Extrait

Introduction. Wang Ch‘ung’s Philosophy. Physics

Wang Ch‘ung does not discriminate between a transcendental Heaven and a material Sky. He knows but one solid Heaven formed of the Yang fluid and filled with air.

This Heaven appears to us like an upturned bowl or a reclining umbrella, but that, says Wang Ch‘ung, is an of optical illusion caused by the distance. Heaven and Earth seem to be joined at the horizon, but experience shows us that that is not the case. Wang Ch‘ung holds that Heaven is as level as Earth, forming a flat plain (Chap. XX).

Heaven turns from East to West round the Polar Star as a centre, carrying with it the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. The Sun and the Moon have their own movements in opposite direction, from West to East, but they are so much slower than that of Heaven, that it carries them along all the same. He compares their movements to those of ants crawling on a rolling mill-stone (eod.). Plato makes Heaven rotate like a spindle. The planets take part in this movement of Heaven, but at the same time, though more slowly, move in opposite direction by means of the σφόνδυλοι forming the whirl (Überweg-Heinze, Geschichte der Philosophie, vol. I, p. 180).

Heaven makes in one day and one night one complete circumvolution of 365 degrees. One degree being calculated at 2,000 Li, the distance made by Heaven every 24 hours measures 730,000 Li. The sun proceeds only one degree = 2,000 Li, the Moon 13 degrees 26,000 Li. Wang Ch‘ung states that this is the opinion of the Literati (eod.). Heaven’s movement appears to us very slow, owing to its great distance from Earth. In reality it is very fast. The Chinese mathematicians have computed the distance at upwards of 60,000 Li. The Taoist philosopher Huai Nan Tse avers that it measures 50,000 Li (Chap. XIX).

The body of the Earth is still more solid than that of Heaven and produced by the Yin fluid. Whereas Heaven is in constant motion, the Earth does not move (Chap. XX). It measures 10,000 million square Li, which would be more than 2,500 million square-km., and has the shape of a rectangular, equilateral square, which is of course level. Wang Ch‘ung arrives at these figures in the following way. The city of Loyang in Honan is by the Chinese regarded as the centre of the world and Annam or Jih-nan as the country over which the sun in his course reaches the southermost point. Annam therefore would also be the southern limit of the Earth. The distance between Loyang and Annam is 10,000 Li. Now, Chinese who have been in Annam have reported that the sun does not reach his south-point there, and that it must be still further south. Wang Ch‘ung assumes that it might be 10,000 Li more south. Now Loyang, though being the centre of the known world i. e. China, is not the centre of the Earth. The centre of the Earth must be beneath the Polar Star, the centre of Heaven. Wang Ch‘ung supposes the distance between Loyang and the centre of the Earth below the pole to be about 30,000 Li. The distance from the centre of the Earth to its southern limit, the south-point of the sun, thus measuring about 50,000 Li, the distance from the centre to the north-point must be the same. That would give 100,000 Li as the length of the Earth from north to south, and the same number can be assumed for the distance from east to west (Chap. XIX).

The actual world (China) lies in the south-east of the universe (Chap. XX). This peculiar idea may owe its origin to the observation that China lies south of the Polar Star, the centre of Heaven, and that at the east-side China is bordered by the ocean, whereas in the west the mainland continues.

Tsou Yen, a scholar of the 4th cent. B. C. has propounded the doctrine that there are Nine Continents, all surrounded by minor seas, and that China is but one of them, situated in the south-east. Beyond the Nine Continents there is still the Great Ocean. Wang Ch‘ung discredits this view, because neither the Great Yü, who is believed to have penetrated to the farthest limits of the Earth and to have written down his observations in the Shan-hai-king, nor Huai Nan Tse, who had great scholars and experts in his service, mention anything about different continents (Chap. XIX).

This Earth is high in the North-West and low in the South-East, consequently the rivers flow eastwards into the ocean (Chap. XX). This remark again applies only to China, which from the table land of Central Asia slopes down to the ocean, where all her big rivers flow.

