Wang Shenzhi

Also known as Zi Xintong · Zhongyi Wang · Mintai Zu

Wang Shenzhi, courtesy name Xintong, came from Gushi in Guangzhou. In the last years of the Tang he and his brothers Wang Chao and Wang Shengui joined Wang Xu's armed band and fought their way into Fujian, where Wang Chao took Quanzhou and Fuzhou. When Wang Chao died in 897, Shenzhi took over, and the next year the Tang court made him military governor of Weiwu. The Later Liang named him King of Min in 909; he remained a vassal of the northern courts and never called himself emperor. The New History of the Five Dynasties says he kept taxes and labour service light, founded schools for local youths, welcomed scholars fleeing the north, and opened the harbour of Gantang near Fuzhou to foreign shipping. He died at the end of 925 with the posthumous name Zhongyi, and his son Wang Yanjun gave him the temple name Taizu. A stele of 906 praising his government still stands in the King of Min temple in Fuzhou.