Although it ended in defeat due to resistance of the opponents and the power struggle between the emperor and the emerging literati officials, it served as an inspiration and a precursor to a grander effort three decades later led by Wang Anshi.
The mid-11th century, spanning from the end of the Western-Xia wars in 1045 to Emperor Shenzong's ascension in 1068, was a period of remarkable innovation in Chinese political thought and institutions.
For the first time, a substantial number of Confucian literati held influential bureaucratic positions gained through civil examinations, who were involved in making and effecting policies.
[4] The reforms were led by a group of same-minded scholars headed by Fan Zhongyan, along with his young associate Han Qi, Fu Bi, and Ouyang Xiu.
Before appointed the Vice Grand Chancellor in 1043 by Emperor Renzong, Fan entered central politics only briefly, including serving as the prefect of Kaifeng (the imperial capital) in 1035.
Not long after they began, backlash from groups of officials, large land owners, and the wealthy in general resulted in the dismissal Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi in 1045.
[17] While traditional scholarship attributed the failure of the reforms to the strong opposition from the conservative faction and the career bureaucrats,[18] recent studies have highlighted that the underlying cause of the defeat was the power struggle between the emperor and the emerging literati class in a novel attempt to "co-rule" the empire.
[19] While Emperor Renzong temporarily allowed scholar-officials to participate in central decision-making, he was hesitant to fully entrust the reformers or to dismantle entrenched imperial protocols.