Emperor Taizu Zhao Kuangyin of the Song Dynasty came from a military background and later seized power through force. After establishing the Northern Song Dynasty and ascending the throne, he feared that military officials in the court might imitate him and launch rebellions threatening his rule, so he adopted a policy of "valuing civil affairs over military affairs," continuously suppressing military officers while vigorously strengthening central authority. To ensure officials could check and balance each other, the Northern Song set up many government agencies with overlapping functions. Additionally, the imperial examination system expanded significantly, leading to a surge in the number of successful candidates, which ultimately resulted in an excessive number of government officials, creating the phenomenon of "redundant officials."
At the same time, frequent wars broke out along the border, the government conscripted soldiers year after year, and the army's numbers increased annually, yet its combat effectiveness declined year by year, thus giving rise to the phenomenon of "redundant troops."
Starting from Emperor Zhenzong of Song, the emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty were generally weak, willing to use annual tribute payments to avoid war. The yearly tribute sent to the Liao Dynasty placed a heavy burden on the state's finances. Moreover, maintaining the vast number of officials and the large military force of the Northern Song also required enormous expenditures. In this situation, "excessive costs" became a major challenge facing the rulers.
Since Yuanhao established the Western Xia Dynasty, the military expenditures of the Northern Song Dynasty had been steadily increasing. The government, left with no choice, shifted the burden onto the common people, imposing heavier corvée labor and taxes that became increasingly unbearable, prompting the people to rise up in revolt. For a time, peasant uprisings swept across the Northern Song territory like a storm, plunging the political situation into turmoil.
At that time, the reigning Emperor Renzong, seeking to change the situation and stabilize the domestic political landscape, ordered the leading ministers at court, headed by Fan Zhongyan, to implement reforms. That year, Fan Zhongyan had already experienced twenty-eight years of ups and downs in his official career, giving him a thorough understanding of the flaws in Northern Song society. He had long been brewing reforms in his mind, and now he finally found the opportunity to put them into practice.
After receiving Emperor Renzong's order, Fan Zhongyan, together with his colleagues Fu Bi and Han Qi, immediately began drafting a reform plan, ultimately compiling ten reform proposals centered on rectifying official governance: first, strictly determine officials' promotions and demotions based on performance, abolishing the previous unreasonable standard of relying solely on seniority; second, strictly limit the annual number of aristocratic children entering officialdom through connections; third, reform the imperial examination system to select truly capable scholars as officials; fourth, before appointing local officials, conduct rigorous vetting, and simultaneously assess the performance of existing local officials, rewarding those with outstanding achievements while punishing those who fall short; fifth, allocate public fields according to officials' positions—public fields were one source of income for Northern Song officials, but their distribution was highly uneven across regions; sixth, prioritize agricultural and sericultural production; seventh, improve military preparedness by recruiting able-bodied men in the capital and its surrounding areas during the agricultural off-season to assist the regular army in defending the capital, integrating soldiers into farming; eighth, ensure the central government's welfare policies are promptly and fully implemented, with severe penalties for delays or violations; ninth, to earn public trust, central decrees must be issued with great caution and never changed arbitrarily; tenth, reduce the burden of corvée labor on the people.
The ten items listed above constitute the historically renowned "Ten Matters Presented in Response to the Imperial Edict." After Fan Zhongyan presented them to Emperor Renzong, key court officials such as Ouyang Xiu expressed their approval. The emperor adopted most of the reform proposals and began implementing the new policies across the country. Since the reign title at the time was Qingli, this reform became known as the "Qingli New Policies."
To ensure the smooth implementation of his new policies, Fan Zhongyan dispatched many inspectors to various regions to evaluate the performance of local officials; once an official's performance was deemed unsatisfactory, he would immediately be removed from the official roster. His colleague Fu Bi felt this action was somewhat excessive and said to Fan Zhongyan, "With a single stroke of your pen, you cause an entire family to weep!" Unmoved, Fan Zhongyan replied, "That is far better than causing the people of an entire prefecture or county to weep together!"
In the first few months of the new policy's implementation, immediate results were achieved: the number of court officials decreased while administrative efficiency improved; a large number of corrupt and incompetent officials were removed from office, while truly capable officials received promotions; children of aristocratic families could no longer rely on connections to enter officialdom; the national economy recovered and fiscal revenue increased; many schools were built across the country; and the content of the imperial examinations began to emphasize practicality. Both the common people and reform-minded officials were full of praise for the new policies.
However, within the court, a large number of conservative officials represented by Xia Song were very dissatisfied with the New Policies. They constantly created obstacles to the implementation of the New Policies and even transferred Ouyang Xiu, the leader of the reformist faction, to a post in Hedong. In the summer of the second year of the New Policies' implementation, Xia Song and others directly accused Shi Jie, a key figure among the reformers, and Fu Bi of plotting rebellion. Xia Song secretly ordered someone to imitate Shi Jie's handwriting and write a letter, the content of which was extremely treasonous, even involving the deposition of the emperor, and the recipient was Fu Bi. This letter was presented before Emperor Renzong, who was half-convinced and half-doubtful. The court officials discussed it extensively, and for a time, opinions were divided. Conservative officials took the opportunity to spread rumors, claiming that Fan Zhongyan and others had ulterior motives and that the New Policies concealed some unknown sinister purpose.
By that time, the domestic and international situation had largely stabilized, the war between the Northern Song Dynasty and the Western Xia had ceased, and the two sides were engaged in peace negotiations, making domestic reforms less urgent. As a result, in the face of stubborn conservative opposition, Emperor Renzong, who had once been firm in his convictions, began to waver. Ultimately, after being vigorously implemented for just over a year, the Qingli Reforms ended in failure. Renzong ordered the complete abolition of the new policies, and reformist officials were demoted and removed from the capital.
Fan Zhongyan, the greatest contributor to the "Qingli Reforms," was transferred to Binzhou to serve as its prefectural governor. By this time, Fan Zhongyan was nearly sixty years old. Over the following years, he was successively reassigned to Dengzhou, Hangzhou, and Qingzhou. During this period, he wrote his timeless masterpiece, "Record of Yueyang Tower," in which the lines "Worry before the world's worries, rejoice after the world's joys" have been celebrated through the ages. At the age of sixty-four, Fan Zhongyan was transferred to Yingzhou for a new post, but he fell ill and died on the way there. When news of his death reached the capital, Emperor Renzong was deeply grieved and posthumously honored him as Minister of War.
The failure of the Qingli Reforms led to Fan Zhongyan's bleak later years; while the direct cause was the conservative faction's slander of reformist officials, the fundamental reason was that the measures of the Qingli Reforms posed a serious threat to the interests of the entire landlord class. At that time, Fan Zhongyan and his allies were not merely opposing conservative officials but the landlord class itself, which ruled feudal society, making the failure of the Qingli Reforms an inevitable outcome.