1. Nature does nothing
Wang Chong believes that heaven and earth are both natural material entities without will, and the movement and change of everything in the universe and the generation of things are the result of natural inaction. He believes that all things are generated by the material "Qi" and natural movement, and that "Heaven and earth are in harmony with Qi, and all things are born by themselves". The winning among creatures is due to the strength of various biological muscles, the advantages and disadvantages of imposing manner and the deftness of actions, which is not the intentional arrangement of heaven, and heaven is not a personality god who has the will to make fortunes.
2. Heaven can't give birth to man
Wang Chong thinks that heaven is nature and man is the product of nature. "Man is also a thing; Things, things are also ",thus cutting off the connection between heaven and man. He carried forward Xunzi's materialistic thought of "knowing the difference between man and nature". He said: "People can't feel the sky with their actions, and the sky can't respond to people with them." He believes that the politics and morality of society have nothing to do with the disasters in nature, and the so-called "the connection between heaven and man" is only the result of people comparing heaven with their own ideas.
3. God destroys ghosts
Wang Chong believes that people die when they are alive. Man can be born because he has vital energy and blood, and "when a man dies, his blood is exhausted, but his vital energy is extinguished, and his body is decayed, and he becomes dust. What is the use of being a ghost?" "He thinks that death is like a fire, why can there be light when the fire goes out? He gave a materialistic explanation of human spiritual phenomena, thus denying the existence of ghosts and breaking the superstition of "retribution of good and evil".
4. Today is better than the ancients
Wang Chong opposes the idea of "respecting heaven and learning from the ancients", and thinks that today's people are "in harmony" with the ancients. Today's people are the same as the ancients, and there is no basis to say that the ancients are always better than today's people, and there is no reason to praise the ancients for not being today. He thinks that Han is more progressive than in the past, and Han is above the "one hundred generations" because Han is behind the "one hundred generations". This view is completely opposite to the idea that "the sky will not change and the road will not change".
Historical significance:
Wang Chong takes Taoism's natural inaction as his argument purpose and "heaven" as the highest category of his view of heaven. With "Qi" as the core category, the natural gasification of vitality, essence and harmony constitutes a huge universe generation model, which is in opposition to the theory of induction between man and nature. It shows the characteristics of Taoism in advocating the nature of life and death, advocating thin burial and rebelling against deified Confucianism. He verified his remarks with facts, which made up for the defects of Taoism. It is an important inheritor and developer of Taoist thought in Han Dynasty.
Although Wang Chong's thought belongs to Taoism, it is strictly different from the thought of Laozi and Zhuangzi in the pre-Qin period. Although he advocated the Taoist thought in the Han Dynasty, it is different from the "study of Huang Lao" advertised by the Wang Dynasty in the early Han Dynasty and the popular Taoism in the late Western Han Dynasty. Lun Heng is Wang Chong's representative work and an immortal atheistic work in the history of China.
Character profile:
Wang Chong (27—about 97), whose name is Ren Ren, was born in Shangyu, Huiji, and his ancestors migrated from Yuancheng, Wei County to Yuancheng. Wang Chong became an orphan when he was young, and everyone in the village praised him for his filial piety. Later, I came to Beijing to study in the Imperial College (the highest institution in the central government), and I took Ban Biao, a native of Fufeng (place name), as my teacher. I like reading extensively, but I don't memorize chapters. There are no books at home, so I often go to the bookstore in Luoyang market and read the books sold there. I can recite them while reading them, so I am proficient in the words of a hundred schools of thought. Later, I returned to my hometown and lived at home to teach. Huiji County recruited him as a Gongcao (official name), and resigned because he argued with his superiors many times and disagreed with them.