Early in his reign, Emperor Wang Mang confidently sought to implement his ideals of restoring the legendary golden age of the early Zhou dynasty as theorised in the
Book of Rites. To that end, he modified the governmental structure to better conform with standards attributed to the Zhou. He also continued the regime of modifying geographical names to fit with ancient names (or more euphemistic names). This meant that even imperial edicts discussing the locations by their new names were forced to include notes on the old names so that the recipients of the edicts could tell what locations he was referring to. As part of this regime, the name of the capital was changed. Chang'an was redesignated Chang'an . The characters are now homophones in Standard Mandarin but had distinct pronunciations at the time. In AD9, Wang Mang promoted his wife Lady Wang to the position of empress. By this point, only two of her four sons were still alive. The older Wang An () was described as lacking in talent, so Wang Mang made the younger Wang Lin ()
crown prince, and made Wang An the Lord of Xinjia (). Wang Mang selected many Confucian scholars to serve as advisors for Crown Prince Lin. Wang, grateful to his aunt Grand Empress Dowager Wang (who, however, resented him for deceiving her and usurping the throne), continued to honour her as empress dowager, but also gave her an additional title of
Wangmu (王母), the same title carried by the mother of
King Wen of Zhou, implying that she was also his mother and had helped establish a new dynasty. She died in the year 13.
Economic policies In AD9, Wang Mang instituted a revolutionary
land redistribution system, ordering that all land in the empire legally become the empire's property, known as (, "Wang's fields" or "royal fields"), a system that bore similarity to the
well-field system attributed to the Zhou dynasty. Any further real estate transactions were banned, although property owners were allowed to continue possessing their properties. If a household had less than eight members but had one "well" or larger property (about ), then they were required to distribute the excess land to fellow clan members, neighbours, or other members of the same village. Criticism of the
wangtian system was punishable by exile. The existing aristocracy were not too fond of having their land stripped from them, so they start bribing local officials to keep their lands, and local officials who were landlords themselves also started resisting the
wangtian system. Some local officials took this opportunity to take free land from the people and redistribute it amongst their clan members. Farmers who were at first thrilled at the idea of getting free land but found that not only were they not getting free land – because Wang Mang didn't do anything to ensure that local officials were doing their jobs right – in addition to corrupt local officials who were taking the opportunity to take what little land they had left in the name of the law, both found themselves opposing the new system. Eventually, faced with resistance for both of these policies, Wang was forced to repeal both of them just three years later in the year 12. Also in the year 9, Wang established the first
income tax through a 10% tax of net earnings from wild herb and fruit collection, fishing, shepherding, and various nonagricultural activities and forms of trading. People were obligated to report their taxes to the government and officials would audit these reports.
Deterioration of the relationship with Xiongnu and other vassals Problems with Xiongnu The first sign of irritation came sometime before AD10 when the Xin director of
Wuhuan affairs informed the Wuhuan tribes not to pay further tribute to Xiongnu. In response, Xiongnu carried out a punitive military raid against Wuhuan, capturing about 1,000 women and children to serve as hostages. Later, on Wang Mang's orders, the Xiongnu were forced to return the Wuhuan hostages. Wang sent his ambassadors to the Xiongnu to inform Shanyu Zhi that Wang Mang had become emperor and that Xin had replaced Han. The ambassadors requested that the great seal of the shanyu, which Han had issued, be exchanged for a new seal issued by Xin. The old seal read, "the Great Seal of the Shanyu of Xiongnu" (); the new seal read "the Seal of the Shanyu of Gongnu of Xin" (),
