A Study Of Wang Qiao And His "Fang Lu"

Wang Qiao was a scholar during the period of Jiajing Wanli in Ming Dynasty. Besides his study of Confucian classics, he was not only a jurist, but also a man of letters and he was also active in the field of politics and had contact with some influential figures at that time, like Wang Shizhen, Zhang Juzheng. Ideologically, he was deeply affected by the Neo-Confucianism of cheng-zhu and mixed with the Legalism, the Buddhism and the Taoism, thus he was very strong on the classics and literature. However, the research on Wang Qiao has not received the attention that it should be. Therefore, it is absolutely meaningful for us to study Wang Qiao’s family background, the development of his thought and the changes of his works.This thesis is based on the study of Wang Qiao and his Fang Lu Ji, and it was an exploratory attempt, which has three main sections besides the introduction and conclusion.The first section is about the family background of Wang Qiao. According to these books Chi Jing Yi Men Wang Shi Zu Pu, Wang Shi Jia Chuan, Nan Jing Dou Cha Yuan Yu Shi Fang Lu Wang Gong Xing Zhuang, Gu Zhi Ji Zhou Wang Gong Mu Zhi Ming, Song Shi · Wang Sui Zhuan, we can date his family back to the Southern Song Dynasty and find their move from Jintan to Jiangzhou. Then we begin to sort Wang Qiao’s life and make it clear he was named "Mingyi" not "Mingyuan".And this is the first time to figure out a simple outline of his life by the investigation and description of his imperial examination and official career. The third part of this section is to analyze his important pole in the scandal of "Wang Zhi", who was a pirate, and the two reasons to his death, one was the fierce contradiction between the court officials and Yan Song, and the other was that Wang Qiao, the representative of the part of the court officials, who was willing to devoted himself to defending the country, the people’s livelihood and national criminal law.The second section of this thesis is the research of Wang Qiao’s thought. It seemed that Wang Qiao’s thought was mainly reflected in three parts:the first and also dominant was the Neo-Confucianism of cheng-zhu; the second was the mixed Legalism; the third was the Buddhism and Taoism. We’ll study his writing and his official career to see the characteristics of his thought.The third section is focus on "Fang Lu Ji", a collection of Wang Qiao’s articles and poems. Since Wang Qiao had some contacts with Wang Shizhen, though his literary achievements was not great, his literary creation was in a certain extent influenced by Wang Shizhen. With his personal characteristics, Wang Qiao claimed to study real problems for the purpose of application and the style of his articles and poems was different from "QiZi", it was tranquil, sincere, heart-warming and not mechanical rigid, or exaggerated gorgeous.