王应麟的一生行迹（1223-1296）
王应麟，字伯厚，号深宁居士，庆元府鄞县（今浙江宁波）人，南宋著名学者。博学多识，著述宏富，以《三字经》《困学纪闻》传世。《三字经》为中国古代最有影响的蒙学读物，至今广为流传。宋亡后不仕元朝，以遗民终老。
宁波（1223） · 宁波少时
宋宁宗嘉定十六年，王应麟出生于庆元府鄞县（今浙江宁波），其父王撝为进士出身。王应麟幼承家学，九岁通《六经》，十九岁中进士，博学强记，有"书橱"之称。
宁波（1232） · 宁波少时
宋理宗绍定五年前后，少年王应麟在宁波遍读家中藏书，对经史、天文、地理、制度之学均有涉猎。他常到天一阁等藏书处抄录善本，十二岁便完成了第一部学术札记。宁波浓厚的学术氛围为他日后的博学奠定了根基。
临安（1241） · 科举入仕
宋理宗淳祐元年，王应麟中博学鸿词科，此后在朝中历任秘书郎、著作佐郎等职。他在朝中勤于著述，利用秘书省的丰富藏书，编撰了大量学术著作。
临安（1250） · 著述立说
宋理宗淳祐十年前后，王应麟编撰《三字经》初稿，以三字韵语概括中国历史文化，作为蒙学教材。此书简洁明了，朗朗上口，很快便在全国流传开来，成为最重要的蒙学读物。
临安（1265） · 著述立说
宋度宗咸淳元年前后，王应麟在临安任礼部郎官，兼直学士院。他在朝中多次上书论政，主张加强边防、整顿吏治。此时蒙古已灭金，南侵之势日迫，王应麟深以为忧，在奏疏中反复警示朝野，但未被充分重视。
临安（1276） · 宋亡守节
宋恭帝德祐二年，元军攻占临安，南宋灭亡。王应麟时在朝中任礼部尚书，亲眼目睹了国破的惨状。他拒绝降元，携家南归宁波，以南宋遗民自居，此后二十余年不仕元朝。
宁波（1285） · 遗民著书
元世祖至元二十二年，王应麟在宁波家中潜心著述，完成了《困学纪闻》等重要著作。他在遗民生活中将亡国之痛融入学术研究，对中国传统学术进行了全面总结。他的著作涉及经学、史学、地理、目录学等诸多领域。
宁波（1296） · 遗民著书
元成宗元贞二年，王应麟病逝于宁波，享年七十四岁。他一生著述宏富，涉及经史、地理、目录等众多领域，是南宋最博学的学者之一。其《三字经》流传千古，至今仍是儿童启蒙的重要读物，《困学纪闻》则是中国学术史上的经典之作。
The Life Journey of Wang Yinglin, Compiler of the Three-Character Classic
Wang Yinglin (1223-1296), of Yin county (Ningbo), was the most learned man of the Southern Song — 'the bookcase,' they called him at nine, when he had already mastered the Six Classics. Chancellor-examiner at court, he saw the dynasty fall at sixty and refused the Yuan for twenty years. His Three-Character Classic — 'At birth, human nature is good' — became the first book of every Chinese child for six centuries; his Kunxue Jiwen ('Notes from Hard Study') and the great Yu Hai encyclopedia fixed the standard of Chinese scholarship. Poet's line, scholar's monument: both from one desk.
Timeline of the Journey
- 1223 · Ningbo — Born at Yin in Qingyuan to a jinshi father: the boy who read the whole family library, took notes on everything, and at nine argued the Six Classics.
- 1232 · Ningbo — The education of the prodigy: classics, astronomy, geography, institutions — a first scholarly notebook finished at twelve. The 'bookcase' nickname already fixed.
- 1241 · Lin'an — Jinshi at eighteen, the erudite-words degree the next year — the rarest double in the empire — then the Palace Library: the state's books opened to the state's best reader.
- 1250 · Lin'an — The drafting of the Three-Character Classic: three-beat lines, the whole of Chinese history and ethics in a thousand-odd characters — the primer that would teach China to read for six hundred years.
- 1265 · Lin'an — Director in the Ministry of Rites, drafting for the academy: memorials on the northern threat and the rot of the officials — 'the border, the officials,' over and over, unheeded.
- 1276 · Lin'an — The Yuan at the gates, the court surrendered, the ministers signing: the minister of rites took his family home to Ningbo that week and never served again — twenty years of loyalist silence begun.
- 1285 · Ningbo — The great works of the exile years: the Yu Hai completed (two hundred books of ordered knowledge, the encyclopedia of the fallen state), and the Kunxue Jiwen — the notebook of a lifetime, the model of Chinese philology.
- 1296 · Ningbo — Dead at seventy-four: the primer in every schoolroom, the encyclopedia on every scholar's shelf, and a loyalty the Mongols never bought — the complete scholar, the complete refusal.
'At birth, human nature is good; natures grow near, habits grow far.' Six characters every Chinese-speaking child has chanted since the thirteenth century — written by a man watching his dynasty die, so that the next ones would have somewhere to begin.
