Shared Heritage, Different PathsWang Shizhen and Wang Shimou

Kenneth J. HammondNew Mexico State University

Association for Asian Studies23 March 2013

For the brothers Wang Shizhen [王王王] and Wang Shimou [王王王]

1559, the 38th year of the reign of the Jiajing [王王] Emperor, was

a year of triumph and tribulation. Shizhen, the elder brother by

ten years, began the year serving as Provincial Surveillance

Vice-Commissioner [王王王王], rank 4a, in Qingzhou, Shandong [王王, 王王].

A jinshi of 1547, Shizhen had established himself as both a rising

official and an important figure in literary circles, already

recognized as one of the leaders of the Archaist Later Seven

Masters [王王王] group. In the spring, Shimou, now 22 years old,

passed the palace examinations and became a jinshi, joining his

elder brother and their father Wang Yu [王王] in holding this most

prestigious degree. Wang Yu at this time was serving in the

latest of a series of assignments concerned with the military

1

security of the northern frontier. As the year progressed, it

seemed the family was on a rising track of success and

accomplishment.1

In April, though, Mongol raiders broke through in the

Xifengkou [ 王王西] area northeast of Beijing, and rampaged in the

region for five days. Wang Yu, along with some other officials,

was held responsible for the failures of the defense forces, and

was impeached and arrested. This incident became part of the

overall factional conflicts surrounding the chief grand secretary

Yan Song [王王], with whom Wang Shizhen had clashed several years

earlier. While Wang Yu languished in prison, Wang Shizhen

hastened back to the capital and joined his brother in appealing

for pardon for their father. According to the account in the

Mingshi they prostrated themselves by the gate of Yan Song’s home,

weeping and begging for mercy. During this time they also knelt

in the muddy roadways to block the passage of leading officials,

striking their heads on the ground and pleading for assistance 1 The basic sources for Wang Shizhen and Wang Shimou, as well as Wang Yu, are their Mingshi biographies and the modern studies by Zheng Lihua. I rely on these sources for most of the narrative used in this paper. Zhang Tingyu [王王王] et al, eds., Mingshi [王王]. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1987. 18.5396-5399; 24.7379-7382. Zheng Lihua [王王王], Wang Shizhen nianpu [王王王王王]. Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe. 1993; Wang Shizhen yanjiu [王王王王王]. Shanghai: Xuelin chubanshe, 2002.

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with their father’s case. But all of this was of no avail. In

1560 Wang Yu was executed in the Western Marketplace [ 王西]. In the

wake of Wang Yu’s death Wang Shizhen and Wang Shimou retreated to

their hometown, Taicang, in what is now Jiangsu Province [王王, 王王],

where they remained in seclusion through the final six years of

the Jiajing reign.2

The life stories of Wang Shizhen and Wang Shimou display a

pattern of shared experiences like the trauma of their father’s

execution, along with periods of divergence, when their paths led

them to different parts of the empire and into varied interests

and activities. In this paper I want to trace the outlines of

their lives, and follow the oscillations of their careers and

personal itineraries as they made their respective ways through

the sometimes turbulent and always fascinating years of the

second half of the 16th century. Their paired biographies provide

a series of insights into the culture, politics, and rapidly

changing social and economic scenes of the middle Ming.

The Wang family was well-established in Taicang, having

moved there when it was still administratively part of Kunshan [王

2 On Yan Song and Wang Yu, see also Cao Guoqing [王王王], Yan Song nianpu [王王王王]. Beijing: Zhongguo renshi chubanshe, 1995, 384-390.

3

王], during the Yuan dynasty. The Wangs held significant

properties in the city and land in the surrounding countryside.

The wealth they derived from these and other sources allowed the

family to maintain high standards of education for their sons,

which gave them the skills and training to compete successfully

in the imperial examination system and serve in government. By

the time of Shizhen and Shimou’s generation men from the Wang

family had been serving the Ming government for at least three

generations, with both their grandfather Wang Zhuo [王王] and their

father attaining the jinshi, the former in 1478 and the latter in

1541.

