2. The Works of Wang Ch`ung.
Wang Ch`ung's last work, the Yang-hsing-shu or Macrobiotics in
16 chapters, which he wrote some years before his death, has
been mentioned. His first productions were the Chi-su-chieh-yi
"Censures on. Common Morals" in 12 chapters and the Chêng-wu,
a book on Government, both preceding his principal work, the
Lun-hêng, in which they are several times referred to in the two
biographical chapters.
Wang Ch`ung wrote his "Censures" as a protest against the
manners of his time with a view to rouse the public conscience.
He was prompted to write this work by the heartlessness of his
former friends, who abandoned him, when he was poor, and of
the world in general. To be read and understood by the people,
not the literati only, he adopted an easy and popular style. This
appears to have been contrary to custom, for he thought it necessary
to justify himself (p. 71).
The work on government owes its origin to the vain efforts
of the Imperial Government of his time to administer the Empire.
They did not see their way, being ignorant of the fundamental
principles (p. 70). From the Chêng-wu the territorial officials were
to learn what they needed most in their administration, and the
people should be induced "to reform and gratefully acknowledge
the kindness of the government" (p. 90).
These three works: the Macrobiotics, the Censures on Morals,
and the work on Government have all been lost, and solely the
Lun-hêng has come down to us. Whereas the Chi-su-chieh-yi censures
the common morals, the Lun-hêng = Disquisitions tests and criticises
the common errors and superstitions, the former being more ethical,
the latter speculative. Many of these errors are derived from the
current literature, classical as well as popular. Wang Ch`ung takes
up these books and points out where they are wrong. He avoids
all wild speculations, which he condemns in others, so he says
(p. 91). The Lun-hêng is not professedly a philosophical work,
intended to set forth a philosophical system, but in confuting and
contesting the views of others, Wang Ch`ung incidentally develops
his own philosophy. In this respect there is a certain resemblance
with the Theodicee of Leibniz, which, strictly speaking, is a polemic
against Bayle. Wang Ch`ung's aim in writing the Lun-hêng was
purely practical, as becomes plain from some of his utterances.
"The nine chapters of the Lun-hêng on Inventions, and the three
chapters of the Lun-hêng on Exaggerations, says he, are intended
to impress people, that they must strive for truthfulness." Even
such high metaphysical problems as that of immortality he regards
from a practical point of view. Otherwise he would not
write, as he does:—"I have written the essays on Death and on
the False Reports about Death to show that the deceased have no
consciousness, and cannot become ghosts, hoping that, as soon as
my readers have grasped this, they will restrain the extravagance
of the burials and become economical" (p. 90).
From a passage (Chap. XXXVIII) to the effect that the reigning
sovereign was contiuuing the prosperity of Kuang Wu Ti (25-57 a.d.)
and Ming Ti (58-75) it appears that the Lun-hêng was written
under the reign of the Emperor Chang Ti viz. between 76 and
89 a.d. From another remark that in the Chiang-jui chapter (XXX)
the auspicious portents, of the Yuan-ho and Chang-ho epochs (84-86
and 87-88) could not be mentioned, because of its being already
completed, we may infer that the whole work was finished before
84. Thus it must date from the years 76-84 a.d.
The Lun-hêng in its present form consists of 30 books comprising
85 chapters or separate essays. Ch`ien Lung's Catalogue
(Sse-k`u-chüan-shu-tsung-mu chap. 120 p. 1) shows that we do not possess
the Lun-hêng in its entirety. In his autobiography Wang Ch`ung
states that his work contains more than a hundred chapters
(p. 78), consequently a number of chapters must have been lost.
The 85 chapters mentioned above are enumerated in the index
preceding the text, but of the 44th chapter
"Chao-chih" we have
merely the title, but not the text so, that the number of chapters
really existing is reduced to 84. The chapters exceeding 85 must
have already been lost in the first centuries, for we read in the
Hou Han-shu of the 5th cent.
a.d. that
Wang Ch`ung wrote the
Lun-hêng
in 85 chapters.
