On Equilibrium Dictionary

Author: Shi Yongle Wang Jingming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-02-01
Features: The original Lunheng contained eighty-five chapters, with eighty-four preserved today, and Zhaozhi is lost. The main purpose of Lunheng, as Wang Chong himself stated, is to combat superstition and criticize all false and unrealistic statements and records. The book is extremely rich in content, covering various aspects such as philosophy, history, literature, folklore, documents, and language from the Eastern Han Dynasty and earlier. Lunheng is not only a remarkable critical philosophy book from the Han Dynasty but also holds significant importance in the history of Chinese language development. Since it was produced during the transition period from ancient Chinese to middle Chinese, and its language is straightforward, incorporating colloquial and vernacular expressions, it reflects the actual usage of language at the time. This makes it highly valuable for the study of Chinese lexical history and the broader history of Chinese language development. The establishment of entries in this book balances a degree of generality while emphasizing specificity, as is characteristic of specialized dictionaries. There are numerous entries with fine-grained distinctions to better assist readers in understanding Lunheng.