Wang Shizhen was born on December 8, 1526. Shimou was born

almost ten years later, on June 14, 1536. By the time his younger

brother arrived, Shizhen was well embarked on his studies in

preparation for a career in public life. The Taicang Wang family

was not a vast extended entity. The boys had one uncle, Wang Yin

[王王] and three aunts, but the aunts had married out and would not

have been a major presence in the lives of their nephews. Wang

Yin served in various posts in government, retiring in 1536 as

4

Provincial Administrative Office Manager in Shandong [王王王王王王王王王王].

Shizhen and Shimou were the only sons of Wang Yu, and had

just one sister, born between them, in 1531. They had, however,

four male cousins and five female, the offspring of Wang Yin.

Within their hometown of Taicang the boys of this generation

would have studied together and shared many aspects of social

life, though the age difference between Shizhen and Shimou would

have meant they would have been at very different stages in their

early lives.

In 1545 Shimou developed a serious respiratory disease,

probably tuberculosis. This condition did not completely

debilitate him, and he went on to a full educational and

administrative career, but it did affect his health throughout

the rest of his life, and rendered him less than fully robust.

Wang Shizhen passed the jinshi examination on his second try,

in 1547, at the age of 20. He placed in the second cohort, ranked

80th overall. He was given an initial appointment in the Court of

Judicial Review [王王王] in Beijing. He developed friendships with a

number of his exam cohort, including the future political martyr

5

Yang Jisheng [王王王] as well as getting to know Xu Jie [王王], at

that time the Chancellor of the Confucian University [王王王王], the

Guozijian [王王王]. Shizhen began to develop links with other young

scholars which would grow into his literary circle. In 1548 he

was introduced to the leading figure of the Archaist school Li

Panlong [王王王], with whom he would become close friends and would

share pre-eminence among the Later Seven Masters. His official

and literary careers both developed steadily through the

following years as he resided in Beijing and expanded his network

of connections.

It was as a literary figure that Wang Shizhen became most

famous, and it is his literary views which remain his principal

legacy. Without going too deeply into the matter, we can note

that his literary theories emphasized writing that was clear and

straightforward, eschewing excessive stylistic flourishes, and

aiming to communicate ideas or information to the intended reader

in ways that would allow the meaning to come through without

being overwhelmed by aesthetic effects. He came to be seen as the

main advocate of a view known as gu wenci [王王王], or Old

Phraseology, which valorized prose of the Qin and Han periods,

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and poetry down through the High Tang, yet he was also a serious

admirer of some Song writers, especially Su Shi [王王]. His

influence was spread through writings such as his Yiyuan zhiyan [王王

王王] as well as through an abundance of prefaces and in letters to

friends and acquaintances.

In 1551 Shizhen’s jinshi year-mate Yang Jisheng submitted a

memorial attacking the Chief Grand Secretary [王王] Yan Song over

the policy of opening horse markets to deal with the Mongol

threat on the northern border. This began a series of

controversies which ended with Yang’s imprisonment in 1553 and

his execution in 1555. Wang Shizhen supported Yang through these

difficulties, and took care of his funeral arrangements after his

execution. He also provided support for Yang’s sons’ education.

This was the first instance of conflict between the Wang family

and Yan Song. Wang Shizhen was skillful and cautious enough not

to become the target of retribution at this point, and his

official career continued to advance, but he did leave Beijing in

1557 for a post in Shandong, perhaps a welcome escape from the

political climate in the capital.

7

That same year Shimou arrived in Beijing to become a student

at the Guozijian. He took the provincial level exam in 1558 in

Beijing, and passed. The next year he passed the imperial

examinations, as noted above, and joined his brother and father

as jinshi. Then disaster struck. The shared trauma of their

father’s arrest brought the brothers together in a way which went

beyond any previous relationship they had enjoyed while Shimou

was growing up and Shizhen was launching his career. Both men

were now jinshi, and when they knelt by the roadside to solicit

support from passing officials, or prostrated themselves outside

Yan Song’s gate, they did so more as equals than ever before. The

emotional intensity of begging for mercy for their father, and of

offering themselves as surrogates for his punishment, would have

been extreme.

