Scholars › Philosopher / Thinker
Wang Yan
Western Jin grandee and master of Laozi-Zhuangzi conversation who rose to Grand Commandant and was killed by Shi Le after the rout at Ningping in 311
A thatched pavilion open on three sides stands among tall bamboo; one person sits with their back turned at the veranda rail beside a zither and a stack of bamboo slips, while a stone path runs to a calm pond reflecting clouds and distant hills.
Also known as Zi Yifu
Wang Yan, courtesy name Yifu, came from Linyi in Langye and was a cousin of Wang Rong of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. Shan Tao, meeting him as a boy, remarked that he might be the man who would ruin the empire. He loved to discuss Laozi and Zhuangzi with a jade-handled fly whisk in hand, changing his arguments as he went; disgusted by his wife's greed, he never said the word money, calling it only 'that thing'. Rising through the highest offices to Grand Commandant, he placed his brother Wang Cheng in Jingzhou and his kinsman Wang Dun in Qingzhou as his three burrows. In 311, escorting the coffin of the Prince of Donghai, he was routed by Shi Le at Ningping, urged his captor to take the imperial title, and was crushed under a toppled wall that night, aged fifty-six. Huan Wen later held him and his circle responsible for the loss of the north.
Life and times
Dates 256 CE–311 CE