Five Dynasties · Official and Statesman

Wang Pu 王樸

Died AD 959

Passages
88
Chapters
8
Histories
3

Overview

The translated histories identify Wang Pu as an astronomer, diviner, musician, and official. This record brings together 88 passages from 8 chapters across 3 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

TypeEnglishChinesePinyin
Personal Wang Pu 王樸 Wang Pu
Title Privy Council Commissioner 樞密使
Personal name Pu 樸
Given Pu 樸 Pu
Given Pu 朴 Pǔ
Surname Wang 王 Wang
Surname Wang 王 Wáng
Alternate Wang Pu 王樸 Wang Pu
Personal name Wang Pu 王樸 Wáng Pú
Alternate Wang Pu 王仆 Wang Pu
Personal name Wang Pu 王樸 Wáng Pǔ
Alternate name Wang Pu 王朴 Wáng Pǔ
Alternate name Wang Pu 五朴
Personal Wang Pu 王朴
Personal name Wang Pu 王朴 Wáng Pǔ
Courtesy name Wenbo 文伯 Wénbó

Identity

Historicity
Historical
Identification
Named
Sex
Male

Roles

  • Astronomer
  • Diviner
  • Musician
  • Official
  • Scholar
  • Scientist
  • Statesman
  • Strategist
  • Writer

Life and dates

Death

  • Place: home / 歸 · Manner: illness; collapsed at Li Gu’s house and was carried home / 疾作，仆於坐上，舁歸而卒 · Age: Value: 54 · Reckoning: sui
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0056
  • Date Context: Source Date: Text: 显德六年三月庚申 · Western Year: AD 959
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:012:s0129
  • Date Context: Source Date: Text: 顯德六年三月庚申 · Western Year: AD 959
    Explicit · jiuwudaishi:119:s0021

Age

Attested activity

Career and standing

  • Label: calendrical calculator / 曆算
    Explicit · jiuwudaishi:140:s0034
  • Label: Director in the Ministry of Revenue / 比部郎中 · Action: appointed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 世宗即位 · Western Year: AD 954
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0007
  • Label: Right Reminder / 右拾遺 · Action: appointed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 世宗為開封尹 · Western Year: AD 953
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0006
  • Label: capital regent / left to hold the capital / 留守京師 · Action: appointed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 四年 · Western Year: AD 957
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0045
  • Label: Deputy Commissioner of the Eastern Capital / 東京副留守 · Action: appointed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 顯德三年 · Western Year: AD 956
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0043
  • Label: Academician of the Hall of Manifest Brightness / 端明殿學士 · Action: appointed
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0037
  • Label: administrator of Kaifeng / 知開封府事 · Action: appointed
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0036
  • Label: Deputy Privy Council Commissioner / 樞密副使 · Action: appointed
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0044
  • Label: Left Regular Attendant / 左散騎常侍 · Action: appointed
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0037
  • Label: Left Remonstrance Councillor / 左諫議大夫 · Action: appointed
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0036
  • Label: privy commissioner / 枢密使 · Action: appointed
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:012:s0096
  • Label: Privy Council Commissioner / 樞密使 · Action: appointed
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0044
  • Label: Vice Minister of Revenue / 戶部侍郎 · Action: appointed
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0044
  • Label: vice privy commissioner / 枢密副使 · Action: appointed
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:012:s0083
  • Label: investigating officer / 推官 · Action: held · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 世宗為開封尹 · Western Year: AD 953
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0006
  • Label: military governor’s chief secretary / 節度掌書記 · Action: held · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 周世宗鎮澶州 · Western Year: AD 953
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0005
  • Label: Academician of the Duanming Hall / 端明殿學士 · Action: held · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 周顯德二年 · Western Year: AD 955
    Explicit · jiuwudaishi:140:s0034
  • Label: Left Regular Attendant / 左散騎常侍 · Action: held · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 周顯德二年 · Western Year: AD 955
    Explicit · jiuwudaishi:140:s0034
  • Label: Privy Council Commissioner / 樞密使 · Action: held · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 顯德六年春正月 · Western Year: AD 959
    Explicit · jiuwudaishi:145:s0039
  • Label: Grand Councilor / 樞密使 · Action: held
    Explicit · jiuwudaishi:119:s0010, jiuwudaishi:119:s0021
  • Label: Privy Council commissioner / 樞密使 · Action: held
    Explicit · jiuwudaishi:144:s0013
  • Label: proofreader / 校書郎 · Action: held
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0002
  • Description: appointed Left Regular Attendant and Duanming Hall academician while retaining Kaifeng charge / 授左散騎常侍、端明殿學士，仍權知開封府 · Western Year: AD 955
    Explicit · jiuwudaishi:115:s0189
  • Label: Palace Attendant / 侍中 · Action: posthumously-granted
    Explicit · xinwudaishi:031:s0058

