Wang Su 王肅

Wang Su, courtesy name Ziyong, succeeded his father Wang Lang when the latter died in the 2nd year of Taihe (228). At eighteen he studied the Taixuan under Song Zhong and went on to write a commentary on it. In the Huangchu era he became Cavalier Gentleman of the Yellow Gate, and in the 3rd year of Taihe (229) he was appointed Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary. Records, Wei 13 §69 · 71

In the 4th year of Taihe (230), when the Grand Marshal Cao Zhen campaigned against Shu, Wang Su submitted a memorial. Even on a level road, he said, when provisions are carried a thousand li the soldiers go hungry; now the army was cutting a road as it advanced through rugged country, and with the long rains on top of this, Cao Zhen had covered only half the valley more than a month after setting out, so that the enemy could rest at ease and wait for our exhausted troops. Citing how King Wu, campaigning against Zhou, went out through the pass and came back, and how Emperor Wu and Emperor Wen, campaigning against Sun Quan, reached the Yangtze and did not cross, he urged that the troops be rested, and in the end the expedition was called off. His memorials proposing that mourning be held for great ministers and that fruit be offered at the ancestral temple were also put into effect. Records, Wei 13 §71–73

He also set out the foundations of government, proposing that idle posts and unneeded salaries be cut so that officials would be few and their salaries generous. He further proposed reviving the ceremony of holding court every five days, so that, as in the early Han, the high ministers would come to court in person with their business. Records, Wei 13 §73–76

In the Qinglong era, when the Duke of Shanyang, who had been sovereign of the Han, died, Wang Su memorialized that he be styled 'Huang' and that it be attached to his posthumous title. Emperor Ming did not follow this and gave him the posthumous title Emperor Xiaoxian of Han. Records, Wei 13 §77–79

Later Wang Su, as Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary, took charge of the Palace Library and concurrently served as Libationer of the Chongwen Academy. In the Jingchu era, when palace construction was in full swing, the people lost their farming, and punishments and executions were carried out abruptly, Wang Su memorialized that of the thirty or forty thousand men now at work only ten thousand able-bodied men be kept and rotated each year, and the rest be sent back to farming. Saying that good faith toward the people is the great treasure of a state, he urged that conscripted people be sent home by the promised date, and that those to be punished be handed over to officials so that their crimes could be made known. He also proposed abolishing all the expense of keeping useless birds and beasts. Records, Wei 13 §80–87

When Emperor Ming asked about Li Yun, Prefect of Baima, who had died after submitting a letter in the time of Emperor Huan of Han, Wang Su answered that his words had merely lost proper measure, while his real intention had been to help the state, so killing him had not necessarily been right. When the emperor said that Sima Qian, harboring resentment, had disparaged Emperor Xiaowu in the Records of the Grand Historian, Wang Su answered that Sima Qian neither embellished falsely nor concealed evil, and that the resentment lay with Emperor Xiaowu, not with the historian. Records, Wei 13 §88–90

In the 1st year of Zhengshi (240) he went out as Administrator of Guangping, and on taking up office he issued an instruction to the counties mourning Zhang Jian, who had already died. Recalled, he became Court Gentleman-Consultant, then Palace Attendant, and was transferred to Minister of Ceremonies. At that time the General-in-Chief Cao Shuang monopolized power and employed He Yan, Deng Yang and others; while discussing government with the Grand Commandant Jiang Ji and the Minister of Agriculture Huan Fan, Wang Su called them the likes of Hong Gong and Shi Xian. Cao Shuang heard of this and told He Yan and the others to be careful. Wang Su was dismissed over a matter concerning the ancestral temple, and then became Superintendent of the Imperial Household. When two fish a foot long gathered on the roof of the arsenal, he said there would be a calamity in which a frontier general would throw away his armor and flee, and afterward there was indeed the defeat at Dongguan. Later he was transferred to Intendant of Henan. Records, Wei 13 §91–92Records, Wei 11 §103

In the 6th year of Jiaping (254) he was given a tally and concurrently served as Minister of Ceremonies, and escorting the imperial carriage he received the Duke of Gaogui Village at Yuancheng. That year, when a white vapor crossed the sky and the General-in-Chief Sima Shi asked him the reason, Wang Su answered that it was the banner of Chiyou and that there would be disorder in the southeast. The following spring, when Guanqiu Jian, General Who Guards the East, and Wen Qin, Inspector of Yang Province, rebelled, Sima Shi asked how the state could be made secure. Wang Su cited how Guan Yu had made Yu Jin surrender on the Han River but collapsed in a single morning when Sun Quan attacked and captured the families of his officers and soldiers, and said that since the parents, wives and children of the officers and soldiers of Huainan were all in the interior provinces, it was enough simply to block them quickly and keep them from advancing. The Biography of Fu Gu records that in the spring of the 2nd year of Zhengyuan (255) some said Sima Shi should not go in person but send the Grand Commandant Sima Fu, and that only Fu Gu and Wang Su urged him to go in person. Sima Shi followed this and defeated Guanqiu Jian and Wen Qin. Records, Wei 13 §93–95Records, Wei 21 §95

Later he was transferred to Central Commander of the Army with the additional post of Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary, and received another 300 households, bringing his fief, together with the earlier grants, to 2,200 households. According to the Biographies of Technicians, the Central Commander of the Army Wang Su was among those for whom the physiognomist Zhu Jianping's predictions went wrong. When his illness became critical at sixty-two and his wife asked for his last words, Wang Su said there was nothing to worry about, since Jianping had told him he would live past seventy and reach the rank of the Three Excellencies, which had not yet come to pass; but in the end he died. When he died in the 1st year of Ganlu (256), his disciples who wore mourning numbered in the hundreds. He was posthumously made General of the Guards and given the posthumous title Marquis Jing. His son Wang Yun succeeded him but died without a son, so the fief was ended, and in the 4th year of Jingyuan (263) Wang Su's son Wang Xun was enfeoffed as Marquis of Lanling. Records, Wei 13 §95Records, Wei 29 §44

Wang Su favored the learning of Jia Kui and Ma Rong and disliked that of Zheng Xuan. Gathering the agreements and differences among the various interpretations, he wrote commentaries on the Book of Documents, the Book of Odes, the Analects, the Three Rites and the Zuo Commentary, and edited and settled the Commentary on the Changes written by his father, all of which were adopted by the official academies. His essays discussing and refuting matters of court institutions, the suburban sacrifices, the ancestral temple and mourning numbered more than a hundred. When he compiled the Evidence from the Sages to disparage Zheng Xuan, Sun Shuran of Zheng Xuan's school refuted it, and the Biography of Wang Ji records that when Wang Su altered Zheng Xuan's old interpretations, Wang Ji upheld Zheng Xuan's meaning and constantly opposed him. When the Duke of Gaogui Village had the Book of Documents expounded at the Imperial Academy and asked about the places where the interpretations of Zheng Xuan and Wang Su differed, the Erudite Yu Jun answered that, judged by the 'Great Plan', Wang Su's meaning was the better. Records, Wei 13 §96–97Records, Wei 27 §52Records, Wei 4 §62 · 67–69

In his assessment Chen Shou called Zhong Yao, Hua Xin and Wang Lang outstanding men of their age, and said that Wang Su was clear-sighted, upright and widely informed, a man well able to carry the firewood his father had split. Records, Wei 13 §99