Wang Ao

Life

His father, Wang Wan, was first appointed magistrate of Guanghua County in Huguang at the age of fifty-five in 1473, and resigned and returned to Wu in March 1477; Wang Ao studied with his father from childhood. By the age of sixteen, his prose was already being recited by the students of the Imperial College.

His grandfather was Wang Kui and his great-grandfather Wang Yanxiang; his mother was from the Ye family, his elder brother was Wang Ming, and his younger brothers were Wang Quan and Wang Qiu. His wife was from the Wu family; his eldest son was Wang Yanzhe, and his other sons included Wang Yanling, Wang Yansuo, Wang Yanzhao, and Wang Yanjie.

He placed first in the Yingtian provincial examination in 1474. His standing in the 1475 jinshi examinations is described in different ways—one account calls him first among the presented scholars, while another calls him the “second person admitted”—but the palace examination places him third in the first rank, the tanhua, after which he was appointed a compiler in the Hanlin Academy. After receiving that appointment, he read behind closed doors and kept away from powerful figures; although he was connected with the imperial in-law Zhang Luan, the Marquis of Shouning, he did not associate with him.

He later held the Hanlin and court appointments of Academician for Expository Lectures, Reader, Right Reminder in the Right Spring Palace, and Junior Expositor in the Directorate of State Ceremonial, while also serving as a lecturer at the Classics Mat and as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel; he left office on mourning. In the thirteenth year of Hongzhi (1500) he was promoted to Vice Minister of Personnel. In the first year of Zhengde (1506) he became Left Vice Minister of Personnel, entered the cabinet in October as a concurrent Hanlin academician, and in December was made Minister of Revenue and Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion, with responsibility as chief editor and associate director of the Classics Mat. In the second year of Zhengde (1507) he was made Junior Guardian, Junior Preceptor to the Heir Apparent, and Grand Secretary of the Wuying Palace, while retaining the ministry.

When Liu Jin dominated the court, Wang Ao spoke out against him and, together with Han Wen and others, memorialized for the execution of Liu Jin and the Eight Associates, but the request was rejected. Unable to avert the calamities that befell the civil officials, he resigned; his honesty and uprightness in office earned him the contemporary sobriquet “the realm’s impoverished grand secretary.” He retired to his native place in April 1509, read and wrote there, and often travelled with poet friends; he died after fourteen years of retirement. He was posthumously granted the title Grand Tutor, although another account gives Tutor, and his posthumous name was Wenke.

Zong Yue and Chen Lan were his fellow examination-year friends, and Wu Kuan wrote prefaces for his books.

Scholarship and works

Wang Ao was learned and discerning, well versed in the classics, rigorous in conduct, and polished in prose. He became renowned for his writing; his collection’s seven-character regulated verse and quatrains were praised for their unusual tone and grace, and it includes the quatrain “Chanting Falling Flowers.”

His works include *Gusu Gazetteer* (《姑蘇志》), *Collected Works of Zhenze* (《震澤集》), *Longer Discourses of Zhenze* (《震澤長語》), and *Historical Remnants* (《史餘》); *Collected Works of Zhenze* is given as thirty volumes. *Spring and Autumn Cifu* (《春秋詞命》) is also found as *Chunci Cifu* (《春秩詞命》), in three volumes. *The Biography of Luomu* (《㒩母傳》) is additionally listed as a one-volume work.

Later remembrance

During his retirement in Suzhou, Wang Ao built Yilao Garden on Scholar Street at Tianguan Lane; in the Qing period it was converted into the office of the Jiangsu Provincial Administration. Scholars called him Zhenze xiansheng, “Master of Zhenze.”