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The Song emperors were unable to recover those lands so they were forced to make peace with the Khitans and the His Hsia. He noticed the corrupt govermetn and made huge reform in the government. Onces the Juchens defeated the Khitans, they turned on the Song and occupied the capital o. The Song Dynasty had a lot of problems in 1069 so the emperor Shen Tsung appointed Wang An-shi as chief minister. Selection examinations were help every three years at the district, provincial and metropolitan levels. He tired to get honest, intelligent officals by improving the university system and he made civil examination more practical and reformed the merit system to reduce corrupton among government officals. The extra money created fromt eh taxing was used to pay government workers which abolistehed forced labor. Only 200 ou0t of thousands of applicants were granted the jinshi degree. Wang was a scholar who studied earlier Chinese governments. So when the emperor and Wang died, which happen to been withn a year of each other the laws were withdrawn. The Khitans controlled the northeastern territories and the His Hsia controlled the northwestern territories.

About 100 years after the Songs first started ruling over china their government started to go through a major decline. Many of his new laws were revivals of earlier policies and many officals and landlords opposed his reforms. He help the govement financial problem by stabling a graduated income tax. Wealthy merchants that became rich from foreign trade found ways to avoid paying taxes.