In the wake of their unsuccessful pleading for mercy for Wang Yu,

Wang Shizhen and Shimou retired from public life and retreated to

their home in Taicang for the remainder of the reign of the

Jiajing Emperor. Yan Song continued to serve as Chief Grand

Secretary for several more years, but fell from power in 1562.

Even with Yan’s departure from the scene, however, there was no

8

great shift in the political situation at Court, so the Wangs

stayed in withdrawal.

During these years, from 1560 to 1567, both brothers pursued

their literary careers, and engaged in such regular literati

activities as building gardens. Wang Shizhen built two gardens

which became rather famous; the Yanshan yuan [王王王] in the heart of

Taicang, and the Lici yuan [王王王], the Garden for Evading Thorns, a

reference to avoiding the political difficulties facing the

family, outside the city’s western gate. Shimou also built a

garden during these years, the Danpu [王王], or Plain Plot, one

impressive lake rock of which remains today on display in the

People’s Park in Taicang.

In January 1567 the Jiajing Emperor died, and was succeeded

by his son Zhu Zaihou [王王王], who assumed the throne as the

Longqing [王王] Emperor. Though not a particularly effective

emperor, and with a relatively short reign of just five years,

the ascent of this new ruler brought about a dramatic realignment

in Court politics. The legacy of Yan Song was repudiated,

verdicts on some of Yan’s victims, including Yang Jisheng, were

9

reversed, and it became possible for individuals like the Wang

brothers to return to official life.

Wang Shizhen was appointed to be Provincial Surveillance

Vice-Commissioner for Henan [王王王王] in 1568, and Shimou was given

a post at the Bureau of Ceremonies [王王王王王] in Nanjing that same

year. Shimou was soon offered a promotion to a vice-directorship

in the Board of Rites [王王王王王], but he declined on the grounds of

ill health, an instance of the lingering effects of his youthful

bout with respiratory disease. Both men had to return to Taicang

for the mourning period after the death of their mother in 1570,

but when that was completed they again took up new positions in

the bureaucracy, Shizhen returning to Beijing for an assignment

as Chief Minister in the Court of the Imperial Stud [王王王], and

Shimou going back to Nanjing to a post in the Bureau of

Sacrifices [王王王王王].

Shimou remained in Nanjing for several years, and it was

during this time that he began to develop his own literary

society. Wang Shizhen was widely recognized as one of the leading

literary figures of the second half of the sixteenth century, and

was a major critic and theorist, as well as a patron of rising

10

younger writers. His intellectual activities also extended to

historical subjects, and to art history and aesthetic theory.

Shimou’s venture into the literary arena in the early 1570s

should probably not be seen as an attempt to compete directly

with his famous older brother, but more as his own effort to

build a network of like-minded friends, and to pursue a form of

social intercourse which was expected of Ming literati. His main

work of literary criticism and theory, the Yipu xieyu [王王王王], is a

short set of 34 comments on poetry and poets, rather basic and

down-to-earth. Shimou was not challenging his brother as a

literary giant, though it should be noted that Shizhen often

praised his brother’s own poetry, and even said it surpassed his

own in elegance.

The mid-1570s saw the brothers serving in a succession of

government positions. After a year in Beijing Shizhen was sent to

Huguang in 1575, to a posting as Right Vice Censor-in-Chief [王王王王

王], then in 1576 he was named Chief Minister of the Court of

Judicial Review in the secondary capital at Nanjing [王王王王王王], but

before he could take up this office he was impeached by the

censor Yang Jie [王王]. He was ordered to return home and await

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further instructions. This development may have been due to

tensions between Shizhen and the powerful Chief Grand Secretary

Zhang Juzheng [王王王]. In any case Shizhen was to spend the next

ten years at home in Taicang.

Shimou’s career proceeded much more smoothly in the 1570s.

