Huainanzi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Huainanzi (淮南子; pinyin Huáinánzǐ, Wade-Giles Huai-nan Tzu; literally "The Masters/Philosophers of Huainan") is a 2nd century BCE Chinese philosophical classic from the Han dynasty that blends Daoist, Confucianist, and Legalist concepts, including theories such as Yin-Yang and the Five Phases. It was written under the patronage of Liu An, King of Huainan, a legendarily prodigious author. The text, also known as the Huainan honglie 淮南鸿烈 ("The Great Brilliance of Huainan"), is a collection of essays that resulted from literary and philosophical debates between Liu and guests at his court, in particular the scholars known as the Eight Immortals of Huainan.

Contents 1 The book 2 Translations 3 References 4 External links

[edit] 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 BCE, 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, philosophy, science, metaphysics, nature, and politics. It discusses many pre-Han schools of thought (especially Huang-Lao Daoism), and contains more than 800 quotations from Chinese classics. The textual diversity is apparent from the chapter titles (tr. Le Blanc, 1985, 15-16):

        01      原道訓 Yuandao     Searching out Tao
        02      俶真訓 Chuzhen     Beginning of Reality
        03      天文訓 Tianwen     Patterns of Heaven
        04      墬形訓 Zhuixing    Forms of Earth
        05      時則訓 Shize       Seasonal Regulations
        06      覽冥訓 Lanming     Peering into the Obscure
        07      精神訓 Jingshen    Seminal Breath and Spirit
        08      本經訓 Benjing     Fundamental Norm
        09      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 Tao
        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 of the earliest recorded Chinese cosmology is found in the Huainanzi, for instance:

(1) There was "the beginning:" (2) there was a beginning of an anteriority to this beginning: (3) there was a beginning of an anteriority even before the beginning of this anteriority. (4) There was "the existence." (5) There was "the non-existence." (6) There was "not yet a beginning of non-existence." (7) There was "not yet a beginning of the not yet beginning of non-existence." (chap. 2, tr. Morgan, 1934, 31)

[edit] Translations

The Huainanzi has never been completely translated into English. Besides Evan Morgan's free translation of eight chapters (1, 2, 7, 8, 12, 13, 15, and 19) and John Major's scholarly analysis of three (3, 4, and 5); the only published translations are of individual chapters: 1 by Frederic Balfour, 6 by Charles Le Blanc, 9 by Roger Ames, and 11 by Benjamin Wallacker.

[edit] References

• Ames, Roger T. (1983).The Art of Rulership: A Study of Ancient Chinese Political Thought. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-7914-2062-0

• Balfour, Frederic H. (1884). Taoist Texts: Ethical, Political, and Speculative. London: Trubner. ISBN 1-59752-175-2.

• 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. ISBN 962-209-179-2.

• Major, John S. (1993). Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: Chapters Three, Four, and Five of the Huainanzi. Albany: SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-1586-4.

• Morgan, Evan S. (1934). Tao, the Great Luminant: Essays from the Huai Nan Tzu. Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh. ASIN: B00085Y8CI.

• Roth, Harold. (1992). The Textual History of the Huai-nan Tzu. Ann Arbor: AAS Monograph Series. ISBN 0-924304-06-5.

• Wallacker, Benjamin E. (1962). The Huai-nan-tzu, Book Eleven: Behavior, Culture and the Cosmos. New Haven: American Oriental Society. ASIN: B0007DSHAA.

[edit] External links

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