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Wang Dan
Northern Song chief minister to Emperor Zhenzong for over a decade, who kept recommending his critic Kou Zhun and went along with the Heavenly Texts rites, which he regretted at death
In a council hall, a long table holds an unrolled map scroll, a brass-cornered chest and a brush pot, with tall-backed chairs around it and a bronze lamp at the left; a figure stands with their back turned on the balcony at the right, with palace roofs beyond.
Also known as Zi Ziming · Weiguo Gong · Wen Zheng
- Roles
- Chief Ministers
Wang Dan, courtesy name Ziming, came from Shen county in Daming; his father Wang You planted three locust trees in the courtyard, saying a descendant would reach the highest office. He passed the metropolitan examination in 980 and became an assisting councillor under Emperor Zhenzong; when the emperor marched to Chanzhou in 1004 he stayed behind as acting regent of the capital. He was chief minister from 1006 until 1017. When Zhenzong staged the discovery of Heavenly Texts and the sacrifices on Mount Tai, the History of Song says, the emperor gave Wang a jar of wine that turned out at home to be full of pearls, and he raised no further objection; on his deathbed he asked to be shaved and dressed as a monk for burial in penance. Kou Zhun often disparaged him before the emperor, yet Wang kept praising Kou. He died in 1017 at sixty-one, was named Duke of Wei with the posthumous name Wenzheng, and Emperor Renzong wrote the heading for his tomb stele.
Life and times
Dates 957 CE–1017 CE