After several years in Nanjing he received a series of

appointments to provincial offices, first, in 1576, as Assistant

Administrative Commissioner [王王] in Jiangxi, then in Nanzhili as

Provincial Surveillance Vice-Commissioner [王王王王] in 1578, then

back to Jiangxi in the autumn of 1579 as Provincial Education

Intendant [王王]. His performance in this role was considered to be

outstanding, and he was named to the same position in Shaanxi

Province for the following year.

Shimou’s time in Jiangxi gave him opportunities to observe

social and economic conditions there, and he wrote about these in

his Eryou weitan zhailu [王王王王王王]. He was a keen recorder of places

and things which he saw, and was very interested in material

culture, especially in aspects of economic life including

manufacturing processes and farming. He wrote a description of

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the great imperial kilns at Jingdezhen which captures the dynamic

power of this early modern industrial city:

王[王王]王王王王王王王王,王王王王.王王王王王王,王王王王,王王 王一.王王王王王王王王王王,王王王王王王,王王王王,王王王王王王,王王王王”王王王王王’.

About 20 li [from Raozhou] is Jingdezhen, where the imperial kilns are established. All the ceramic wares of the empire are to be found there, and the people areaccordingly made rich, the wealthiest in the province. I have often visited this place in the course of my official duties. The sounds of pounding rumble like thunder, the fires illuminate the heavens, and at nightone cannot lie down to rest. It gives one the impression of “a town of non-stop lightning.”3

His engagement with this kind of observation began to mark out

his intellectual work as distinctive from that of his brother,

who seldom remarked upon such mundane topics. Shimou’s interest

in the material dimensions of social and economic life and his

attention to detail probably helped make him such a successful

provincial level official.

In 1580, however, both brothers became involved in a Daoist

mystical cult in Taicang. Shizhen was living at home in

retirement, and Shimou was spending time in Taicang before taking

up his appointment in Shaanxi. Taicang was also home to another

3 Cited in Xie Guozhen [王王王], comp., Mingdai shehui jingji shiliao xuanbian [王王王王王王王王王王]. Fuzhou: Fujian renmin chubanshe, 2004, 2.10.

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Wang family, that of Wang Xijue [王王王]. Wang Xijue was also a

prominent official who had come in to conflict with Zhang

Juzheng, and having been impeached from his position as Vice

Minister of the Board of Rites [王王王王] in 1578, he was living at

home as well. Xijue had a teen-aged daughter, Wang Daozhen [王王王],

who began to manifest Daoist spiritual powers. She adopted the

name of Tan Yangzi [王王王], and both Shizhen and Shimou became her

devotees. She lived in a special shrine in the compound of her

family, kept a white snake as a familiar, and was said to be able

to levitate during trance-like states of meditative communication

with the immortals. In 1580 she shed her physical being and

migrated to the realm of the immortals.4

In the wake of Tan Yangzi’s translation to the ethereal

sphere both Wang Shizhen and Shimou wrote accounts of her life

and teachings, which they circulated to friends and fellow

followers. Shizhen had the one he had written printed and even

sent copies to friends in Beijing. News of their devotion reached

the ears of officials beyond their circle of friends, however,

including the Supervising Secretary [王王王] Niu Weibing [王王王], and

4 Waltner, Ann, “T’an Yang-tzu and Wang Shih-chen: Visionary and Bureaucrat inthe Late Ming.” Late Imperial China 8, No. 1 (1987): 105-133.

14

the Censor [王王] Sun Chengnan [王王王], and in 1581 both brothers and

Wang Xijue were impeached for heterodox activities. Tan Yangzi

was denounced as having practiced witchcraft. This could have

resulted in serious consequences for her followers, but

fortunately at this time the Minister of Rites [王王王王], who had

overall authority over such matters, was a close associate of

Shizhen, Xu Xuemo [王王王], who in addition was also a fellow

townsman from Taicang. Shimou was forced to resign his position

in Shaanxi and return to Taicang, but otherwise all three men

were spared harsher punishments.

