Writers › Writer / Poet
Wang Huizhi
Eastern Jin free spirit and fifth son of Wang Xizhi, famed for his love of bamboo and his snowy-night boat trip to visit Dai Kui.
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Also known as Zi Ziyou · Wang Ziyou
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Wang Huizhi, courtesy name Ziyou, of Linyi in Langye, was the fifth son of the calligrapher Wang Xizhi. He served on the staffs of Huan Wen and Huan Chong and rose to Gentleman of the Yellow Gate before retiring to Shanyin. Unconventional and carefree, he loved bamboo, asking how he could live a day without "this gentleman". A New Account of the Tales of the World tells how, on a snowy night, he took a boat to visit Dai Kui, then turned back at the door, saying he had come on impulse and left when it was spent. He died soon after his brother Wang Xianzhi.
Life and times
Dates Birth year uncertain (338 CE by one account)–386 CE