The Research On Wang Ao

The topic of this paper is Wang Ao, who was a famous statesman and writer in the middle period of the Ming Dynasty. The first half of the paper makes a systematic and comprehensive investigation into Wang’s life, contact, philosophy and political ideas, literary ideas and creation. About his life, this paper mainly analyses the transition of Wang’s family from businessmen to Confucians, his success in Keju examinations and its reasons, his setbacks and compromise in his official career, his retired life. About his contact, this paper mainly analyses the general status of Wang’s friends, some of his closest friends, several groups that he took part in. About his philosophy and political ideas, the former mainly includes the similarities and differences of viewpoints among Wang Ao, Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan, his attitude towards Buddhist and Taoist thought; the latter mainly includes Wang’s political views and suggestions during his official career and after retirement. About his literary ideas and creation, the former mainly includes Wang’s main literary viewpoints, especially the similarities and differences between his ones and mainstream ones since the early Ming Dynasty; with a large number of works, the latter mainly includes the induction and analysis for the ideological content and artistic characteristics of Wang’s poetry and prose. The second half of the paper is Wang’s chronology, which added the large content on the basis of the old one, especially the classification of works according to the year.This paper mainly adopts the method of comparative analysis and summary on the basis of owning a large original literature material. The first step is to collect a large relevant original literature material, especially Taifu Wenke Gong’s Chronology and a large number of articles and letters included in Taiyuan Genealogy editored by the Qing Dynasty people. The second step is to summarize the original material and make a new chronology, with necessary textual research. On the basis of Wang’s works and chronology, the final step is to makes a systematic analysis and interpretation of Wang’s life, contact, philosophy and political ideas, literary ideas and creation.As a famous statesman and writer in the middle period of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Ao has not been given due attention. This paper is the first to makes a systematic and thorough interpretation on Wang’s life, contact, ideas, and literary creation. Furthermore, a detailed chronology on Wang Ao is made. Through this paper, we can have a more comprehensive understanding of the development of literature in the middle period of the Ming Dynasty, and have a more detailed understanding of the inheritance and evolution of literati groups in Su Zhou and the development and characteristics of the early Zhiyi.