Different Views On The Political Geography Of The Empire In The 11th Century: Debates Over Military Affairs Between Wang Anshi and Sima Guang

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to ask how prominent Song scholar-officials perceived regional disparities through an analysis of their military-related writings. The north-south divide is usually the first topic to appear when scholars discuss regional disparity in the Song. By focusing on the writings of the southern scholar-official Wang Anshi and his northern opponent Sima Guang, I argue that rather than conceiving the differences between these two great figures with the framework of north-south divide, it would be more fulfilling to understand the debates as an expression of their different perspective about how an empire should be spatially organized. Analyzing the controversies over baojia and other military establishment, I will show that Wang's and Sima's visions represented two radically different ways of understanding the spatial structure of the empire. In Wang's case, the current state of vast regional differences signified a less than ideal form of human existence. The state institutions were perfect for molding the widely diverse territories into a coherent unit. Sima Guang, on the other hand, envisioned the empire as a collection of regions, each with its own set of priorities that the court shoulf respect.

Keywords: Northern Song, Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, Spatial organization, military