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Writer of the Northern-to-Southern Song transition, courtesy name Yanzhang, who took the jinshi in 1103 and rose after the crossing south to Grand Academician of the Xianmo Pavilion, with the title Marquis of Xin'an; author of the Fuxi Ji.
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 Courtesy name Yanzhang · Marquis of Xin'an
Wang Zao (1079–1154), courtesy name Yanzhang, was from Dexing in Raozhou (modern Dexing, Jiangxi) and took the jinshi in 1103. In the last years of the Northern Song he rose to Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and Diarist, and after the move south served as Grand Academician of the Longtu Pavilion and prefect of Huzhou in 1131, finally Grand Academician of the Xianmo Pavilion with the title Marquis of Xin'an. In 1142 Qin Hui impeached him over a letter of congratulation, he was dismissed to Yongzhou and never reinstated, and he died there. His Fuxi Ji runs to thirty-six chapters, the Complete Song Lyrics holds four of his lyrics, and his Dian Jiang Chun is in the Three Hundred Song Lyrics.
Song
Literature · Lyrics1Wang Zao, a man of Dexing in Raozhou, entered the Imperial Academy and passed the jinshi examination. He first served as compiler at the Jiuyu tuzhi office, was promoted to Zhuzuo zuolang, and later became Hanlin academician. He was later stripped of rank and lived in Yongzhou, unpardoned through repeated amnesties.
While Wang Zao was Hanlin academician, in a time of many troubles, imperial edicts mostly came from his hand, and the drafts he wrote were widely recited. He was skilled in balanced parallel prose and wrote a great deal. When the Veritable Records of Huizong were finished, the Right Vice Chancellor Tang Situi said that Wang Zao had compiled the edicts.