Newly Compiled Collection of Wang Zhong

Author: Wang Zhong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Wang Zhong (1744) was born on December 20 in Yangzhou, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty. His original name was Bingzhong, styled Rongfu, and styled Songfu. He was from Yangzhou. At the age of seven, he lost his father and, due to poverty, could not attend school. He was taught Xiaoxue and the Four Books by his mother, Zou Shi. At the age of 14, driven by the need for livelihood, he entered a bookstore as an apprentice and read extensively in classics, history, and the Hundred Schools of Thought. Thus, in Yangzhou folklore, there is a saying, "Wang Zhong reads every book." In the 28th year of the Qianlong reign (1763), he took the imperial examination with the essay Ode on Shooting Geese and was ranked among the top in Yangzhou Prefecture, becoming a zhu (a student preparing for the imperial examinations). In the 33rd year (1768), he failed the provincial examination and never took it again, instead devoting himself to scholarship. In the 42nd year (1777), when Vice Minister Xie Yong was appointed to oversee education in Jiangsu, Wang Zhong excelled in the examinations on classics, policy questions, essays, and poetry, and was selected as a (a candidate recommended for the civil service examinations). In the 48th year (1783), he assisted in compiling The Grand Tour South in Nanjing. In the 55th year (1790), he was hired to proofread the Complete Collection of the Four Treasuries at the Wenzong Pavilion in Zhenjiang. In the 59th year (1794), despite his illness, he went to the Wenlan Pavilion in Hangzhou to proofread the Complete Collection of the Four Treasuries. That winter, due to overwork, he fell ill and died in a Buddhist temple at Ge Ling Garden in West Lake.
Wang Zhong was skilled in poetry and prose and was renowned early in his life. In the 35th year of the Qianlong reign (1770), a fire destroyed the salt boats in Yixing, and he wrote Elegy on the Salt Boat Fire, which was praised by the scholar Hang Shijun as "shocking and moving, worth a thousand gold for every character." Scholars like Zheng Huwen and Zhu Yun also called him an extraordinary talent. In the 50th year, he wrote The Yangzhou Debate, over 3,000 words long, which was hailed as "one of the few extraordinary writings in the world."
Wang Zhong was a broad scholar with profound insights, adept at integrating knowledge. He studied extensively in classics, history, the Hundred Schools of Thought, literature, philosophy, textual criticism, phonology, etymology, paleography, inscriptions, geography, calligraphy, and seal carving, achieving significant results. His works include Collected Essays on Learning (Outer and Inner Sections), Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals, Postscript to the Spring and Autumn Annals, The Comprehensive Annals of Yangzhou, Comprehensive Commentary on Xunzi, Xiaoxue, and others. The monographs collected in this book are arranged in the order of classics, history, the Hundred Schools of Thought, and collected works. Strategies for Gathering Knowledge served as reference materials for imperial examinations, and Miscellaneous Notes from the Wenzong Pavilion were his reading notes, hence they are included at the end of the monographs. The prefaces and postfaces by renowned scholars and the textual corrections for each treatise are preserved as they were.