Wang Gui

Life

His father was Wang Zhun, his grandfather Wang Zhi, and his great-grandfather Wang Yong; his mother was Xue. His elder brother was Wang Guan, his younger brother Wang Mou, and his paternal uncles were Wang Tan and Wang Han. His wife was Zheng; his sons included Wang Zhongxiu, Wang Zhongduan, Wang Zhongyi, and Wang Zhongshan, and his sons-in-law included Li Gefei and Zheng Juzhong.

After passing the jinshi examination in 1042, he served as assistant prefect of Yangzhou and was summoned to the Jixian Palace. He later held office as Salt and Iron Judge, compiler of the daily court activities, Drafter of Imperial Edicts, Director of the Court of Reviewing Officials, Hanlin Academician, Prefect of Kaifeng, and Reader-in-Waiting. Other appointments included Sihu Canjun (司戶參軍), Vice Director of the Taichang Court (太常寺丞), Right Admonition Grand Master (右諫議大夫), Counsellor in the Menxia Department (門下省給事中), Qijulang (起居郎), Academician of the Duanming Palace (端明殿學士), the Fengbo Office (封駁司), and Compiler in the Historiographical Office (史館修撰); from 1064 to 1070 he supervised the offices in the capital (提舉在京諸司).

On Emperor Shenzong's accession, he became Director of the Hanlin Academy (學士承旨). In the third year of Xining (1070), he became Vice Grand Councillor; the beginning of the appointment is also dated to 1071. In 1076 he was promoted to Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi and Grand Academician of the Jixian Palace. In 1082 he became Left Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs concurrently Chamberlain of the Menxia (尚書左僕射兼門下侍郎); in 1085, the eighth year of Yuanfeng and the year of Emperor Zhezong's accession, he was made Duke of Qi. He died in office in May that year at the age of sixty-seven, was posthumously granted the title Grand Preceptor, and received the posthumous name Wengong.

His career spanned the reigns of Yingzong, Shenzong, and Zhezong. He was responsible for internal and external drafting for eighteen years, and many of the court's grand documents were written by him; he occupied offices from councillor to chancellor for sixteen years, but made few substantial initiatives while in power. He recommended Li Huizhi, Yu Chong, Wang Anguo, Kong Zonghan, Qiu Yuquan, Zhang Gongliang, and Huang Junyu, and was impeached by Sima Guang; he was also placed on the Yuanyou party register.

Literature and works

His literary writing helped him attain high office. His prose was grand, ornate, and distinctive, and he was esteemed in literary circles. He supervised the compilation of 《兩朝國史》 and 《國朝會要》; after 《兩朝國史》 was completed, it was presented to the throne.

His original collected works comprised one hundred juan and were later lost. Qing editors reconstructed a sixty-juan Huayang ji (《華陽集》) with a ten-juan appendix from the Yongle dadian (《永樂大典》); when it was printed in the Wuying Palace Juzhen edition, it was reduced to forty juan. The six poetry juan in the Wuying Palace Juzhen edition of Huayang ji served as the base text for Wang Gui's poems; they were collated against the Wen-yuan Pavilion edition of the Complete Library in the Four Branches, and poems outside the collection were assembled as a seventh juan. Other works associated with his name include 《宋兩朝國史》 in 120 juan, 《審官院編敕》 in 15 juan, and 《在京諸司庫務條式》 in 130 juan.