Wang Yinglin

Timeline

1. 1223–1241Yin County, Qingyuan Prefecture · Qingyuan PrefectureWang Yinglin was born into a scholar's family in Yin County, Qingyuan Prefecture, and excelled early in memorization and the classics and histories. He passed the jinshi examination in the first year of Chunyou, entering the late Southern Song bureaucratic and educational-official system, laying a documentary foundation for his later compilations of institutional encyclopedias.
2. 1242–1275Lin'an · Lin'anAfter passing the exam, Wang Yinglin served for long periods in Lin'an and the provinces as an educational official, in the Historiography Academy, and in posts related to the Ministry of Rites, gaining access to edicts, precedents, and books, which supplied material for encyclopedias like Yuhai that combined institutional and literary content for examinations with textual criticism. He served under both the Lizong and Duzong reigns, but was never at the core of central decision-making.
3. 1276–1280Yin County, Qingyuan Circuit · Qingyuan CircuitAfter Lin'an surrendered to the Yuan in the second year of Deyou, Wang Yinglin refused to serve the new dynasty and returned to Yin County. As a loyalist remnant he edited his old manuscripts, turning the precedents, institutions, and classical notes he had gathered during his official career into private scholarship, differing politically from southern scholars who took office under the Yuan.
4. 1281–1296Yin County, Qingyuan Circuit · Qingyuan CircuitIn his later years Wang Yinglin finalized Yuhai in his home locality and completed the note-style Kunxue Jiwen, along with works such as Hanzhi Kao and Tongjian Dawen. His scholarship excelled in breadth of learning, textual criticism, and institutional history. He died in Yin County in the second year of Yuanzhen. The traditional attribution of the Three Character Classic to him lacks sufficient evidence and should be treated with doubt.