Download Wang Mang of the Xin Dynasty, “China`s First

Wang Mang of the Xin Dynasty, “China’s First Socialist”
by Radford Tam
Some historians viewed Wang Mang (王莽) 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
(新) 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 indication for the validation 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. Rumored had it that his body burnt for 10 days because
it had become so fat, however, it seemed to be more of a symbolism of the perception the
rebels had that Wang Mang had absorbed all the fat from the people. Two years later, the
Han Dynasty was restored.