Chapter on Distinguishing the Broadly Learned

AnonymousBashu Publishing House · ChinaJun 2024

2.4

Word count: 3.6K words
Chapters: 2

Summary

This piece is titled "Distinguishing the Thorough Man" and concerns how to recognize a "thorough man" (tongren). The "thorough man" is what the chapter "On Efficacy" calls a "literary scholar" (wenru). Wang Chong holds that knowledge is wealth: the more knowledge, the greater the wealth. Hence "the rich are not equal to scholars, and scholars are not equal to the thorough man." The thorough man has broad knowledge, embraces "the affairs of past and present and the words of the hundred schools," understands the methods of governing a state and a household, and can criticize and condemn vulgar, shallow customs and opinions in the world. He possesses the greatest wealth of knowledge—not only more worthy of respect than the rich who hold material wealth, but far surpassing the scholar who clings to a single school, "does not survey past and present, and discusses affairs without truth," content with things as they are. How, then, are thorough men to be recognized and employed? Wang Chong points out that the key lies in whether local officials themselves are broadly knowledgeable, survey past and present, and understand thorough men. Yet the local officials of his time mostly held office through good luck and favorable fate, "knowing nothing of past or present, taking rank as worth, and following a different path from men of letters." They therefore could not recognize thorough men, let alone promote them exceptionally.

Editor's review

"Distinguishing the Thorough Man" is a famous chapter in Wang Chong's Balanced Inquiries on the identification of talent. This Bashu Press edition presents it as a single piece: not long, but dense with ideas. Its core is not empty praise of "broad learning" but a direct linkage of the quantity of knowledge to human worth and governing capacity; it proposes the "thorough man" as a standard of character higher than the "scholar," and sharply points out that local officials, being themselves ignorant, cannot recognize thorough men—an argument that still carries strong contemporary resonance. Wang Chong's mode of argument bears the typical features of Han dynasty discursive prose, skillful with contrast and layered progression, so it is intellectually pleasurable to read, though some passages involve Han officialdom and scholarly background and require a little patience. It suits close reading as material for intellectual history or the study of talent, and serves as a classical reference in discussions of real-world topics such as "credentials versus ability" and "selection mechanisms." The barrier to reading a single chapter is not high, but to digest it fully one should read it alongside other chapters of Balanced Inquiries, such as "On Efficacy," to understand the full thread from "literary scholar" to "thorough man."

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Han intellectual history and Balanced Inquiries who are willing to read the original text
Management-minded readers concerned with talent selection and the value of knowledge who want a classical reference
Students who need a logically clear, moderately short classical argumentative text for close-reading practice
Lovers of literature and history drawn to Wang Chong's critical style who want to know the origin of the concept of the "thorough man"

Not a good fit for

Complete beginners with no foundation in classical Chinese who need a vernacular translation to understand it
Readers seeking a systematic understanding of the whole of Balanced Inquiries rather than a single topical chapter
Casual readers who want light essays and lack patience for argumentative texts

Reading tips

First read through without consulting annotations, grasping the main argument that "the rich are not equal to scholars, and scholars are not equal to the thorough man"; then go back and examine the wording closely.
Read it alongside "On Efficacy" in Balanced Inquiries, clarify the relationship between the "literary scholar" and the "thorough man," and make a brief concept-comparison table.
After reading, write a short review of about three hundred words answering in your own words "whom does Wang Chong consider qualified to recognize thorough men?" to test the depth of your understanding.

About the publisher

Bashu Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Bashu Publishing House is a publisher centered on collating and publishing classical Chinese cultural texts, with its main publishing areas covering classical literature, Eastern philosophy, ancient poetry, and educational classics. Its library currently holds 1,075 titles, including representative works such as Dream of the Red Chamber, the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, Renjian Cihua, and Out to the Frontier, involving authors such as Cao Xueqin, Wang Xizhi, Wang Guowei, Wang Changling, Liu Xie, and Yan Yu. These reflect the publisher's focus on literary classics, poetry criticism, and philosophical readings. Its publishing character lies in working around ancient texts and canonical works, with attention to textual collation and presentation. Public information on its more detailed publishing background and series plans is limited; this introduction is based only on the library's book information.

版权信息
卷十三

FAQ

What exactly is the difference between a "thorough man" and an ordinary scholar?

By Wang Chong's definition, scholars often cling to one school, do not survey past and present, and discuss affairs without truth; the thorough man embraces the affairs of past and present and the words of the hundred schools, can criticize vulgar shallow views, and understands the methods of governing a household and a state. The difference lies not in how much one has read but in whether one has mastery and can apply it critically to reality.

Why does Wang Chong place the responsibility for recognizing thorough men on local officials?

He believes that if officials themselves do not understand past and present, they will take high rank as worth and cannot see who is truly learned, so thorough men have no way of being recommended. This in effect traces the burying of talent to the knowledge level of the selectors rather than the selected.

Is this suitable for readers with zero foundation in classical Chinese?

Not very. The original has many allusions and references to Han officialdom, and beginners may get stuck on wording and lose the thread of the argument. It is better to first become familiar with Wang Chong's style through an annotated selection from Balanced Inquiries, then return to this single chapter.

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About the author

Anonymous Author

Anonymous is not a real personal name but a general Chinese designation for authors whose names are unknown, lost, or unsigned. Neither nationality nor dates of birth and death can be verified, and available public information is limited, so the works attributed to this name are the only basis for description. The collection holds 2,078 works under Anonymous, spanning medicine, classics, historical readings, ancient poetry, classical literature, and philosophy. Representative works include The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: Lingshu, Mencius, The Book of Documents, Nineteen Old Poems, Complete Song Ci, and The Peacock Flies Southeast. Most of these works took shape through long transmission and editing, emerging either from collective folk creation or from authors whose names were lost over time. In ancient China, the Book of Songs, the Great Learning, and many popular storybooks and plays were signed Anonymous because their authors could not be traced. Anonymous works cross the classics, histories, philosophical writings, medical texts, and poetry; their subjects are broad, and their styles vary from archaic simplicity to clear naturalness, making them important and influential sources for understanding ancient Chinese thought, medicine, and literature.