Huainanzi

Huainanzi
Qing-era copy of Huainanzi
Chinese	淮南子
Literal meaning	[The Writings of] the Huainan Masters
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Huáinánzǐ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Hwainantzyy Wade–Giles Huai2-nan2 tzŭ3 IPA [xwǎɪ.nǎn.tsɨ̀] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Wàaih-nàahm-jí Jyutping Waai4-naam4-zi2 IPA [waj˩ nam˩ tsi˧˥] Southern Min Tâi-lô Huâi-lâm-tsú Middle Chinese Middle Chinese Hweaj-nom-tzí Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *[ɢ]ʷˤrij nˤ[ə]m tsəʔ

The Huainanzi is an ancient Chinese text consisting of a collection of essays resulting from a series of 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. 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 work is notable as a primary evidence of Zhuangzi influence in the Han.

Although the Confucians classified the text as Syncretist (Zajia), its ideas theoretically contributed to the founding of the Daoist religion in 184 c.e.

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 the Lüshi chunqiu, Han Feizi, Mozi, Guanzi, the Classic of Poetry, and Xunzi. Quantitatively, it's 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 together in a penal portrayal.

Zhuangzi influences only exist as traces in the Han Feizi, and the Mawangdui silk texts Huangdi sijing, entombed in the early Han dynasty, still lacked in them. In these terms, the Huainanzi is notable as the main evidence of Zhuangzi influence in the Han dynasty. Scattered anecdotes are either drawn from or 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.  

When the lute-tuner strikes the kung note [on one instrument], the kung note [on the other instrument] responds: when he plucks the chiao note [on one instrument], the chiao note [on the other instrument] vibrates. This results from having corresponding musical notes in mutual harmony. Now, [let us assume that] someone changes the tuning of one string in such a way that it does not match any of the five notes, and by striking it sets all twenty-five strings resonating. In this case there has as yet been no differentiation as regards sound; it just happens that that [sound] which governs all musical notes has been evoked.

Thus, he who is merged with Supreme Harmony is beclouded as if dead-drunk, and drifts about in its midst in sweet contentment, unaware how he came there; engulfed in pure delight as he sinks to the depths; benumbed as he reaches the end, he is as if he had not yet begun to emerge from his origin. This is called the Great Merging. (chapter 6, tr. Le Blanc 1985:138)

Table of contents

Number	Name	Reading	Meaning
1	原道訓	Yuandao	Searching out Dao (Tao)
2	俶真訓	Chuzhen	Beginning of Reality
3	天文訓	Tianwen	Patterns of Heaven
4	墜形訓	Zhuixing	Forms of Earth
5	時則訓	Shize	Seasonal Regulations
6	覽冥訓	Lanming	Peering into the Obscure
7	精神訓	Jingshen	Seminal Breath and Spirit
8	本經訓	Benjing	Fundamental Norm
9	主術訓	Zhushu	Craft of the Ruler
10	繆稱訓	Miucheng	On Erroneous Designations
11	齊俗訓	Qisu	Placing Customs on a Par
12	道應訓	Daoying	Responses of Dao
13	氾論訓	Fanlun	A Compendious Essay
14	詮言訓	Quanyan	An Explanatory Discourse
15	兵略訓	Binglue	On Military Strategy
16	說山訓	Shuoshan	Discourse on Mountains
17	說林訓	Shuolin	Discourse on Forests
18	人間訓	Renjian	In the World of Man
19	脩務訓	Youwu	Necessity of Training
20	泰族訓	Taizu	Grand Reunion
21	要略	Yaolue	Outline of the Essentials

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

Sources

• Creel, Herrlee Glessner (1970). What Is Taoism?: And Other Studies in Chinese Cultural History. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-12047-8.
• Graham, A.C. (1989). Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China. Open Court. ISBN 978-0-8126-9942-5.
• Le Blanc, Charles (1993). "Huai nan tzu 淮南子". In Loewe, Michael (ed.). Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley, CA: Society for the Study of Early China; Institute for East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. pp. 189–95. ISBN 1-55729-043-1.
• Mair, Victor H. (2000). "The Zhuangzi and its Impact". In Kohn, Livia (ed.). Daoism Handbook. Leiden: Brill. pp. 30–52. ISBN 978-90-04-11208-7.

Goldin, Paul R. (2005a). "Insidious Syncretism in the Political Philosophy of Huainanzi". University of Hawai'i Press: 90–111.

• Major, John S. (2010). The Huainanzi A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-52085-0.
• Hansen, Chad (2024). "Zhuangzi". In Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2024 ed.). Retrieved 19 February 2024.
• Meyer, Andrew Seth (2012). The Dao of the Military. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231153331.

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