Wang Chong takes the natural inaction of Taoism as the purpose of his argument, and takes "heaven" as the highest category of his view of heaven. With "Qi" as the core category, the natural gasification of vitality, essence and harmony constitutes a huge universe generation model, which is opposite to the theory of induction between man and nature. It shows the characteristics of Taoism, which advocates nature of life and death, thin burial and rebelling against deified Confucianism. He verified his remarks with facts and made up for the defects of Taoism. It is an important inheritor and developer of Taoist thought in Han Dynasty.
Although Wang Chong's thought belongs to Taoism, it is strictly different from Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi's thought in the pre-Qin period. Although he advocated Taoism in the Han Dynasty, it was different from the "learning of Huang Lao" advertised by the Wang Dynasty at the beginning of the Han Dynasty and the popular Taoism at the end of the Western Han Dynasty. Lun Heng is Wang Chong's masterpiece and an immortal work of materialist philosophy in the history of China.
Wang Chong was an outstanding materialist thinker and educator in the Eastern Han Dynasty. His philosophy can be summarized as follows:
1. Nature does nothing.
Wang Chong believes that heaven and earth are natural material entities without will. Wang Chong's brief introduction shows that the movement and change of everything in the universe and the generation of things are all the results of natural inaction. He believes that everything is generated by material "qi" and natural movement, "heaven and earth are harmonious, and everything is self-generated." The competition between creatures is due to the strength of various creatures' muscles, the strength of their momentum and the dexterity of their movements. This is not the intentional arrangement of God, nor is God a personality god with the will of nature.
2. Heaven cannot create strangers.
Wang Chong believes that heaven is natural and man is a product of nature. "People are also a kind of thing; Things, things are also ",thus cutting off the connection between heaven and man. He carried forward Xunzi's materialistic thought of "knowing the difference between man and nature". He said: "People can't feel the sky with actions, and the sky can't respond to people with actions." He believes that social politics and morality have nothing to do with natural disasters, and the so-called "harmony between man and nature" is only the result of people comparing heaven with their own ideas.
3. God destroys ghosts
Wang Chong believes that life is death. Man can be born because he has breath and blood. "When a man dies, his blood is exhausted, but his breath is extinguished. When his body decays, it becomes dust. What's the use of being a ghost? " He thinks that people die like fire. Why can there be light when the fire goes out? He gave a materialistic explanation of human spiritual phenomena, thus denying the existence of ghosts and breaking the superstition of "retribution of good and evil".
Today is better than the past.
Wang Chong opposes the view of "respecting heaven and learning from the ancients" and thinks that modern people and the ancients are "harmonious but different". Today's people are as popular as the ancients. It is groundless to say that the ancients are always better than today's people, and there is no reason to praise the ancients. He thinks that the Han Dynasty is more progressive than in the past, and the reason why the Han Dynasty is "above one hundred generations" is that it is behind one hundred generations. This view is completely contrary to the view that the sky will not change and the road will not change.
limit
Wang Chong was an outstanding materialist thinker and combat atheist in ancient China. However, due to the limitations of the times, Wang Chong's philosophical thought inevitably has limitations.
Although Wang Chong opposed theological teleology, he didn't understand the social reasons that caused good or bad luck, so he advocated the conclusion of fate and emphasized the absolute authority of "fate", thinking that "life should be poor, although rich is still involved in disaster; Life is rich, although poor, it is still good for you. " The fate that determines life and death, premature birth and wealth is caused by the qi given by heaven and various stars. "God-given gas makes things happen on the ground, people turn their lives, and subtlety is sacred, all because of the father's gas, not taking more." Even the cause of social chaos depends on "hours" and denies the role of people. Wang Chong introduced, "Years of floods and droughts, crop failures, are not caused by politics, but hours are also prosperous, prosperous and wasteful, all in prosperity, wise and unwise, ignorant of politics, incapable of profit and loss." Man can do nothing in the face of fate, but be at the mercy of it. Here, Wang Chong is not only far behind Xunzi, but also inferior to Mozi and even Confucius.
Although Wang Chong opposed "the unity of man and nature", he advocated "Rui Ying". He said: "When mortals live in heaven, there must be good results on earth", "When good results come out, the country will prosper; See evil and die. " For example, when Xuan Di, Guangwu, Ming Di and Zhang Di were born, there were auspicious things such as phoenix, unicorn, Cao Zhi and manna.
Wang Chong also advocated the theory of demon elephant, thinking that although people don't die as ghosts, ghosts still exist. Demon is a gasification phenomenon. "The qi of heaven and earth is a demon, and the qi of the sun is also a demon" and "Yang is red, so it is hateful, and its color is pure Zhu". Yaoxiang, like Ruiying, is a natural phenomenon and a symbol of the rise and fall of society. "The way of heaven and earth, people will die, fierce also; The country will die, and the demon will see it. "
Although Wang Chong explained "fate", "ruiying" and "medicine image" with the theory of natural inaction and qi, it seems that he insisted on materialism, but because his materialism is simple and epistemology is empirical, he fell into idealism when explaining social phenomena.
Although Wang Chong's thought has many limitations, it still reached the highest level of his time and had a far-reaching impact on later generations, so that many Confucian scholars were worried about Wang Chong later.
Huang Zhen in the Song Dynasty said that Wang Chong "was blessed by the life of heaven and earth, and compared with the life of one person, he wanted to abolish the worship of heaven and earth." Zhao Tan of the Qing Dynasty also said: "Since ancient times, sages have not been afraid of the sky", "If you speak, you will die."