Compiled by scholars at the court of Liu An, king of Huainan, in the second century B.C.E, The Huainanzi is a tightly organized, sophisticated articulation of Western Han philosophy and statecraft. Outlining "all that a modern monarch needs to know," the text emphasizes rigorous self-cultivation and mental discipline, brilliantly synthesizing for readers past and present the full spectrum of early Chinese thought. The Huainanzi locates the key to successful rule in a balance of broad knowledge, diligent application, ...
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Compiled by scholars at the court of Liu An, king of Huainan, in the second century B.C.E, The Huainanzi is a tightly organized, sophisticated articulation of Western Han philosophy and statecraft. Outlining "all that a modern monarch needs to know," the text emphasizes rigorous self-cultivation and mental discipline, brilliantly synthesizing for readers past and present the full spectrum of early Chinese thought. The Huainanzi locates the key to successful rule in a balance of broad knowledge, diligent application, and the penetrating wisdom of a sage. It is a unique and creative synthesis of Daoist classics, such as the Laozi and the Zhuangzi ; works associated with the Confucian tradition, such as the Changes , the Odes , and the Documents ; and a wide range of other foundational philosophical and literary texts from the Mozi to the Hanfeizi . The product of twelve years of scholarship, this remarkable translation preserves The Huainanzi 's special rhetorical features, such as parallel prose and verse, and showcases a compositional technique that conveys the work's powerful philosophical appeal. This path-breaking volume will have a transformative impact on the field of early Chinese intellectual history and will be of great interest to scholars and students alike.
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The Huainanzi (?Master(s) of Huai Nan?) is an encyclopedic Chinese work of political philosophy dating from around 139 BCE.
The story of it is that Liu An, the King of Huai Nan, ordered the compilation of this work by his court scholars to present to his nephew, the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The early Han Dynasty, in reaction to the centralist Qin Dynasty it had replaced, preserved regional kingdoms, governed by relatives of the Emperor. Huai Nan was a kingdom in south central China on the Yangtze. Liu An was a great patron on literature, and it may have been at his court that the Chu Ci (?Songs of Chu?), and the Chuangzi (?Teachings of Master Chuang?) were edited into their modern forms. As a regional King Liu An was naturally very in favour of the political arrangements of the time and was alarmed by the extent to which centralising and Confucian ideas were influencing the young Emperor Wu. He had the Huainanzi compiled and presented to the Imperial Court as a way of trying to influence his nephew to favour Daoist type political ideas and to continue the decentralized organisation of the Han Empire.
It is fair to say that his schemes failed completely. In fact the Huainanzi has been described as ?the longest political suicide note in history?. The Confucians grew in influence at court, various reorganisations lessened the powers of the kingdoms (and they disappeared entirely shortly afterwards) and finally, in 122 BCE, Liu An was forced to commit suicide after allegations of his involvement in a rebellion.
However the Huainanzi itself was preserved, transmitted to posterity and has now been translated in full in English for the first time in this edition (and translated and annotated very well, too). It is a work of outstanding interest. Although there are sections which are almost incomprehensible to modern readers, the majority of the work reads in an astonishingly modern and ?rational? way. The Daoism that is espouses it not the anarchic Daoism of the Chuangzi, and it is influenced by other schools of thought. It reads in a very sane and sympathetic manner when compared to the more authoritarian tendencies of its age adn later.
Anyone interested in Chinese history or culture or Daoism should certainly dip into this book and this edition?s layout and annotations make it easy to do so.
The range of the work is wide, covering cosmology, philosophy, political science, military matters, natural history, weather, geography, music, culture and other topics in 21 chapters.
Here are some of the more interesting points that I noted reading this work:
o In describing the natural world the work stresses the different natural environments in China and elsewhere and the necessity of animals and humans adapting to them (eg 1.8), the work at times seems to have a modern understanding of adaptation and evolution.
o Various sections describe contemporary environmental degradation in Han China eg 8.1, 8.3, 8.9. (8.3 ?[in]the decadent age of the world, we find that men [are] many and wealth little?. )
o 8.11 has a sophisticated observation about how an advanced state regulates people?s interactions with the natural world and this causes people to become filled with anomie (also 9.4).
o 8.1 has a good passage describing how a growing population leads to more frequent warfare (as does Plato?s Republic) (cf also 13.10).
o 12.56 specifically mentions a decline in population as a good thing for a society (implied in 14.11 and other places also).
o 11.20 bad effects of consumerism
o 9.23 Law ?neither a gift of heaven nor a product of earth?, ie an innate human tendency towards social organisation overwritten by local cultural conditions and history.
o 13.2 the evolution of society through cultural stages (also 6.8)
o 13.3 differences in culture between different early Chinese dynasties (Hsia, Shang, Chou)
o 15.1 ?Overview of Military?, military not to be used for expanding territory or gaining wealth, only for humanitarian operations and defence.
