Having completed his studies, Wang Chung returned to his native place, where he became a teacher and lived a very quiet life. Subsequently he took office and secured a small position as a secretary of a district, a post which he also filled under a military governor and a prefect. At last he was promoted to be assistantmagistrate of a department. He would have us believe that he was a very good official, and that his relations to his colleagues were excellent. The Hou Han-shu, on the other hand, tells us that he remonstrated so much with his superiors and was so quarrelsome, that he had to leave the service. This version seems the more probable of the two. Wang Chung was much too independent, much too outspoken, and too clever to do the routine business well, which requires clerks and secretaries of moderate abilities, or to serve under superiors, whom he surpassed by his talents. So he devoted himself exclusively to his studies. He lived in rather straitened circumstances, but supported his embarassments with philosophical equanimity and cheerfulness. "Although he was poor and had not an acre to dwell upon, his mind was freer than that of kings and dukes, and though he had no emoluments counted by pecks and bushels, he felt, as if he had ten thousand chung to live upon. He enjoyed a tranquil happiness, but his desires did not run riot, and though he was living in a state of poverty, his energy was not broken. The study of ancient literature was his debauchery, and strange stories his relish." He had a great admiration for superior men, and liked to associate with people rising above mediocrity. As long as he was in office and well off, he had many friends, but most of them abandoned him, when he had retired into private life.

In A.D. 86 Wang Chung emigrated into the province of Anhui, where he was appointed sub-prefect, the highest post which he held, but two years only, for in 88 he gave up his official career, which had not been a brilliant one. The reason of his resignation this time seems to have been ill health.

So far Wang Chung had not succeeded in attracting the attention of the emperor. An essay which he had composed, when the emperor had visited the college of Loyang, had passed unnoticed. In the year 76, when parts of Honan were suffering from a great dearth, Wang Chung presented a memorial to the Emperor Chang Ti in which he proposed measures to prohibit dissipation and extravagancies, and to provide for the time of need, but his suggestions were not accepted. He did not fare better with another anti-alcoholic memorial, in which he advocated the prohibition of

the use of spirits. When finally the Emperor became aware of Wang Chung, it was too late. A friend and a countryman of his, Hsieh I Wu recommended him to the throne for his talents and great learning, saying that neither Mencius or Hsün Tse nor in the Han time Yang Hsiung, Liu Hsiang or Sse Ma Chien could outshine him. The Emperor Chang Ti (76-88 A.D.) summoned him to his presence, but owing to his ill-health Wang Chung had to decline the honour. His state had impaired so much, that already in 89 he thought that his end had come. But the next two years passed, and he did not die. He found even the time to write a book on Macrobiotics," which he put into practice himself, observing a strict diet and avoiding all agitations in order to keep his vital fluid intact, until he expired in the middle of the Yung-yuan period (89-104) about the year 97. The exact year is not known.

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2. The Works of Wang Ch'ung.

Wang Chung'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-chich-yi "Censures on Common Morals" in 12 chapters and the Cheng-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 Chung 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).

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These three works: the Macrobiotics, the Censures on Morals, and the work on Government have all been lost, and solely the Lun-heng has come down to us. Whereas the Chi-su-chich-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 Chung 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-hing is not professedly a philosophical work, intended to set forth a philosophical system, but in confuting and contesting the views of others, Wang Chung 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 Chung's aim in writing the Lun-hêng was purely practical, as becomes plain from some of his utterances. "The nine chapters of the Lun-heng on Inventions, and the three chapters of the Lun-heng 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 continuing the prosperity of Kuang Wu Ti (25-57a.d.) and Ming Ti (58-75) it appears that the Lun-heng was written under the reign of the Emperor Chang Fi 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. Chien 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 Chung 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 Chung wrote the Lunhêng 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 lich 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-heng was only current in the southern provinces of China where Wang Chung had lived. There it was discovered by Tsai 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-heng 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 Kuei-chi, where he found the Lun-heng. 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-heng, which subsequently became universally known. The Taoist writer Ko Hung of the 4th cent. A.D., known as Pao Pu Tse, recounts that the Lun-heng concealed by Tsai Yung was discovered in the same way. At all events Tsai Yung and Wang Lang seem to have been instru mental in preserving and transmitting the Lan-hêng.

In the History of the Sui dynasty (580-618 A.D.), Sui-shu chap. 34 p. 7 v., an edition of the Lun-heng 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 Feng, but that both works are lost. They seem to have been treatises on the Lun-heng, of which there are none now left. The Catalogue of the Books in the History of the Tang dynasty (Ch'ien Tang-shu chap. 47 p. 8) has the entry:- "Lun-heng 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 con

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tained 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-heng 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-heng of the Tai-ping Yü lan (9th cent. A.D.) there is hardly any divergence from the reading of our text. A commentary to the Lun-heng has not been written.

In the appreciation of his countrymen Wang Chung does not rank very high. Chao Kung Wu (12th cent. A.D.) opines that the Lun-heng 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-heng 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 Lunheng would have no intrinsic value, being nothing more than a "help to conversation." Wang Po Hou and others condemn the Lun-héng 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 Lunheng, Yu Chun Hsi pours down unrestricted praise upon him. "People of the Han period, he remarks, were fond of fictions and fallacies. Wang Chung 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 Chien 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