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Zhuo Wangsun
Iron magnate of Linqiong in Western Han Shu and father of Zhuo Wenjun, who in the end gave her a share of his fortune after she eloped with Sima Xiangru.
On a river quay, loaded camels rest before a warehouse of stacked bales, with a balance scale and abacus on a table and green ceramic jars in front; porters carry bundles toward a large sailing ship on the right, and blank banners hang at the warehouse.
Also known as Zhuo of Linqiong
Zhuo Wangsun was a man of Linqiong in the Western Han commandery of Shu. The Shiji's chapter on money-makers says his family came from Zhao, grew rich smelting iron, and after Qin conquered Zhao was moved to Linqiong, where it worked the iron mountains and came to own a thousand servants; the biography of Sima Xiangru gives eight hundred. When the magistrate Wang Ji brought Sima Xiangru to his banquet, Xiangru courted his widowed daughter Zhuo Wenjun with the qin and she eloped with him that night. Zhuo Wangsun was furious and gave her nothing, but after she was reduced to selling wine he gave her a hundred servants and a million cash, and later, when Xiangru came to Shu as an imperial envoy, he gave her a share like a son's.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active late in Emperor Jing's reign and early in Emperor Wu's