Wang Heng, whose courtesy name is Chenyu and whose nickname is Goushan, is the owner of the Hengwu Room. He was born in the 40th year of Jiajing reign of Ming Dynasty (1561) and died in the 37th year of Wanli reign of Ming Dynasty (1609). He is from Taicang, Jiangsu Province. His father, Wang Xijue, was the first assistant to the great scholar during the Wanli period and was the son of Xianjia. His son, Wang Shimin, was a world-famous painter. Maybe his father and son were both famous, which overshadowed his reputation. Even people in Taicang today don't know much about his contribution to the history of literature.
In fact, Wang Heng was very well-known in the Ming Dynasty, and his deeds are recorded in Volume 228 of "History of the Ming Dynasty". There is also an entry for him in the "Dictionary of Chinese Literature". In the history of Ming and Qing dramas, he is a master of Zaju that must be mentioned.
Wang Heng has been very smart since he was a child, and he is also fond of learning and memorizing, especially classical poetry. He was taught by famous teachers and learned poetry from Wang Shizhen, a great writer with the same surname in his hometown. Therefore, "Biography of Poetry Collection of Dynasties" He is said to be "rich through his studies, good at poetry and calligraphy, scattered flowers and algae, and famous throughout the world." It can be seen that he was already quite famous when he was a teenager.
However, his life was not smooth sailing. In the thirteenth year of Wanli (1585), he was young, energetic and ambitious. At the age of 24, he went to Nanjing to take the exam with his classmate and friend Chen Jianru from Songjiang. Unexpectedly, he failed. This was a severe blow to him, but he believed that he had not met Bole because of his talent. He decided to study "ancient and modern governance" and "important matters of managing the world" in order to fight again. In the 16th year of Wanli's reign, 27-year-old Wang Heng won the first place in the provincial examination in Shuntian (Beijing) and became the Huiyuan of that session. Unexpectedly, because Wang Heng was the son of the prime minister, Gao Gui, Rao Shen and other officials from the Ministry of Rites proposed impeachment of the examiner, believing that he was suspected of cheating, and included Wang Heng in the list of eight suspected mid-term examination students. This incident shocked the whole country and caused a great uproar. Those who praised Wang Heng believed that Wang Heng was "a famous poet and prose writer", "really talented and famous", "his reputation was so great that all the scholars gave him priority, and there was no one with different lyrics", "it is indeed worthy of being mentioned above, and everyone in the country heard about it" It’s also about the eyes.” The detractors thought that it was too doubtful that the son of the prime minister came first in the examination. Since both parties to the argument were important officials of the imperial court, the emperor ordered all the examiners to review the examination papers. As a result, all the examiners thought that Wang Heng's examination papers were very talented and they were all impressed. However, the officials continued to be neglected, which angered Emperor Wanli and imprisoned Gao Gui, Rao Shen and other officials. Although Wang Heng's literary name spread further, he also became the target of another faction. Wang Heng knew that the real cause of the conflict lay in party strife, which enabled him to see through the darkness of officialdom. On the one hand, he advised his father to try to save Yan Guan, and on the other hand, he said that he would "not take the exam" to avoid further disputes. His father Wang Xijue also swore that as long as he was an official in the court, his son Wang Heng would never come to take the exam again, so as not to lose his melons and plumes.
After that, Wang Heng returned to his hometown in Taicang, "closed up in a room" and "thank guests for studying". At that time, he wrote a poem and lamented that "I grew up in the official's house, and I feel like the flowers after spring". That kind of contradiction, depression , the helpless mood is evident.
In the twenty-ninth year of Wanli (1601), it had been ten years since Wang Xijue resigned and returned to Taipei to recuperate. In order to prove that he was not relying on a big tree to enjoy the shade, Wang Heng went to Beijing for the second test. As a result, he ranked second and passed the Jinshi examination, and then ranked second in the palace examination. This time even Wang Xijue's official rivals had nothing to say. Wang Heng showed his innocence to the world with his excellent talent and learning, and showed his true talent and learning. Because Wang Xijue was also ranked second in the rankings at that time, there was a good talk in the government and the public that "father and son were ranked second in the rankings". After that, Wang Heng was awarded the title of Editor of the Hanlin Academy. Because Wang Heng felt that he was "good at frontier affairs" and could not contribute to the court, he was quite disappointed with his official career, so he simply took advantage of the opportunity of being envoy to Jiangnan to resign and return to his hometown. After returning to Taicang, Wang Heng lived a peaceful life of reading and writing. , throughout his life, he will never become an official again.
Wang Heng resigned and returned to the Queen Mother, where he lived in Chun Shui Chuan. He often interacted with celebrities in the literary world at that time, often singing poems and essays, and had contacts with dramatists Tang Xianzu, Tu Long and others. Wang Heng was also good at calligraphy, studying Yan Zhenqing and Su Shi. Dong Qichang said: "Although Chen Yu is not interested in writing, he has a white eye for a lifetime and rarely admits it. His celestial bones are extremely beautiful, and he hovered between the Tang and Jin Dynasties, with both skills and abilities." , one may think that one can learn from Su Zizhan, but Zizhan cannot do the best in Chenyu.
" Lou Jian of the Ming Dynasty said in "Xuegu Xuyan" that "he is excellent after being given by heaven, and his skills are getting deeper and deeper. From the top of his finger to the top, he can reach two inches in diameter. , or as large as more than a foot, are not bothered by the rope cutting and overflowing with interest. In the new year, we can only trace the famous sites of the Northern Song Dynasty. "The evaluation is both true and high. Wang Heng is one of the Ming Dynasty calligraphers listed in the "Dictionary of Ancient Chinese Calligraphers".
Wang Heng has written extensively, including 27 volumes of "Gou Shan Collection" , "Travel Chronicles", "Chunqiu Annotations" 4 volumes, "Qin and Han Humanities Selected Jade" 6 volumes, "Guitian Ci", "Zhuzi Leiyu", "The Analects of Confucius Refuting Differings", etc. Of course, the most famous one is him He created many dramas such as "Yulunpao", "Munaihe", "Rebirth", "True Puppet", etc.
Wang Heng had a bad life and was depressed, so he died of a headache at the age of 49. His father passed away a year earlier, in the thirty-seventh year of Wanli.
Wang Heng died of illness, which made Wang Xijue's white-haired man send his black-haired man away. He was very sad. In addition to his sadness, he wrote. He wrote "Essays on Sacrifice to Heavenly Man Heng".
Wang Heng was very accomplished in poetry, writing, and calligraphy, and he left many poem monuments and epitaphs written by him in Taicang.
Hope it helps!