Discourses Weighed in the Balance (Part Two)

Lunheng (Volume II) is the middle volume of the collated and annotated edition of Lunheng published by Zhonghua Book Company, containing the core chapters of this monumental Eastern Han work of thought. Wang Chong's Lunheng, guided by the principle of "attacking falsehood," systematically criticizes the Chenwei superstitions and the doctrine of interactions between Heaven and humanity prevalent in the Han dynasty, displaying a rare spirit of rationality. This Zhonghua Book Company edition uses the Tongjin Caotang edition as its base text, collated against numerous other editions, with meticulous textual criticism and concise annotations; it is suitable both as a reference for professional researchers and as a reliable introductory reader for general readers.

From the perspective of intellectual history, the value of Lunheng lies in its critical thinking. Wang Chong dared to question the Confucian classical learning and the theories of yin-yang and the Five Phases that were regarded as authoritative at the time, proposing the naturalistic view that "Heaven and Earth combine their qi, and the ten thousand things spontaneously arise," and rejecting the traditional notion that Heaven has a will and can reward good and punish evil. This spirit of independent thought was particularly rare in the Han dynasty, when Confucianism was the sole orthodoxy. When reading, note that Wang Chong's criticism is not a wholesale rejection of Confucianism but an attempt to purge it of false elements and return to rationality.

The greatest strength of the Zhonghua Book Company edition lies in its balance of authority and readability. The collator and annotator, Qiu Feng, maintains scholarly rigor while using annotations to help modern readers understand classical Chinese and the intellectual background of the Han dynasty. Chapters such as "Wenkong" (Questioning Confucius) and "Cimeng" (Criticizing Mencius) directly question the logical contradictions in the sayings of Confucius and Mencius, while "Lunsi" (On Death) and "Dinggui" (Refuting Ghosts) discuss life, death, ghosts, and spirits in a rational manner, still capable of prompting reflection on superstition and science today. Readers are advised to understand the text in light of the social and cultural background of the Han dynasty and to avoid judging the ancients simplistically by modern standards.