Wú Jiān 吳幵 (fl. 1097–1132), zì Zhèngzhòng 正仲, native of Chúzhōu 滁州 (modern Ānhuī). Passed the hóngcí 宏詞 examination in Shàoshèng dīngchǒu 紹聖丁丑 (1097). Rose under the late Northern Sòng to Hànlín chéngzhǐ 翰林承旨 (Drafter-in-Charge of the Hanlin Academy) during the Jìngkāng 靖康 crisis (1126–1127). With Gěng Nánzhòng 耿南仲 he urged the policy of ceding territory to the Jīn — a position that the historiographical tradition has uniformly judged as catastrophic for the Sòng cause. After the fall of Kāifēng he was complicit in conveying Jīn instructions and in the elevation of the puppet emperor Zhāng Bāngchāng 張邦昌 (the Chǔ 楚 regime, 1127). After the Sòng restoration under Jiànyán 建炎 (1127ff.), he was banished and died in exile.
The Sìkù editors of KR4i0011 judge bluntly: “qí rén běn bù zú dào — his person is unworthy of being spoken of”; but they admit that his Yōugǔtáng shīhuà 優古堂詩話 KR4i0011 contains material of real value for the study of Northern-Sòng poetics. His critical attention is focused on the duótāi huàngǔ 奪胎換骨 (rebirth-and-bone-exchange) techniques of allusion-recasting, and the work is a primary source for tracing the literary genealogies of Sū Shì 蘇軾 蘇軾, Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅 黃庭堅, and the wider Yuányòu 元祐 literary circle.
CBDB id 1979; lifedates blank but c_fl_earliest_year 1094, consistent with his jìnshì / hóngcí of 1097. Biography: Sòng shǐ (scattered references in 耿南仲 / 張邦昌 / 何㮚 zhuàn); see also Lǐ Xīnchuán 李心傳 Jiànyán yǐlái xìnián yàolù 建炎以來繫年要錄 for his role in the puppet-emperor episode.