Eastern Han scholar from Kuaiji, a pupil of Ban Biao, whose Balanced Discourses attacked prophetic texts and the belief that Heaven responds to human acts
Mural guide
A thatched pavilion open on three sides stands among tall bamboo; one person sits with their back turned at the veranda rail beside a zither and a stack of bamboo slips, while a stone path runs to a calm pond reflecting clouds and distant hills.
Wang Chong, courtesy name Zhongren, came from Shangyu in Kuaiji and, by his own account in the Balanced Discourses (Lunheng), was born in 27. At the imperial academy in Luoyang he studied under Ban Biao and, too poor to buy books, read them on the booksellers' stalls, remembering them after one reading. He left a commandery post after repeated disputes and later briefly served the regional inspector Dong Qin. His Balanced Discourses, eighty-five chapters of which eighty-four survive, attack prophetic texts and the theory that Heaven reacts to human conduct, holding that the Way of Heaven acts of itself; he also wrote on nurturing life. His friend Xie Yiwu recommended him to Emperor Zhang, who summoned him, but he was too ill to go, and he died at home in the Yongyuan era. A note to the History of the Later Han says Cai Yong found the Lunheng in the south and kept it as a private source of conversation.
The Book of the Later Han says Wang Chong, styled Zhongren, came from Shangyu in Kuaiji. He studied at the Imperial Academy under Ban Biao of Fufeng. His family was poor and he had no books, so he often visited the book stalls of Luoyang, read what was on sale, and could recite it after a single reading. He served the commandery as Officer of Merit and left after frequent remonstrations went unheeded. He wrote the Balanced Discourses in eighty-five chapters and over two hundred thousand characters, which explain the sameness and difference of things and correct the doubts of common opinion.
Han