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PREFACE.
On the two principal philosophical Chinese systems, Confucianism
and Taoism we are tolerably well informed by translations of the
leading works and by systematical treatises. These two branches
may be regarded as the most important, but it would be impossible
to write a history of Chinese philosophy without paying special
attention to the various heterodox philosophers, whose views do
not agree with the current ideas of either Confucianists or Taoists.
For that very reason they are often more interesting than the latter,
being original thinkers, who disdain to resign themselves to merely
iterating old stereotyped formulæ. Many of their tenets remind us
of similar arguments propounded by various philosophical schools of
the West. I have called attention to the Epicurean Yang Chu and to
the Chinese Sophists (vid. Journ. of Peking Orient. Soc., vol. III, p. 203
and Journ. of China Branch of Royal Asiat. Soc., vol. XXXIV, p. 1)
and now beg to place before the public a translation of the philosophical
essays of Wang Ch`ung, whom we may well call a Materialist.
As a first instalment I published, some years ago, a paper treating
of Wang Ch`ung's ideas on Death and Immortality (Journ. of China
Branch of Royal Asiat. Soc., vol. XXXI, p. 40). My lecture on the
Metaphysics of Wang Ch`ung, held in 1899 before the East Asiatic
Section of the Congress of Orientalists at Rome, has not been printed,
the manuscript having been lost by the secretaries of the Section.
Although he has much in common with the Confucianists
and still more with the Taoists, Wang Ch`ung's philosophy does not
lack originality. He is an Eclectic, and takes his materials from
wherever it suits him, but he has worked it into an elaborate
system such as did not exist before Chu Hsi. Like a true philosopher
he has reduced the multiplicity of things to some few
fundamental principles, by which he explains every phenomenon.
One or two leading ideas pervade his philosophy as "Leitmotives."
The Lun-hêng is not a systematic digest of Wang Ch`ung's philosophy.
Chinese philosophers like the Greeks before Aristotle have
not yet learned the art of connecting their thoughts so as to form
a complete system, in which each chapter is the logical sequence
of the preceding one. But Wang Ch`ung has already made one step
in this direction. Whereas the Analects and the works of Mencius,
Lieh Tse and Chuang Tse are hardly anything else than collections
of detached aphorisms, each chapter embracing the most heterogeneous
subjects, each chapter of the Lun-hêng is a real essay, the
theme of which is given first and adhered to throughout. But
there is not much connection between the separate essays.
These essays are not all of equal value. Some may perhaps
interest a Chinese, but are not calculated to enlist our interest. For
this reason I have not translated the whole work, but made a
selection. It comprises the philosophical essays, and of the others
the most characteristic, enabling the reader to form an adequate
idea of the author and his peculiarities. My chief aim has been
to set forth Wang Ch`ung's philosophy. The introduction contains
a sketch of his system, which I have attempted to abstract from
his writings.
Of the 84 essays of the Lun-hêng I have translated 44. I have
taken the liberty of arranging them more systematically than is
done in the original, classing them under several heads as metaphysical,
physical, critical, religious, and folklore. The division
is not a strict one, because with many chapters it is doubtful, to
which class they belong. Especially between metaphysics and
physics it is difficult to draw a distinction, since purely physical
questions are often treated metaphysically. From a table of contents
of the Lun-hêng in its entirety the reader will learn the subject
of those essays, which have not been translated, and by its help
he can easily find the place, which each chapter takes in the
original.
With the exception of the Autobiography and the two chapters
on Confucius and Mencius translated by Hutchinson (China Review,
vol. VII and VIII) the essays of Wang Ch`ung have not been put
into any European language before. A Chinese commentary to the
Lun-hêng does not exist. I hope that my translation may prove
trustworthy. For any misunderstandings, which in Chinese and
philosophical works particularly are unavoidable, I count upon the
indulgence of my critics.
As far as lay in my power, I have endeavoured to trace the
sources from which Wang Ch`ung has quoted, which has not been
even persons not knowing Chinese to understand the text. For the
many proper names the index at the end of the volume will be
of advantage.
To my thinking, Wang Ch`ung is one of the most ingenious
Chinese writers, a satirist like Lucian and an esprit fort like Voltaire,
whose Lun-hêng well deserves the widest publicity.
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