Wang Chonggu

Also known as Zi Xuefu · Hao Jianchuan

Wang Chonggu, courtesy name Xuefu, came from Puzhou and passed the metropolitan examination in 1541; as a circuit official at Changzhou and Zhenjiang he beat Japanese pirates at Xiagang and chased them out to sea with Yu Dayou. After governing Ningxia from 1564 and the four Shaanxi frontier commands for seven years, he was moved to Xuanfu and Datong in 1570, he was there that winter when Altan Khan's grandson Daiching Ejei, angry that his grandfather had taken his bride, fled to the Ming. Wang and the Datong governor Fang Fengshi urged that the young man be treated well and traded for Zhao Quan and other Chinese renegades in Altan's service. In 1571 Altan was made Prince Shunyi and markets were opened; Wang taxed the trade to pay for gifts, and the Xuanfu-Datong frontier stayed at peace until the end of the Ming. After serving as minister of justice and of war under Wanli he retired under censors' attacks, and he died two years after an honour of 1587, receiving the posthumous name Xiangyi.