University of Virginia Library

a) Metaphysics.

The pivots of Wang Ch`ung's philosophy are Heaven and Earth,
which have been formed of the two fluids, Yang and Yin. "The
fluids of the Yin and Yang, he says, are the fluids of Heaven and
Earth" (Chap. XXX). These two principles are not of Wang Ch`ung's
invention, they are met with in ancient Chinese literature, in the
Yiking and the Liki for instance (see Tchou Hi, Sa Doctrine et son
influence, par S. Le Gall, Chang-hai 1894, p. 35).

Earth is known to us, it has a material body like man
(p. 93), but what are we to understand by Heaven? Is it a spirit,
the Spirit of Heaven or God, or merely an expanse of air, the
Blue Empyrean, or a substance similar to that of Earth? Wang
Ch`ung considers all these possibilities and decides in favour of the
last. "Men are created by heaven, why then grudge it a body?"
he asks. "Heaven is not air, but has a body on high and far
from men" (Chap. XIX). "To him who considers the question, as
we have done, it becomes evident that heaven cannot be something
diffuse and vague." His reasons are that heaven has a certain
distance from earth, which by Chinese mathematicians has been
calculated at upwards of 60,000 Li, and that the constellations
known as the solar mansions are attached to it. These arguments
seem strange to us now, but we must bear in mind that the Greeks,
the Babylonians, and the Jews held quite similar views, regarding
heaven as an iron or a brazen vault, the "firmament" to which the
sun, the moon, and the stars were fixed, or supposing even quite a
number of celestial spheres one above the other, as Aristotle does.

With regard to the origin of the universe Wang Ch`ung simply
adopts the old creation theory, on which he writes as follows:—
"The commentators of the Yiking say that previous to the separation
of the primogenial vapours, there was a chaotic and uniform
mass, and the books of the Literati speak of a wild medley, and
of air not yet separated. When it came to be separated, the pure
elements formed heaven, and the impure ones, earth. According
to the expositors of the Yiking and the writings of the Literati
the bodies of heaven and earth, when they first became separated,
were still small, and they were not far distant from each other"
(loc. cit.). In conformity with this view Heaven and Earth were
originally one viz. air or vapour. This theory must be very old,
for it is already alluded to in the Liki, and the Taoist philosopher
Lieh Tse of the 5th cent. b.c., who gives the best exposition of it,
seems to refer it to the sages of former times. The passage is so
interesting, that I may be permitted to quote it in full:—

"The teacher Lieh Tse said:—The sages of old held that the
Yang and the Yin govern heaven and earth. Now, form being
born out of the formless, from what do heaven and earth take
their origin? It is said:—There was a great evolution, a great
inception, a great beginning, and a great homogeneity. During
the great evolution, Vapours were still imperceptible, in the great
inception Vapours originate, in the great beginning Forms appear,
and during the great homogeneity Substances are produced."

"The state when Vapours, Forms, and Substances though
existing were still undivided, is called Chaos, which designates
the conglomeration and inseparability of things. `They could not
be seen though looked at, not be heard though listened to, and
not be attained though grasped at,' therefore one speaks of (incessant)
evolution. Evolution is not bound to any forms or limits."

"Evolution in its transformations produces one, the changes
of one produce seven, the changes of seven produce nine. Nine
is the climax, it changes again, and becomes one. With one forms
begin to change."

"The pure and light matter becomes the heaven above, the
turbid and heavy matter forms the earth below. The mixture
of their fluids gives birth to man, and the vitalizing principle of
heaven and earth creates all beings" (Lieh Tse I, 2).

In the Liki we read:—"Propriety must have sprung from
the Great One. This by division became Heaven and Earth, and
by transformation the Yin and the Yang" (Legge's Liki, Vol. I,
p. 386).

It is curious to note the similarity of the Epicurean cosmogony
with that of the ancient Chinese. Lucretius sings:—

and further on:—

(Lucr.V, 439-449; 485-493.)

