Huainanzi
The Huainanzi is an ancient Chinese text that consists of a collection of essays that resulted from a series of scholarly debates held at the court of Liu An, Prince of Huainan, sometime before 139. The Huainanzi blends Daoist, Confucianist, and Legalist concepts, including theories such as yin and yang and Wu Xing theories.
The Huainanzis essays are all connected to one primary goal: attempting to define the necessary conditions for perfect socio-political order. It concludes that perfect societal order derives mainly from a perfect ruler, and the essays are compiled in such a way as to serve as a handbook for an enlightened sovereign and his court.
The book
The date of composition for the Huainanzi is more certain than for most early Chinese texts. 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.The Huainanzi is an eclectic compilation of chapters or essays that range across topics of mythology, 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 :
| Number | Name | Reading | Meaning |
| 1 | 原道訓 | Yuandao | Searching out Dao |
| 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 |
Some Huainanzi passages are philosophically significant, for instance, this combination of Five Phases and Daoist themes.
Notable translations
Most Huainanzi translations deal with only one chapter, and no complete Huainanzi translation in a Western language existed prior to 2003.- Balfour, Frederic H.. Taoist Texts, Ethical, Political, and Speculative. London: Trübner, and Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh.
- Morgan, Evan. Tao, the Great Luminant: Essays from the Huai-nan-tzu. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.
- Wallacker, Benjamin. The Huai-nan-tzu, Book Eleven: Behavior Culture and the Cosmos. New Haven: American Oriental Society.
- Kusuyama, Haruki 楠山春樹. E-nan-ji 淮南子 '. Shinshaku kanbun taikei 54, 55, 62.
- Larre, Claude. "Le Traité VIIe du Houai nan tseu: Les esprits légers et subtils animateurs de l'essence" . Variétés sinologiques 67'.
- Ames, Roger T.. The Art of Rulership: A Study in Ancient Chinese Political Thought. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
- Le Blanc, Charles. Huai nan tzu; Philosophical Synthesis in Early Han Thought: The Idea of Resonance With a Translation and Analysis of Chapter Six. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
- Major, John S.. 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. and D.C. Lau. Yuan Dao: Tracing Dao to Its Source. New York: Ballantine Books.
- Le Blanc, Charles and Mathieu, Rémi. Philosophes Taoïstes II: Huainan zi. Paris: Gallimard.
- ———; Queen, Sarah; Meyer, Andrew; Roth, Harold. The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China, by Liu An, King of Huainan''. New York: Columbia University Press.
Citations