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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.[1] With a noteable 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.[2]
The early Han authors of the Huainanzi likely did not yet call themselves Taoist, and differ from Taoism as later understood.[3] But K.C. Hsiao and the work's modern translators still considered it a 'principle' example of Han 'Taoism', retrospectively.[4] 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..[5]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."[6]
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, 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 as penal.[7]
Zhuangzi influences only exist as traces in the earlier, late Warring States period Han Feizi,[8] and the Mawangdui silk textsHuangdi 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.[9][10] Scattered anecdotes are comparable to Mencius, though sometimes differing.[11]
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.[12]
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)
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.
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. ISBN1-55729-043-1.
Mair, Victor H. (2000). "The Zhuangzi and its Impact". In Kohn, Livia (ed.). Daoism Handbook. Leiden: Brill. pp.30–52. ISBN978-90-04-11208-7.
(Goldin, Paul R. (2005a). "Insidious Syncretism in the Political Philosophy of Huainanzi". University of Hawai'i Press: 90–111.
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