Places and affiliations

Learning and skills

Works and attributed material

Events and relationships

Assessments and attributes

Source notes

  • Field: personal-name · Statement: Source writes 五朴 for 王朴 in s0113 · Witness: chapter text
    Textual variant · songshi:076:s0113

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 115Volume 115 Book of Later Zhou 17: Shizong Annals 2 · 2 passages
Open chapter
Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 119Volume 119 Book of Later Zhou 21: Shizong Annals 6 · 4 passages
Open chapter
Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 140Volume 140: Treatises 2 Calendars · 2 passages
Open chapter
Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 144Volume 144: Treatises 6 Music 1 · 2 passages
Open chapter
Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 145Volume 145: Treatises 7 Music 2 · 6 passages
Open chapter
樞密使王樸，采京房之準法，練梁武之通音，考鄭譯、寶常之七均，校孝孫、文收之九變，積黍累以審其度，聽聲詩以測其情，依權衡嘉量之前文，得備數和聲之大旨，施於鐘虡，足洽《簫韶》。 Privy Council Commissioner Wang Pu drew on Jing Fang's pitch standard, mastered Emperor Wu of Liang's universal tones, studied the seven keys of Zheng Yi and Wan Baochang and the nine transformations of Zu Xiaosun and Zhang Wenshou, calibrated measures with millet grains, tested pitches against the Sound Poems, followed ancient standards of weight and measure, recovered the principle of numbered harmony, and applied it to bells and stands until it matched the legendary Xiao-Shao music.
History of Song, Chapter 76Volume 76 Treatises 29: Measures and Calendar 9 · 45 passages
Open chapter
New History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 12Volume 12 Later Zhou Annals 3: Shizong, Emperor Gong · 5 passages
Open chapter
New History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 31Volume 31 Later Zhou Biographies 11: Wang Pu, Zheng Renhui, Hu Zai · 22 passages
Open chapter
顯德二年，詔朴校定大歷，乃削去近世符天流俗不經之學，設通、經、統三法，以歲軌離交朔望周變率策之數，步日月五星，為《欽天曆》。 Xiande year two, an edict put Pu to revising the Great Calendar. He stripped out recent Futian astrology and folk superstition, set up three methods—comprehensive, canonical, and systematic—and from the year’s track, lunar nodes, new and full moons, cyclical shifts, rates, and procedures calculated sun, moon, and the five planets, producing the Qintian Calendar.
六年，又詔朴考正雅樂，朴以謂十二律管互吹，難得其真，乃依京房為律準，以九尺之弦十三，依管長短寸分設柱，用七聲為均，樂成而和。 Year six brought another edict: rectify court music. Pu argued that cross-blowing the twelve pitch pipes never yields true pitch. Following Jing Fang, he built a pitch standard, strung thirteen nine-foot strings, set bridges to each pipe’s length in inches and fractions, tuned to the seven-tone scale—and the music, finished, rang true.