#145 - N. Song 12: The New Policies, Pt. 1

The History of China

Chris Stewart

History

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2018

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

In this first part of a mini-arc, southern provincial nobody Wang Anshi rises above his station and attracts both the curiosity and the attention of Emperor Shanzong and his court by laying out a bold new vision to lead the Song Dynasty out of its economic malaise before disaster inevitably strikes. But when neither Wang nor his critics are willing to give an inch on their principles, sparks fly... Time Period Covered: 1021-1070 CE Relevant Historical Figures: Emperor Shenzong of Song (Zhao Xu) [r. 1067 - 1085] Wang Anshi, Economic Maverick [1021-1086] Sima Guang, Conservative Historian [1019-1086] Ouyang Xiu, "Old Drunkard" [1007-1072] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an airwave media podcast.
0:04.0	Hello and welcome to the history of China.
0:10.0	Hello and welcome to the history of China.
0:14.0	Episode 145, the new policies part one.
0:21.0	It's a fairly frequent question slash request for listeners of not just this show, but of history in general.
0:28.0	Yes, yes, all these high fallutant kings and emperors and lords and ladies are all well and good, rolling the ball of empire this way or that
0:35.2	and their fancy clothes. But what about the little guy? What about Joe Schmo? What about the everyday
0:41.0	lives of the regular folk?
0:43.0	Why don't we hear more about them?
0:45.0	It is a fair question.
0:46.0	After all, I'd have it a guess that most of us listening are among the throng of average Joes of the world,
0:52.0	though, that's said, if you're like the Emir of Kuwait or something,
0:56.0	what's up?
0:57.0	Give me a call.
0:58.0	The problem is that answering questions about the little guy
1:02.0	across most of history tends to be really hard.
1:06.0	Not necessarily impossible, at least not all of the time, and especially since more modern historians
1:11.6	have done an increasingly good job at looking at the
1:13.7	non-traditional sources to draw histories of the populace at large from things like
1:18.6	housing patterns taxation patterns consumption patterns things like that. Even so, it still remains difficult a lot of the time
1:26.3	to get much more than the broader outlines of such lives because, for most of history,
1:32.3	the populace at large has had very little voice.
	...

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