The principle of division is the same:—the light primary
bodies Wang Ch`ung and the Chinese cosmogonists term Yang, the
heavy ones they designate by Yin. Only in respect of the line of
demarcation the Epicureans and the Chinese differ, for, whereas
the former regard earth alone as heavy and water, air and ether
as light matter, the Chinese comprise earth and water under the
term Yin, and air and fiery ether under Yang. From various utterances
of Wang Ch`ung it would appear that he conceives the Yang
as a fiery and the Yin as a watery element, in short that Yang is
fire and Yin water. This would tolerably well account for the
formation of the universe. Fire forms the sun, the moon, and the
other luminaries of Heaven, while from water and its sediments
Earth, the oceans, and the atmosphere are developed. "The solar
fluid is identical with the heavenly fluid" (Chap. XVIII), says Wang
Ch`ung, and:—"Rain is Yin, and brightness Yang, and conversely
cold is Yin, and warmth is Yang" (Chap. XXI).

The other attributes given by Wang Ch`ung to the Yang and
the Yin principles are merely the qualities of fire and water. The

Yang, the fiery ether or the solar fluid, is bright, i. e. light (Chap. XX),
warm (Chap. XXI), dry (Chap. XVIII), vivifying, and creative
(Chap. XXI). The Yin, rain or water, is dark, cold, wet, and
destructive (p. 111). By itself water possesses neither light nor
warmth, and may well be called dark and cold.

There is not a strict separation of the fluids of Heaven and
Earth, they often mix and permeate one another. Heaven as well
as Earth enclose air (Chap. XIX). The immense mass of air forming
the gaseous part of Heaven, which, as we have seen, is credited
with a body, is called sky (p. 113).

Now, whereas Earth rests motionless in the centre of the
world, Heaven revolves around it, turning from east to west.
This movement is explained as the emission of the heavenly fluid
which, however, takes place spontaneously. Spontaneity is another
corner-stone of Wang Ch`ung's system. It means that this movement
is not governed by any intelligence or subservient to the
purposes of any spiritus rector, but is solely regulated by its own
inherent natural laws. The same idea is expressed in Madhavacharya's
Sarva-Darśsana Sangraha:

(Sarva-Darśsana-Samgraha,translated byE. B. CowellandA. E. Gough,
London 1882, p. 19.)

Wang Ch`ung admits that he has adopted the principle of
spontaneity from the Taoists, who however, have not sufficiently
substantiated it by proofs (p. 97). He shows that Heaven cannot
display a conscious activity like man, because such activity is
evoked by desires and impulses, which require organs:—the eye,
the mouth, etc. The heavenly fluid is not a human body with
eyes and ears, but a formless and insensible mass (p. 93). The
observation of the natural growth of plants and of the regularity
of other natural phenomena precluding the idea of special designed
acts, has confirmed our philosopher in his belief in spontaneity.
"The principle of Heaven is inaction," he says. "Accordingly in
spring it does not do the germinating, in summer the growing,
in autumn the ripening, or in winter the hiding of the seeds.
When the Yang fluid comes forth spontaneously, plants will germinate
and grow of themselves and, when the Yin fluid rises, they
ripen and disappear of their own accord" (p. 99).

The movement of the Yin fluid is spontaneous likewise.
"Heaven and Earth cannot act, nor do they possess any knowledge"

(p. 101). They are not inert, but their activity is unintentional
and purposeless. Thus spontaneity is the law of nature.

From this point of view Wang Ch`ung characterises the fluid of
Heaven as "placid, tranquil, desireless, inactive, and unbusied" (p.
93), all attributes ascribed by the Taoists to their Mundane Soul, Tao.

At all times Heaven has been personified and deified. With
the Chinese as well as with us Heaven has become a synonym
for God. Wang Ch`ung notices that human qualities have been
attributed to him. We see in him the Father of Mankind, the
Chinese an emperor, the "Supreme Ruler," Shang Ti. He lives in
heaven like a king in his palace, and göverns the world (Chap. XXII)
meting out rewards and punishments to mankind, rewarding the
virtuous (p. 160), and punishing the wicked (p. 164). He reprimands
the sovereigns on earth for their misrule by means of extraordinary
natural phenomena, and, unless they reform, visits them and their
people with misfortune (p. 126). Thunder is his angry voice, and
with his thunderbolt he strikes the guilty (Chap. XXII).

