Late-Míng 明 statesman, judicial official, and classical scholar, native of Jīntán 金壇 county in Yìngtiān fǔ 應天府 (modern Jiāngsū). Zì Míngyì 明逸; hào Fānglù 方麓; posthumously canonized Gōngjiǎn 恭簡. Lifedates 1521–1599 are firm. Jìnshì of Jiājìng 26 / 1547 (丁未). Career: held a series of judicial-administrative posts (Hénán àncháshǐ 河南按察使, Zhèjiāng yòu cānzhèng 浙江右參政, Shāndōng cānzhèng 山東參政), eventually reaching Nánjīng yòu dū yùshǐ 南京右都御史 (Right Censor-in-Chief at the Nanjing branch). Biography in Míngshǐ 明史 j. 221; collected works Fānglù jūshì jí 方麓居士集.
Major canonical works in the Sìkù: Shàngshū rìjì 尚書日記 (KR1b0040) — his definitive Shàngshū commentary, completed in late life (preface dated Wànlì 23 / 1595) on the basis of an earlier Shū wéi rìjì 書帷日記 (his private notebook from his magistracy years); Zhōuyì sī biàn 周易私辨 (separately in the Sìkù); and Chūnqiū jì zhuàn 春秋輯傳 (separately in the Sìkù). He also wrote substantially on legal-administrative subjects, reflecting his career in the censorate and judicial commissions.
His son Wáng Kěntáng 王肯堂 (1552–1638) was a famous late-Míng physician and the editor of one of the most important Míng-period medical encyclopedias.
The Sìkù tíyào on the Shàngshū rìjì explicitly endorses Wáng Qiáo as the leading gǔyì 古義 / shíyì 時義 reconciler — i.e., a scholar who combined the post-Huìxuǎn (KR1b0036) “ancient meaning” tradition with the bookseller-driven “current meaning” examination commentaries to produce a substantively respectable late-Míng Shàngshū work.