Song Dynasty Reinstates and Then Re-Abolishes Reforms

1094

The factional pendulum swung again at the Song court: the young Emperor Zhezong, reaching adulthood and chafing under conservative regents, restored Wang Anshi's New Policies and purged the officials who had dismantled them. Sima Guang was posthumously stripped of honors; reformist officials returned to power. The whiplash of policy reversals - reform, reaction, re-reform - was destabilizing Song governance at the precise moment it needed coherence most.