Regarding Heaven as nothing else than a substance, a pure
and tenuous fluid without a mind, Wang Ch`ung cannot but reject
these anthropomorphisms. Heaven has no mouth, no eyes; it
does not speak nor act (p. 183), it is not affected by men (p. 110),
does not listen to their prayers (p. 113), and does not reply to the
questions addressed to it (p. 184).

By a fusion of the fluids of Heaven and Earth all the organisms
on earth have been produced (p. 104). Man does not make an
exception. In this respect Heaven and Earth are like husband and
wife, and can be regarded as the father and the mother of mankind
(Chap. XX). The same idea has been enunciated by Lucretius:—

(Lucr.I, 250-253.)

and further on:—

(Lucr.II, 988-995.)

Wang Ch`ung compares the creation of man to the freezing
of ice. He is the produce of the mixture and concretion or crystallization
of the two primary fluids:—"During the chilly winter
months the cold air prevails, and water turns into ice. At the
approach of spring, the air becomes warm, and the ice melts to
water. Man is born in the universe, as ice is produced so to
speak. The Yang and the Yin fluids crystallize, and produce man.
When his years are completed, and his span of life comes to its
end, he dies and reverts to those fluids" p. 196).

The Yin forms the body, and the Yang produces the vital
spirit and the mind. Both are identical, Wang Ch`ung does not
discriminate between the anima and the animus:—"That by which
man is born are the Yang and the Yin fluids; the Yin fluid produces
his bones and flesh, the Yang fluid the vital spirit. While man is
alive, the Yang and Yin fluids are in order. Hence bones and flesh
are strong, and the vital force is full of vigour. Through the vital
force he has knowledge, and with his bones and flesh he displays
strength. The vital spirit can speak, the body continues strong
and robust. While bones and flesh and the vital spirit are entwined
and linked together, they are always visible and do not perish"
(Chap. XVIII).

Man is imbued with the heavenly or vital fluid at his birth.
It is a formless mass like the yolk of an egg, before it is hatched,
showing in this respect the nature of the primogenial vapours, from
which it has been derived (p. 199). There is no difference between
the vital forces of man and animals. They have the same origin.
The vital fluid resides in the blood and the arteries, and is nourished
and developed by eating and drinking (p. 194). It has to
fulfil two difficult functions, to animate the body and keep it alive,
and to form its mind. All sensations are caused by the vital
fluid:—"When the vital fluid is thinking or meditating, it flows
into the eyes, the mouth or the ears. When it flows into the
eyes, the eyes see shapes, when it flows into the ears, the ears
hear sounds, and, when it flows into the mouth, the mouth speaks
something" (Chap. XVIII). Wang Ch`ung imagines that all sensations
are produced in their organs by the vital fluid, which must be the
mental power as well, since it thinks and meditates. Insanity is
defined as a disturbance of the vital force (eod.). There are no
supernatural mental faculties and no prophets or sages knowing
the future or possessing a special knowledge derived from any
other source than the vital force (p. 61). It is also the will, which
causes the mouth to speak. As such it determines the character.

which in Wang Ch`ung's belief depends upon its quantity (Chap. XXXI).
As vital energy it modifies the length of human life, which ceases,
as soon as this energy is used up (Chap. XXVII).

From what our author says about ghosts and spirits in particular,
which consist of the Yang fluid alone without any Yin, we
can infer that he conceived of the human soul also as an aura, a
warm breath identical to a certain extent with the solar fluid.

