Wang Mang and the Xin Dynasty (AD 9-23): The Usurper's Reforms

Wang Mang was a Chinese statesman who seized the throne of the Han dynasty and ruled as emperor of his own Xin (“new”) dynasty from AD 9 to 23. Claiming to restore the golden age of the early Zhou, he launched sweeping reforms of land ownership, currency and government. Combined with catastrophic Yellow River floods, the reforms produced famine and rebellion, and Wang Mang was killed when rebels took Chang’an in AD 23, opening the way for the Han restoration.

Background: the rise of the Wang family

By the 1st century BC the Western Han court was dominated by the families of empresses. Wang Mang was born in 45 BC into the Wang clan; his aunt, Wang Zhengjun, was empress to Emperor Yuan and then empress dowager for decades. Several of his uncles served in turn as Grand Marshal, the most powerful office at court.

Unlike his wealthy cousins, Wang Mang built a reputation for modesty, Confucian learning and generosity to scholars. He became Grand Marshal in 8 BC. Under Emperor Ai (7–1 BC), whose own relatives controlled the court, he was forced out, but he returned to power immediately after Ai’s death in 1 BC.

From regent to emperor

Wang Mang installed the nine-year-old Emperor Ping and married his daughter to him. He purged rivals, including the boy emperor’s own maternal family, and won support through lavish gifts, building ritual halls and promoting scholars. Officials and commoners sent petitions praising him, and he received the title “Duke Who Gives Peace to the Han”.

When Emperor Ping died in AD 6, possibly poisoned according to later rumours, Wang Mang chose an infant, Liu Ying, as heir, and ruled as “acting emperor”. Omens and prophetic texts, some evidently manufactured by supporters, suggested that Heaven had transferred its mandate. In January AD 9 he declared himself emperor of the Xin dynasty. The empress dowager, his aunt, reportedly threw the imperial seal to the ground in anger before giving it up.

The reforms

Wang Mang modelled his government on the Rites of Zhou, a text describing an idealised ancient administration. He renamed offices, commanderies and even foreign rulers, and he launched a series of economic changes.

• Land reform. In AD 9 he declared all land “royal fields” (wangtian). Land and slaves could no longer be bought or sold, and families with fewer than eight males holding more than one jing (about 900 mu) were to give the excess to relatives and neighbours. The aim was to recreate the ancient “well-field” system and curb great estates. Fierce resistance forced him to repeal the law in AD 12.
• Currency. Between AD 7 and 14 he reformed the coinage four times. He issued knife-shaped coins worth 500 and 5,000 standard coins, then in AD 10 created a system of 28 denominations in gold, silver, tortoiseshell, cowrie shells and bronze. The confusion drove many people back to barter, and forgery was punished harshly.
• Monopolies and price controls. He reinforced state monopolies on salt, iron and liquor, as debated at the Debate on Salt and Iron, and added control of coinage and mountain and marsh resources. Market offices were to buy surplus goods and lend money at fixed interest.

Some measures reflected real problems, such as land concentration and debt slavery. But they were poorly implemented by officials who often profited from them, and frequent changes undermined trust.

Foreign relations

Wang Mang downgraded the titles of neighbouring rulers, renaming the Xiongnu chanyu with insulting terms and replacing his seal. Relations with the Xiongnu collapsed into war, and large armies were stationed on the northern frontier at great expense. Conflicts also broke out with Goguryeo in the north-east and peoples in the south-west.

Disaster and rebellion

Around AD 11 the Yellow River broke its dykes and shifted its course across the North China Plain, flooding large areas of the east. Famine and migration followed, and banditry spread.

From about AD 17 the Lülin (“Green Forest”) rebels gathered in the hills of modern Hubei. In Shandong, from about AD 18, a peasant movement led by Fan Chong grew into the Red Eyebrows, named after the red paint they used to identify themselves. Members of the Liu imperial clan also took up arms, claiming to restore the Han.

In AD 23 the Lülin rebels proclaimed a Han prince, Liu Xuan, as the Gengshi Emperor. At the Battle of Kunyang in the summer of AD 23, Liu Xiu, a distant Han relative, defeated a much larger government army; the Book of Han’s claim of 420,000 men on Wang Mang’s side is generally regarded as exaggerated.

The fall of Wang Mang

Rebel forces reached Chang’an in October AD 23. After fighting in the city, Wang Mang took refuge in a tower in the Weiyang Palace, still holding ritual objects. He was killed there on about 6 October AD 23, aged about 67 (68 by traditional Chinese reckoning); his head was sent to the Gengshi Emperor and displayed in the market.

Peace did not follow. The Red Eyebrows took and plundered Chang’an in AD 25, and the Gengshi Emperor was killed. Liu Xiu proclaimed himself emperor in AD 25, defeated the Red Eyebrows in AD 27 and reunited the empire as Emperor Guangwu, founder of the Eastern Han.

Key people

• Wang Mang (45 BC – AD 23): regent from 1 BC, acting emperor from AD 6 and emperor of Xin from AD 9.
• Wang Zhengjun (71 BC – AD 13): empress dowager whose long life and authority made her family’s rise possible; she died during her nephew’s reign.
• Liu Xiu (5 BC – AD 57): victor at Kunyang and later Emperor Guangwu, founder of the Eastern Han.
• Liu Xuan: the Gengshi Emperor, installed by the Lülin rebels in AD 23 and killed in AD 25.
• Fan Chong: leader of the Red Eyebrows, who surrendered to Liu Xiu in AD 27.

Legacy

The official histories, written under the restored Han, treated Wang Mang as the archetypal usurper and hypocrite who disguised ambition as virtue. His reign was not counted as a legitimate dynasty.

Modern historians are more cautious. Some, including Hans Bielenstein, argued that the Yellow River floods rather than the reforms caused the collapse. The scholar Hu Shih called him a socialist in 1928, a view now generally rejected as anachronistic. Most agree that he was a sincere believer in classical models whose policies were too ambitious, too frequently changed and badly carried out.

His surviving coins and a dated bronze caliper of AD 9 show the precision of Xin metalwork. The census of AD 2, made under his regency and recording about 57.7 million people, is the earliest surviving count of China’s population.

Timeline

• 45 BC: Wang Mang is born.
• 8 BC: He becomes Grand Marshal.
• 1 BC: He returns to power and installs Emperor Ping.
• AD 6: Emperor Ping dies; Wang Mang becomes acting emperor.
• AD 9, January: He proclaims the Xin dynasty and nationalises land.
• c. AD 11: The Yellow River changes course, causing famine.
• AD 12: The land law is repealed.
• c. AD 17–18: The Lülin and Red Eyebrow rebellions begin.
• AD 23: Battle of Kunyang; Wang Mang is killed in Chang’an in October.
• AD 25: Liu Xiu proclaims himself emperor, restoring the Han.

Why it matters

Wang Mang’s reign was the only break in four centuries of Han rule. His attempt to rebuild society on ancient models remains a striking example of utopian reform from above, and his fall shaped how later Chinese rulers and historians viewed usurpation and radical change.