Wang Shizhen and Shimou both built meditation retreats where

they continued to devote themselves to the memory and teachings

of Tan Yangzi. This suggests that their involvement in this

Daoist episode was not just a passing infatuation, but

represented a shared spiritual engagement which may have been a

way of dealing with the cumulative emotional stresses which they

had endured since the death of their father in 1560 and their

mother a decade later. Nonetheless, over the following couple of

years both brothers also began to return to more mainstream

intellectual activities. Meanwhile political circumstances began

15

to shift in ways which were more favorable to the Wangs. In 1582

Zhang Juzheng died, and after a brief interlude when Juzheng’s

protégé Zhang Siwei [王王王] took over as Chief Grand Secretary, the

top administrative position passed in the summer of 1583 to Shen

Shixing [王王王], a fellow townsman from Taicang and longtime friend

of Wang Shizhen’s. Shimou was once again given a provincial

appointment, this time as Vice Education Intendant [王王王王] in

Fujian, and Wang Xijue also returned to official life in Beijing.

Shizhen, however, remained in retirement in Taicang for the time

being. He continued to explore spiritual life, now spending more

time reading Buddhist texts and taking part in sutra chanting

retreats. But he also carried on his intellectual endeavors,

writing works such as the Gubugu lu [王王王王].

Shimou’s time in Fujian also produced an important work of

local observation and commentary, the Minbu shu [王王王]. His work as

Vice Education Intendant gave him many opportunities to travel in

the province and to make notes about the places and things he

encountered. These were often concerned with the most down-to-

earth aspects of life, such as the following passage recounting a

journey through the rugged hills of central Fujian:

16

王王王王王,王王王王王,王王王,王王王王王王. 王王王王王王王王王,王王王王王王王王,王王王王王,王王王王,王王王王.

The mountain fields are meager and without manure, so the farm families burn the local grasses, then when therains come the ash flows into the fields and becomes fertilizer. In the spring the mountains are all aflame;looking at the hills from my boat the view was quite strange. All the children are [stained] black, and the wasted landscape is most interesting.5

In another somewhat famous passage Shimou describes the

hydraulic hammers used by local papermakers:

王王王王王王,王王王王王王王,王王王王王,王王王王王王. 王王王王王,王王王王,王王王王王王,王王王王王王,王王王王.

In central Fujian hydraulic trip-hammers are especiallynumerous, mostly mounted in wooden frames with rotators. They are moored in midstream, and the surgingand sloshing of the water is very beautiful. The peopleof Shunchang make paper. Each household has a hydraulictrip-hammer, which they take out among the rapids, where the two rotators spin so fast they seem to fly, and the sound of pounding makes the boat resound.6

These travel notes further cemented his reputation and

legacy as a careful recorder of the material world of the

sixteenth century in China.

In 1587 Shimou resigned his post in Fujian and returned for

the last time to Taicang. His health was failing, and he could no

5 Xie Guozhen, 2004. 1.4.6 Xie Guozhen, 2004. 1.9.

17

longer sustain the burdens of official service. Just at this same

time Shizhen’s official career was getting back on track, and in

the winter of 1587-88 he received an appointment as Vice Minister

of War [王王王王王] in Nanjing. This does not seem to have been too

onerous a duty, and Shizhen spent much of his time in Nanjing

visiting with friends and making excursions to local scenic spots

and famous gardens. It was after returning from one such visit,

to Mouchou Lake [王王王], that Shizhen received a letter informing

him of his younger brother’s death. Shimou died on August 5, 1588

at the age of 51, and Shizhen received word of this on the 9th.

He immediately returned to Taicang.

Shimou’s death was a great blow to Shizhen. In a letter to

Wang Xijue written at the end of August he told his old friend,

“for the last ten days I have been gloomy and depressed. My body

and soul feel out of touch. I doze and wake, alternately weeping

and sighing.” [王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王.]7 For much of the late

summer and fall of 1588 Shizhen devoted his attention to

commemorating his brother. He wrote a series of 24 mourning

7 Wang Shizhen, Yanzhou xugao [王王王王] 178.4a, in Siku quanshu. Reprint, Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1993. 1284.549.

