Wang Shizhen

Timeline

1. 1547–1560Taicang Prefecture · Taicang PrefectureA jinshi of the twenty-sixth Jiajing year, he first served as Secretary of Justice, then rose to Vice Director and Director, later serving as Deputy Commissioner of Military Preparedness in Qingzhou, Shandong. He aided Yang Jisheng when the latter was imprisoned, angering Yan Song. His father Wang Yang was framed and executed in the thirty-ninth Jiajing year; Shizhen and his brother Shimao petitioned at the palace gate in vain.
2. 1561–1570Taicang Prefecture · Taicang PrefectureDuring mourning he devoted himself to writing, completing works such as the Yiyuan Zhiyan. In the first Longqing year he pleaded his father's case at the palace gate and Wang Yang was rehabilitated. In the second Longqing year he was appointed Deputy Surveillance Commissioner in Henan, promoted to Left Administrator in Zhejiang in the third year, Surveillance Commissioner in Shanxi in the fourth, then entered mourning for his mother.
3. 1571–1590Nanjing · Yingtian PrefectureRecalled to office in the first Wanli year, he served successively as Surveillance Commissioner in Huguang and Governor of Yunyang; in the fifteenth year he was appointed Vice Minister of Justice in Nanjing, in the seventeenth Minister of Justice in Nanjing, in the eighteenth retired, and died at Taicang in the eleventh month, posthumously granted Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. After Li Panlong's death he alone led the poetry world for years, and authored historical works such as the Yishan Tang Bieji.