Wang Anshi
In the Song dynasty, the 11th century minister Wang Anshi used state policies to expand the rural economy with crop loans and to reduce social inequality by bringing farmers into the commercial economy. In order to finance these goals, Wang relied on methods like expanding the state's monopoly on salt. Wang's allies had his rival, the poet and official Su Shi (1036-1101), arrested for "defaming the emperor." Su confessed to having written this poem: