司馬道子
Wang Hong was a great-grandson of the famed Jin prime minister Wang Dao. His father Wang Xun (王珣) served as prime minister during the reign of Emperor Xiaowu of Jin, although he lost much of his power after Emperor Xiaowu's death. During Emperor An's reign, when Emperor Xiaowu's brother and Emperor An's uncle Sima Daozi, Prince of Kuaiji, served as regent, Wang Hong served on his staff, and, impressed with Wang Hong's suggestions, Sima Daozi wanted to promote him, but Wang Xun, believing his son to be too young for greater posts (Sima Daozi's regency lasted from 397 to 399, so Wang Hong would be only 18 to 20 by this point), declined on his son's behalf. Wang Xun had been very interested in financial matters and earned much money from investments, including loans to commoners, and after his death in 400, Wang Hong burned all of the promissory notes to forgive those commoners' debts. During his three-year mourning period, Sima Daozi's son Sima Yuanxian, who succeeded his father as regent, tried to have him come out of his mourning period and serve as a general, but he repeatedly declined invitations by both Sima Yuanxian and Sima Daozi. After the warlord Huan Xuan defeated and killed Sima Yuanxian in 402 and arrested and exiled Sima Daozi, most of Sima Daozi's old associates did not dare to see him off at the dock of the capital Jiankang, but Wang Hong arrived to do so, and was praised for his faithfulness.