The Third Road of the Song Dynasty

In the eighth year of Qingli, Fan Zhongyan's new policy failed, Fu Bi left the capital, and Han Qi remained silent. The Manchu minister finally came to a conclusion: The disease of the Song Dynasty cannot be cured. Lu Huaichuan, whose soul penetrated the small official in Bianjing, knew that in another twenty years, Wang Anshi would reform the law with thunderous means; in sixty years, Jingkang would be humiliated, the two emperors would hunt in the north, and prosperity would be like a dream. The old party said that the laws of the ancestors are immutable and can only be implemented gradually. The New Party says that to make a country rich and have a strong military, we should compete with the people for benefits and cannot be established without destruction. But they were all wrong. Being conservative will not prevent poverty and weakness; being radical will not save people's livelihood from decline. So Lu Huaichuan proposed the third path of the Song Dynasty in the court: We will not abolish the laws of our ancestors, but we will reshape the official system; He does not compete with the people for profit, but he wants to develop sea trade, build workshops, and spread wealth all over the world; Instead of raising redundant officers and soldiers, we must recruit soldiers, military merits, and firearms to build a division that dares to fight! Fan Zhongyan asked him: "What is the third way?" Lu Huaichuan replied: "Let the people have fields to cultivate, work to do, and money to make; let the court have grain to deploy, soldiers to fight, and wealth to use." "In this way, the Song Dynasty did not have to rely on one reform after another to survive." Many years later, Xixia surrendered, Liao became a vassal, and the Jin people were already timid even before their rise. Wang Anshi was silent for a long time while holding the new law. "It turns out that there really is a third way in this world."