A Study Of Wang Family Culture In The East China Sea In The Wei, Jin And Southern Dynasties

The Wang’s Family of Dong Hai was the influential and privileged family in theWei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties, especially eminent in the Wei Jin Dynasty.There were ten generations in its lineage, and among of them, the first generation WangLang, the second generation Wang Su, the third generation Wang Yuan-ji, and the ninthgeneration Wang Seng-ru, were the representative personages in the Wang’s Family ofDong Hai. Wang Lang was engaged in politics by being proficient in Classics. Helearned from Yang Ci. And he was the famous scribe and litterateur in the end of HanDynasty and three kingdoms period, with the official positions of Si Tu and Si Kong,very illustrious and influential. Wang Lang actively built political network, particularlythe connections through marriages with notable families, such as the Young’s of HongNong, the Young’s of Tai Shan, the Xiahou’s of Qiao County, consolidating andimproving the political status and social prestige of the Wang’s Family of Dong Hai. Sowe can say, Wang Lang was the founder of the Wang’s Family of Dong Hai. Wang Suinherited the family learning, and as well, he learned from many teachers, being diligentand learned. Later, Wang Su made great progress, becoming a master of Confucianclassics. His pursuit of studies was the further integration of the study of Confucianclassics and the classical learning based on earlier texts, which could be said to be thesublation to the Zheng Xuan’s knowledge. He abandoned Chen Wei, praised ancientstudy and expounded argumentation in the process of explaining Confucian classics,having created favorable conditions for the development of the metaphysics of Wei Jin.Wang Su wrote a lot of books, and his knowledge inherited the Confucian classics of theHan Dynasty and opened the metaphysics of Wei Jin. His position in the Classicalphilology could be put on a par with Zheng Xuan. The later scholars mostly thought thatWang Su deliberately refuted and blamed Zheng xuan’s knowledge. In fact, Wang Suchose and followed what was right, with a variety of forms. By comparison, we canknow that their knowledge had similarities and differences, as well as advantages anddisadvantages. Wang Su did better than Zheng Xuan in terms of abandoning Chen Wei and expounding argumentation, and Wang Su often adept Zheng Xuan’s views, ratherthan all rejected. Wang Su’s purpose was not to start something new in order to bedifferent, but to explain the argumentation, so he adept Zheng’s views at some times andrejected Zheng’s views at other times. So, the later scholars who praised sinology,mostly followed Zheng’s views, afterwards queried Wang Su’s purpose and deniedWang’s moral quality. While this kind of concept had been approved for a long time, theideological trend of doubting ancient learning came into it’s own. Then one after anotheracademic thought that Wang Su “forged” the "Ancient book of history","Confuciuslanguage" and "Kong Cong zi" and so on. This adjustment of preconceptions was rashand blind behavior in essence, in lack of rational spirit and peaceful mind. Ding Yan, PiXi-rui and so on, couldn’t provide the strong “evidence” which could prove that WangSu “forged” those books. These scholars just took it for granted that Wang Su “forged”those books, and determined Wang Su’s guilt. And these scholars thought that there wasnone but Wang Su who was so talented to do so. This view is very wrong. In fact, thisview isn’t appeared overnight, it is the product of academic history, rather than thehistorical fact. Wang Su deserved rehabilitation.In addition, Wang Su was not only good at researching, but also at paying attentionto strengthen family’s status. He had made a vital effort for the prosperity of the Wang’sFamily of Dong Hai: Wang Yuan-ji, who was the daughter of Wang Su marriedSima-Zhao who was the second son of Sima-Yi. Thereby they became relatives bymarriage. This combination made the political networks of Wang’s Family of Dong Haimore outspread. At the same time, it marked that the Wang’s and Si Ma’s family formeda political alliance. Through the efforts of several generations, the Si Ma’s familyusurped Wei Dynasty and established Jin Dynasty definitively, making the Wang’sfamily become the relatives of the emperor and its political position improve rapidly.The Wang’s Family of Dong Hai became Confucian classics family, and it formedfamily customary standards of attaching importance to the virtue, praising learning andadvocating thrift. Until Wang Kai, as the the prince’s maternal uncle, unexpectedlyadvocated luxury, destroyed the family education and style of the Wang’s Family of Dong Hai. After the Western Jin dynasty, not only in the politics and the culture and art,the Wang’s Family of Dong Hai presented the appearance of the decline. Although WangYa, in the the Eastern Jin Dynasty, became an important official, he had little success.Wang Seng-ru, the ninth generation, made great accomplishment in literature, madefriends widely and collected many books, becoming the famous litterateur, bibliophileand spectroscopy in the period of Ji and Liang in Southern Dynasties. Although theWang’s Family of Dong Hai was a Confucian classics family, its rise and transitionclosely associated with political circumstances. So the Wang’s Family of Dong Hai canbe said as Confucian classics family in the type of political opportunity. In the laterperiod of the Western Jin Dynasty, this family came to be on the wane. There were twomain causes: the first was the wars in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty and thesouth migration of the family; the second was the interrupt of its fine tradition.Therefore, the family’s declination was inevitable.