Lunheng

Short description: Classical Chinese text by Wang Chong (80 AD)

Lunheng

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The Lunheng, also known by numerous English translations, is a wide-ranging Chinese classic text by Wang Chong (27-

Short description: Latin loanword meaning "approximately, around"

CA|other uses of "Cca"|CCA (disambiguation)|CCA|other uses of "Circa"|Circa (disambiguation)}}Template:TWCleanup2Circa (from la 'around, about, roughly, approximately') - frequently abbreviated ca. or c. and less frequently circ., cca. or cc. - signifies "approximately" in several European languages and is used as a loanword in English, usually in reference to a date.[1] Circa is widely used in historical writing when the dates of events are not accurately known.

When used in date ranges, circa is applied before each approximate date, while dates without circa immediately preceding them are generally assumed to be known with certainty.

## Contents

* 1 Examples
* 2 See also
* 3 References
* 4 External links
* 5 Name
* 6 Text
* 7 History
* 8 Content
* 9 References
* 10 Further reading
* 11 External links

## Examples

* 1732–1799: Both years are known precisely.
* c. 1732 – 1799: The beginning year is approximate; the end year is known precisely.
* 1732 – c. 1799: The beginning year is known precisely; the end year is approximate.
* c. 1732 – c. 1799: Both years are approximate.

## See also

* Floruit

## References

1. ↑ "circa". Dictionary.com. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/circa.

## External links

* v
* t
* e

Chronology

Key topics|

* Archaeology
* Astronomy
* Geology
* History
* Big History
* Paleontology
* Time

* Periods
* Eras
* Epochs

| Calendar eras|

* Human Era
* Ab urbe condita
* Anno Domini / Common Era
* Anno Mundi
* Byzantine era
* Seleucid era
* Spanish era
* Before Present
* Hijri
* Egyptian
* Sothic cycle
* Hindu units of time (Yuga)
* Mesoamerican
* Long Count
* Short Count
* Tzolk'in
* Haab'

|

Regnal year|

* Canon of Kings
* Lists of kings
* Limmu

Era names|

* Chinese
* Japanese
* Korean
* Vietnamese

Calendars|

| Pre-Julian / Julian|

* Pre-Julian Roman
* Original Julian
* Proleptic Julian
* Revised Julian

|

Gregorian|

* Gregorian
* Proleptic Gregorian
* Old Style and New Style dates
* Adoption of the Gregorian calendar
* Dual dating

Astronomical|

* Lunisolar
* Solar
* Lunar
* Astronomical year numbering

Others|

* Chinese sexagenary cycle
* Geologic Calendar
* Hebrew
* Iranian
* Islamic
* ISO week date
* Mesoamerican
* Maya
* Aztec
* Winter count (Plains Indians)

Astronomic time|

* Cosmic Calendar
* Ephemeris
* Galactic year
* Metonic cycle
* Milankovitch cycles

Geologic time|

| Concepts|

* Deep time
* Geological history of Earth
* Geological time units

|

Standards|

* Global Standard Stratigraphic Age (GSSA)
* Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP)

Methods|

* Chronostratigraphy
* Geochronology
* Isotope geochemistry
* Law of superposition
* Luminescence dating
* Samarium–neodymium dating

Chronological
dating|

| Absolute dating|

* Amino acid racemisation
* Archaeomagnetic dating
* Dendrochronology
* Ice core
* Incremental dating
* Lichenometry
* Paleomagnetism
* Radiometric dating
* Radiocarbon
* Uranium–lead
* Potassium–argon
* Tephrochronology
* Luminescence dating
* Thermoluminescence dating

|

Relative dating|

* Fluorine absorption
* Nitrogen dating
* Obsidian hydration
* Seriation
* Stratigraphy

Genetic methods|

* Molecular clock

Linguistic methods|

* Glottochronology

Related topics|

* Chronicle
* New Chronology
* Synchronoptic view
* Timeline
* Year zero
* Circa
* Floruit
* Terminus post quem
* ASPRO chronology

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). First published in 80, it contains critical essays on natural science and Chinese mythology, philosophy, and literature.

## Name

The title Lunheng combines lun 論 or 论 "discuss; talk about; discourse; decide on; determine; mention; regard; consider" and heng 衡 "crosswise; balance beam; weigh; measure; judge; appreciate". English translations of the title include "Disquisitions" (Alfred Forke), "Critical Essays" (Feng Yu-lan),[1] "The Balanced Inquiries" (Wing-tsit Chan),[2] or "Discourses Weighed in the Balance" (Joseph Needham).

## Text

The received Lunheng comprises 85 pian 篇 "articles; sections; chapters" in 30 juan 巻 "scrolls; volumes; books", with more than 200,000 characters. Actually, 84 pian is more accurate because the text only contains the title of Chapter 44 Zhaozhi 招致.

