Wang Fuzhi dedicated his life to writing. However, during his lifetime, he led such a reclusive life that his learning was virtually unknown beyond his hometown. It was only later, when scholars began introducing and expounding his works, that Wang's place in the history of Chinese scholarship attained its stature. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, Wang, the former unknown local scholar, had become one of three paradigmatic Confucian scholars of the early Qing Period. At present, Wang Fuzhi remains to be held in high esteem, especially by mainland Chinese scholars who see Wang as the climax of the development of philopsophy during the Qing dynasty. We cannot deny that Wang's own body of achievements is the major reason for his scholarly greatness and prestige. However, there were perhaps other reasons or environmental factors involved that influenced the description, construction and appreciation of Wang Fuzhi's place in intellectual history. Upon looking into the various accounts on Wang Fuzhi in history, we offer another perspective on the rise and fall of his prestige in scholarly estimation. We suggest that academic climate (that is, the prevailing scholarly emphasis of certain periods) was a determining factor in the rise and fall of Wang's prestige. In other words, as scholars of later generations selected a research “paradigm,” Wang's multifarious area of research and methodology would tend to lead them to be selective and narrowly focused on their personal research interest. This paper holds that the changing scholarly standing of Wang Fuzhi in history had been influenced by the varying academic climates and the subjective preferences of different scholars.