Among the celestial bodies the Sun is the most important. He is a star like the Moon and the Planets, consisting of fire. His diameter has been found to measure 1,000 Li. The Sun follows the movement of Heaven, but has his own at the same time. The common opinion that the sun and the other stars are round is erroneous. They only appear so by the distance. The Sun is fire, but fire is not round. The meteors that have been found, were not round. Meteors are stars, ergo the stars are not round (loc. cit.).

At noon, when the Sun is in the zenith, he is nearer to us than in the morning or the evening, because the perpendicular line from the zenith to the earth is shorter than the oblique lines, which must be drawn at sunrise or sunset. It is for this reason also that the sun is hottest, when is culminating. That the Sun in the zenith appears smaller than, when he rises or sets, whereas, being nearer then, he ought to be bigger, is because in bright daylight every fire appears smaller than in the darkness or at dawn (eod.).

This question has already been broached by Lieh Tse V, 9 who introduces two lads disputing about it, the one saying that the Sun must be nearer at sunrise, because he is larger then, the other retorting that at noon he is hottest, and therefore must be nearest at noon. Confucius is called upon to solve the problem, but cannot find a solution.

Wang Ch‘ung is much nearer the truth than Epicurus, whose notorious argument on the size of the sun and the moon, is not very much to his credit. He pretends that the stars must be about the size, which they appear to us, because fires did not lose anything of their heat, or their size by the distance (Diog. Laert. X, 91), which is an evident mis-statement. Lucretius repeats these arguments (Lucr. V, 554-582).

The different lengths of day and night in winter and summer Wang Ch‘ung attributes to the shorter and longer curves described by the Sun on different days. In his opinion the Sun would take 16 different courses in heaven during the year. Other scholars speak of 9 only (eod.). Wang Ch‘ung is well acquainted with the winter and summer Solstices and the vernal and autumnal Equinoxes (eod.).

Whereas the Sun consists of fire, the Moon is water. Her apparent roundness is an illusion ; water has no definite shape (eod.). Of the movement of the Moon we have already spoken. In Chinese natural philosophy the Moon is always looked upon as the opposite of the Sun. The Sun being the orb of day and light is Yang, fire, consequently the Moon, the companion of night and darkness, must be Yin, water. The Sun appears brilliant and hot like a burning fire, the Moon pale and cool like glistening water. What wonder that the ancient Chinese should have taken her for real water, for Wang Ch‘ung merely echoes the general belief.

In the matter of Eclipses Wang Ch‘ung does not fall in with the view of many of his time, to the effect that the Sun and the Moon over-shadow and cover one another, nor with another theory explaining the eclipses by the preponderance of either of the two fluids, the Yin or the Yang, but holds that by a spontaneous movement of their fluids the Sun or the Moon shrink for a while to expand again, when the eclipse is over. He notes that those eclipses are natural and regular phenomena, and that on an average an eclipse of the Sun occurs every 41 or 42 months, and an eclipse of the Moon every 180 days (eod.).

Epicurus and Lucretius are both of opinion that the fading of the Moon may be accounted for in different ways, and that there would be a possibility that the Moon really decreases i. e. shrinks together, and then increases again (Diog. Laert. X, 95 ; Lucr. V, 719-724).

Wang Ch‘ung is aware that ebb and high-tide are caused by the phases of the Moon, and that the famous ‘Bore’ at Hangchou is not an ebullition of the River, resenting the crime committed on Wu Tse Hsü, who was unjustly drowned in its waters.

