Wáng Bǎi 王柏 (1197–1274), zì Huìzhī 會之, sobriquet Lǔzhāi 魯齋 (“[Like] Lǔ Studio”; chosen later in life after his conversion from his earlier hào Chángxiào 長嘯 “Long-Whistler”). Posthumous appellation Wénxiàn 文憲 (“Cultured-Constitutional”). A native of Jīnhuá 金華 (modern Zhèjiāng 浙江). One of the most controversial Southern-Sòng Neo-Confucians, central to the Jīnhuá transmission of the ZhūXī 朱熹 school.
Family-tradition. His grandfather Wáng Shīyù 王師愈 was a pupil of Yáng Shí 楊時 — that is, of the senior Northern-Sòng generation of the Cheng brothers’ direct disciples; his father Wáng Hàn 王瀚 studied under both Zhū Xī and Lǚ Zǔqiān 吕祖謙. Wáng Bǎi was thus born into the heart of the southern dàoxué establishment.
Early identity. When young, Wáng admired Zhūgě Liàng 諸葛亮 (Kǒngmíng 孔明) of the Three Kingdoms — the icon of the active scholar-strategist — and adopted the sobriquet Chángxiào 長嘯, alluding to Zhūgě’s recitation of the Liángfù yín. Until age thirty he held this identity.
Conversion. After turning thirty, while composing the Lúnyǔ tōngzhǐ 論語通指 with his friend Wāng Kāizhī 汪開之, Wáng reached the Lúnyǔ line jūchù gōng, zhíshì jìng 居處恭, 執事敬 (“in dwelling-place be respectful, in handling-affairs be attentive”), and sighed: “Chángxiào is not the Way of holding jìng in the Confucian gate” — at which he replaced his hào with Lǔzhāi, the new identity signalling Confucian jìng-discipline. This conversion-narrative is one of the most-cited episodes of Sòng intellectual self-rectification.
Scholarly identity. Wáng Bǎi was the senior pupil of Hé Jī 何基, with whom he forms a principal joint case in the SòngYuán xuéàn (juàn 82, Bei-Xī HéWáng xuéàn 北溪何王學案). The HéWáng pairing is the central Jīnhuá transmission-line of the ZhūXī school in the third generation.
Textual-criticism of the canon. Wáng Bǎi is most famous — or notorious — for his radical textual-criticism of the classical canon:
- Shīyí 詩疑 (2 juàn) re-edits the Shījīng, rearranging the order of poems and questioning the authenticity of some.
- Shūyí 書疑 (9 juàn) attacks the authenticity of the Pángēng and Zhōugào chapters of the Shàngshū.
- Further studies on the Lúnyǔ, Mèngzǐ, and Yìjīng in the same critical mode.
The Qīng Sìkù editors regarded this canon-criticism as scandalous (see the tíyào of KR4d0371); but the 20th-century Gǔshǐ biàn 古史辨 movement under Qián Xuántóng 錢玄同 and Gù Jiégāng 顧頡剛 explicitly reinstated Wáng Bǎi as their principal Sòng forerunner of modern kǎozhèng 考證 textual criticism.
Career. Despite his prominence in the Jīnhuá Neo-Confucian establishment, Wáng Bǎi held no major office. He taught at his home, lectured at local academies, and “grew old in the hills” (Yáng Pǔ’s preface).
Sources. Sòngshǐ 宋史 juàn 438 (Rúlín zhuàn; biography of Wáng Bǎi); SòngYuán xuéàn 宋元學案 juàn 82 (Bei-Xī HéWáng xuéàn); Christian Soffel, Ein Stadthalter im Reich des Drachen (2008); Hoyt C. Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (1992); CBDB 10706.
Works in the Kanripo corpus. KR4d0371 Lǔzhāi jí 魯齋集, 20 juàn (Míng Zhèngtǒng-era recension by his sixth-generation descendant Wáng Dí 王迪).