Chinese official who usurped the Han throne and founded the short-lived Xin dynasty — attempting to implement radical Confucian reforms (land redistribution, abolition of slavery, currency reform) that produced economic chaos and contributed to peasant uprisings that restored the Han dynasty.
Provides the historical case study of the ideological reformer who destroys society through the implementation of theory — Wang Mang's attempt to implement the Confucian well-field system (egalitarian land distribution) against existing property rights produced inflation, hoarding, and economic collapse.
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