Wang Zengqi

[6] Wang published his first volume of short stories in 1947, after studying with Shen Congwen at Southwest Associated University in Kunming during the War of Resistance against Japan.

During the following three decades of the Mao era and the Culture Revolution, he focused his creative energies on politicized model operas heralded by Jiang Qing.

[7] Wang's 1980 story "Buddhist Initiation" painted a beautiful, poetic, and nostalgic portrait of life before 1949, in sharp contrast to the Mao era literature which generally denounced the evils of China's "feudal" past.

Wang's decision to portray Buddhist culture reflected an effort to expand literary topics and his unwillingness to place politics at the centre of his story writing.

[7] In the realm of contemporary literature, Wang emerges as a modern-day Su Dongpo, embodying the essence of a traditional Chinese intellectual deeply rooted in the wisdom of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism.

In contrast to the eloquence of Mencius's discourse, the young Wang Zengqi evidently favored the unrestrained freedom found in Zhuangzi.

In his later years, Wang Zengqi incorporated the Taoist spirit into a state of "tranquil harmony," forging his distinctive writing style: "blending classical and colloquial language with a judicious balance of intensity, to have substance without being flowery."