During Sima Rui's enthronement ceremony, as the civil and military officials bowed to the new emperor, Emperor Yuan of Jin astonished everyone with an unexpected move. He rose from his throne and said to Wang Dao, "General Wang, I wish to share the realm with you. Please come forward and sit beside me." Wang Dao had just been appointed as both Prime Minister and General of the Cavalry by Emperor Yuan of Jin—why did he receive such exceptional favor from the emperor?
Wang Dao came from a prominent aristocratic family in the Central Plains. In 307 AD, Wang Dao accompanied Sima Rui to Jiankang, serving as the Military Advisor to the General of Andong. Sima Rui was neither exceptionally talented nor highly renowned, and he held no significant position within the Jin imperial family. As a result, upon arriving in the Jiangnan region, he was snubbed by the local aristocratic families. The powerful local clans held him in contempt; not only did they refuse to pay him homage, but they also declined to implement his decrees. Unsure of how to proceed, Sima Rui sought Wang Dao's advice. After analyzing the situation, Wang Dao suggested that Sima Rui should lead the high-ranking officials who had accompanied him from the north to visit the influential Jiangnan aristocratic families.
Shortly afterward, Wang Dao carefully orchestrated another impressive spectacle. His cousin Wang Dun, who served as the Inspector of Yangzhou and wielded considerable power, was invited to Jiankang, where together they devised a clever plan. According to local customs, the third day of the third lunar month was known as the Purification Festival, when both officials and commoners would gather by the river to pray for blessings from heaven. On that year's Purification Festival, Wang Dao arranged for Sima Rui to sit in a magnificent sedan chair, with an honor guard leading the way, while Wang Dao, Wang Dun, and other officials who had fled from the north rode respectfully behind on horseback, all proceeding toward the riverbank. That day, many residents of Jiankang had gone to the river, and they had never witnessed such a grand and spectacular scene before. As a result, news of this event quickly spread throughout the entire city of Jiankang.
The scholar-official families of Jiangnan, such as Gu Rong, soon heard about this. They reasoned that if even people as prominent as Wang Dun and Wang Dao showed such deference to Sima Rui, then Sima Rui was certainly no ordinary man. Consequently, they flocked to the Langya Prince's residence to pay their respects to Sima Rui.
As a result, the Jiangnan gentry no longer dared to look down on Sima Rui. At this point, Wang Dao said to Sima Rui, "Gu Rong and He Xun are both highly prestigious scholars in Jiangnan. If these two are willing to follow you, then everyone else will certainly obey your every command." Sima Rui found Wang Dao's words very reasonable, so he asked Wang Dao to personally visit the homes of Gu Rong and He Xun to invite them to take official positions. Gu Rong and He Xun were both delighted and even went to Sima Rui's residence to pay their respects.
Wang Dao's strategies ultimately enabled Sima Rui to establish a firm foothold in Jiankang. Later, he also helped Sima Rui transform Jiankang into a political center and a key military stronghold in the Jiangnan region.
It was precisely for these reasons that Sima Rui valued Wang Dao so highly, allowing him to sit beside him on the imperial throne. When the civil and military officials at court heard these words, they were all extremely astonished. Wang Dao quickly and humbly replied, "Your Majesty is like the sun high above, while we ministers and the common people are like all things on earth. No matter the time, all things must maintain a certain distance from the sun."
After hearing Wang Dao's words, Sima Rui felt especially delighted.
Although the Eastern Jin Dynasty was established, its foundation was unstable. The northern regions were engulfed in warfare, and to escape the chaos and preserve their lives, many aristocratic families from the Central Plains fled south to the Jiangnan area. At this time, Wang Dao advised Sima Rui to recruit those virtuous and talented aristocrats to prepare for future development. Sima Rui accepted Wang Dao's suggestion and recruited over a hundred people from the exiled northern aristocrats, appointing them as officials in the court. Among these people, some believed that Emperor Yuan of Jin would achieve nothing significant, and most renowned scholars even held a pessimistic and disappointed attitude toward the Eastern Jin. Once, these scholars held a banquet at a pavilion by the Yangtze River. One of them said sorrowfully that the scenery here was as beautiful as that along the Yellow River, but this was not the Yellow River—it was the Yangtze River. Upon hearing his words, the other scholars all wept. Wang Dao sternly told them that they should take the restoration of the Central Plains as their duty and jointly assist the royal family, rather than weeping bitterly together here. After hearing Wang Dao's words, the crowd stopped crying.
After this, Wang Dao, in order to consolidate the Eastern Jin Dynasty's position in the Jiangnan region, frequently offered strategic advice to Emperor Yuan of Jin. For example, he suggested that the emperor implement a series of policies to enrich farmers and strengthen the military. Wang Dao noticed that with the southward migration of Jin Dynasty nobles, the bad habit of ostentatious rivalry between wealthy families like Shi Chong and Wang Kai from the Western Jin period had been brought to the south. To curb this vice, Wang Dao asked Emperor Yuan to step in and prohibit officials from competing in displays of wealth. He said to the emperor, "This bad habit has many harms: it wastes the nation's financial resources, encourages official corruption, and over time, it will cause the people to become dissatisfied with the court's rule, ultimately undermining the foundation of the state." Emperor Yuan deeply agreed with this and had Wang Dao take the lead in changing this habit. On the Qingming Festival that year, the Eastern Jin ministers all went to Xinting (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu) for an outing. To show off their wealth, these ministers wore splendid clothes, rode in luxurious carriages, and brought fine wines, setting up colorful pavilions near Xinting. While they were all in high spirits, they noticed Wang Dao dressed in coarse cloth, sitting in a very simple reed shed. When they offered him a toast, Wang Dao poured out unrefined wine from his jug to return the gesture. The Minister of Personnel sighed and said, "Prime Minister Wang is telling us not to forget our fellow countrymen north of the Yangtze River who are still in the midst of war!" Upon hearing this, everyone was deeply moved, and some ministers even began to cry. From then on, the officials of the Eastern Jin Dynasty no longer blindly competed in displays of wealth.
Seeing that Wang Dao always had the nation's interests at heart, Emperor Yuan of Jin was very pleased and compared Wang Dao to Xiao He, who assisted Liu Bang. From then on, Emperor Yuan of Jin valued Wang Dao even more and consulted him on all matters. As a result, the people widely spread the saying: "Wang and Ma share the empire."