Wang Shuogai Collection

Author: (Ming) Wang Shugao / Zhang Xianwen, edited and annotated
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: Since the middle period of the Ming Dynasty, the land of Yongjia and Yongqiang has produced many outstanding talents. The Wang family of Yingqiao in Erdu, Yongjia, was a literary family with generations of scholars, known as a family of literary distinction. Wang Cheng, Wang Ji, Wang Shuguo, Wang Shugao, Wang Guangyun, Wang Guangmei, and others were particularly notable among them. Wang Shugao (1517–1600), styled Yangde and styled Yanggu, was the second son of Wang Cheng, the Left Assistant Censor-in-Chief of Fujian Provincial Administration Commission in the Ming Dynasty. His ancestors moved from Huangyan, Taizhou to Yongjia from the late Song Dynasty and settled in Erdu Yingqiao, Huagai Township for generations. He was intelligent and eager to learn from a young age, studying not only classics but also mountains and rivers, geographical records, astronomy, and divination. In the ninth year of the Jiajing era (1530), at the age of fourteen, his father Cheng was serving as a in the Ministry of War in the capital. He accompanied his older brother Shuguo to the capital to study, further advancing his academic pursuits. In the thirteenth year of the Jiajing era, his mother, Lady Pan, passed away in the capital. He waited for his father to return the coffin to be buried in Banshan and mourned by living in a mourning hut. In the twenty-second year (Kaimao), at the age of twenty-seven, he passed the provincial examination. The following year, he failed the imperial examination held by the Ministry of Rites. Afterward, he stayed in the countryside to care for his elderly father, indifferent to fame and fortune, and did not take the exam for a long time. When the Japanese pirates raided the coastal areas, his uncle Pei and clan member Xing both died resisting the invaders. He believed that without fortifications, it would be difficult to maintain an invincible position, so he proposed building Yongchang Fortress and oversaw its construction. Once completed, the fortress became a shield for the region, bringing peace to the locals.