It is easy to see, how the Chinese came to denote the body
as Yin and the soul as Yang—I believe that these notions were already
current at Wang Ch`ung's time, who only took them up. The
body is formed of a much coarser stuff than the soul, consisting
as it does of solid and liquid matter. Therefore they presume
that it must have been produced from the heavier and grosser
substance, the Yin, while the purer and lighter Yang formed the
soul. A living body is warm, warmth is a quality of the Yang
fluid, consequently the vital force must be Yang. The mind enlightens
the body, the Yang fluid is light as well, ergo the mind
is the Yang fluid. The last conclusion is not correct, the mind not
being a material light, but a Chinese would not hesitate to use
such an analogy; their philosophy abounds with such symbolism.

The ideas of the Epicureans on the nature of the soul agree
very well with Wang Ch`ung's views. According to Epicurus the
soul is a tenuous substance resembling a breath with an admixture
of some warmth, dispersed through the whole organism:—ἡ ψυχὴ
σῶμά ἐστι λεπτομερές, παῤ ὅλον τὸ ἄϧροισμα παρεσπαρμένον, προσεμφερέστατον
δὲ πνεύματι ϧερμοῦ τινα κρᾶσιν ἔχοντι (Diog. Laert. X, 63).

Elsewhere the soul is described as a mixture of four substances:
a fiery, an aeriform, a pneumatical, and a nameless one,
which latter is said to cause sensations:—κρᾶμα ἐκ τεττάρων, ἐκ ποιοῦ
πυρώδους, ἐκ ποιοῦ ἀερώδους, ἐκ ποιοῦ πνευματικοῦ, ἐκ τετάρτου τινὸς ἀκατονομάστου
(Plut. Plac. IV, 3).

Lucretius says that the soul consists of much finer atoms than
those of water, mist or smoke, and that it is produced, grows, and
ages together with the body (Lucr. III, 425-427, 444-445). When
a man dies, a fine, warm, aura leaves his body (III, 232).

As regards man's position in nature Wang Ch`ung asserts that
he is the noblest and most intelligent creature, in which the mind
of Heaven and Earth reach their highest development (Chap. XLIII);
still he is a creature like others, and there exists no fundamental
difference between him and other animals (p. 202). Wang Ch`ung
likes to insist upon the utter insignificance of man, when compared
with the immense grandeur of Heaven and Earth. It seems

to have given him some satisfaction to put men, who are living
on Earth, on a level with fleas and lice feeding upon the human
body, for we find this drastic simile, which cannot have failed
to hurt the feelings of many of his self-sufficient countrymen, repeated
several times (p. 183, Chap. XXVI). In short, according to Wang
Ch`ung man does not occupy the exceptional position in the world
which he uses to vindicate for himself. He has not been created
on purpose, as nothing else has, the principle of nature being
chance and spontaneity (p. 103). The world has not been created
for the sake of man. "Some people," remarks Wang Ch`ung, "are of
opinion that Heaven produces grain for the purpose of feeding
mankind, and silk and hemp to clothe them. That would be
tantamount to making Heaven the farmer of man or his mulberry
girl, it would not be in accordance with spontaneity" (p. 92). As
an argument against the common belief that Heaven produces his
creatures on purpose, he adduces the struggle for existence, for
says Wang Ch`ung:—"If Heaven had produced its creatures on
purpose, he ought to have taught them to love each other, and
not to prey upon and destroy one another. One might object that
such is the nature of the five elements that, when Heaven creates
all things, it imbues them with the fluids of the five elements,
and that these fight together and destroy one another. But then
Heaven ought to have filled its creatures with the fluid of one
element only, and taught them mutual love, not permitting the fluids
of the five elements to resort to strife and mutual destruction" (p. 104).

Here again Wang Ch`ung is in perfect accord with the Epicureans.
Epicurus asserts that nothing could be more preposterous
than the idea that nature has been regulated with a view to the
well-being of mankind or with any purpose at all. The world is
not as it ought to be, if it had been created for the sake of man,
for how could Providence produce a world so full of evil, where
the virtuous so often are maltreated and the wicked triumph?
(Zeller, Philosophie der Griechen, III. Teil, 1. Abt., 1880, pp. 398
seq. and 428.)

