He was killed in a purge of high-level Tang officials by the warlord Zhu Quanzhong the military governor (Jiedushi) of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan), who was then preparing to seize the throne.
[4] When Emperor Zhaozong was deposed by a group of powerful eunuchs — Liu Jishu and Wang Zhongxian (王仲先) the commanders of the Shence Armies and the directors of palace communications Wang Yanfan (王彥範) and Xue Qiwo (薛齊偓) — in late 900, in favor of his son Li Yu, Prince of De the Crown Prince, Cui persuaded a group of Shence Army officers to carry out a countercoup in spring 901 to restore Emperor Zhaozong.
[6] Wang Pu was involved in Cui's persuasion of the Shence Army officers as well, and soon thereafter was made an imperial scholar (翰林學士, Hanlin Xueshi) and deputy minister of census (戶部侍郎, Hubu Shilang).
(Also at Cui's instigation, two chancellors that Emperor Zhaozong had commissioned at Fengxiang, while under Li Maozhen's and the eunuchs' control, Su Jian and Lu Guangqi, were forced to commit suicide.
Wang was first demoted to be the census officer at Zi Prefecture (淄州, in modern Zibo, Shandong), and then ordered to commit suicide at Baima Station (白馬驛, in modern Anyang, Henan), with fellow former chancellors Pei Shu, Dugu Sun, Cui Yuan, Lu Yi, as well as the officials Zhao Chong (趙崇) and Wang Zan (王贊).