Wang Chong

Wang Chong was a Chinese philosopher of the Eastern Han dynasty, born in Kuaiji in the southeast, who studied in the capital Luoyang and served in minor official posts. His Lunheng subjects popular beliefs and scholarly doctrines of his day to critical examination. Against the view that Heaven sends omens and portents as moral responses to human conduct, he argued that Heaven acts spontaneously, without will or moral agency, and that strange events have natural explanations. He also criticised belief in ghosts as the spirits of the dead.

Key ideas

• Heaven acts spontaneously (ziran), without purpose, will or moral agency.
• Omens and portents are natural events, not messages of approval or rebuke.
• Claims should be tested against evidence and experience rather than accepted on authority.
• The dead do not become conscious ghosts able to harm the living.

Major works

• Lunheng (論衡, Discourses Weighed in the Balance)
• "Ziji" (自紀, his autobiographical chapter of the Lunheng)

In the conversation

• Discussion Naturalisms before the word: the Cārvākas, Wang Chong and Xunzi’s Heaven Arvind Poojary · 0 replies
• Discussion Sextus, Nāgārjuna and Wang Chong within about a century: one sceptical moment, or three projects? Nima Tsering Gurung · 5 replies
• Question Did classical Chinese philosophers have a concept of truth, or only of the “admissible”? Chen Yuting · 6 replies
• Discussion Wang Chong against the omen-readers: a naturalist in the Han dynasty Liu Mingqiao · 4 replies