The Reforms of Wang Mang and Their Assessment

Through Wang Mang, I catch a reflection of Donald Trump.

As the defeated party, Wang Mang has endured endless mockery and curses for the past two thousand years. But if we keep in mind that the history written by later generations is the propaganda of the victors, we cannot simply dismiss Wang Mang as nothing more than an absurd restorationist. To be sure, Wang Mang himself had widely known flaws—he was cruel, fond of superstition, and hypocritical—yet his usurpation was an unavoidable outcome of his need to survive the power struggles among the imperial in-laws, and he was a man of outstanding intellect, diligent and earnest, who put into practice the ideals of the intellectuals of his time.

Wang Mang’s reforms, too, although they failed, were unmistakably timely. With small farmers in decline and the great landlord clans growing ever more powerful, the very foundations of the state were being shaken, so as a ruler he had to find some kind of solution. The currency reform, the well-field system, and the system of five equalizations were all either the aspirations of the intellectuals of his time or developments of the policies of the earlier Emperor Wu of Han. The intentions were admirable, and the institutions themselves, at least from the standpoint of the intellectuals of the day, seemed unproblematic.

But in their execution, Wang Mang was the quintessential clever fool. The bureaucratic apparatus was already corrupt down to its lowest rungs, beyond any remedy. Because there were still so many intellectuals loyal to the old Han dynasty, the pool of talent he could draw upon was limited to his relatives. Dismantling the entrenched interests through reform is something that has rarely succeeded in all of recorded history, yet he pushed ahead boldly, soon ran into fierce resistance, and the reforms were rolled back. On top of this came frequent crop failures, and so he could not withstand the defeat in the war against the Xiongnu. The result was civil war and Wang Mang’s own ruin.

What about Trump? Claiming to be fighting the entrenched global deep state, he says he will make America great again. That an entrenched establishment exists is beyond doubt. The modern establishment is the capitalists. The only legal means of stopping those who sway the world through the power of money is elected politicians. If, as the President of the United States—the pinnacle of democracy—he fails at reform, this would mean nothing less than the collapse and failure of democracy. As things stand, it is impossible to predict his success or failure, because it is hard even to gauge what his reform will be, or even what the entrenched establishment he is up against actually is. But if human history flows along by its usual inertia, I think his failure too can be foreseen to some degree.

Lim Jung-hyuk, The Society for Asian Historical Studies, Dongyang Sahak Yeongu Vol. 51, 1995.07

20250209