Book XI.
*31. Chap. I. T`an-t`ien [OMITTED] (On Heaven).
The old legend of the collapse of Heaven, which was repaired
by Nü Wa, when Kung Kung had knocked with his head against
the "Pillar of Heaven," is controverted, as is Tsou Yen's theory
of the existence of Nine Continents. Heaven is not merely air,
but has a body, and the earth is a square measuring 100,000 Li
in either direction.
*32. Chap. II. Shuo-jih [OMITTED] (On the Sun).
A variety of astronomical questions are touched. Wang Ch`ung
opposes the view that the sun disappeares in darkness during the
night, that the length or shortness of the days is caused by the
Yin and the Yang, that the sun rises from Fu-sang and sets in
Hsi-liu, that at Yao's time ten suns appeared, that there is a raven
in the sun, and a hare and a toad in the moon. Heaven is not
high in the south and depressed in the north, nor like a reclining
umbrella, nor does it enter into or revolve in the earth. Heaven
is level like earth, and the world lying in the south-east. The sun
at noon is nearer than in the morning or in the evening. Wang
Ch`ung further speaks on the rotation of the sky, the sun, and the
moon, on the substance of the sun and the moon, on their shape,
the cause of the eclipses, meteors, and meteorological phenomena.
33. Chap. III. Ta-ning [OMITTED].
On the cunning and artful.
