Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/845

826 2188 Wang Jung (T.  ). A.D. 235-806. A natiTe of Lin-i in Shautung, and brother to Wang Yen. He was a clever child, and could look at the sun without being dazzled. When only seven years old he refused to join his companions in eating some plums &om a roadside tree. "They must be bitter," he said scornfully, "or they would not have been left there." At fifteen he was on terms of friendship with Yüan Chi, although the latter was twenty years his senior, and was ranked with him as one of the Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove (see Hsiang Hsiu). He roae to be President of the Board of Civil Office, and instituted a system under which the administrative powers of. men were tested before they were actually appointed to office. Later on he got into trouble and was cashiered, but was re-instated by the Emperor Hui Ti. He died at a provincial post in Honan. His meanness and parsimony were proverbial. He even caused the stones of a rare species of plum, which he had in his orchard, to be bored through before being sent to market for sale, lest some one might try to raise the same kind and so spoil his monopoly. He and Ho Ch'iso being in mourning for their parents at the same time, the latter wept bitterly but still managed to perform all the proper ceremonies, while he himself lay in bed and became reduced to a skeleton. '"ang Jung," said Liu Chung-hsiung to the Emperor Wu Ti, As the one to be commiserated. Ho Ch'iao's is the filial piety of life; Wang Jung's is the filial piety of death." Canonised as.

2189 Wang K'ai (T. ). 3rd cent. A.D. Brother-in-law to the Emperor Wu Ti of the Chin dynasty. He was a wild young man, and yet he did good service in the field and was ennobled as Duke. He was fond of display, and his rivalry with the powerful Shih Ch'ung ultimately brought him into trouble. He was impeached, and would have suffered but for the intervention of the Emperor.