Wang Anshi and the origins of modern public management in Song Dynasty China

Wang Anshi (1021-1086) is well known as one of the greatest statesmen of classical China, but it is rarely recognized that his 1058 Wan Yan Shu' is one of the first texts of public management in the modern sense. This is because Wang addressed still current concerns of a civil serviceselection, training, motivation, remunerationoften presenting solutions that are completely in line with today's perspectives. Wang's work is particularly relevant now given the current global state of public managementpost-NPM but with no clear new paradigm having emerged.