dates from this period; and it may now be of interest to give a brief
account of another remarkable movement connected with the dynasty,
though in quite a different line.

Wang An-shih (as _shi_ in _shirk_), popularly known as the Reformer, was
born in 1021. In his youth a keen student, his pen seemed to fly over
the paper. He rose to high office; and by the time he was forty-eight he
found himself installed as confidential adviser to the emperor. He then
entered upon a series of startling political reforms, said to be based
upon new and more correct interpretations of portions of the Confucian
Canon, which still remained, so far as explanation was concerned, just
as it had been left by the scholars of the Han dynasty. This appeal to
authority was, of course, a mere blind, cleverly introduced to satisfy
the bulk of the population, who were always unwilling to move in any
direction where no precedent is forthcoming. One of his schemes, the
express object of which was to decrease taxation and at the same time
to increase the revenue, was to secure a sure and certain market for all
products, as follows. From the produce of a given district, enough was
to be set aside (1) for the payment of taxes, and (2) to supply the
wants of the district; (3) the balance was then to be taken over by the
state at a low rate, and held for a rise or forwarded to some centre
where there happened to be a demand. There would be thus a certainty
of market for the farmer, and an equal certainty for the state to
make profits as a middleman. Another part of this scheme consisted in
obligatory advances by the state to cultivators of land, whether these
farmers required the money or not, the security for the loans being in
each case the growing crops.

There was also a system of tithing for military purposes, under which
every family having more than two males was bound to supply one to serve