Wang Shipeng

Life

His family was poor, and he initially gathered students for instruction at Meixi. In 1157, he passed the jinshi examination and placed first, becoming the examination champion.

He was quick-minded, widely read, and known for his learning and conduct. After passing, he was appointed qianpan of Shaoxing Prefecture; in the thirtieth year of the Shaoxing era, he became a Collator in the Palace Library and soon also a tutor in the elementary school of Prince Jian’s residence; in the thirty-first year, he was promoted to Assistant Erudite and Deputy Director of the Imperial Clan, and was permitted to supervise Chongdao Abbey in Taizhou.

During rotational audiences, he memorialized several defects in government and presented measures for frontier defense; he repeatedly urged administrative reform and the appointment of generals to resist the Jin. After Emperor Xiaozong’s accession, he was made prefect of Yan Prefecture, then appointed Assistant Director of the Bureau of Offices and concurrently a compiler in the National History Institute; he rose to Directorate of Education, Palace Attendant, Lecturer, and Investigating Censor, and forcefully advocated plans to recover territory from the Jin.

When Zhang Jun’s forces in the Two Huai region were defeated and peace advocates raised a chorus of arguments, Shipeng submitted a memorial asking to be punished because he had earlier pressed for Zhang Jun’s appointment.

During the Longxing and Qiandao eras, he served successively as prefect of Rao, Kui, Hu, and Quan prefectures, relieving disasters and eliminating abuses; his administrative achievements were such that contemporaries had his portrait painted and enshrined him. In the seventh year of Qiandao (1171), he was summoned to serve as taizi zhanshi (太子詹事); because of illness he declined and retired as an Academician of the Longtuge. He died in the seventh month at the age of sixty and was later posthumously titled Zhongwen.

Family and associations

His father was 王輔 and his mother was 萬氏 (1083–1149); his wife was 賈氏 (1114–1168), and his father-in-law was 賈如訥 (1088–1129).

His younger brothers were 王壽朋 and 王百朋. His eldest son was 王聞詩 (1141–1197), his second son was 王聞禮 (died in 1206), and his son-in-law was 賈梓.

His friends included 吳松年 and 陳登. He was close to 孫皜, a native of Kaifeng who settled in Kuaiji after the southward migration and died in the fifteenth year of the Shaoxing era at the age of thirty-two.

Writing and works

In public office, Wang Shipeng was known for his uprightness and for the administrative reputation he earned in successive posts. His prose valued reasoned substance over frivolous and florid language.

His works include 《梅溪集》, 《梅溪前後集》, 《梅溪王先生文集》, 《梅溪先生廷試策奏議》, 《會稽三賦》, 《春秋尚書論語解》, 《東坡詩集注》, and 《杜陵詩史》. The length of 《梅溪前後集》 is given in two ways: fifty juan, or fifty-four juan when memorials and other writings are included.

His lecture-commentaries on the 《尚書》, 《春秋》, 《論語》, and 《孟子》 were not completed as books. On journeys to take up his post in Kuizhou and then transfer to Huzhou, he visited Wuchang and Jiangxia twice, viewed the South Tower and climbed Yellow Crane Tower, and wrote the five-character quatrain 《黃鶴樓》, the five-character old-style poem 《一覽亭》, the seven-character quatrain 《登壓雲亭》, and the seven-character regulated verse 《南樓》.