Huainanzi

Huainanzi
Chinese	淮南子
Literal meaning	"[Writings of the] Masters of Huainan"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Huáinánzǐ Wade–Giles Huai^2-nan^2 tzu^3 IPA [xu̯ǎi̯nǎntsɨ̀] Gwoyeu Romatzyh Hwainantzyy Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Waai^4-naam^4-zi^2 Yale Romanization Wàaih-nàahm-jí Southern Min Tâi-lô Huâi-lâm-tsú Middle Chinese Middle Chinese Hweaj-nom-tzí Old Chinese Baxter-Sagart *[ɢ]ʷˤrij nˤ[ə]m tsəʔ

The Huainanzi (Chinese: 淮南子) 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, King of Huainan, sometime before 139 BC. The Huainanzi blends Daoist, Confucianist, and Legalist concepts, including theories such as Yin-Yang and the Five Phases.

The Huainanzi's essays are all connected to one primary goal: attempting to define the necessary conditions for perfect socio-political order.^[1] 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.^[1]

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 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):

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 (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 Huainanzi passages are philosophically significant, for instance, this combination of Five Phases 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)

Notable translations

Most Huainanzi translations deal with only one chapter, and no complete Huainanzi translation in a Western language existed prior to 2010.

• Balfour, Frederic H. (1884). Taoist Texts, Ethical, Political, and Speculative. London: Trübner, and Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh.
• 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.
• (Japanese) Kusuyama, Haruki 楠山春樹 (1979–88). E-nan-ji 淮南子 [Huainanzi]. Shinshaku kanbun taikei 54, 55, 62.
• (French) 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 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.
• ———; Queen, Sarah; Meyer, Andrew; Roth, Harold (2010). 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.

References

Footnotes

1. Le Blanc (1993), p. 189.

Works cited

• Le Blanc, Charles (1993). "Huai nan tzu 淮南子". In Loewe, Michael. Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China; Institute for East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. pp. 189–95. ISBN 1-55729-043-1.

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