Unlike most of the Chinese philosophers of his period, Wang spent much of his life in non-self-inflicted poverty. He was said to have studied by standing at bookstalls, and had a superb memory, which allowed him to become very well-versed in the Chinese classics. He eventually reached the rank of District Secretary, a post which he soon lost as a result of his combative and anti-authoritarian nature.
Life
Wang was born into a poor family at modern . With the urging of his parents, Wang travelled to the Eastern Han capital at Luoyang to study at the . Due to his humble origins, Wang became resentful towards officials who were admired simply because of their wealth and power and not for any scholarly abilities. However, Wang soon resigned from this post as well. Wang later died at home around the year 100. The official Wang Lang acquired a copy of Wang's ''Lun heng'' and brought it with him on his trip in 198 to the Han court established at Xuchang by Prime Minister Cao Cao .
Although Wang Chong was certain of his ideas about eclipses , his ideas on this would not be later accepted in China. Although there were some figures like ''Liu Chi'', writing in his Lun Tian of 274 AD that supported Wang's theory by arguing the inferior Yin could never obstruct the superior Yang , Liu was still outside of the mainstream accepted Confucian tradition. The Song Dynasty scientist Shen Kuo supported the old theory of a spherical sun and moon by using his own reasoning about eclipses, which he explained were due to the moon and the sun coming into obstruction of one another. The Chinese philosopher Zhu Xi also supported this theory in his writing. Although Wang Chong was right about the water cycle and other aspects of early science, his stern opposition to mainstream Confucian thought at the time made him a skeptic of all their theories, including eclipses .
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