Classical Prose
伤仲永
金溪民方仲永，世隶耕。仲永生五年，未尝识书具，忽啼求之。
父异焉，借旁近与之，即书诗四句，并自为其名。其诗以养父母、收族为意，传一乡秀才观之。
自是指物作诗立就，其文理皆有可观者。邑人奇之，稍稍宾客其父，或以钱币乞之。
父利其然也，日扳仲永环谒于邑人，不使学。
余闻之也久。明道中，从先人还家，于舅家见之，十二三矣。
令作诗，不能称前时之闻。
又七年，还自扬州，复到舅家问焉。曰：“泯然众人矣。”
王子曰：仲永之通悟，受之天也。其受之天也，贤于材人远矣。
卒之为众人，则其受于人者不至也。
彼其受之天也，如此其贤也，不受之人，且为众人；
今夫不受之天，固众人，又不受之人，得为众人而已耶？
Translation
Fang Zhongyong, a commoner from Jinxi, came from a family that had farmed for generations. When Zhongyong was five, though he had never known writing tools, he suddenly cried out asking for them. His father found this strange and borrowed some from nearby neighbors. Zhongyong immediately wrote a poem of four lines and signed his own name. The poem expressed the ideas of supporting parents and uniting the clan, and it was passed around for the local scholars to see. From then on, whenever someone pointed to an object and asked him to compose a poem, he completed it at once. Both the wording and the reasoning of his poems were worth reading. People of the county considered him extraordinary. Gradually they treated his father as an honored guest, and some offered money to ask for his poems. His father saw profit in this. Every day he dragged Zhongyong around to visit people in the county and did not let him study. I had heard of this for a long time. During the Mingdao era, I returned home with my late father and saw Zhongyong at my uncle’s house. He was already twelve or thirteen. When asked to compose a poem, he could no longer live up to the reputation I had heard before. Seven more years passed. Returning from Yangzhou, I again visited my uncle’s house and asked about him. The answer was: “He has become indistinguishable from ordinary people.” Master Wang says: Zhongyong’s quick understanding was granted by Heaven. In what he received from Heaven, he far surpassed ordinary talented people. Yet in the end he became an ordinary man because what he received from human teaching did not reach him. If one who received such extraordinary gifts from Heaven could still become ordinary without human education, then those who receive no such heavenly gift and are ordinary to begin with—if they also receive no education—can they even remain merely ordinary?
Analysis
“Lamenting Zhongyong” is a compact but powerful essay about talent, education, and wasted potential. Wang Anshi first tells the story of a child prodigy who could compose poems at the age of five. Then he shows how the boy’s father, attracted by profit and local admiration, paraded him around instead of allowing him to study. Finally, the boy’s gift fades until he becomes indistinguishable from ordinary people. The essay does not deny natural talent. Wang Anshi explicitly says that Zhongyong’s quick understanding was “received from Heaven” and that it far surpassed that of other gifted people. But the core of the essay lies in the phrase “what he received from human teaching.” Talent alone is not enough. Without education, discipline, and proper guidance, even extraordinary ability can wither. The social details are important. The villagers treat Zhongyong’s father as an honored guest; some pay for the boy’s poems. The father benefits from this and prevents his son from learning. Zhongyong’s decline is therefore not only personal. It is also caused by adults who mistake early talent for a spectacle and short-term profit. The phrase “he has become indistinguishable from ordinary people” gives the essay its sorrow. Wang Anshi is not mocking Zhongyong; he is mourning him. The title’s word “lament” matters. What is tragic is not that a child was ordinary, but that one who could have become remarkable was not allowed to grow. The final argument universalizes the story. If someone with such natural gifts can become ordinary without education, what about those who have no special gift to begin with and yet do not learn? The essay thus becomes a concise statement of Wang Anshi’s belief in learning, cultivation, and the formative power of education.
About the Author
Wang Anshi was a Northern Song statesman, thinker, and prose writer from Linchuan. He is counted among the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song and is best known politically for his reform program. His prose is concise, logical, and often morally pointed. “Lamenting Zhongyong” reflects his concern with education and the cultivation of talent. Through a brief story of a child prodigy who lost his gift, Wang Anshi presents a broader argument about learning, environment, and responsibility.