changing the meanings "ferocious slave" (; Xiongnu) to "respectful slave" ; "Shanyu" (the chief of the tribes) to "Shanyu" ; and "seal" to "badge" , implying that the Xiongnu were nothing but a vassal of the Xin. This contrasted with the Han who had been somewhat ambiguous about whether the Xiongnu were a vassal group. Without examining the new seal, Shanyu Zhi agreed to the exchange. The ambassadors, apprehensive that the Shanyu – once he realized what had happened – would demand the old seal back, destroyed the old seal. Indeed, the next day, Shanyu Zhi realized that the seal's text had changed and requested that the old seal be returned. However, upon being informed that the old seal had been destroyed (which the ambassadors claimed falsely to be an act of the gods), he acquiesced. The Xiongnu leader nevertheless began to prepare for confrontation with Wang Mang's Xin. The Shanyu built defensive bulwarks some distance from the Xin outpost of
Shuofang (, modern
Ordos,
Inner Mongolia). He also began to accept
Xiyu ("Western Regions", in modern
Xinjiang and
central Asia) kingdoms' pledges of allegiance, an action that had been banned by Wang. Wang, irritated, declared war against Xiongnu. The strategy that he set out was to divide the Xin forces into 12 armies to divide and conquer Xiongnu. Under this scenario, Chanyu Zhi would be attacked and forced to retreat to the Dingling tribes (around
Lake Baikal), and Xiongnu would be divided into 15 small kingdoms to be ruled by 15 descendants of Chanyu
Huhanye, who had first established friendly relations with Han. Under this plan, 300,000 men would be gathered for the attack. However, Wang did not follow his generals' recommendations to start the campaign as soon as a critical mass of men were gathered but wanted to attack with overwhelming force. This placed pressure on the border regions as they strained to accommodate, over what turned about to be a lengthy period, the men who had arrived, while fruitlessly waiting for the full support of 300,000 to be gathered. In the first stage of this plan, one of the local commanders kidnapped one of Chanyu Zhi's brothers, Xian (咸), the Prince of Zuoliwu (左犁汙王), and his sons Deng (登) and Zhu (助), by trickery. Xian and Zhu were made Chanyus, the first two of the planned 15. Chanyu Zhi became enraged and launched massive attacks against Xin border regions, causing the border regions much distress and economic and human loss. Eventually, Xian escaped back to Xiongnu, but his sons were kept as hostages. After Zhu died, Deng succeeded him. However, in the year 12, after hearing reports that Xian's other son Jiao (角) had been a successful Xiongnu strategist in military actions against the Xin, Wang, in anger, executed Deng and his attendants. In the year 13, Chanyu Zhi died. The powerful official Xubu Dang (須卜當) and his wife Yun, the Princess Yimuo (the daughter of Chanyu Huhanye and
Wang Zhaojun), who advocated peaceful relations with Xin and who were also friendly with Xian, supported Xian as the new Chanyu. Even though Xian was unaware that Wang Mang had executed his son Deng, relations between Xiongnu and Xin remained tense. There was a temporary
détente in the year 14, when Xian returned Xin defectors Chen Liang (陳良) and Zhong Dai (終帶), who, as junior army officers in Xiyu, had killed their superiors and surrendered to Xiongnu (perhaps seeking to have Xiongnu help them re-establish Han) so that Wang could execute them. In response, Wang recalled the forces located in the northern regions which were intended to be used to attack Xiongnu (but were never given the full support that Wang envisioned). However, after Chanyu Xian found out late in the year 14 that Deng had been executed, he resumed raids against the border regions but maintained a façade of peace.
Problems with southwestern tribes When Wang Mang first became emperor, his ambassadors visited the southwestern tribes (in modern
Guizhou,
Yunnan, and southwestern
Sichuan), whose chieftains Han had largely granted the titles of princes. Wang's new seals demoted them to the titles of marquesses. One of the more powerful chieftains, Han (邯), the Prince of Juting (句町王), responded by angrily cutting off relations with Xin. Wang instructed the local commandery governor, Zhou Xin (周歆), to arrange for the killing of Han. In response, Han's brother Cheng (承) started a rebellion, killing Zhou, and starting a campaign of harassment against Xin borders. By AD16, the Commandery of Yizhou (modern northeastern Yunnan) had become corrupt while Juting remained powerful. So Wang commissioned two generals, Lian Dan (廉丹) and Shi Xiong (史熊), to attack Juting. They were initially successful, but soon became caught in problems with food supply and disease. However, Wang continued to refuse to reinstitute the Han system of using awards to buy the submission of southwestern tribes.
