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Wang Chong. Wang Chong (Chinese: 王充; pinyin: Wáng Chōng; Wade–Giles: Wang Ch'ung; 27 – c. 97 AD), [1] courtesy name Zhongren (仲任), was a Chinese astronomer, meteorologist, naturalist, philosopher, and writer active during the Eastern Han dynasty. He developed a rational, secular, naturalistic and mechanistic account of the world ...
Wang Chong (born 27 ce, Kueiji, China—died 100?, Kueiji) was one of the most original and independent Chinese thinkers of the Han period (206 bce –220 ce). A rationalistic naturalist during an age of superstition, Wang dared attack the belief in omens and portents that had begun to creep into the Confucian doctrines.
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- Life and Works
- Textual Issues and Literary Style
- Purpose and Method
- Critical Thought
- Physics and Metaphysics
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- References and Further Reading
Wang Chong was born in the year 27 C.E. (according to his autobiography), in the village of Shangyu in Kuaiji Commandery (modern day Shaoxing, Zhejiang province) along the eastern coast of China. His birth came in the third year of the reign of the first Eastern Han emperor Guangwu, who restored the Han Dynasty after defeating Wang Mang, the man wh...
To a reader of Lunheng, it can appear that Wang sometimes contradicts himself, claiming one thing about a certain concept (such as qi, tian, or xing) in one essay that he rejects in another essay. It should not be assumed on this basis, however, that Wang is inconsistent in his usage of key terms or confused about the concepts he discusses. Lunheng...
a. On “Creation and Transmission”
Wang is concerned to defend himself against charges of innovation, which was a major controversy in the Han dynasty, arising from the claims of Confucius (almost universally regarded as a sage or the highest sage) that he does not create (zuo), but merely transmits (shu) the ideas of the ancient sages. This was taken as normative, such that it was read as an injunction for people not to create and instead merely to transmit. To create was seen as arrogant and taken as tantamount to likening o...
b. Truth/Reality
According to Wang his work aims at what he sees as the proper pursuit of literary and philosophical work in general, attainment of or discovery of truth, or reality (shi), and avoidance of falsity/empty words (xu, xu yan). His method for discovery of truth largely consists in appraising the existing teachings and arguments of other philosophers, scholars, and schools, subjecting them to tests he describes as “questioning” (nan) and “challenging” (wen), standards that Wang in some places seems...
a. Specific Criticisms of Philosophers
Although Wang subjects the writings of various philosophers to his questions and challenges in various parts of the Lunheng, his criticisms of two particular philosophers, Confucius and Han Feizi, are representative of his general critical view and method concerning received texts and teachings.
b. Ghosts, the Supernatural, and Other Superstitions
In addition to his challenges to specific philosophers and texts, Wang criticizes a number of things he calls “common” or “vulgar” (su) beliefs, traditions, and superstitions, often concerning things such as the existence and agency of supernatural entities such as ghosts, deities, mythical creatures such as dragons, and Heaven itself as a sentient agent. Among the views he is concerned to dispatch is the view that these supernatural entities have the power to reward and punish people for the...
a. Qi
Wang’s views of nature and events in the world are grounded in an explanatory system in which all changes are due to the spontaneous movement of qi (vital essence/fluid). This qi is given forth by tian (heaven), and gives things their unique character. Wang discusses many different types of qi, and the term is used to discuss such a wide-ranging number of phenomena that it becomes problematic to try to define just what the concept of qi is such that it is narrow enough to capture all of the p...
b. Tian
Wang argues against a number of “common” views concerning natural events that take such events to be directed by tian, as a divine agent, in response to human actions. Wang rejects the agency of tian, instead seeing it naturalistically, as a principle generating qi spontaneously and without intention. Causal efficacy is involved here without will or intention. Tian has neither eyes nor mouth, hands nor feet (and presumably without a mind). As is common of concepts in the Lunheng, there is mor...
c. Astronomy and Physics
Wang’s positions on astronomy and physics were, following his metaphysical positions, naturalistic (with respect to the dominant views of his day), and Wang rejected a number of popular positions on the workings of the sun, planets, and stars. The following are some representative examples of his views in this area.
a. Ming
Ming, according to Wang, is the primary determinant of the outcome of a person’s life. Whether one is successful in one’s career, one has a difficult or easy life full of catastrophes or fortunate turns, whether one is ill or in good health, dies young or in ripe old age–all of this is due to the quality and type of one’s ming. There are different ming, according to Wang, concerning different aspects of human life. Thus, there is a ming governing one’s fortunes, a ming governing the length of...
b. Xing
While Wang’s use of the term xing is broader than the specifically ethical use (he uses it to refer to physical as well as behavioral characteristics), his interesting and more philosophically relevant use of this term is an ethical one. When he discusses xing as a concept, Wang seems concerned with its ethical aspects. Wang explains character, like all other phenomena, as being based on the quantity and quality of qi possessed by the individual. The individual’s destiny (ming) is also a rele...
a. Influences and Place in Han Dynasty Thought
Rafe de Crespigny argues that Wang may have been influenced by Huan Tan, and thereby the Old Text school, thus making sense of his attack on New Text Confucians (although this is mainly speculative). Wang’s views on qi, tian, ming, and so forth. are clearly influenced by earlier Han and pre-Han thinkers. Wang claims influence by Confucius, Mencius, Yang Xiong, Dong Zhongshu, as well as Daoist figures such Laozi, although all of these figures are targets of Wang’s criticisms in various places...
b. Later Influence
Although Wang’s influence in his own time and directly after was almost negligible, and his Lunheng survived mainly because of its perceived interest as an almost encyclopedic collection of historical, mythological, and literary material from early China, Wang’s work did undergo a surge of interest in the modern period, beginning with Qing scholars in the 19th century, who wrote a number of commentaries on the Lunheng, including Yu Yue, Sun Yirang, Yang Shoujing, Liu Bansui, and later Huang H...
The amount of work on Wang Chong in English is limited, and much of what does exist is either translation (Forke), or secondary work dealing with Han thought more generally (Loewe, Czikszentmihalyi). The following list focuses mainly on English language scholarship, but also includes important Chinese works. Those with facility in the Chinese langu...
Wang Chong (Wade-Giles: Wang Chong, 王充) (27 – 97 C.E.) was a Chinese philosopher during the Han Dynasty who developed a rational, secular, naturalistic, and mechanistic account of the world and of human beings. He is regarded as one of the most original and independent Chinese thinkers of the Han period (206 B.C.E. – 220 C.E.).
Jan 15, 2012 · Wang Chong 王充. Wang Chong 王充 (27-97 CE), courtesy name Zhongren 仲任, was a philosopher of the early Later Han period 後漢 (25-220 CE). He hailed from Shangyu 上虞 (modern Shangyu, Zhejiang) and grew up in a poor family but had the opportunity to study in the National University (taixue 太學) in the capital. One of his teachers ...
Sep 4, 2018 · The “philosophical” focus involves two subfoci: the historical-philosophical, analyzing the theories Wang presents, along with the concepts included and the arguments Wang uses to establish positions, and the appraisal /appropriational, which considers the plausibility of these positions, possible objections and fixes, and their ...
The Chinese philosopher Wang Chong was born in Shangyu (modern Zhejiang) in AD 27. According to his biographies, he came from a poor family and devoted most of his life to teaching, but also held minor posts in the state administration. Later he retired to compose the work by which we know him today, the Lunheng (Balanced Discussions).
