Wang Ji came from a family of officials and eunuchs, but he had no interest in his career, and instead took Tao Yuanming as an idol. He has been studious since childhood, knowledgeable and strong, but from an early age he was restless.
At the age of 15, Wang Ji traveled to Chang'an to meet Yang Su, a minister of power and opposition. When Yang Su talked and laughed with him, he found that he talked extraordinaryly and had a heroic spirit, so he called him a "prodigy fairy". Within a few years, Wang Ji "should be filial piety and honesty, middle and high, and give the secretary orthography." But he was simple and arrogant by nature, and he couldn't stand the rules of the imperial court, so he resigned on the pretext of being sick. Then, the organization department arranged for him to serve as the county clerk of Liuhe County, Yangzhou, but after he arrived, he never handled government affairs and became a drunk every day, so his opinions were quickly reflected to his superiors. Seeing that he was about to be dismissed, he slipped away in a small boat overnight under the pretext of suffering from gout. This is irresponsible, and he also has a word: "The great net of heaven has fallen from the sky, where can I hide!" ”
After returning to his hometown, Wang Ji heard that there was a hermit named Zhongchangzi Guang nearby, who "took food and nourished" and "did not eat without his strength", which has always been the case for 30 years, and felt that it was very good, so he moved to Jielu. Zhong's eldest son Guang was silent all day, but he often invited Wang Ji to drink, and Wang Ji lived happily.
In the eighth year of Tang Wude (625), the imperial court recruited officials of the former dynasty, and Wang Ji still held his original position to wait for zhaomen to go to the province. According to the custom, Menxia Province supplied officials with three liters of good wine every day. Once, someone asked him, "Is it happy to be in the imperial court?" He replied: "The salary of the emperor is meager, the court is cold, no one cares, and it is rare to be promoted, but every day the government will supply three liters of fine wine, but it is still not satisfactory!" After hearing about it, the waiter in Menxia Province said, "Since Mr. Wang is addicted to alcohol, how can three liters of wine be enough?" From today onwards, serve him a bucket every day! Since then, Wang Ji has received a nickname of "Doujiu Bachelor". But he calls himself "Mr. Wudou"—not only showing that he has a lot of alcohol, but also implies his determination to learn from Tao Yuanming.
Tao Yuanming is reluctant to bend his waist for five buckets of rice and go into hiding, Wang Ji is even more lovely than that, he is addicted to alcohol, and where there is wine, he runs to wherever he wants. In the early days of Zhenguan, the Taile Department shijiao geshan brewed wine, and Wang Ji asked himself to be appointed as a taileyman. The department in charge of selecting and dispatching officials thought that he was inappropriate and did not give him permission, so he tangled with the head of the organization department and finally became one. However, soon Jiao Ge and his wife died one after another, and no one served good wine, and Wang Ji no longer had the heart to love the stack, so he hung up the crown and went into hiding.
Since his retirement, until his death at home, Wang Ji has been happily wandering among the villages. What he was most happy to do was to go to the field to do some small work, and then stop to look at the flowers, birds, fish and insects, or lean in some quiet corner and watch the pedestrians on the road, occasionally talk to them, chat, and write some poetry when they are happy. "The north field is gone, and the east is dead." When the autumn moon is full, it is more worth the night of the fireflies. "He had no ambitions all his life, and after his retreat, he always liked to travel with the literati who lived in seclusion in the mountains, and this poem reflects one aspect of his retreat life."
Wang Ji calls himself "useless" with "having a way to himself, and having no merit in the time", and it is not difficult to see that his value orientation shows obvious color of birth. Throughout his life, he retired from office and went into hiding, and he probably had to suffer unavoidably. This seems to be the answer in the "Lu DongGaozi Reply to Chen Shangshu Shushu" compiled by Wang Ji's nephew: "At the beginning of Zhenguan Chu, Zhong's father Taiyuan Fujun (Wang Ning, Wang Ji's brother) was the overseer of the imperial history, the Marquis Junji, and the eldest grandson Taiwei, who was convicted... The Wang brothers are all suppressed and do not need to be. Wang Ji probably saw through the harsh reality: this society has no justice and conscience, no eternal victory, only temporary humiliation, if you hide from the world, away from the world, its shame is self-explanatory, its heart is self-assured, and it is natural to get along with heaven and earth, and it can also get the comfort and leisure of the soul.
Perhaps, alcoholism is just an excuse for Wang Ji to return to hermitage, and the real reason is the contradiction between staying in the official field or returning to the hidden village in his heart. Wine is just a kind of release in his heart. Reveling in the leisure and vastness of Murano, he finally chose to retreat after experiencing the three masters, and established a unique value orientation that was outside the palace career, just like Tao Yuanming, "Return to Xi, please rest and give a desperate trip." The world is left behind by me, and the words are repeated? ”