Wang Bi literary bio

Wang Bi 王弼 (226–249), zi Fusi 輔嗣
Wei period scholar and thinker.
Wang Bi was one of the most important scholars and thinkers of the early medieval period. His ancestral home was Gaoping 高平 in Shanyang 山陽 commandery (modern Jinxiang 金鄉 county, Shandong). The Wang clan of Gaoping produced a number of distinguished scholars and officials including the famous writer Wang Can 王粲 (177–217). Around 192, Wang Can and his elder cousin Wang Kai 王凱 fled the north to seek refuge with Liu Biao 劉表 (144–208), governor of Jingzhou 荊州 (administrative seat, Xiangyang). Liu Biao wished to marry his daughter to Wang Can, but he detested Wang’s vulgar appearance and casual manner. Because Wang Kai had a dignified bearing, Liu Biao married his daughter to Wang Kai. Wang Kai had a son named Wang Ye 王業 (fl. 219). The famous scholar Cai Yong 蔡邕 (133–192) had nearly ten thousand scrolls of books. Toward the end of his life, he loaded the books onto several carts and gave them to Wang Can. In 219, the aide to the chancellor Wei Feng 魏諷 (d. 219) rebelled against Cao Cao, and Wang Can’s sons joined him. After they were executed, the books that Cai Yong had given to Wang Can were given to Wang Ye. Wang Ye was the father of Wang Bi, and he presumably had access to the great library of Cai Yong.

Wang Bi was a child prodigy. He reputedly could easily explain the Laozi at the age of ten. When he was not quite twenty, he made a great impression on the learned scholar Pei Hui 裴徽 (fl. 230–249). Wang Bi also impressed another important scholar He Yan 何晏 (ca. 190–249) whom he met ca. 244. It was about this time that Wang Bi wrote commentaries to the Laozi and Yi jing.

Wang Bi was one of the most renowned experts in “pure conversation” (qing tan 清談) of his day. However, he had little interest in serving in official posts. Through the influence of He Yan Wang Bi did hold the
office of shangshu lang 尚書郎 (secretarial court gentleman) on the staff
of Cao Shuang 曹爽 (d. 249). Wang Bi died young in 249 at the age of
twenty-three.

The monograph on bibliography of the Sui shu lists Wang Bi’s collected writings in four juan. The two Tang histories record a collection in five juan. This was lost in the Song. Wang Bi’s commentary to the Laozi in two juan and the Zhou yi in six juan are still extant. A goodly portion of Wang Bi’s important treatise on the Laozi, the “Laozi zhilüe” 老子指略 (Outline introduction to the Laozi) is extant. The entire text of his “Zhou yi lüeli” 周易略例 (General principles of the Zhou yi) has survived. Fragments of his “Lun yu shi yi” 論語釋疑 (Explaining doubtful points in the Lun yu) have been preserved. Only two of his prose pieces have survived: “Xi da Xun
Rong shu” 戲答荀融書 (Letter playfully replying to Xun Rong) in which he rebuts a criticism of his commentary on a passage in the “Xi ci zhuan” 繫辭 傳 (Commentary to the appended phrases) by his contemporary Xun Rong 荀融 (ca. 216–post 246); and “Nan He Yan shengren wu xi nu ai le lun” 難 何晏聖人無喜怒哀樂論 (Disquistion refuting He Yan’s thesis that the sage has no pleasure, anger, grief, or joy).

Bibliography
Collections
Lou Yulie 樓宇烈, ed. and comm. Wang Bi ji jiaoshi 王弼集校釋. 2 vols. Beijing:
Zhonghua shuju, 1980.
Studies and Translations
Tang Yongtong 湯用彤. “Wang Bi zhi Zhou yi Lunyu xinyi” 王弼之周易論語新義.
Tushu jikan, n.s. 4 (1943): 28–40; rpt. In Tang Yongtong xueshu lunwen ji 湯用
彤學術論文集, 264–79. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1983; English translation and
summary by Walter Liebenthal, “Wang Bi’s New Interpretation of the I Ching
and Lun-Yü.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 10 (1947): 124–61.
Hou Qiudong 侯秋東. Wang Bi yixue zhi yanjiu 王弼易學之研究. Taipei: Jiaxin
shuini gongsi wenhua jijinhui, 1976.
Lin Lizhen 林麗真. Wang Bi ji qi Yixue 王弼及其易學. Taipei: Taiwan Guoli daxue,
1977.
Lin, Paul, trans. A Translation of the Lao-tzu’s Tao Te Ching and Wang Pi’s Commentary. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan,
1977.
Rump, Ariane, trans. Wing-tsit Chan, coll. Commentary on the Lao Tzu by Wang
Pi. Monographs of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, No. 6.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1979.
Chang Chung-yue. “The Metaphysics of Wang Pi.” Unpublished Diss. University
of Pennsylvania, 1979.
Wagner, Rudolf. “Interlocking Parallel Style: Laozi and Wang Bi.” Asiatische Studien 34.1 (1980): 18–58.
Wagner, Rudolf. “Wang Bi: ‘The Structure of Laozi’s Pointers’ (Laozi weizhi lilüe).”
TP 72 (1986): 92–129.
Goodman, Howard L. “Exegetes and Exegesis of the Book of Changes in the Third
Century A.D.: Historical and Scholastic Contexts for Wang Pi.” Ph.D. Diss.,
Princeton, 1985.
Ding Guanzhi 丁冠之. “Wang Bi” 王弼. In Shandong gudai sixiangjia 山東古代
思想家. Liu Weihua 劉蔚華 and Zhao Zongzheng 趙宗正, ed., 397–432. Jinan:
Shandong renmin chubanshe, 1985.
Bergeron, Marie-Ina. Wang Pi: philosophe du non-avoir. Taipei: Institut Ricci,
1986.
Lin Lizhen 林麗真. Wang Bi 王弼. Taipei: Dongdai tushu gongsi, 1988
Wagner, Rudolf. “Wang Bi’s Recension of the Laozi.” Early China 14 (1989):
27–54.
Chan, Alan K. L. Two Visions of the Way: A Study of the Wang Pi and the HoShang Kung Commentaries on the Lao-tzu. Albany: SUNY Press, 1991.
Lynn, Richard John. The Classic of Changes. A New Translation of the I Ching as
Interpreted by Wang Bi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
Wang Xiaoyi 王曉毅. Wang Bi pingzhuan 王弼評傳. Nanjing: Nanjing daxue chubanshe, 1996.
Shaughnessy, Edward L. “Commentary, Philosophy, and Translation: Reading
Wang Bi’s Commentary to the Yi jing in a New Way.” Early China 22 (1997):
221–45.
Wang Xiaoyi 王曉毅. “Wang Bi guli xintan” 王弼故里新探. Kong Meng xuebao 75
(1998): 169–85.
Lynn, Richard John. The Classic of the Way and Virtue: A New Translation of the
Tao-Te Ching of Laozi as Interpreted by Wang Bi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
Wagner, Rudolf G. The Craft of a Chinese Commentator: Wang Bi on the Laozi.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000.