s that held importantgovernment positions were corrupt. Wealthy merchants that became rich fromforeign trade found ways to avoid paying taxes. The peasants began to rebel whenthe heavy taxes were placed on them. The Song Dynasty had a lot of problems, in 1069 Emperor Shen Tsungappointed Wang An-shi as chief minister. Wang was a scholar who studied earlierChinese governments. Wang noticed the corrupt government and made huge reform inthe government. His reforms were based on the text of 'Rites of Chou'. Wangtried to get honest, intelligent officials by improving the university system.He made civil examinations more practical and reformed the merit system toreduce corruption among government officials. Wang help the governments financial problems by establishing a graduatedincome tax. This meant the wealthy people were required to pay a greaterpercentage of their income that poorer people pay. This new tax method reducedthe burden on the peasants and increased the governments revenues. The extramoney created from the taxing was used to pay government workers, whichabolished forced labor. Many of his new laws were revivals of earlier policies, many officialsand landlords opposed his reforms. So when the emperor and Wang died, whichhappen to been within a year of each other the laws were withdrawn. For the nextseveral decades, until the fall of Northern Song in 1126, the reformers andanti-reformers took turns in power, this in turn created havoc and turmoil inthe government. The Song tried to regain the territory that they had lost to the Khitansby becoming allies with a new powerful Juchens from Manchuria. Once the Juchensdefeated the Khitans, they turned on the Song and occupied the capital ofKaifeng. The Juchens established the Chin dynasty. They took the emperor and hisson prisoner, along with 3,000 others, and ordered them to be held in Manchuria. With the emperor and his son prisoners, another son f...
