Wang Yan

Life

He passed the jinshi examination. His offices included the 禮儀院 and a prefectural-school professorship in 潭州, 右奉直大夫, and 知湖州; he served as 知臨江軍 in 1203–1204, 知饒州 in 1206–1207, and received the rank 朝議大夫 in 1207. He is also categorized under 「財政官員」.

Family and associations

王愈 was a cousin of his grandfather, 王橐 was his father, and 王綱 was an older cousin. His wife was 汪氏 (1150–1210), his son was 王恕, and his nephew was 王彝卿; 王橐 died in 1161. 王偁 and 王儀 are identified as sixth-generation descendants (昆孫), while 王埜翁 was a junior member of the same lineage and lived from 1240 to 1300.

Wang Yan was a close friend of Zhu Xi and sent him letters; his disciple Peng Tunan had the courtesy name Yunxiang and was from Changsha. He wrote prefaces for books by Lin Li, 王愈, 王橐, Wang Zhaode, 王綱, and 王彝卿.

Scholarship and writings

Titles associated with his writings include 雙溪集, 尚書小傳, 讀易筆記, and 易解. The forms 尚書小傳(王炎), 易解(王炎), and 雙溪集(王炎) are also recorded; 東都紀年:三十卷 is explicitly listed as a work for which Wang Yan was the author.

Literary and documentary activities

Dai Biaoyuan supplied a preface and a postface for his books, while Su Zhe and Su Zhou supplied postfaces for his works. Wang Yan wrote epitaphs for Wang Junming and his wife 汪氏, sacrificial texts for Su Fu and Pan Zhengfu, and an 諡議 for Cheng Dachang. Hu Sheng was the author of his biography.

In 1199, he composed a farewell piece for Zeng Jian—described as a farewell poem or preface—and also composed a farewell piece for Peng Tunan. He also sent letters to Ge Bi, Zhang Shi, Liu Zheng, Hu Jinchen, Liu Tun, Du Zhan, and Lin Xie, and replied to Yuan Shu.

Zhan Tingjian built a library building that gathered ten thousand juan of books and selected eminent scholars to educate his descendants. Wang Yan named its plaque “靜勝” and seal-scripted a vessel inscription; Cheng Bi recorded the undertaking, whose model followed Fan Zhongyan’s charitable estate.