The same sentiment finds expression in the following verses
of the Epicurean poet:—

(Lucr. II, 177-181 and V, 185-189.)

Although man owes his existence to the Yang and the Yin fluids,
as we have seen, he is naturally born by propagation from his
own species. Heaven does not specially come down to generate
him. All the stories of supernatural births recorded in the Classics,
where women were specially fecundated by the Spirit of Heaven,
are inventions (p. 48). Human life lasts a certain time, a hundred
years at most, then man dies (p. 46). A prolongation of life is
impossible, and man cannot obtain immortality (p. 50):—"Of all
the beings with blood in their veins, says our philosopher, there
are none but are born, and of those endowed with life there are
none but die. From the fact that they were born, one knows that
they must die. Heaven and Earth were not born, therefore they
do not die. Death is the correlate of birth, and birth the counterpart
of death. That which has a beginning must have an end,
and that which has an end, must necessarily have a beginning.
Only that which is without beginning or end, lives for ever and
never dies" (Chap. XXVIII).

To show that the human soul is not immortal and does not
possess any personal existence after death Wang Ch`ung reasons as
follows:—During life the Yang fluid, i. e. the vital spirit or the soul,
adheres to the body, by death it is dispersed and lost. By its
own nature this fluid is neither conscious, nor intelligent, it has no
will and does not act, for the principle of the Yang or the heavenly
fluid is unconsciousness, inaction, and spontaneity. But it acquires
mental faculties and becomes a soul by its temporary connection
with a body. The body is the necessary substratum of intelligence,
just as a fire requires a substance to burn. By death "that which
harbours intelligence is destroyed, and that which is called intelligence
disappears. The body requires the fluid for its maintenance,
and the fluid the body to become conscious. There is no
fire in the world burning quite of itself, how could there be an
essence without a body, but conscious of itself" (p. 195). The state
of the soul after death is the same as that before birth. "Before
their birth men have no consciousness. Before they are born, they
form part of the primogenial fluid, and when they die, they revert
to it. This primogenial fluid is vague and diffuse, and the human
fluid a part of it. Anterior to his birth, man is devoid of consciousness,
and at his death he returns to this original state of
unconsciousness, for how should he be conscious?" (p. 194.)

Wang Ch`ung puts forward a number of arguments against
immortality. If there were spirits of the dead, they would certainly
manifest themselves. They never do, consequently there are none

(p. 193). Other animals do not become spirits after death, wherefore
should man alone be immortal, for though the most highly
organised creature, still he is a creature and falls under the general
laws (p. 191). The vital spirit or soul is affected by external influences,
it grows by nourishment, relaxes, and becomes unconscious
by sleep, is deranged and partly destroyed by sickness, and the
climax of sickness, death, which dissolves the body, should not
affect it at all? (p. 196.)

At all times the dogma of immortality has been negatived by
materialistic philosophers. The line of arguments of the Greek as
well as the Indian materialists is very much akin to that of Wang Ch`ung.

Epicurus maintains that, when the body decays, the soul becomes
scattered, and loses its faculties, which cannot be exercised in
default of a body:—καὶ μὴν καὶ διαλυομένου τοῦ ὅλου ἀϧροίσματος ἡ ψυχὴ
διασπείρεται καὶ οὐκέτι ἔχει τὰς αὐτὰς δυνάμεις οὐδὲ κινεῑται, ὥστ᾿ οὐδ᾿ αἴσϧησιν
κέκτηται. οὐ γὰρ οἷόν τε νοεῖν αὐτὴν αἰσϧανομένην, μὴ ἐν τούτῳ τῷ συστήματι
καὶ ταῖς κινήσεσι ταύταις χρωμένην, ὅταν τὰ στεγάζοντα καὶ περιέχοντα μὴ
τοιαῦτ᾿ ἦ οἷς νῦν οὖσα ἔχει ταύτας τὰς κινήσεις (Diog. Laert. X, 65-66).

