Wang Zhizuo

• Wang Zhizuo, courtesy name Yiru, also styled Danxia and Yannong, and known by the sobriquet Qianzhai, was a native of Meiyan in Zhenze, Jiangsu Province. He was a scholar of the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods of the Qing dynasty. In the first year of the Daoguang era (1821), he was recommended for the title of “Xiaolian Fangzheng,” but declined the examination due to his mother’s illness. He excelled in poetry, prose, and calligraphy, was skilled in Han clerical script, knowledgeable in music and rhythm, and adept at copying landscape, flower, and bird paintings with vivid spirit and accuracy.