120
FORKE'S TRANSLATION OF THE LUN HENG'
Reviewed by D. LESLIE2
The Lun Heng
of about A.D. 85, is the work of Wang Ch'ung £ (c. A.D. 27-96), one of the most original thinkers of Han China.
Many, including Hu Shih and most western scholars, have praised his critical ability. In fact, this praise is not entirely justified. Wang Ch'ung, in this respect, falls far short of the Chou Confucian philosopher Hsüntzu (also Chuangtzu and Hanfeitzu). Han philosophy is generally considered to lack the originality of the classical Chou philosophers, and Wang Ch'ung, as Fung Yu-lan points out, was a child of his time. The most we can say is that he rises head and shoulders above his Han contemporaries in his critical abilities.
It is true that Wang Ch'ung demands proofs and verification by experience at all stages in his arguments, but his idea of proof and experience is insufficiently empirical. He does not seek out the facts. He believes some of the weirdest stories (that Duke Ai was changed into a tiger; that Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor, was twenty months in the womb; that hares give birth via the mouth). As Marcel Granet has expressed it (in his La Pensée Chinoise, 1934, p. 580), "son scepticisme a quelque chose de livresque".
Wang Ch'ung's criticism is always based on pre-conceived postulates. Rather than reject the superstitions of his time, he merely reinterprets them in accordance with these postulates. Herein lies both his strength and his weakness. A good example is his denial (in his chapter 15 and elsewhere) of the many supernatural births accepted by his contemporaries. For, together with this denial, he accepts the factual truth of all the omens that accompanied these supernatural births. Omens, such as signs in the sky or lines in the hand (the Lun Heng incidentally gives the earliest extant reference to palmistry in China), the appearance of weird animals and plants, all mark, he believes, the rise and
1 Lun-Hêng. By Alfred Forke. Paragon Book Gallery, New York, 1962. Pt. I, iv+577; Pt. II, vi+536. U.S.$20.00,
2 D. Leslic is a Research Fellow in the Department of Far Eastern History, Australian National University, Canberra,
120
FORKE'S TRANSLATION OF THE LUN HENG'
Reviewed by D. LESLIE2
The Lun Heng
of about A.D. 85, is the work of Wang Ch'ung £ (c. A.D. 27-96), one of the most original thinkers of Han China.
Many, including Hu Shih and most western scholars, have praised his critical ability. In fact, this praise is not entirely justified. Wang Ch'ung, in this respect, falls far short of the Chou Confucian philosopher Hsüntzu (also Chuangtzu and Hanfeitzu). Han philosophy is generally considered to lack the originality of the classical Chou philosophers, and Wang Ch'ung, as Fung Yu-lan points out, was a child of his time. The most we can say is that he rises head and shoulders above his Han contemporaries in his critical abilities.
It is true that Wang Ch'ung demands proofs and verification by experience at all stages in his arguments, but his idea of proof and experience is insufficiently empirical. He does not seek out the facts. He believes some of the weirdest stories (that Duke Ai was changed into a tiger; that Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor, was twenty months in the womb; that hares give birth via the mouth). As Marcel Granet has expressed it (in his La Pensée Chinoise, 1934, p. 580), "son scepticisme a quelque chose de livresque".
Wang Ch'ung's criticism is always based on pre-conceived postulates. Rather than reject the superstitions of his time, he merely reinterprets them in accordance with these postulates. Herein lies both his strength and his weakness. A good example is his denial (in his chapter 15 and elsewhere) of the many supernatural births accepted by his contemporaries. For, together with this denial, he accepts the factual truth of all the omens that accompanied these supernatural births. Omens, such as signs in the sky or lines in the hand (the Lun Heng incidentally gives the earliest extant reference to palmistry in China), the appearance of weird animals and plants, all mark, he believes, the rise and
1 Lun-Hêng. By Alfred Forke. Paragon Book Gallery, New York, 1962. Pt. I, iv+577; Pt. II, vi+536. U.S.$20.00,
2 D. Leslic is a Research Fellow in the Department of Far Eastern History, Australian National University, Canberra,
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