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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.
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