Book XXIX.
*83. Chap. I. An-shu [OMITTED] (Critical Remarks on Various
Books).
Wang Ch`ung criticises the famous authors of his time and
their works, beginning with some writers of the Chou epoch. He
finds fault with Mê Ti, the sophist Kung Sun Lung, and the speculative
philosopher Tsou Yen, and commends Tso Ch`iu Ming, the
author of the Tso-chuan and the Kuo-yü. He speaks with great
respect of the historians Sse Ma Ch`ien and Pan Ku, the philosopher
Yang Tse Yün, and Liu Hsiang, and in the highest terms of Lu
Chia, who published the Ch`un-ch`iu-fan-lu, and of Huan Chün Shan
and Huan K`uan, the authors of the Hsin-lun and the Yen-t`ieh-lun.
*84. Chap. II. Tui-tso [OMITTED] (Replies in Self-Defence).
Wang Ch`ung gives the reasons, why he wrote his principal
works, the Lun-hêng and the Chêng-wu, a treatise on government.
In the Lun-hêng he wishes to explain common errors, to point out
the exaggerations and inventions in literature, and thus deliver
mankind of its prejudices. The
Lun-hêng weighs the words and
holds up a balance for truth and falsehood.
Wang Ch`ung shows
the advantage which might be derived from different chapters,
and meets the objections which his opponents would perhaps raise.
