Wang Jia

Also known as Zi Dayong · Hao Shousu Xiansheng

Wang Jia, courtesy name Dayong, came from Hezhong (modern Yongji in Shanxi) and called himself Master Shousu. He passed the jinshi examination in 890 and rose to vice-director in the Ministry of Rites before leaving office for a retired life. He was a friend of Sikong Tu and Zheng Gu, and Sikong Tu's Letter to Wang Jia on Poetry discusses his verse. His Village Festival pictures a spring sacrifice day ending as "every household helps its drunkard home" (one account gives the poem to Zhang Yan); his Clearing after Rain, also titled Fine Weather, ends with bees and butterflies flitting over the wall, "making one wonder whether spring has moved next door." His collected works in six juan are lost, and six poems survive in the Complete Tang Poetry.