Some interesting data about the history of the text are furnished
in another History of the Later Han Dynasty, the Hou
Han-shu of Yuan Shan Sung of the Chin epoch (265-419 a.d.), who
lived anterior to Fan Yeh, the author of the officially recognised
History of the Later Han. Yuan Shan Sung's History was in 100 books
(cf. Li tai ming hsien lieh nü shih hsing p`u chap. 44, p. 35 v.), but it
has not been incorporated into the Twenty-four dynastic Histories.
Yuan Shan Sung, whose work is quoted by several critics, informs
us that at first the Lun-hêng was only current in the southern
provinces of China where Wang Ch`ung had lived. There it was
discovered by T`sai Yung (133-192 a.d.) a scholar of note from the
north, but instead of communicating it to others, he kept it for himself,
reading it secretly "as a help to conversation" i.e. he plundered
the Lun-hêng to be able to shine in conversation. Another scholar,
Wang Lang of the 2nd and 3d cent. a.d. is reported to have behaved
in a similar way, when he became prefect of K`uei-chi, where he
found the Lun-hêng. His friends suspected him of having come
into possession of an extraordinary book, whence he took his wisdom.
They searched for it and found the Lun-hêng, which subsequently
became universally known. The Taoist writer Ko Hung
of the 4th cent. a.d., known as Pao P`u Tse, recounts that the
Lun-hêng concealed by T`sai Yung was discovered in the same way.
At all events T`sai Yung and Wang Lang seem to have been instru
mental in preserving and transmitting the Lun-hêng.
In the History of the Sui dynasty (580-618 a.d.), Sui-shu
chap. 34 p. 7 v., an edition of the Lun-hêng in 29 books is mentioned,
whereas we have 30 books now. The commentary to this passage
observes that under the Liang dynasty (502-556 a.d.) there was the
Tung-hsü in 9 books and 1 book of Remarks written by Ying Fêng,
but that both works are lost. They seem to have been treatises
on the Lun-hêng, of which there are none now left. The Catalogue
of the Books in the History of the T`ang dynasty (Ch`ien T`ang-shu
chap. 47 p. 8) has the entry:— "Lun-hêng 30 books."
At present the Lun-hêng forms part of the well known collection
of works of the Han and Wei times, the Han Wei tsung-shu
dating from the Ming dynasty. The text of the Lun-hêng contained
in the large collection of philosophical works, the
Tse shu
po chia, is only a reprint from the
Han Wei tsung-shu. In his useful
little biographical index,
Shu-mu-tang wên, Chang Chih Tung records
a separate edition of the
Lun-hêng printed under the
Ming dynasty.
I have not seen it and do not know, whether it is still to be found
in the book-shops, and whether it differs from the current text.
In the many quotations from the
Lun-hêng of the
T`ai-p`ing Yü lan
(9th cent.
a.d.) there is hardly any divergence from the reading of
our text. A commentary to the
Lun-hêng has not been written.
In the appreciation of his countrymen Wang Ch`ung does
not rank very high. Chao Kung Wu (12th cent. a.d.) opines that
the Lun-hêng falls short of the elegant productions of the Former
Han epoch. Another critic of the 12th cent., Kao Sse Sun is still
more severe in his judgment. He declares the Lun-hêng to be a
medley of heterogeneous masses, written in a bad style, in which
morality does not take the place it ought. After his view the Lun-hêng
would have no intrinsic value, being nothing more than a
"help to conversation." Wang Po Hou and others condemn the
Lun-hêng on account of the author's impious utterances regarding
his ancestors and his attacks upon the Sage Confucius. That he
criticised Mencius might be excused, but to dare to find fault with
Confucius is an unpardonable crime. That mars the whole work.