The Stars except the Five Planets, which have their proper movement, are fixed to Heaven, and turn round with it. Their diameter has been estimated at about 100 Li viz. 1/10 of the diameter of the Sun. That they do not appear bigger to us than eggs is the effect of their great distance (Chap. XX). They are made of the same substances as the Sun and the Moon and the various things, and not of stone like the meteors. They emit a strong light. The Five Planets : Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn consist of the essence of the Five Elements : water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. The fact that the Five planets are in Chinese named after the Five Elements : The Water Star (Mercury), the Fire Star (Mars), etc. must have led Wang Ch‘ung to the belief that they are actually formed of these elements. The language must also be held responsible for another error into which Wang Ch‘ung has fallen. He seems to believe that the stars and constellations are really what their Chinese names express e. g., that there are hundreds of officials and two famous charioteers in Heaven, who by emitting their fluid, shape the fate of men, and that the 28 Solar Mansions are actually celestial postal stations (Chap. XIX). It is possible however that the intimations of Wang Ch‘ung to this effect are not to be taken literally, and that he only makes use of the usual terminology without attaching to them the meaning which his words would seem to imply. We are sometimes at a loss to know, whether Wang Ch‘ung speaks his mind or not, for his words are often only rhetorical and dialectical devices to meet the objections of his opponents.

Wang Ch‘ung’s ideas on Meteors and Shooting Stars are chiefly derived from some classical texts. He comes to the conclusion that such falling stars are not real stars, nor stones, but rain-like phenomena resembling the falling of stars (Chap. XX).

Rain is not produced by Heaven, and, properly speaking, does not fall down from it. It is the moisture of earth, which rises as mist and clouds, and then falls down again. The clouds and the fog condense, and in summer become Rain and Dew, in winter Snow and Frost (eod.). There are some signs showing that it is going to rain. Some insects become excited. Crickets and ants leave their abodes, and earth-worms come forth. The chords of guitars become loose, and chronic diseases more virulent. The fluid of rain has this effect.

The same holds good for Wind. Birds foresee a coming storm, and, when it is going to blow, become agitated. But Wang Ch‘ung goes farther and adopts the extravagant view that wind has a strange influence on perverted minds, such as robbers and thieves, prompting them to do their deeds, and that by its direction it influences the market-prices. From its direction moreover, all sorts of calamities can be foreseen such as droughts, inundations, epidemics, and war. There is a special science for it, still practised to-day by the Imperial Observatory at Peking.

Heat and Cold correspond to fire and water, to the regions, and to the seasons. Near the fire it is hot, near the water, cool. The Yang fluid is the source of heat, the Yin fluid that of cold. The South is the seat of the Yang, the North of the Yin. In summer the Yang fluid predominates, in winter the Yin. The temperature can never be changed for man’s sake, nor does Heaven express its feelings by it. When it is cold, Heaven is not cool, nor is it genial and cheerful, when it is warm (Chap. XXI).

When the Yin and the Yang fluids come into collision, we have Thunder and Lightning. The fire of the sun colliding with the water of the clouds causes an explosion, which is the thunder. Lightning is the shooting forth of the exploding air (Chap. XXII, XXIX). Wang Ch‘ung alleges 5 arguments to prove that lightning must be fire (Chap. XXII). He ridicules the idea that thunder is Heaven’s angry voice, and that with its thunderbolt it destroys the guilty.

« When lightning strikes, he says, it hits a tree, damages a house, and perhaps kills a man. But not unfrequently a thunder-clap is without effect, causing no damage, and destroying no human life. Does Heaven in such a case indulge in useless anger ?

And why did it not strike a fiend like the Empress Lü Hou, but often kills sheep and other innocent animals ? (eod.) Lucretius asks the same question :

« Quod si Juppiter atque alii fulgentia divi

terrifico quatiunt sonitu cælestia templa

et jaciunt ignem quo qoiquest cumque voluptas,

cur quibus incautum scelus aversabile cumquest

non faciunt icti flammas ut fulguris halent

pectore perfixo, documen mortalibus acre,

et potius nulla sibi turpi conscius in re

volvitur in flammis innoxius inque peditur

turbine cælesti subito correptus et igni ?

cur etiam loca sola petunt frustraque laborant ?

The poet states that tempests are brought about by the conflict of the cold air of winter with the hot air of summer. It is a battle of fire on the one, and of wind and moisture on the other side. Lightning is fire (eod. 355-375). Thunder is produced by the concussion of the clouds chased by the wind (eod. 94 seq.).