Shenzong takes Song throne

1067

The young Song emperor inherited a fiscally strained empire with rising military pressure on its frontiers. Within two years Shenzong would summon the reformer Wang Anshi to the capital and launch the most ambitious program of state intervention in pre-modern Chinese history, splitting the literati class permanently into camps. The emperor's personal commitment to reform gave Wang Anshi the political cover he needed to push through radical changes.