신당서
Despite Wang's high status, little is firmly established about his background or career except for the years that he served as chancellor — as, unusual for a chancellor, he did not have a biography in either the "Old Book of Tang" or the "New Book of Tang". According to the table of chancellors in the "New Book of Tang", his father was Wang Wuxuan (王武宣), who at one point served as the prefect of Yue Prefecture (岳州, roughly modern Yueyang, Hunan).