Gems of Chinese Literature/Wang Ch‘ung-Virtue its own Reward

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Confucianism
Gems of Chinese Literature (1922)
translated by Herbert Allen Giles
Virtue its own Reward by Wang Ch‘ung
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WANG CH'UNG.

1st Century a.d.

[A brilliant exponent of China's "higher school of criticism." Born a.d. 27, in poverty, he managed to pick up a good education and entered official life. After a short spell he retired dissatisfied to his home, and there composed his great work, the Lun Hêng or "Animadversions," in which he criticizes freely the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, and tilts generally against the errors and superstitions of his day. His subsequent writings were chiefly of a reforming character. He memorialized the throne on the prevailing vice and extravagance; and in the days of a drunken China, he pleaded for the prohibition of alcohol.]

Wang Ch‘ung1523791Gems of Chinese Literature — Virtue its own Reward1922Herbert Allen Giles
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There are but few good men in the empire, and many bad ones. The good follow right principles, and the bad defy the will of God. Yet the lives of bad men are not therefore shortened, nor the lives of good men prolonged. How is it that God does not arrange that the virtuous shall always enjoy a hundred years of life, and that the wicked shall die young, as punishment for their guilt?

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