Yang Wenchang (楊文昌) edited the first printed Lunheng edition, which was the basis for subsequent editions. Its 1045 preface notes that Yang compared 2 complete and 7 partial textual copies and corrected 11,259 characters.

"No commentaries to the Lun heng appear to have been written before the nineteenth century," write Pokora and Loewe,[3] which is unusual among Chinese classics. The first Lunheng commentators were Yu Yue (1821–1907), Sun Yirang (1848–1908), and Yang Shoujing (1839–1915).

## History

Based on internal evidence, Forke concludes the Later Han Dynasty Lunheng text "must date" from the years 76-84.[4] Chapter 38 (齊世 "The Equality of the Ages"[5]) says, "Our present sage and enlightened sovereign is continuing the blessings and the prosperity of the reigns of" Emperor Guangwu (r. 25-57) and Emperor Ming (r. 58-75), which implies the period of Emperor Zhang (r. 75-88). Chapter 30 (講瑞 "Arguments on Ominous Creatures"),[6] notes it was completed during the Jianchu 建初 era (76-84).

Feng notes the Lunheng "was probably completed" during the years 82 and 83.[7] "The authenticity of the work has not been brought into question", write Pokora and Loewe,[8] and the text "may possibly have been completed between 70 and 80", based upon collections of Wang's earlier writings or essays.

## Content

The contents of the Lunheng are summarized by Pokora and Loewe.

> In discussing natural phenomena and their implications or causes, matters of popular belief and misconception and political issues, the book is often written in polemical form. A controversial statement is made, to be followed by the author's critical rebuttal, which is often supported by quotations from earlier writings. In many ways the Lun heng may be regarded as an encyclopaedic collection of the claims and beliefs of Chinese religion, thought and folklore.[9]

Wang's Lunheng frequently espouses Daoist notions of naturalism. For example, Chapter 54 Ziran 自然 "Spontaneity" says.

> By the fusion of the fluids [qi] of Heaven and Earth all things of the world are produced spontaneously, just as by the mixture of the fluids of husband and wife children are born spontaneously. Among the things thus produced, creatures with blood in their veins are sensitive of hunger and cold. Seeing that grain can be eaten, they use it as food, and discovering that silk and hemp can be worn, they take it as raiment. Some people are of opinion that Heaven produces grain for the purpose of feeding mankind, and silk and hemp to cloth them. That would be tantamount to making Heaven the farmer of man or his mulberry girl [who feeds the silkworms], it would not be in accordance with spontaneity, therefore this opinion is very questionable and unacceptable.

> Reasoning on Taoist principles we find that Heaven [tian] emits its fluid everywhere. Among the many things of this world grain dispels hunger, and silk and hemp protect from cold. For that reason man eats grain, and wears silk and hemp. That Heaven does not produce grain, silk, and hemp purposely, in order to feed and cloth[e] mankind, follows from the fact that by calamitous changes it does not intend to reprove man. Things are produced spontaneously, and man wears and eats them; the fluid changes spontaneously, and man is frightened by it, for the usual theory is disheartening. Where would be spontaneity, if the heavenly signs were intentional, and where inaction [wu wei]?[10]

## References

* Chan, Wing-Tsit (1969). A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691019642.
* Lun-hêng, Part 1. Philosophical Essays of Wang Ch'ung. Leipzig: Harrassowitz. 1907. https://archive.org/details/lunheng01wang.
* Feng, Yu-lan (1953). A History of Chinese Philosophy. 2 vols.. E.J. Brill.
* Pokora, Timoteus; Loewe, Michael (1993). "Lun heng 論衡". in Michael Loewe. Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. University of California Press (Institute of East Asian Studies). pp. 309–313.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Feng 1953.
2. ↑ Chan 1969.
3. ↑ Pokora & Loewe 1993, p. 311.
4. ↑ Forke 1907, p. 9.
5. ↑ Forke 1907, p. 480.
6. ↑ Forke 1907, p. 372.
7. ↑ Feng 1953, p. 151.
8. ↑ Pokora & Loewe 1993, p. 309.
9. ↑ Pokora & Loewe 1993, p. 313.
10. ↑ Forke 1907, p. 92, cf. Feng 1953, p. 152 and Chan 1969, p. 296.

## Further reading

* Lun-hêng, Part 2. Miscellaneous Essays of Wang Ch'ung. New York City: Paragon Book Gallery. 1962. https://archive.org/details/lunheng02wang.
* Leslie, Donald. 1956. "Contribution to a new translation of the Lun heng", T'oung Pao 44:100-149.

## External links

* Lunheng 論衡 "Discussive Weighing", ChinaKnowledge entry
* 論衡, Lunheng text in Traditional Chinese characters (in Chinese)
* 论衡, Lunheng text in Simplified Chinese characters (in Chinese)
* Lun Hêng (论衡),works by Wang Ch'ung, philosophical essays of Wang Ch'ung, translated from the Chinese and annotated by Aalfred Forke..

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