18

poems, many of them quite moving. Number five evokes the

brothers’ shared enjoyment of their gardens in Taicang,

王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王

The Danpu’s hazy waves are like Wangchuan,In the Ciyuan the flowers and trees surround the small

spring.Now this is an eternal realm of sadness;I forfeit my remaining years in empty life.8

Number seventeen portrays Shizhen’s loneliness in his

brother’s absence,

王王 王王王王一王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王

In the hours before dawn my tears are dried up,And in this moment of dried tears my spirit revives a bit.But I feel helpless as suddenly memories return;A lone goose cries, passing on the horizon.9

During this time Shizhen also wrote an 8,000 character

biography of his brother, the Wangdi zhongshun daifu taichangsi shaoqing

Jingmei xingzhuang [王王王王王王王王王王王王王王王], which remains the principal

8 Wang Shizhen, 1993. 1282.334. The Danpu was Wang Shimou’s garden, while the Ciyuan was one of Wang Shizhen’s. The Wangchuan was the garden of the Tang poetWang Wei.9 Wang Shizhen, 1993. 1282.335.

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source for information about Shimou.10 In the months after his

brother’s death Wang Shizhen seems to have devoted much of his

time to writing about his sense of loss, and to commemorating

Shimou in many different ways. The mourning poems seem to have

expressed his initial shock and depression, while his work on the

xingzhuang may have given him a way to work through his feelings

by recalling and recording his memories of his sibling.

Sometime in the fall of 1588 Shizhen returned to Nanjing. He

submitted requests to be allowed to retire from office, but these

were not granted. In 1589 he was named Minister of Punishments [王

王王王] in Nanjing. Yet he was clearly dispirited and again sought

permission to retire. In April 1590 this was finally granted, and

he made his back to Taicang. He died there on December 23.

Wang Shizhen and Wang Shimou were the scions of a well-

established literati family. The story of the Wang family

stretched back into much earlier times, and the prominence of

their lineage carried on for at least a few more generations.

Wang Shizhen had three sons, the eldest of whom, Wang Shiqi [王王王]

passed the examination to become a jinshi in 1589, which must have

10 Wang Shizhen, 1993. 1284.47-59.

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brought some joy into the otherwise gloomy year. Shizhen’s great

grandson Wang Jian [王王] became a famous painter in the mid-17th

century. Wang Shimou had four sons, though none of them seem to

have become officials. But his youngest daughter married in to

the family of Zhao Yongxian [王王王], a prominent lineage from

nearby Changshu.

As brothers, Shizhen and Shimou were ten years apart in age,

and thus probably did not share many experiences as children. By

the time Shimou was born Shizhen was already engaged in serious

studies in preparation for the civil examinations. Shimou’s bout

with tuberculosis when he was nine years old would have kept him

from more strenuous activities, and by this time Shizhen had

passed the provincial exams and was preparing to take the exam

for the jinshi for the second time. As Shizhen embarked on his

official career from 1547 on, Shimou was still at home recovering

his strength and pursuing his own studies. It was only when

Shimou travelled to Beijing to study at the Guozijian in 1557 that

their lives began to come into a shared sphere of activity,

though at that time Shizhen had been assigned to a post in

Shandong. It was when Shimou passed the palace exam early in 1559

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that they really achieved a common path. From then on their lives

were woven together, sometimes sharing intense emotional

experiences such as their father’s arrest and execution or their

passionate devotion to Tan Yangzi. But their careers often took

them in divergent directions, both geographically and

intellectually. Shizhen became perhaps the most prominent

literary figure of the age. Shimou certainly had his own literary

interests and acquaintances, but he clearly did not rise to the

level of fame or influence in this area which his brother held.

But Shimou became a keen observer of social and economic affairs,

and left his own legacy of writings which have been of great

value to later generations.

Shizhen’s sense of loss when Shimou died is evident in his

letters, his poetry and his posthumous biography of his younger

sibling. The bonds of affection and shared experience which

united them were clearly much stronger than the effects of the

separate paths down which their official careers had led them.

22