War of the Eight Princes
Born in Linyi, Shandong, Wang belonged to the powerful and prominent Wang clan of Langya. In his youth, the War of the Eight Princes and subsequent invasions of the Five Barbarians led to turmoil in northern China; as such the ten-year-old Wang Xizhi moved south with his clan, and spent most of his life in present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang and Wenzhou.