A Scholar-Official’s Homecoming After Fifteen Years

In March 1065, Sima Guang—renowned historian, statesman, and moral conscience of the Northern Song Dynasty—finally returned to his ancestral home near the Su River in Shaanxi. Fifteen years had passed since his last visit in 1050, when he was a rising star in Emperor Renzong’s court. Then, he had penned optimistic verses celebrating the era’s virtues: “This is an age of principle, where talent finds its reward… Strive forth, young scholars! Spread your wings and claim glory!”

Now, at forty-seven, the homecoming was bittersweet. The pines he planted stood tall, but the study he built showed its age. His official robes bore higher rank, yet his reflection revealed thinning hair and failing teeth. Most painfully, this visit was fleeting—a mere ten-day “burning ceremony” leave to honor posthumous titles granted to his parents. As he cleaned his father Sima Chi’s tombstone, tears fell freely. A decade had passed since his last mourning rites, undertaken secretly during an official trip when protocol barred personal detours.

The Ballad of Decline: A Courtier’s Crisis of Conscience

Sima Guang’s melancholy found voice in an ancient Shijing refrain: “Decline, decline! Why not return? Were it not for our lord’s affairs, why would we toil in the dew?” The poem, traditionally interpreted as an official’s lament over duty keeping him from family, took on darker meaning. Unlike his youthful envy of hermits like Wei Xian, Sima now sang “Decline” not as a pastoral fantasy but as a dirge for the empire itself.

Refusing lavish receptions as a matter of principle, he instead conducted impromptu interviews with local officials and villagers. What he uncovered shook him to the core—three interlocking crises threatening the Song’s foundations.

Empty Coffers: The Fiscal Time Bomb

At a modest dinner with Shaanxi’s prefect, Sima Guang received a blunt confession: “Our granaries and treasuries are empty. Salaries for officials? Soldiers’ rations? We scrape funds month by month—paying the military first, delaying the rest.”

This confirmed Sima’s worst fears. In 1062, he’d warned Emperor Renzong that “the gravest threat is fiscal exhaustion.” Now he saw the mechanism:

– Runaway Expenditures: The bureaucracy ballooned from 9,785 officials under Emperor Zhenzong to 24,000. Standing armies exploded from 200,000 under Taizu to 1.16 million.
– Costly Conflicts: The 1038–44 war with Western Xia drained reserves, compounded by Khitan extortion.
– Imperial Excess: Emperor Yingzong’s extravagant funeral for Renzong—modeled on Zhenzong’s opulent tomb but without mid-11th century surpluses—consumed years of border defense stockpiles.

Sima had tried mitigating the crisis by donating his 1,000-strings-of-cash mourning gift to public funds, but systemic waste continued unchecked.

The Militia Debacle: Coercion and Broken Promises

In late 1064, Chief Councillor Han Qi ordered 156,870 Shaanxi peasants conscripted as “righteous warriors” (民兵)—a militia branded on their hands rather than faces like professional soldiers. Sima protested vehemently:

1. Historical Precedent: Shaanxi had already sacrificed heavily during the Xia war, with every third male drafted as archers—later forcibly converted to regular troops.
2. Military Futility: “During the war, we raised hundreds of thousands of militiamen. Did any prove effective? Their sole purpose is hollow intimidation.”
3. Double Burden: “Farmers already support armies through taxes. Now we demand their labor too? How can agriculture survive?”

Han Qi insisted the move would deter Western Xia’s ruler Li Liangzuo. Sima countered: “Once the Xia learn these are untrained peasants, will they still tremble?” His final warning—that future regimes might break promises and deploy militiamen permanently—left Han furious but silent.

Moral Rot: The Collapse of Ritual Order

Beyond fiscal and military woes, Sima Guang identified a deeper malignancy: the erosion of li (礼)—the Confucian ritual order binding society. His diagnosis placed blame squarely on leadership:

– Imperial Hypocrisy: Yingzong’s performative filial piety (lavish tombs while neglecting living governance) inverted true virtue.
– Bureaucratic Cowardice: Officials like Hebei’s Zhao Bian saved 800 colleagues from punishment over failed conscription quotas—but only by compromising standards.
– Cultural Tipping Point: Sima saw the Song’s hard-won post-Five Dynasties moral revival unraveling into “might makes right” chaos.

Legacy: A Historian’s Warning Across Centuries

Sima Guang’s 1065 journey crystallized themes later expanded in Zizhi Tongjian—his monumental history emphasizing moral governance. Modern parallels are striking:

– Fiscal Overextension: Like the Song’s military-administrative bloat, modern states risk bankruptcy funding unsustainable institutions.
– Civil-Military Distrust: The “righteous warriors” debacle mirrors contemporary debates over conscription versus professional armies.
– Leadership Decay: Sima’s critique of hollow ritualism finds echo in today’s crises of political legitimacy.

His lament—”Decline, decline!”—transcends eras: a reminder that empires fall not from external blows alone, but from the corrosion of their ethical spine.