Wei Zhuang

Wei Zhuang (, 836? –910 ), style name Duanyi , was a Chinese poet and late Tang dynasty and early Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period historical figure best known for his poetry in shi and ci styles.

Background and early career Traditional historical sources do not give a date for Wei Zhuang's birth, although the modern literary historian Xia Chengtao , using textual clues from Wei's poetry, asserted that Wei was born in 836. Wei wrote a long poem, the Ballad of the Lady Qin, recounting the catastrophe from the view point of a woman from the Qin region (i.e., the Chang'an region). then-reigning Emperor Zhaozong (Emperor Xizong's brother and successor) sent Wei Zhuang and Li Xun to Xichuan to commission Wang as the deputy military governor of circuit. (Wang would shortly after be made full military governor (Jiedushi).) Wang kept both of them on his staff, and they served as his secretaries, along with Feng Juan . It was said that the documents that he drafted for Wang did not use decorative language and yet were expressive and well written. It was said that Wei pleased Zhu with his words, such that Zhu subsequently sent his subordinate Wang Yin to accompany Wei, to serve as a return emissary to Wang.

In 906, Wang Jian formed a mobile imperial government and began to exercise imperial powers. As part of the organization of the imperial government, he made Wei his deputy in his role as the comforter (安撫使, Anfushi). an idea that Wei was particularly in favor. Under Wei's suggestion, he declared a three-day general mourning for the fall of Tang, but then declared himself emperor of a new state of Shu (known in history as Former Shu).

During Former Shu Wang Jian initially made Wei Zuo Sanqi Changshi , a high-level advisory official at the examination bureau, but further put him in charge of the Office of Chancellors (中書門下, Zhongshu Menxia), making him effectively a chancellor. It was said that the new Former Shu state's governmental structure, penal code, and ceremonies were all drafted by Wei. In 908, Wang further formalized Wei's position by making him Menxia Shilang (門下侍郎, deputy head of the examination bureau) with the chancellor designation of Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi .

Wei died in 910. He was given the posthumous name of Wenjing (文靖, "civil and comforting"). He left a collection of 20 volumes of his works, in addition to one volume of the declarations he drafted for Wang Jian and one volume of writing about his travels in the Shu region. His poetry was collected into a five-volume work edited by his younger brother Wei Ai .