He adds that an immaterial essence can neither act nor
suffer, and that it is foolish to say that the soul is incorporeal:—
τὸ δὲ κενὸν οὄτε ποιῆσαι οὔτε παϧεῖν δύναται . . . . οί λέγogr;ντες ἀσώματον εῖναι
τὴν ψυχὴν ματαἴζουσιν.

From the fact that the vital fluid is born with the body, that
it grows, develops, and declines along with it, Lucretius infers that
the fluid must also be dissolved simultaneously with the body,
scattered into the air like smoke:—

(Lucr. III, 455-458.)

What Wang Ch`ung asserts about the influence of sickness on the
soul (p. 196), Lucretius expresses in the following pathetic verses:—

(Lucr. III, 463-471.)

The interaction of body and mind, which thrive only, as
long as they are joined together, and both decay, when they have
been separated, the poet describes as follows:—

(Lucr. III, 556-560.)

As the tree does not grow in the sky, as fish do not live on
the fields, and as blood does not run in wood, thus the soul cannot
reside anywhere else than in the body, not in the clods of earth,
or in the fire of the sun, or in the water, or in the air (Lucr. V,
133-134) and, when the body dies, it must become annihilated
likewise.

(Lucr. III, 781-786.)

(Loc. cit. 795-796.)

Of the Chârvâkas it is said by Sankara that "seeing no soul,
but body, they maintain the non-existence of soul other than
body."—"Thought, knowledge, recollection, etc. perceptible only
where organic body is, are properties of an organized frame, not
appartaining to exterior substances, or earth and other elements
simple or aggregate, unless formed into such a frame."

"While there is body, there is thought, and sense of pleasure
and pain, none when body is not, and hence, as well as from self-consciousness
it is concluded that self and body are identical."
(H. T. Colebroke, Miscellaneous Essays, vol. II, p. 428 seq.)

The dictum that everyone is the child of his time applies to
Wang Ch`ung also, free-thinker though he be. He has thrown over
board a great many popular beliefs and superstitions, but he could
not get rid of all, and keeps a good deal. His veneration of antiquity
and the sages of old is not unlimited, but it exists and induces
him to accept many of their ideas, which his unbiassed
critical genius would probably have rejected. Like the majority

of his countrymen he believes in Fate and Predestination. However,
his Fate is not Providence, for he does not recognise any Superior
Being governing the world, and it has been considerably materialised.
On a rather vague utterance of Tse Hsia, a disciple of
Confucius, who probably never thought of the interpretation it would
receive at the hands of Wang Ch`ung, he builds his theory:—"Life
and death depend on Destiny, wealth and honour come from Heaven"
(Analects XII, 5). The destiny, says Wang Ch`ung, which fixes the
duration of human life, is the heavenly fluid, i. e. the vital force,
with which man is imbued at his birth. This fluid forms his
constitution. It can be exuberant, then the constitution is strong,
and life lasts long; or it is scanty, then the body becomes delicate,
and death ensues early. This kind of Fate is after all nothing else
than the bodily constitution (pp. 138 and 46). In a like manner is
wealth and honour, prosperity and unhappiness transmitted in the
stary fluid, with which men are likewise filled at their birth. "Just
as Heaven emits its fluid, the stars send forth their effluence,
which keeps amidst the heavenly fluid. Imbibing this fluid men
are born, and live, as long as they keep it. If they obtain a fine
one, they become men of rank, if a common one, common people.
Their position may be higher or lower, and their wealth bigger
or smaller" (p. 138). Consequently this sort of Fate determining
the amount of happiness which falls to man's share during his
life-time, depends on the star or the stars under which he has
been born, and can be calculated by the astrologers. This science
was flourishing at Wang Ch`ung's time and officially recognised. On
all important occasions the court astrologers were consulted.

Now, Fate, whether it be the result of the vital force or of
the stary fluid, is not always definitive. It may be altered or
modified by various circumstances, and only remains unchanged,
if it be stronger than all antagonistic forces. As a rule "the
destiny regulating man's life-time is more powerful, than the one
presiding over his prosperity" (p. 137). If a man dies suddenly,
it is of no use that the stary fluid had still much happiness in store
for him. Moreover "the destiny of a State is stronger than that
of individuals" (loc. cit.). Many persons are involved in the disaster
of their country, who by Heaven were predetermined for a
long and prosperous life.

