The Study Of Shu Party And The Political Struggle In North Song Dynasty

Shu party is a political organization formally appearing in the early period of YuanYou.The reason why it is named "Shu party "is that its main members Su Shi and Su Zhe were all from Meishan in Sichuan province. It budded in Jiayou of Renzong period(1056-1063), and got a development and expansion in the period of Shenzong reform, and peaked in the early period of Yuanyou in a complex situation.Song dynasty is a golden age that literati got involved in political affairs. In this period, the scholar-bureaucrats' subjective consciousness was strengthened and they were so enthusiastic about the politics that "regarding the affairs of state as our own responsibility" became their principle of behavior.Their attentions on politics were more intense than those in any other era. The specialty that the literati were combinations of literators, scholars and bureaucrats made the struggles of politics, learning and literature more complicated. As a typical representative of literati's participations in politics, Shu Party not only had done contributions to the culture,but also have exerted an great influence on politics. Though it ascended the stage of the history as late as the period of Yuanyou dynasty, its establishment was closely related with Su's Shuxue and Sumen Suxue, a scholar' group expanded in the age of Xifeng(1068-1085). There was a consistency in time and logic among Shu party, Suxue as the representative thoughts of Shu party and Sumen as the main make-up of Shu party.Based on reading historical materials seriously, absorbing relevant studying fruits, this paper makes a systemic research on Shu party under the background of Song's factionalism. This paper is divided into three sections-introduction, body paragraph and epilogueIn the first section, it analyses the party concept of the people living in north Song period., compares the political struggle with those in other dynasties, and concludes its particular political features. With close connections with the variation party concept of the people living in north Song period, factionalisms in Song dynasty had many differences compared with those in other dynasties, though happening frequently in this era. From Wang Yucheng advanced the idea of "Gentlemen also had their parties", further illuminated and propagated, by Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi and other people, this idea gradually became the common view of scholar-bureaucrats in Song Dynasty. As a thinking set, the notions of "Gentlemen also had their parties" and "Base persons were lonely" exerted devastating effect on the whole political situation and the fate of the country.In the second section, it probes into the formative process of Shu party. Based on Song's scholar-bureaucrats'specialty, this paper combines Sumen, Suxue and Shu party which belonged to different fields. There was a consistency in time and logic among Shu party, Suxue as the representative thoughts of Shu party and Sumen as the main make-up of Shu party.The third section analyses the members of Shu party. As a political group, appearing in the Song's middle and late age, its leaders were Su Shi and Su zhe, its main members were Six Scholars of Su Men, such as Huang Tingjian, Chao Buzhi, Qin Guan and so on. Shu party's political activities were existent from Jiayou period to the later period of North Song dynasty, and its members have experienced these struggles.In the forth section, it discusses the important role Shu party played on the political stage after the middle period of North Song dynasty. Under the leadership of Er Su, Shu party had not only made a great achievement not only in literature and learning, but also played an important role in political area. Although Shu party hadn't became the ruling party to realize its own ideas, it had suggested many systematic and feasible opinions in politics, economy, military affairs and frontier defense. These suggestions embodied their independent politics status in the political struggle.Shu party's main political attitude and assertion belonged to Su Shi and Su Zhe, and other members were supplement. Although they had different opinions in some aspects, they had the same political views in the general principle of fighting against Wang Anshi reform. Su Shi and Su Zhe's vicissitude in their official careers did not make them remove from politics, and other people's made continuous supplement to the assertion of Shu party. Their ideas derived from the same origin with Er su's, presenting the consistency in time and logic.In The fifth section, focusing on the Shu party, the article studies the complex relationship between Shu party and other political parties, such as North Song royalty, new party of Anshi, Sima Guang, Shuo party, Luo party, from which we can see the political role Shu party assumed and its own position.The sixth section studies Shu party's companionship outside the government. These good friends included senior important officials such as Ouyang Xiu, Zhang Fangping and Fan Zhen, and Chen Zao, Li Chang, Chao's family in same generation, and friendship inside the Shu party, from which we can conclude the attitude and principle of making friends.In Song dynasty, the companionship of scholar officials was very active in or out the government. The ways of companionship included banquet, letters, poems and so on. Because of the specialty of Song's scholar officials, the communication among them presented a complicated phenomenon. On the principle of a good scholar could become an official, most of them were officials. In the government, they took part in government affairs, which embodied their political function. Especially after Renzong period, the factionalisms were much fiercer, impelling the secession of officials in the government. They argued with one another because of the different political views. The companionship outside the government was especially wonderful. Some of them belonged to different parties, but their friendship is very fine, such as Su Shi and Zhang Dun. But for the most of part, the political opinion decided the communication objects.The last section makes an evaluation on the status of Shu party and its historical function.