In modern times a change of opinion in favour of Wang Ch`ung
seems to have taken place. In his Prefatory Notice to the Lun-hêng,
Yu Chun Hsi pours down unrestricted praise upon him. "People
of the Han period, he remarks, were fond of fictions and fallacies.
Wang Ch`ung pointed out whatever was wrong; in all his arguments
he used a strict and thorough method, and paid special attention
to meanings. Rejecting erroneous notions he came near the truth.
Nor was he afraid of disagreeing with the worthies of old. Thus
he furthered the laws of the State, and opened the eyes and ears
of the scholars. People reading his books felt a chill at first, but
then they repudiated all falsehood, and became just and good.
They were set right, and discarded all crooked doctrines. It is
as if somebody amidst a clamouring crowd in the market-place
lifts the scale: then the weights and prices of wares are equitably
determined, and every strife ceases."
To a certain extent at least the Ch`ien Lung Catalogue does
him justice, while characterising his strictures on Confucius and
Mencius and his disrespect towards his forefathers as wicked and
perverse, its critics still admit that in exposing falsehoods and denouncing
what is base and low he generally hits the truth, and
that by his investigations he has done much for the furtherance of
culture and civilization. They conclude by saying that, although
Wang Ch`ung be impugned by many, he will always have admirers.
I presume that most Europeans, untramelled by Chinese moral
prejudices, will rather be among his admirers, and fall in with
Mayers speaking of Wang Ch`ung as "a philosopher, perhaps the
most original and judicious among all the metaphysicians China
has produced, ... who in the writings derived from his pen,
forming a work in thirty books, entitled Critical Disquisitions `Lun-hêng,'
handles mental and physical problems in a style and with a
boldness unparallelled in Chinese literature" (Reader's Manual
N. 795).
The first translator of the two chapters on Confucius and
Mencius and of the autobiography, Hutchinson, says of the Lun-hêng:—"The
whole book will repay perusal, treating as it does
of a wide range of subjects, enabling us to form some idea of the
state of the Chinese mind at the commencement of the Christian era.
The subjects (treated) are well calculated to enlist the interest
of the student and would most probably shed much light upon
the history of Chinese Metaphysics" (China Review vol. VII,
p. 40).
In my opinion Wang Ch`ung is one of the greatest Chinese
thinkers. As a speculative philosopher he leaves Confucius and
Mencius, who are only moralists, far behind. He is much more
judicious than Lao Tse, Chuang Tse, or Mê Ti. We might perhaps
place him on a level with Chu Hsi, the great philosopher of the
Sung time, in point of abilities at least, for their philosophies differ
very much.
In most Chinese works Wang Ch`ung is placed among the
Miscellaneous Writers or the Eclectics "Tsa Chia," who do not
belong to one single school, Confucianism, Mêhism, or Taoism, but
combine the doctrines of various schools. Wang Ch`ung is treated
as an Eclectic in the histories of the Sui dynasty and the T`ang
dynasty, in Ch`ien Lung's Catalogue, and in the Tse-shu-po-chia. Chang
Chih Tung, however, enumerates him among the Confucianists, and
so does Faber (Doctrines of Confucius p. 31). Although he has not
been the founder of a school, I would rather assign to him a
place apart, to which his importance as a philosopher entitles him.
It matters not that his influence has been very slight, and that
the Chinese know so little of him. His work is hardly read, but
is extensively quoted in dictionaries and cyclopedias. At any rate
Wang Ch`ung is more of an Eclectic than a Confucianist. The Chinese
qualify as "
Tsa Chia" all those original writers whom they cannot
place under any other head.
Wang Ch`ung seems to regard himself
as a Confucianist. No other philosopher is more frequently mentioned
by him than
Confucius, who, though he finds fault with him
here and there, is still, in his eyes,
the Sage. Wang Ch`ung is most
happy, when he can prove an assertion by quoting the authority
of
Confucius. This explains how he came to be classed by others
with the Confucianists.