The circumstances modifying man's original fate are often
denoted as Time. Besides Wang Ch`ung distinguishes Contingencies,
Chances, and Incidents, different names for almost the same idea
(p. 142). These incidents may be happy or unhappy, they may

tally with the original destiny or disagree with it, completely
change it, or be repulsed. If an innocent man be thrown into jail,
but is released again, this unlucky contingency was powerless
against his favourable destiny; whereas, when hundreds or thousands
perish together in a catastrophe "the disaster they met with
was so paramount that their good fate and thriving luck could not
ward it off" (eod.).

We see Wang Ch ung's Fate is not the inexorable decree of
Heaven, the εἱμαρμένη of the Greeks, the dira necessitas, or the
patristic predestination, being partly natural (vital fluid), partly
supernatural (stary fluid), and partly chance.

Epicurus impugns fatalism, and so does Mê Ti and his school
on the ground that fatalism paralyzes human activity and is subvertive
of morality. There were scholars at Wang Ch`ung's time who
attempted to mitigate the rigid fatalism by a compromise with self-determination.
They distinguished three kinds of destiny:—the
natural, the concomitant, and the adverse. Natural destiny is a
destiny not interfered with by human activity. The concomitant
destiny is a combination of destiny and activity both working in
the same direction, either for the good or for the bad of the
individual, whereas in the adverse destiny the two forces work in
opposite directionś, but destiny gets the upper hand (p. 138).

Wang Ch`ung repudiates this scholastic distinction, urging that
virtue and wisdom, in short that human activity has no influence
whatever on fate, a blind force set already in motion before the newborn
begins to act (p. 141). There is no connection and no harmony
between human actions and fate. Happiness is not a reward for
virtue, or unhappiness a punishment for crimes. Wang Ch`ung adduces
abundance of instances to show, how often the wise and
the virtuous are miserable and tormented, while scoundrels thrive
and flourish (Chap. XII). Therefore a wise man should lead a
tranquil and quiet life, placidly awaiting his fate, and enduring
what cannot be changed (p. 145).

In the matter of Fate Wang Ch`ung shares all the common
prejudices of his countrymen. Fate, he thinks, can be ascertained
by astrology and it can be foreseen from physiognomies, omens, dreams,
and apparitions of ghosts and spirits. There are special soi-disant
sciences for all these branches:—anthroposcopy, divination, oneiro-mancy,
necromancy, etc.

Anthroposcopy pretends to know the fate not only from man's
features and the lines of his skin (p. 47), but also from the osseous
structure of the body and particularly from bodily abnormities

(Chap. XXIV). Many such instances have been recorded in ancient
Chinese books. Of features the physiognomists used to distinguish
70 different classes (p. 72). In accordance with this theory Wang
Ch`ung opines that the vital fluid, the bearer of destiny, finds expression
in the forms and features of the body, and can be read
by the soothsayers. He remarks that a person's character may
likewise be determined from his features, but that no regular science
for this purpose has been developed (Chap. XXIV).

Of Omens or Portents there are auspicious and inauspicious
ones, lucky or unlucky auguries. Freaks of nature, and rare specimens,
sometimes only existing in imagination, are considered auspicious
e. g. sweet dew and wine springs believed to appear in very
propitious times, in the vegetable kingdom:—the purple boletus, and
auspicious grass, in the animal kingdom:—the phœnix, the unicorn,
the dragon, the tortoise, and other fabulous animals (p. 56). Wang
Ch`ung discourses at great length on the nature and the form of
these auguries. They are believed to be forebodings of the rise
of a wise emperor or of the birth of a sage, and harbingers of a
time of universal peace. Those Sages are oftentimes distinguishable
by a halo or an aureole above their heads. The Chinese historical
works are full of such wonderful signs. But all these omens are
by no means intentionally sent by Heaven, nor responses to questions
addressed to it by man. They happen spontaneously and
by chance (p. 186), simultaneously with those lucky events, which
they are believed to indicate. There exists, as it were, a certain
natural harmony between human life and the forces of nature,
manifested by those omens.

