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Wang Sheng
Attendant to the Crown Prince under Emperor Xuan of Han who admired Gai Kuanrao's integrity but disapproved of his conduct and wrote to urge restraint; Gai did not heed it and later took his own life.
In the courtyard of a district government hall, a line of petitioners waits before a raised bench with a long table and document boxes; a blue umbrella stands beside it, a large drum stands at the gate where a few people wait, and a lake with sailboats lies beyond.
Also known as Wang Sheng, Crown Prince's Attendant · Wang Sheng, Attendant to the Crown Prince
Wang Sheng was Attendant to the Crown Prince under Emperor Xuan of Han; nothing else of his life is recorded. He respected the Colonel of the Capital Inspectorate Gai Kuanrao for his integrity but disapproved of how he acted, and wrote to him that he should not try to correct the emperor with remote antiquity, urging him to follow the prudence of Qu Boyu rather than the fate of Wu Zixu, since a gentleman is upright without being rigid. Gai did not heed him, and after a memorial that angered the emperor he cut his own throat at the north gate. The letter is in Gai Kuanrao's biography in the Han History and in the Guwen Cilei Zuan.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active in the reign of Emperor Xuan of Han (74–49 BCE)