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α) Philosophers.
Of all philosophers by far the most frequently cited is Confucius.
In Wang Ch`ung's estimation he is the Sage of China. He
calls him the "Nestor in wisdom and virtue, and the most eminent
of all philosophers" (Chap. XXXII). Wang Ch`ung seems to believe
that he has won his cause, whenever he can quote Confucius as his
authority, and that with a dictum of the Sage he can confound
all his adversaries. In quoting Confucius he uses great liberty, interpreting
his utterances so as to tally with his own views. But
this veneration does not prevent him from criticising even Confucius.
He thinks it necessary to vindicate himself from the charge of
impiety and immorality, intimating that even Sages and Worthies
are not infallible and may err sometimes (Chap. XXXIII). He might
have done anything else, but this offence the Literati will never condone.
His attacks on Confucius are very harmless and not even very
clever. He does not impugn the Confucian system, which on the
contrary he upholds, though he departs from it much farther than
he himself knows. His method consists in hunting up contradictions
and repugnancies in the Analects. He not seldom constructs
a contradiction, where there is none at all, by putting much
more into the words of Confucius than they contain. He forgets
are nothing else than such conversations—one does not weigh
every word. Besides the peculiar circumstances and the form of
mind of the speaker must be taken into consideration, which Wang
Ch`ung often neglects. In short, the essay on Confucius is in no
way a master-piece of criticism and not worth the fuss made about it.
Mencius, the second Sage, is also very often mentioned. Wang
Ch`ung holds him in high esteem, but treats his work in the same
way as the Analects. The objections raised keep more or less on
the surface, and do not affect the substance of his doctrine.
The highest praise is bestowed on Yang Hsiung, another famous
Confucianist of the Han epoch. Wang Ch`ung compares the historian
Sse Ma Ch`ien with the Yellow River and Yang Hsiung with the Han
(Chap. XXXVII). He rose like a star (p. 81), and his chief work,
the T`ai-hsüan-ching was a creation (p. 88).
Like Huai Nan Tse, Wang Ch`ung very often mentions Mê Ti
conjointly with Confucius as the two great Sages of antiquity. At
that time the fame of Confucius had not yet eclipsed the philosopher
of mutual love. Though appreciating him, Wang Ch`ung rejects his
system as unpractical, maintaining that its many contradictions
have prevented its spreading (Chap. XXXVII). The Mêhists believe
in ghosts and spirits and adore them, imploring their help. At the
same time they neglect the funerals and the dead, and they deny
the existence of fate.
When Lao Tse is referred to, he is usually introduced together
with Huang Ti, who like Lao Tse is looked upon as the
father of Taoism. They are both called truly wise (p. 98). The
Taoist school established the principle of spontaneity and inaction.
The philosophy of Wang Ch`ung is to a great extent based on their
doctrines without, however, becoming Taoistic, for he leaves out
the quintessence of their system, Tao, nor will he have anything
of their transcendentalism, mysticism or other extravagancies.
Wang Ch`ung is well acquainted with the Taoist writer Huai
Nan Tse, from whose work he freely culls, oftener than he mentions
him. He refutes the legend that Huai Nan Tse by his alchimistical
studies obtained immortality, and with his entire household,
including his dogs and poultry ascended to Heaven, submitting
that he either was beheaded for some political intrigues
or committed suicide (Chap. XXVIII).
Against Han Fei Tse, who wrote on the theory of government
and legislation, and whose writings are strougly tainted with
Taoism, Wang Ch`ung shows a pronounced antipathy. He most
to be useless grubs in the State. Han Fei Tse was of opinion
that rewards and punishments were sufficient to keep up order.
Wang Ch`ung objects that in his system virtue has no place. Han
Fei Tse despises divination, which Wang Ch`ung defends. Han Fei
Tse was much appreciated by the Emperor Ch`in Shih Huang Ti, a
great admirer of his works, which, however, did not hinder the
tyrant from condemning him to death for some political reason.
It is passing strange that the great Taoist philosophers Lieh
Tse and Ch`uang Tse are not once named. Were they so little read
at Wang Ch`ung's time, that he did not know them? Some of his
stories are told in Lieh Tse likewise with nearly the same words,
but it does not follow, that they must be quoted from Lieh Tse,
for such narrations are often found in several authors, one copying
from the other without acknowledging his source.
A scholar, of whom Wang Ch`ung speaks very often is Tung
Chung Shu, a very prolific writer of the 2nd cent. b.c. He was said
by many to have completed the doctrine of Confucius, while others
held that he had perverted it. Wang Ch`ung thinks that both views
are wrong (Chap. XXXVII). Tung Chung Shu devoted his labours to
the Ch`un-ch iu, but he also wrote on the magical arts (p. 84) and
on Taoism. Wang Ch`ung says that his arguments on Taoist doctrines
are very queer, but that his ideas on morals and on government
are excellent. In human nature Tung Chung Shu distinguishes
between natural disposition and feeling. The former,
he says, is the outcome of the Yang principle and therefore good, the
feelings are produced by the Yin and are therefore bad (Chap. XXXII).
Tung Chung Shu seems to have been the inventor of a special
rain-sacrifice. The figure of a dragon was put up to attract the
rain. Wang Ch`ung stands up for it with great fervour and attempts
to prove its efficacy (p. 55, N. 47).
Of Tsou Yen many miracles were already related at Wang
Ch`ung's time. He rejects them as fictions. Tsou Yen's writings
were brilliant, he says, but too vague and diffuse (Chap. XXXVII).
With his above mentioned theory of the Nine Continents Wang
Ch`ung does not agree.
The sophist Kung Sun Lung as well as Kuan Tse and Shang
Yang, who both have philosophised on the State, are rather severely
dealt with (Chap. XXXVII). On the other hand Wang Ch`ung
is very lavish in his praise of the writers of the Han time viz. Liu
Hsiang, Lu Chia, author of the Hsin-yü, a work on government, Huan
Chün Shan, author of the Hsin-lun, and Huan K`uan, who wrote the
Wang Ch`ung gives the names of a number of his contemporaries
to whom he predicts immortality, but he has been a bad prophet,
for save one they are all forgotten now.
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