Wang Anshi was promoted to vice counselor in 1069. He served as the sole
chief councilor in 1071–1074 and 1075–1076. He introduced and promulgated a series of reforms, collectively known as the New Policies/New Laws. The reforms had three main components: 1) state finance and trade, 2) defense and social order, and 3) education and improving governance.
Equal tax law The equal tax law (), also known as the square field law () was a land registration project meant to reveal hidden land (untaxed land). Fields were divided into squares 1,000 paces in length on each side. The corners of the fields were marked by earth piles or trees. In the autumn, an official was dispatched to supervise the surveying of the land and to place the soil quality in one of five categories. This information was written in a ledger declared legally binding for the purposes of sale and purchase, and the taxation value assessed appropriately. The law was highly unpopular with land owners, who complained that it restricted their freedom of distribution and other purposes (avoiding tax). Although the square field system was only implemented around the region of
Kaifeng, the land surveyed made up 54 percent of known arable land in the
Song dynasty. The project was discontinued in 1085.
Emperor Huizong of Song (r. 1100–1125) tried to revive it but the implementation was too impractical and gave up after 1120. The system of taxation for mining products () was a similar project to the equal tax law, except for regulating mining projects.
Hydraulic works law The hydraulic works law () was meant to improve local organization of irrigation works. Instead of using
corvée labor, each circuit was supposed to appoint officials to loan money to the people using the local treasury, so that they could hire laborers. The government also encouraged planting
mulberry trees to increase
silk production.
Labor recruitment law The labor recruitment law () aimed at replacing corvée labor as a form of tax service with hired labor. Each prefecture calculated the funds needed for official projects in advance so that the funds could be distributed appropriately. The government also paid a premium of 20 percent in years of crop failures. Effectively, it transformed labor service to the government into a monetary payment, increasing tax revenue. However, people who were previously exempt from corvée labor were forced to pay taxes for labor on official projects, and thus protested the new law. Although officially abolished in 1086, the new labor recruitment system existed in practice until the end of the
Northern Song dynasty in 1127.
Balanced delivery law The balanced delivery law () was meant to curb the prices of commodities purchased by the government and to control the expenditures of the local administration. To do this, the Commissioner of Supply, who was in charge of collecting tributes from the six most prosperous provinces in southeast China, was made responsible for government purchases and their transport. The central treasury provided funds for the purchase of low cost goods wherever there was a surplus, their storage, and transport to areas where they were expensive for sale. Critics claimed that Wang was waging a price war with merchants.
Market exchange law The market exchange law (), also called the guild avoidance law (), targeted large trading companies and monopolies. A metropolitan market exchange bureau was set up in
Kaifeng and 21 market exchange offices in other cities. They were headed by supervisors and office managers who dealt with merchants, merchant guilds, and brokerage houses. These institutions fixed prices for not only resident merchants but also itinerant traders. Surplus commodities were purchased by the government and stored for later sale at a lower price, disrupting price manipulation by merchant monopolies. Merchant guilds that cooperated with the market exchange bureau were allowed to sell goods to the government and buy commodities from government storehouses using money or credit at an interest rate of 10 percent for six months or 20 percent for a year. Small or mid-sized companies and groups of five merchants could provide guarantee with their assets for credit. After 1085, the market exchange bureau and offices became profit making institutions, and bought cheap goods and sold at higher prices. The system stayed in place until the end of the
Northern Song dynasty in 1127.
Baojia law The
baojia system, also known as the village defense law or security group law, was a project to improve local security and relieve local government of administrative duties. It ordered groups of ten, fifty, and five hundred men security groups to be organized. Each was to be led by a headman. Initially each household with more than two male adults had to provide one security guard, but this unrealistic expectation was decreased to one per five households later on. The security groups exercised police powers, organized night watches, and trained in martial arts when no agricultural work was required. Essentially it was a local militia with the main effect being a decrease in government expenditures, since the local population was responsible for its own protection. In 1075 they were also charged with collecting tax and offering Green Sprouts loans. Wang saw the ultimate goal of the Baojia system as "making farmers and soldiers as one." In some places it sanctioned pre-existing militias while in others it created new ones, but in practice, the baojia was never effective at creating strong fighting troops and it never replaced the imperial army. Still, as a project of social engineering, the
baojia measure was transformative, especially in Kaifeng and the North China circuits of Hebei, Hedong (modern Shanxi), and Shaanxi. There, between 19 and 30 percent of households were enfolded into a mandatory program of drill and review that brought the
baojia organizations into direct contact with the regular military. By the mid-1080s, the New Policies regime had reshaped rural North China into the model of a hierarchical, bureaucratized, and militarized society, while creating a class of lethally trained rich-peasant
baojia captains who wielded the powers of the state over their poorer conscript guardsmen. In the end, then, for North China’s rural elite,
baojia mobilization revived the links between military skills and social mobility that the Song state had tried to suppress during the first century of the dynasty.
General and troops law The general and troops law (), also known as the creation of commands law () targeted improving the relationship between high officials and common troops. The army was divided into units of 2,500 to 3,000 men that combined a mixed force of infantry, cavalry, archers, as well as tribal troops, instead of each belonging to their own individual unit. This did not include the metropolitan and palace army. The system continued until the end of the
Song dynasty.
Three college law The three college law (), also called the Three Hall system, regulated the education of future officials in the
Taixue (National University). It divided the Taixue into three colleges. Students first attended the Outer College, then the Inner College, and finally the Superior College. One of the aims of the three-colleges was to provide a more balanced education for students and to de-emphasize Confucian learning. Students were taught in only one of the Confucian classics, depending on the college, as well as arithmetics and medicine. Students of the Outer College who passed a public and institutional examination were allowed to enter the Inner College. At the Inner College there were two exams over a two-year period on which the students were graded. Those who achieved the superior grade on both exams were directly appointed to office equal to that of a metropolitan exam graduate. Those who achieved an excellent grade on one exam but slightly worse on the other could still be considered for promotion, and having a good grade in one exam but mediocre in another still awarded merit equal to that of a provincial exam graduate.
Imperial Examination restructuring The New Policies drastically changed the curriculum of the
imperial examinations. The "understanding the Classics" and "various field" degrees were abolished. Poetry, memory passages, and written elucidations were removed; candidates were to instead demonstrate mastery of the
Analects, the
Mencius, and one of the
Five Classics. The
Spring and Autumn Annals were excluded due to their low contemporary political value. To emphasize legal expertise, the "new degree in law" was introduced in 1071. These reforms were intended to be more relevant, promote critical thinking, and increase support for the New Policies. The examination reforms disrupted the studies of many candidates and were thus quickly repealed following Emperor Shenzong's death. == Opposition ==