A Study On The Practical Writing Theory Of Wang Chong’s Lun Heng

Lun Heng condensed the painstaking efforts and the energy of thelifetime of Wang Chong. Although it is not a practical writing theorymonographs, it permeated with the thoughts of his practical writing.Wang made a famous theory of " five styles of writing", from which wecan see his thoughts on the style of writing, glimpsing his attention on thepractical wringting, especially on the official document andargumentative writing. In the research of Lun Heng,what’s more, we’llfind the active exploration and outstanding contributions of Wang Chong.The practical writing theory of Wang Chong is our precious culturalheritage. He attaches importance to practical writing, and deeplyrecognized the huge effect of practical writing in the society. Headvocates the practical writing’s social function of “praising the superiorand extolling the country, preaching the achievements",“increasing thegood deed and decreasing the bad deed, persuading people to be good andpunishing the evil”,“judging the dispute, discriminating the right andwrong”, and “writing and managing the memorial to the throne, dealingwith the trouble”. He recognizes the different features and the lawbetween the practical writing and the literary writing, so he requires thetrue content of practical writing which can arouse sincere feelings fromyour heart without increasing or decreasing. He asks that we should clear the purpose and the motivation of writing and express the point of viewdirectly. As for the use of practical writing language, Wang is keen on theconcise language and opposes to the flowery language. He holds the viewthat the most important thing is to say right rather than gorgeous. WangChong is especially disgusted with the “following suit and simulation”, sohe advocates the innovation of thinking, and puts forward the writingview of “being different from secularity” and “discussing withrationality”. Wang Chong also thinks highly of the quality of writingsubject, and advances a series of requirements, such as training the goodmoral character of a literatus hardly, developing the spirit of pursuing thetruth, persisting in increasing social experience and practice.In conclusion, Wang Chong’s Lun Heng is not only an epoch-makingmasterpiece in our ancient history of thoughts, but also contains theessence of the theory of ancient practical writing. Deeply exploring andarranging the theory of practical writing of Wong Chong still has majorpractical significance for practical writing teaching, practical writing, andthe study of practical writing theory nowadays.