中英雙語話中國歷史名人 第37期:王充

Wang Chong (27~97), whose courtesy name was Zhongren, was born at Shangyu (now Shangyu County, Zhejiang Province), but his ancestral home town was Yuancheng at the Wei prefecture (present-day Darning, Hebei Province).

王充(27~97),字仲任，祖籍魏郡元城(今河北大名),生在上虞(今浙江上虞)。

He led a reclusive life in the countryside most of his life, teaching and writing books.

他一生大部分時間都隱居鄉里，以教書爲生，以著書爲業。

A prolific writer, Wang Chong summarized his thoughts into Lun Heng (Discourses Weighed in Balance), a book that included 85 chapters (84 of them survived) and took him over 30 years to finish.

著作頗多，代表作《論衡》共85篇(實存84篇)，歷時30多年寫成，集中反映了王充的思想。

At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, superstitious ideas were rampant.

東漢前期，迷信思想氾濫。

Wang Chong was so outraged by the chaos in the academic community that in Lun Heng, he criticized such practices as the idolization of Confucius and his thoughts. Under his attack were Confucius, Mencius and other key figures of Confucianism as well as their scriptures. He further pointed out that these “deities” and their scriptures were not without flaws.

王充對思想界的黑暗混亂十分氣憤，在《論衡》中，他針對神化孔子和儒家經傳、經學神學化的現象展開批判，把批判鋒刃直接指向孔子、孟子和五經，指出被神化的人物和經典本身並非完美無瑕，並不“神”。

Wang Chong analyzed and vigorously attacked what the theological teleologists claimed as the interaction between Heaven and humanity. Heaven, he claimed, is natural so that it is not will-driven and emotional.

王充對天人感應的神學目的論進行了有力的揭露和批判，指出天是一種物質實體，沒有意志和情感，天是自然之天。

Furthermore, Wang Chong criticized the prevailing superstitious ideas and practices, especially the belief of life after death. He held that human beings are born with original vigor and human beings are unique only because they have physical bodies and consciousness.

他批判了當時流行的各種迷信思想和迷信活動，特別是對“人死爲鬼”之說的批判最爲徹底，他認爲人稟元氣而生，人之所以爲人，是因爲人有形體，有知覺，是形體和精神的結合體。

After death, their physical condition changes conversely: "Their bloods will exhaust; the exhaustion results in the extinction of vigor; the extinction causes the decay of the physical body, which will turn to ashes at last.”

人死以後，自身狀況發生了相反的變化，“人死血脈竭，竭而精氣滅，滅而形體朽，朽而成灰土。”

The illusion of ghosts and spirits are just hallucinations caused by frustration, illness and madness.

同時指出人之所以產生鬼的觀念，是由於人處在困、病、狂三種狀態下容易產生見鬼的幻覺。

Wang Chong also attacked the pursuit of immortality through practicing alchemy as well as other superstitious practice such as sacrifice offering and soothsaying. By exploring the root of superstition, Wang Chong helped to push the Chinese atheism to a higher level.

另外，王充還批判了“度世不死”、“修煉成仙”的思想以及祭祀、占卜等迷信活動，探討了迷信存在的根源，批判了形形色色的方士，將無神論思想發展到更高的水平。