Publisher's Synopsis
A Quirin Pinyin Updated Editions (QPUE)
Alfred Forke's unsurpassed translation and annotation of the Lunheng 論衡 has been revised and updated to reflect the original order of The Complete Essays of Wang Chong 王充, 27-ca. 97. as handed down from the end of the second century.
This Quirin Press edition offers the following features:
- Older Wade-Giles transliteration fully updated and revised to Pinyin.
- Carefully typeset and proofed for typographical errors and inconsistencies.
- Updated index.
- Designed to be a pleasure to hold & easy on the reading eye.
Keywords: Philosophy- Chinese. Wang, Chong 王充, 27-ca. 97. Literary & Philosophical Essays Skepticism Materialist philosophy.
Considered one of the greatest thinkers of the Han Dynasty (202 BCE - 220 CE) Wang Chong's keen insights used Daoist naturalism and spontaneity to attack popular superstitions of the day and brought about a revival of Daoist philosophy or Neo-Daoism in the centuries following his death in ca. 97 CE. Variously described as one of China's earliest skeptics and materialist philosophers he was above all:
... an iconoclast driven with a remarkable spirit of scientific skepticism motivated by the single maxim to "Hate fictions and falsehoods" (Lunheng Ch. 61)
Feng Youlan (Fung Yu-lan) A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (1960)
Apart from the eclectic range of subjects treated, the Lunheng is also unique for its easy style that deliberately avoided the allusive language of the Literati of the day and makes it as readable today as it was for the general reader nearly 2,000 years ago.
Given that Forke originally translated only the key philosophical essays in 1907 before being entreated to translate the remaining essays in 1911, this Quirin Press edition of The Complete Essays of Wang Chong brings back the original order of the Lunheng's eighty-five essays as they were handed down from the end of the second century.
Forke's pioneering work not only brought Wang Chong's immense repertorium of knowledge to the attention of Western scholars for the first time, it also re-kindled interest in China where the Lunheng-probably because of its iconoclastic approach- had been forgotten for centuries.
This long-awaited Quirin Press edition offers Forke's unsurpassed translation and annotation of the Lunheng in a three-volume set after a very careful updating and revision process that will set a new standard for years to come.
Vol. I, Ch. 1-38 Vol. II, Ch. 39-85 Vol. III, Appendices, Notes, Index
