Despite Wang's high status, little is firmly established about his background or career except for the years that he served as chancellor — as, unusual for a chancellor, he did not have a biography in either the Old Book of Tang or the New Book of Tang.
[1] According to the table of chancellors in the New Book of Tang, his father was Wang Wuxuan (王武宣), who at one point served as the prefect of Yue Prefecture (岳州, roughly modern Yueyang, Hunan).
Five months later, however, without any reason given in the currently extant historical records, he was made the secretary general for Emperor Gaozong's son Li Dan (the later Emperor Ruizong) the Prince of Yu, and was no longer chancellor.
She made Li Dan the new emperor (as Emperor Ruizong), and subsequently made Wang Shizhong (侍中) — the head of the examination bureau of government (門下省, Menxia Sheng) and a post considered one for a chancellor.
In 685, however, for reasons lost to history, Wang was demoted to the post of prefect of Tong Prefecture (同州, roughly modern Weinan, Shaanxi) — but on the same day, was then further exiled to Xiang Prefecture (象州, roughly modern Laibin, Guangxi).