Wang Shizhen - Wang Shizhen

A Chinese writer in the mid-Ming Dynasty. His pen name was Yuanmei. His pen name was Fengzhou or Yanzhou Shanren. He was from Taicang (Jiangsu Province). He was a Jinshi in 1547 (the 26th year of the Jiajing era). He was later appointed Minister of Justice in Nanjing. As the leader of the Later Seven Sons along with Li Panlong, he inherited the restoration movement of the Former Seven Sons such as He Jingming and Li Mengyang, and reigned over the poetry world in the first half of the Wanli period (1573-1620). He maintained that "literature is from the Western Han dynasty, poetry is from the High Tang dynasty," and even went so far as to forbid the reading of books from the mid-Tang dynasty or later, but in his later years he loved Bai Juyi and Su Shi, and his poetry, which had been decorative and valued style, gradually became more plain and simple. His disciples filled the country, and the influence of the restorationists reached its peak, but his imitation of their poetry and prose eventually degenerated into plagiarism, and he began to show signs of decline. He was extremely knowledgeable, and his fields extended beyond literature to classics and history, and he wrote 30 works, including "Four Manuscripts of Baizhou Shanren," "Continued Manuscripts," and "Yiyuan Sheyan." His biography can be found in the "Ming History," Biography of Wenyuan3.

[Masakazu Fukumoto]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国、明(みん)中期の文人。字(あざな)は元美。号は鳳洲(ほうしゅう)または弇州(えんしゅう)山人。太倉(たいそう)（江蘇(こうそ)省）の人。1547年（嘉靖26）の進士。官は南京(ナンキン)刑部尚書に至った。李攀竜(りはんりゅう)とともに後七子(ごしちし)の領袖(りょうしゅう)として、何景明(かけいめい)、李夢陽(りぼうよう)ら前七子(ぜんしちし)の復古運動を継承し、万暦年間（1573～1620）の前半、詩壇に君臨した。「文は前漢、詩は盛唐」と主張し、中唐以後の書物は読むなと禁じたほどであったが、晩年には白居易(はくきょい)や蘇軾(そしょく)を愛し、格調を重んじて装飾的であったその詩文は、しだいに平淡に赴いた。門人は天下に満ち、復古派の勢威は絶頂に達したが、彼らの詩文の模擬はやがて剽窃(ひょうせつ)へと堕落し、衰退の兆候を帯び始める。彼はきわめて博学で、その領域も文芸のみならず経学や史学にわたり、著は『弇州山人四部稿』、同『続稿』、『芸苑巵言(げいえんしげん)』など30種に及ぶ。伝は『明史』文苑伝(ぶんえんでん)3にある。

［福本雅一］

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