's First Socialist"
by Radford Tam

Some historians viewed Wang Mang (¤ý²õ) as a benevolent Confucian, others labeled him as a wicked power-seeker, and still, some called him ¡§China¡¦s first socialist¡¨. Whatever the case, his short reign was nothing but progressive and unusual for his time.

In many ways, Wang Mang¡¦s rise to power was not atypical of how a consort family rose to power in ancient China. However, he became more than just a dominate politician in the court of Han Dynasty China, as was the trend for male relatives of a consort of the emperor, he actually managed to usurp the throne and created his own Xin (·s) Dynasty. Wang Mang¡¦s aunt was the consort of Emperor Yuan, and when Emperor Cheng succeeded him, his aunt became the dowager empress. With her aid, during Emperor Cheng¡¦s reign, Wang Mang rose quickly in the political ranks. In 1 AD, together with his aunt, the dowager empress, he pushed into succession the child Emperor Ping. Five years later, he married his daughter to the then-teenaged Emperor Ping, and in the same year, Emperor Ping died. There were rumors that Wang Mang poisoned him. He then put on the throne the two-year old great-grandson of an earlier emperor, Emperor Xuan, and three years later, he officially took the throne and declared the beginning of the Xin Dynasty.

Wang Mang did not intend to rule China as it had been ruled during the Han Dynasty. He had envisioned a society that was partially what Mencius (a renown Confucian scholar) had written about, regarding subjects such as equality of access to land, and partially his own perception of what Mencius had pictured as the ideal Confucian society. He presented this as the system under which China was ran during the early days of the Zhou Dynasty, more than 500 years previous, but in reality, much of it was simply what he and his Confucian scholars had felt that it had been. In presenting his vision as Confucian, he was able to draw his powerbase from Confucian scholars, thus rendering himself independent of his connection to his aristocratic consort family. This was important because the reforms he proposed directly threatened the aristocratic class.

The reforms that he wanted to implement were very radical at the time. He took land ownership from the aristocracy and distributed it to the peasants. He offered inexpensive loans to those who needed it. He made plans for a state granary. He also took steps to stabilize the economy and fixed prices every three months. Perhaps the thing which was of most important historical note was that he introduced the world¡¦s first fiat money (currency whose only value lies in that the government decreed it to be of value). Many of these plans were never successfully put in place. Without mass communication, there was no way that peasants knew that land had been re-distributed to them by the emperor. The aristocrats were the in-between point between the emperor and the peasantry, and they were not at all happy with Wang Mang¡¦s reforms, because land was the primary validator of their power. His idea of fiat money was premature, as there was no system of credit money to begin with, and merchants refused to use his currency.

Rebellions arose, organized by various parties, including the aristocrats. Wang Mang was found and killed in the palace courtyard in 23 AD, ending the 14-year rule of his self-proclaimed Xin Dynasty. Rumor had it that his body burnt for 10 days because it had become so fat, however, it seemed to be more of a symbolism from the perception the rebels had that Wang Mang had absorbed all the fat from the people. Two years later, the Han Dynasty was restored.

[yoMAMA]

Who the hell names their dynasty Xin, which means new in Chinese?

No wonder the Han restore the power-the dynasty got old in a quick time! :D

[ChinaLama]

Whenever a dynasty breaks into a "latter" period, it always seems to be in decline. :-(

lesson learned from post: doesn't matter who's in charge, if you're poor in early imperial China, you get the shaft. GG. :flame:

[ModernLogic]

Very interesting. Too bad Wang Mang's reign was shorter than J-Lo and Ben Affleck's marriage. I think China would have progresse much more had a more socialist state taken shape 2000 years ago.

[SunWuKong]

Originally Posted by ChinaLama

Whenever a dynasty breaks into a "latter" period, it always seems to be in decline. :-(

yeah. all the "latter" periods were basically attempted restorations of the "earlier" periods.

in terms of Latter Han, the consort families and the aristocrats were gaining so much power as to threaten the central rule of the emperor, and the court started trusting and relying more on eunuchs. this might have been the beginning of the trend of continual struggle between the eunuch factions and the consort family factions in imperial and ancient China. the struggle for dominance between the eunuchs and the consort led to a very unstable court in Latter Han, and Dong Zhuo was able to go in and take the throne. but he was pretty much insane and didn't know how to run the country. chaos and rebellion followed, and then of course, the Three Kingdoms period ensued.

[yoMAMA]

When you want to rule, you gotta have the balls.....figuratively and literally :laugh:

[ChinaLama]

Originally Posted by yoMAMA

When you want to rule, you gotta have the balls.....figuratively and literally :laugh:

nah eunuchs rock! if eunuchs had had their way instead of the Confucian scholars, China mighta explored the world, settled America, etc etc. during the Ming Dynasty.