"Dreams, says Wang Ch`ung, are visions. When good or bad
luck are impending, the mind shapes these visions" (p. 215). He
also declares that dreams are produced by the vital spirit (p. 200),
which amounts to the same, for the mind is the vital fluid. In
Wang Ch`ung's time there already existed the theory still held at
present by many Chinese that during a dream the vital spirit leaves
the body, and communicates with the outer world, and that it is
not before the awakening that it returns into the spiritless body.
Wang Ch`ung combats this view, showing that dreams are images
only, which have no reality. He further observes that there are
direct and indirect dreams. The former directly show a future
event, the latter are symbolical, and must be explained by the
oneirocritics.

Wang Ch`ung denies the immortality of the soul, but at the
same time he believes in Ghosts and Spirits. His ghosts, however,

are very poor figures, phantoms and semblances still less substantial
than the Shades of Hades. They are unembodied apparitions, have
no consciousness (p. 194), feel neither joy nor pain, and can cause
neither good nor evil (Chap. XLII). They have human shape or
are like mist and smoke (Chap. XLIV). The origin of ghosts and
spirits is the same as that of the other manifestations of fate: features,
omens, and dreams, namely the solar fluid and the vital force
or Yang. "When the solar fluid is powerful, but devoid of the Yin,
it can merely produce a semblance, but no body. Being nothing
but the vital fluid without bones or flesh, it is vague and diffuse,
and when it appears, it is soon extinguished again" (Chap. XVIII).

Consequently ghosts and spirits possess the attributes of the
solar fluid:—"The fluid of fire flickers up and down, and so phantoms
are at one time visible, and another, not. A dragon is an
animal resorting from the Yang principle, therefore it can always
change. A ghost is the Yang fluid, therefore it now appears and
then absconds. The Yang fluid is red, hence the ghosts seen by
people, have all uniform crimson colour. Flying demons are Yang,
which is fire. Consequently flying demons shine like fire. Fire
is hot and burning, hence the branches and leaves of trees, on
which these demons alight, wither and die" (eod.). The solar
fluid is sometimes poisonous, therefore a ghost being burning poison,
may eventually kill somebody (Chap. XXIII).

Many other theories on ghosts were current at Wang Ch`ung's
time, one of which very well agrees with his system, to wit that
in many cases ghosts are visions or hallucinations of sick people.
Others were of opinion that ghosts are apparitions of the fluid of
sickness, some held that they are the essence of old creatures.
Another idea was that ghosts originally live in men, and at their
deaths are transformed, or that they are spiritual beings not much
different from man. According to one theory they would be the
spirits of cyclical signs (Chap. XVIII).

According to Wang Ch`ung's idea ghosts and spirits are only
one class of the many wonders and miracles happening between
heaven and earth. "Between heaven and earth, he says, there
are many wonders in words, in sound, and in writing. Either the
miraculous fluid assumes a human shape, or a man has it in himself,
and performs the miracles. The ghosts, which appear, are all
apparitions in human shape. Men doing wonders with the fluid
in them, are sorcerers. Real sorcerers have no basis for what they
say, and yet their lucky or unlucky prophecies fall from their lips
spontaneously like the quaint sayings of boys. The mouth of boys

utters those quaint sayings spontaneously, and the idea of their
oration comes to wizards spontaneously. The mouth speaks of
itself, and the idea comes of itself. Thus the assumption of human
form by the miracles, and their sounds are spontaneous, and their
words come forth of their own accord. It is the same thing in
both cases" (loc. cit.). The miraculous fluid may also assume the
shape of an animal like the big hog foreboding the death of Duke
Hsiang of Ch`i (eod.), or of an inanimate thing like the yellow
stone into which Chang Liang was transformed (Chap. XXX).