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c) Ethics.
In the Lun-hêng, ethical problems take up but a small space.
Probably Wang Ch`ung has treated them more in detail in his lost
work, the Chi-su-chieh-yi "Censures on Morals." In the Lun-hêng
they are touched upon more incidentally.
Men are all endowed with the same heavenly fluid, which
becomes their vital force and their mind. There is no fundamental
difference in their organisation. But the quantity of the fluids
varies, whence the difference of their characters. "The fluid men
are endowed with, says Wang Ch`ung, is either copious or deficient,
and their characters correspondingly good or bad" (Chap. XXXI).
Epicurus explains the difference of human characters by the different
mixture of the four substances constituting the soul.
The vital fluid embraces the Five Elements of Chinese natural
philosophy: Water, fire, wood, metal, and earth, which form the
Five Organs of the body: the heart, the liver, the stomach, the
lungs, and the kidneys. These inner parts are the seats of the
Five Virtues:—benevolence, justice, propriety, knowledge, and truth
(p. 105). The Five Virtues are regarded as the elements of human
character and intelligence. Thus the quantity of the original fluid
has a direct influence upon the character of the person. A small
dose produces but a small heart, a small liver, etc. and these
organs being small the moral and mental qualities of the owner
can be but small, insufficient, bad. The copiousness of the fluid
has the opposite result.
The Five Organs are the substrata of the "Five Virtues."
Any injury of the former affects the latter. When those organs
become diseased, the intellect loses its brightness, and morality
declines, and, when these substrata of the mind and its virtues
are completely destroyed by death, the mind ceases likewise (p. 195).
Being virtually contained in the vital or heavenly fluid, the
Five Virtues must come from Heaven and be heavenly virtues
(Chap. XLIII). Heaven is unconscious and inactive, therefore it
cannot practise virtue in a human way, but the results of the spontaneous
movement of the heavenly fluid are in accordance with virtue.
It would not be difficult to qualify the working of nature as benevolent,
just, and proper, which has been done by all religions, although
unconscious benevolence and unconscious justice are queer
notions, but how about unconscious knowledge and unconscious
truth, the last of the Five Virtues? Wang Ch`ung finds a way out
of this impasse:—"The heart of high Heaven, he says, is in the
bosom of the Sages," an idea expressed already in the Liki (Cf.
Legge's transl. Vol. I, p. 382). Heaven feels and thinks with their
hearts (p. 128 seq.). Heaven has no heart of its own, but the heart
of the Sages as well as of men in general are its hearts, for they have
been produced by the heavenly fluid. This fluid, originally a shapeless
and diffuse mass, cannot think or feel by itself. To become conscious
it requires an organism. In so far it can be said that by
consulting one's own heart, one learns to know the will of Heaven,
that "Heaven acts through man" and that "when it reprimands,
it is done through the mouths of Sages" (eod.).
Wang Ch`ung does not enter upon a discussion on what the
moral law really is, and why it is binding. He simply takes the
Five Virtues in the acceptation given them by the Confucianists.
But he ventilates another question, which has been taken up by
goodness or badness of human nature. Wang Ch`ung acquaints
us with the different views on this subject. The two extremes
are represented by Mencius, who advocates the original goodness,
and by Hsün Tse, who insists upon its badness. There are many
compromises between these two contrasting theories. Wang Ch`ung
himself takes a middle course, declaring that human natural disposition
is sometimes good, and sometimes bad, just as some people
are by nature very intelligent, while others are feeble-minded
(Chap. XXXII).
Original nature may be changed by external influences. Good
people may become bad, and bad ones may reform and turn good.
Such results can be brought about by intercourse with good or
bad persons. With a view to reforming the wicked the State makes
use of public instruction and criminal law (Chap. XXXI). Wang
Ch`ung adopts the classification of Confucius, who distinguishes average
people and such above and below the average (Analects VI, 19).
"The character of average people," he says, "is the work of habit.
Made familiar with good, they turn out good, accustomed to evil,
they become wicked. Only with extremely good, or extremely bad
characters habit is of no avail." These are the people above and
below the average. Their characters are so inveterate, that laws
and instructions are powerless against them. They remain what
they are, good or bad (Chap. XXXII).
The cultivation of virtue is better than the adoration of spirits,
who cannot help us (Chap. XLIV). Yet it would be a mistake to believe
that virtue procures happiness. Felicity and misfortune depend
on fate and chance, and cannot be attracted by virtue or crime
(Chap. XXXVIII). On the whole Wang Ch`ung does not think much
of virtue and wisdom at all. He has amalgamated the Confucian
Ethics with his system as far as possible, but the Taoist ideas
suit him much better and break through here and there. The
Taoists urge that virtue and wisdom are a decline from man's original
goodness. Originally people lived in a state of quietude and
happy ignorance. "Virtuous actions were out of the question, and
the people were dull and beclouded. Knowledge and wisdom did
not yet make their appearance" (p. 100). They followed their
natural propensities, acted spontaneously, and were happy. Such
was the conduct of the model emperors of antiquity, Huang Ti, Yao,
and Shun. They lived in a state of quietude and indifference, did
not work, and the empire was governed by itself (p. 98). They
merely imitated Heaven, who's principle is spontaneity and inaction.
the wisest and best men. "A man with the highest, purest, and
fullest virtue has been endowed with a large quantity of the
heavenly fluid, therefore he can follow the example of Heaven,
and be spontaneous and inactive like it" (loc. cit.). He need not
trouble about virtue, or act on purpose, for he is naturally virtuous,
and all his spontaneous deeds are excellent. The majority
of people, however, cannot reach this height. Having received
but a small quota of the heavenly fluid, they cannot follow its
example, and become active. They practise the routine virtues,
which for the superior man, who naturally agrees with them, are
of little importance.
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