LUN HENG
127
Wang Ch'ung and of his predecessors", Archiv Orientalní 30, 1962, pp. 231-257. Useful studies of Wang Ch'ung's materialism, more or less Marxist in orientation, have been written by A. A. Petrov (1954 in Russian, translated into Chinese in 1956), Hou Wai-lu and others (1957), Yang Ch'ao Kuan Feng (1957), Cheng Wen (1958), and T'ien Chang-wu (1958).
There are a large number of articles on Wang Ch'ung in Japanese by Kimura Ikusaburo, Shigezawa Toshio, and others. But I only know of one book in Japanese, the Ronko no Kenkyu 論衡之研究 by Sato Kyogen 佐藤匡玄 (1956, self-published).
Grammatical study of the Lun Heng, commenced by Karlgren and extended by myself, must await a full concordance. Besides the 1943 Index du Louen Heng by the Centre franco-chinois d'études sinologiques, there are now two Japanese indices by Kato Joken, Shigezawa Toshio, and others, both produced in 1961.
(a) Ronko Koyu-Meishi Sakuin 論衡固有名詞索引
This, similar in size and scope to the French index, which gave an index of names and topics with a paraphrase of the immediate text, gives a full concordance of names only, subdivided into names of people, of places, of books, titles and reign periods. It also adds a valuable appendix of textual corrections.
(b) Ronko Jirui Sakuin 論衡事類索引
This is a massive work, over twice the size of the Lun Heng itself, which collects together, under topic headings, all the passages from the various chapters concerning that topic. The main topics covered are philosophy (and religion), science, ancient books, history, government, and sociology.
Very valuable for certain kinds of research, these three works still do not fulfil the function of a complete word-by-word concordance.
The republication of Forke's monumental work (at almost the same time as these new indices) will be of double value if it encourages other western scholars to go ahead and work on Wang Ch'ung and his Lun Heng, a key work for our understanding of ancient China.