Chinese philosopher active during the Han Dynasty. He is often interpreted as offering a materialist and skeptical philosophical system. Wang’s essays on physics, astronomy, ethics, methodology, and criticism are collected in the Lunheng (Critical Essays), the work for which he is mainly known. 

He developed a rational, secular, naturalistic and mechanistic account of the world and of human beings and gave a materialistic explanation of the origin of the universe. At the centre of his thought was the denial that Heaven has any purpose for us, whether benevolent or hostile. Humans are insignificant specks in the universe and cannot hope to effect changes in it, and it is ludicrous arrogance to think that the universe would change itself for us.

Wang insisted that the words of previous sages should be treated critically, and that they were often contradictory or inconsistent. He criticised the status quo of his time, being nowadays recognised as a true visionary with his skepticism and protoscientific methods that opposed popular superstition.

Wang Chong, Discussions Critiques, Gallimard: Paris, 1997

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