Wang Shizhen

Life

Wang Shizhen was the son of Wang Yü (王忬) and Lady Yu (郁氏). His father’s office is given as grand coordinator of Datong and also as grand coordinator of Ji-Liao. He was described as exceptionally gifted, able to remember a text after reading it once. His elder brothers were 王世芳, 王世德, and 王世業, and his younger brothers were 王世懋, 王世聞, and 王世望; his wife was née 魏氏, and his sons were 王士騏 and the second son 王士驌.

In the twenty-sixth year of the Jiajing reign (1547), he earned the jinshi degree. He first served as a secretary in the Ministry of Punishments, later becoming an assistant director and then a director; he was regarded as upright and unwilling to attach himself to powerful men. When Yang Jisheng was imprisoned for impeaching Yan Song, Wang Shizhen brought him medicinal decoctions and drafted a memorial for his wife; after Yang’s death, he also arranged his burial. Yan Song consequently came to hate him deeply.

During a Tatar incursion, Yan Song shifted the blame to Wang Yü and had him imprisoned; another account attributes the case to the breaching of the Luan River embankment and related failures of duty. Wang Shizhen and his younger brother Wang Shimao went to Yan Song’s gate to plead for clemency, but Wang Yü was eventually sentenced to death, and the brothers returned home mourning him. In the first year of the Longqing reign (1567), Wang Shizhen presented a memorial at the palace gate to vindicate his father; with the help of the grand secretary Xu Jie, Wang Yü was rehabilitated and his office was restored.

During Longqing, Wang Shizhen was appointed assistant surveillance commissioner of Henan and placed in charge of military affairs at Daming in 1568; in 1569 he became left administrative commissioner of Zhejiang, supervising Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou; in 1570 he became surveillance commissioner of Shanxi and went into mourning for his mother at the end of October. After his recall in 1573, he served as surveillance commissioner of Huguang, was transferred in September to right administrative commissioner of Guangxi without taking up the post, and in December was promoted to Grand Court Minister.

In 1574 he was appointed associate chief censor and made governor of Yunyang; the office is also rendered as vice chief censor. In 1576 he was promoted to Chief Judicial Commissioner of Nanjing but never took up the post. In September he was deprived of salary for “荐举涉滥”; in October Yang Jie, an investigating secretary of the Nanjing Censorate, impeached him for “大节已亏”, and he was sent back home to await another appointment. His offices also included Prefect of Ying Tian, vice minister in Nanjing’s Ministry of Justice, and vice minister in Nanjing’s Ministry of War; the prefecture appointment appears twice.

In 1587 he returned to office as vice minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Justice. After completing the three-grade performance assessment in 1589, he was promoted to Minister of Justice in Nanjing. In 1590 he retired because of illness, returned home, died on the twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month, and was posthumously made Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent.

Literary career and thought

Wang Shizhen wrote classical poetry and prose. With Li Panlong he led the Later Seven, advocating a revivalist program that rejected prose written after the Western Han and poetic collections after the mid-Tang, and used this return to antiquity to rally the literary world. After Li Panlong’s death, Wang Shizhen alone dominated the literary scene for two decades; scholars and writers flocked to his门, his influence was especially great, and he was also a book collector.

His writing did not consistently imitate antiquity: some pieces resemble the works of Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi, while his poetry moved from excessive ornament in his early years toward plainness and naturalness in his later years. In 1574 he built the Zhenyi Pavilion on Yellow Crane Mountain, visited the Yellow Crane Tower, and wrote the regulated-verse poems 《登黃鶴樓》, 《黃鶴樓奉別省中諸公》, and 《黃鶴樓餞別蔡使君景明》; 《登黃鶴樓》 has been regarded as a superior poem of the Ming period.

He also compiled 《列仙全傳》, which included the story of Fei Yi—given there as Fei Wenwei, courtesy name Zian—drawing a crane with orange peel at Yellow Crane Islet, and of Lady Xin building the Yellow Crane Tower at the place from which Fei Zian was said to have ascended on a crane.

Works

His works include 《弇州山人四部稿》 in 174 juan and a 207-juan continuation, 《弇山堂別集》 in 100 juan, 《藝苑卮言》 in 12 juan, and 《鳴鳳記》, 《史乘考誤》, 《嘉靖以來首輔傳》, and 《觚不觚錄》. Other works include 《弇州山人讀書後》, 《鳳洲筆記》, 《弈問》, 《宛委餘編》, and 《蘇志備遺》; 《藝苑卮言》 is a work of poetry criticism, and his ci lyrics were included in his collected works.