Comments on: Emperor Wang Mang: China’s First Socialist? http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2011/12/emperor-wang-mang-chinas-first-socialist/ History with all the interesting bits left in Wed, 22 May 2013 17:36:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 By: whatup http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2011/12/emperor-wang-mang-chinas-first-socialist/#comment-2962 whatup Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:11:46 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/?p=3458#comment-2962 I like this source I like this source

]]> By: panda85 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2011/12/emperor-wang-mang-chinas-first-socialist/#comment-1287 panda85 Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:21:58 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/?p=3458#comment-1287 The ideal of a perfect agrarian society has been a pretty long term undercurrent in China and was pretty relevant during Wang Mang's era -- just under a hundred years prior there had been a major political and philosophical debate about the role of the state and the idyllicness of an entirely farming economy after the death of Emperor Wu of Han. That the Han dynasty (Wu-ti especially) really promulgated the state monopolies in iron and salt (and an accompanying mercantile emphasis in the Chinese economy and tax system), and the anti-agrarians basically won the argument following Han Wuti's death probably contributed to Wang Mang going for land distribution upon overthrowing a Han emperor. The ideal of a perfect agrarian society has been a pretty long term undercurrent in China and was pretty relevant during Wang Mang’s era — just under a hundred years prior there had been a major political and philosophical debate about the role of the state and the idyllicness of an entirely farming economy after the death of Emperor Wu of Han. That the Han dynasty (Wu-ti especially) really promulgated the state monopolies in iron and salt (and an accompanying mercantile emphasis in the Chinese economy and tax system), and the anti-agrarians basically won the argument following Han Wuti’s death probably contributed to Wang Mang going for land distribution upon overthrowing a Han emperor.

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