He authored a treatise on insanity and its remedies, in addition to a materia medica that uniquely categorised drugs according to the theory of the wuxing (Five Phases).
After becoming a jinshi (graduate of the highest imperial examinations), Wang studied medicine with Li Dongyuan [zh].
He notes in the appendix that he borrowed an "anti-fire" remedy from the Shanghan lun or Treatise on Cold Injury to treat a woman who was suffering from yang madness.
[3] His three-volume materia medica, titled Tangye bencao (湯液本草)[c][6] and compiled around 1246,[7] was a unique attempt at categorising drugs according to the theory of wuxing (Five Phases),[2] instead of in terms of animals, minerals, and plants.
[8] Later in the Ming dynasty, physician Li Shizhen was able to successfully treat diarrhea with croton seeds too, after reading Wang's writings.