Problems with Goguryeo When Wang started his campaign against Xiongnu, he requisitioned the forces of Goguryeo within Xin borders. Goguryeo refused to cooperate and marched out of the Xin borders. The Xin army that Wang sent against them was defeated by them. The general Wang sent, Yan You (嚴尤), used humble words to trick their leader, Zou (騶), who was a marquess of Goguryeo, into a meeting with him where he treacherously killed Zou. Wang then changed Gaogouli to the derogatory term "Xiagouli" (
gao means "high", while
xia means "low"), and reduced their king's rank to marquess, which further enraged Goguryeo, causing them to attack the Xin northeastern regions with great ferocity.
Problems with Xiyu kingdoms The troubles for Xin with the
Xiyu kingdoms started in AD10. In that year, Xuzhili (須置離), the King of Rear Cheshi (後車師, now part of
Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture) became concerned about the great cost of hosting Xin ambassadors and considered abandoning his kingdom and fleeing to Xiongnu. Xin's Xiyu commissioner Dan Qin (但欽) summoned Xuzhili and executed him. Xuzhili's brother Hulanzhi (狐蘭之) fled to Xiongnu and then attacked Dan, inflicting severe casualties, before withdrawing. In the year 13, the dual kingdom of
Wusun (which, under a system set up by Han, had two kings: the greater king was a descendant of a Han princess and her husband the king of Wusun, while the lesser king was a descendant of her brother-in-law) sent ambassadors to Chang'an to offer tributes. Because Wang Mang knew that the people of Wusun actually had greater affinity for the lesser king, he placed the ambassador of the lesser king in a higher position than the ambassador of the greater king, which greatly insulted the greater king. In response, the Xiyu kingdoms joined forces and attacked the Xiyu commissioner Dan and managed to kill him. The Xiyu kingdoms then decided to no longer pledge allegiance to Xin. In the year 16, Wang made another attempt to intimidate the Xiyu kingdoms back into submission, but the Xin armies were divided and cut off from each other. One army was entirely wiped out. The other was forced to withdraw to Qiuzi (龜茲, in modern
Aksu Prefecture,
Xinjiang) with its way back to Xin proper cut off, and the army settled there and was unable to return for the rest of the Xin dynasty's duration.
Paralysis and corruption of the government In addition to these wars, a major problem plaguing Wang Mang's administration was that Wang Mang was so committed to implementing the ancient governmental structure, believing that once things were restored to Zhou dynasty standards, the government would be efficient. He and his officials spent inordinate amounts of time carrying out research of legends, but leaving important affairs of the state undecided. A large number of counties lacked magistrates for years. The local officials, without supervision, became highly corrupt and oppressive towards the populace. Because of the way Wang came to power, he also became suspicious of allowing his subordinates to have too much power. Therefore, he made all important decisions himself and did not delegate. This meant that many important decisions were delayed or never made. Further, he entrusted eunuchs to screen the reports from local governments for him, but those eunuchs would decide to relay or not relay those reports based on their own personal likes and dislikes, and many important petitions went unanswered. An even more serious problem was that the officials lacked salaries. Han had a well-defined system of official salaries, but when Wang became emperor, he ordered that the salary system be overhauled and recalibrated. However, because a new system took years to be established, officials went without salaries in the meantime. In response, they became corrupt and demanded bribes from the people, causing much distress. In AD16, Wang finally issued the new salary system, which was dependent on how prosperous the state was in determining what the salaries were. However, because the prosperity of the state was a highly subjective matter, officials continued to go without salaries for the rest of the Xin dynasty's existence. ==Middle reign ==