Huainanzi

The Huainanzi is an ancient Chinese text made up of essays from scholarly debates held at the court of Liu An, Prince of Huainan, before 139 BCE. Compiled as a handbook for an enlightened sovereign and his court, the work attempts to define the conditions for a perfect socio-political order, derived mainly from a perfect ruler. With a notable Zhuangzi 'Taoist' influence, including Chinese folk theories of yin and yang and Wu Xing, the Huainanzi draws on Taoist, Legalist, Confucian, and Mohist concepts, but subverts the latter three in favor of a less active ruler, as prominent in the early Han dynasty before the Emperor Wu.

The early Han authors of the Huainanzi likely did not yet call themselves Taoist, and differ from Taoism as later understood. But K.C. Hsiao and the work's modern translators still considered it a 'principle' example of Han 'Taoism', retrospectively. Although the Confucians classified the text as Syncretist (Zajia), its ideas theoretically contributed to the later founding of the Taoist church in 184 c.e. Sima Tan may have even had the "subversive 'syncretism'" of the Huainanzi in mind when he coined the term, claiming to "pick what is good among the Confucians and Mohists."

Major influences

Although the first and twelfth chapters of the work are based on the Tao Te Ching, the Huainanzi most strongly resonates with the Zhuangzi, with influences including such works as the Lüshi Chunqiu, Han Feizi, Mozi, Guanzi, the Classic of Poetry, and Xunzi. Quantitatively, its most major influences are the Zhuangzi and Lüshi Chunqiu, and about half as much the Tao Te Ching and Han Feizi, including traces of Shen Buhai. But the work disparages the Han Feizi's combination of Shang Yang and Shen Buhai, glossing the three as penal.

Zhuangzi influences only exist as traces in the earlier, late Warring States period Han Feizi, and the Mawangdui silk texts Huangdi sijing, entombed in the early Han dynasty, still does not associate Laozi and Zhuangzi. In these terms, the Huainanzi is notable as the main evidence of Zhuangzi influence in the Han dynasty. Scattered anecdotes are comparable to Mencius, though sometimes differing.

The work

Scholars are reasonably certain regarding the date of composition for the Huainanzi. Both the Book of Han and Records of the Grand Historian record that when Liu An paid a state visit to his nephew the Emperor Wu of Han in 139 BC, he presented a copy of his "recently completed" book in twenty-one chapters. Recent research shows that Chapters 1, 2, and 21 of the Huainanzi were performed at the imperial court.

The Huainanzi is an eclectic compilation of chapters or essays that range across topics of religion, history, astronomy, geography, philosophy, science, metaphysics, nature, and politics. It discusses many pre-Han schools of thought, especially the Huang–Lao form of religious Daoism, and contains more than 800 quotations from Chinese classics. The textual diversity is apparent from the chapter titles, listed under the table of contents (tr. Le Blanc, 1985, 15–16).

Some 'passages are philosophically significant, with one example combining Five Phase and Daoist themes.

Notable translations

Major, John S.; Queen, Sarah A.; Meyer, Andrew Seth; Roth, Harold D. (2010). The Huainanzi. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-52085-0.
Le Blanc, Charles; Mathieu, Rémi (2003). Philosophes Taoïstes II: Huainan zi (in French). Paris: Gallimard.

Translations that focus on individual chapters include:

Balfour, Frederic H. (1884). Taoist Texts, Ethical, Political, and Speculative. London: Trübner.
Morgan, Evan (1933). Tao, the Great Luminant: Essays from the Huai-nan-tzu. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.
Wallacker, Benjamin (1962). The Huai-nan-tzu, Book Eleven: Behavior Culture and the Cosmos. New Haven: American Oriental Society.
Kusuyama, Haruki (1979–1988). E-nan-ji 淮南子 [Huainanzi]. Shinshaku kanbun taikei (in Japanese). Vol. 54, 55, 62.
Larre, Claude (1982). Le Traité VIIe du Houai nan tseu: Les esprits légers et subtils animateurs de l'essence [Huainanzi Chapter 7 Translation: Light Spirits and Subtle Animators of Essence]. Variétés sinologiques (in French). Vol. 67.
Ames, Roger T. (1983). The Art of Rulership: A Study in Ancient Chinese Political Thought. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Le Blanc, Charles (1985). Huai nan tzu; Philosophical Synthesis in Early Han Thought: The Idea of Resonance (Kan-ying) With a Translation and Analysis of Chapter Six. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Major, John S. (1993). Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: Chapters Three, Four and Five of the Huainanzi. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Ames, Roger T.; Lau, D.C. (1998). Yuan Dao: Tracing Dao to Its Source. New York: Ballantine Books.

Television series

The Legend of Huainanzi

References

Citations

Sources

External links

淮南子 - Chinese Text Project
淮南子, original text in Chinese 21 chapters
淮南子, original text in Chinese 21 chapters
淮南子, original text in Chinese 21 chapters
Tao, the Great Luminant, Morgan's translation
Huainan-zi, Sanderson Beck's article
Huainanzi, Chinaknowledge article