Ministers › Finance Ministers
Wang Shuwen
Hanlin scholar and vice minister of revenue who steered the short-lived Yongzhen Reform of 805 and was forced to die in exile the next year.
Mural of the event “Yongzhen Reform”, which this person took part in.
In 805, under the ailing Emperor Shunzong, Wang Shuwen and Wang Pi directed the court, abolished the palace market and the Five Workshops' bird-catchers, and tried to take command of the Shence Army from the eunuchs. Shunzong abdicated in the eighth month, the reform ended and its leaders were demoted and sent away: the Two Wangs and Eight Adjutants.
Also known as Er Wang (paired with Wang Pi)
- Roles
- Finance Ministers
Wang Shuwen, from Shanyin in Yuezhou, served the crown prince Li Song as a court chess player and won his trust. When the prince took the throne as Emperor Shunzong in 805, Wang became a Hanlin scholar, deputy commissioner of finance and of salt and iron, and then vice minister of revenue. Working with Wang Pi inside the palace, installing Wei Zhiyi as chief minister and drawing in Liu Zongyuan, Liu Yuxi and Han Tai, he abolished the palace purchasing system, stopped irregular tribute and tried to take army command from the eunuchs: the Yongzhen Reform. Mourning for his mother took him out of office that summer, the eunuch Ju Wenzhen and his allies enthroned Emperor Xianzong, and Wang was demoted to Yuzhou and ordered to die in 806. He was the central figure of the reform.
Life and times
- UnknownBorn
Tang - 805Yongzhen Reform
Took partAfter Emperor Shunzong took the throne in 805, Wang Shuwen and Wang Pi abolished the palace market and the Five Workshops' bird-catchers and sought to take the Shence Army from the eunuchs, but eunuch and regional opposition ended the reform with Shunzong's abdication that August.- Two Wangs, Eight Adjutants BanishedAfter the reform of 805 failed, Wang Shuwen and Wang Pi were banished and eight officials, including Liu Zongyuan to Yongzhou and Liu Yuxi to Langzhou, were demoted to adjutants of remote prefectures.
- Emperor Shunzong Abdicates to Li ChunIn the eighth month of 805 the ailing Emperor Shunzong handed the throne to Crown Prince Li Chun, who became Emperor Xianzong, an event known as the Yongzhen abdication.
- Xianzong Orders Wang Shuwen's Death806Wang Shuwen, demoted to revenue officer of Yuzhou after the Yongzhen Reform failed, was ordered to die by Emperor Xianzong in 806.
- Two Wangs, Eight Adjutants Banished
- 806; led the Yongzhen Reform in 805Died
Connections
- Shared events2
- Rulers and officials1
- Others6
