王充論考

COMMENTARIES ON WANG CH'UNG

徐復觀(Hsü Foo-kuan)

《新亞學報》 10卷1期(上) (1971/12) Pp. 45-108+ap3

並列摘要

The purpose of this article is to try to give a full and objective picture of the life and thought of Wang Ch'ung, and by wiping off the mist which was spread by the biased studies of scholars of Hu Shih, to re-establish the proper position of Wang Ch'ung in the intellectual history of China. Firstly, based on the contents of Lun Hen, the article checks out the mistakes made in the biography of Wang Ch'ung in Hou Han Shu. Through this, the article tries to show that there was a close relationship between the life of Wang and the formation of his thought. The fourth section of the article defines the peculiar position of Wang Ch'ung in the intellectual world of the Han time. More emphasis is put on Wang's ideas of ＂deem knowledge more highly than morality,＂ ＂refute the causal relationship of action and result,＂ and ＂denounce the scholastic disciplines of the time,＂ and an evaluation of these ideas is given. The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth sections of the article purport to elaborate Wang's hatred for fabrication and talsehood in the formation of knowledge. In the light of Wang's comprehension ability and the method he used, the article attempts to judge to what degree his ＂hatred for fabrication and falsehood＂ had actually achieved its aim. The ninth section describes the similarities and differences between Wang's idea of tien-tao and that prevailed in Han. Wang's idea of ＂tien-tao tzu-jan,＂ though apparently rooted in Lao-tzu, in fact differed from Lao-tzu's idea. The tenth section clears up problems of science and superstitution related to Wang. The eleventh section analyses Wang's conception of fate, which in fact already came near to fortune-telling in later ages. The twelfth section discusses Wang's conception of Ch'i, on which his theory of human nature was founded. The compromising attitude he adopted in his theory of human nature may compensate for the loss of the human self in his idea of fate.