Wáng Ānshí 王安石 (1021–1086), zì Jièfǔ 介甫, hào Bànshān 半山, posthumously Wén 文 (subsequently rescinded under the Yuányòu 元祐 anti-reform government). Native of Línchuān 臨川 in Fǔzhōu 撫州 (modern Línchuān, Jiāngxī), thus the conventional sobriquet Línchuān xiānshēng 臨川先生. Jìnshì of Qìnglì 慶曆 2 (1042) at age 22, ranked fourth on the palace list. Provincial career chiefly in Yīn 鄞 (Zhèjiāng), Shūzhōu 舒州, and Chángzhōu 常州 before entering central government under Shénzōng 神宗 (r. 1067–1085) as Senior Grand Counsellor (cānzhī zhèngshì 參知政事, 1069), then full Counsellor (1070).
The architect of the Xīnfǎ 新法 (“New Policies”): the Green Sprouts (qīngmiáo 青苗), Hired Service (mùyì 募役), Equitable Transport (jūnshū 均輸), Market Exchange (shìyì 市易), Baojia 保甲 militia, Baomǎ 保馬 horse-rearing, and Square-Field Land-Tax (fāngtián jūnshuì 方田均稅) reforms — collectively the most ambitious pre-modern Chinese state-economic restructuring. Removed from office in 1074 and 1076; retired to Jiāngníng 江寧 (Nanjing). Rehabilitated and re-honoured under Huīzōng 徽宗.
In the classical-textual sphere he is the principal architect of the Sānjīng xīnyì 三經新義 — the official Reform-period commentaries on the Shī 詩, Shū 書, and Zhōulǐ 周禮, of which only KR1d0004 Zhōuguān xīnyì 周官新義 survives in nearly complete form (reconstructed from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn under the Sìkù project). The Zhōuguān xīnyì was, by Cài Tāo’s 蔡絛 testimony in Tiěwéi shān cóngtán 鐵圍山叢談, the only one of the three commentaries actually written by Wáng’s own hand — the Shī and Shū commentaries were drafted by his son 王雱 Wáng Pāng and his disciples. Wáng’s Zì shuō 字說 (a graphological lexicon) is the central methodological document of the Reform-school exegesis and the principal target of Northern-Sòng anti-Reform philological polemics. He also produced a body of poetry and prose that secured his place among the Eight Masters of the TángSòng (TángSòng bā dàjiā 唐宋八大家); his collected works survive as Línchuān xiānshēng wénjí 臨川先生文集 (KR4d collection).
His biography is in Sòngshǐ j. 327. CBDB id 1762, dates 1021–1086 — verified against the Sòngshǐ lifedates and standard Sōngshǐ scholarship; no discrepancy with the catalog meta.