THIS APPENDIX explains the translation decisions that we as a team made concerning the most significant terms in the conceptual framework of the Huainanzi. Most of the following entries address both translational and interpretive issues, partly because the two are inextricably intertwined. The Huainanzi is such a sophisticated and unusual text that many terms require unconventional or flexible translations, and these decisions cannot be justified without discussing how each term is used in the larger perspective of the text as a whole. Beyond this, however, we felt that a detailed discussion of both the background and the contextual usage of the central concepts of the Huainanzi would be helpful. Readers may encounter some repetition of themes or ideas both in this appendix and between these entries and the general and chapter introductions earlier in this volume, but we hope that such redundancies are excusable in the interest of making them more convenient to use. At the end of this appendix is a list to help track the Chinese transliterations of terms from their English equivalents. We have tried to translate key terms consistently, but in a work this large there will undoubtedly be some inconsistencies. Thus certain translations of common terms that appear in the body of the translation may not appear here, even though a synonym that serves as an alternative translation of the term may offer the same information.
| ba |  |
hegemon |
The ba was an office created during the Spring and Autumn period (770–481 B.C.E.) to authorize the ruler of one or another of the states that made up the Chinese polity to act as primus inter pares of state rulers on behalf of the Zhou king. The invention of the office is credited to Guan Zhong, the prime minister of Qi; the ruler whom Guan served, Duke Huan of Qi, was the first to hold the office. The office of hegemon was created in response to the declining power of the Zhou kings. Duke Huan (and subsequent hegemons) held a commission from the Zhou Son of Heaven to summon the other Lords of the Land to council, where he would adjudicate interstate disputes and organize the defense of the Zhou realm against non-Sinic peoples. The legitimacy of the hegemon as an institution became a hotly contested issue in pre-Han literature, with texts such as the Mencius decrying it as an aberrant devolution from the moral authority of the sage-kings, and other texts such as the Guanzi celebrating its progressive efficacy. The Huainanzi generally agrees with earlier texts like the Xunzi, which take a medial position. It views the office of hegemon as a provisionally efficacious response to a particular time but ranks the legitimacy and excellence of such a figure far below that of a true king or emperor.
| ben |  |
root, basis, foundation, fundamental, basic |
Throughout the Huainanzi, the “root” signifies the fundamental organic principle of all cosmic, cognitive, physiological, personal, historical, and political realms. All things are conceived as having emerged from an undifferentiated yet dynamically generative root and to have achieved a progressively elaborate form through a process of ramification and individuation. Thus the cosmos progressed from the Grand One (that is, the Way) to yin and yang, the Five Phases, and the myriad things. The mind progresses from unified tranquillity and vacuity to ever more complex states of perception, emotion, and cognition. The human body develops from a protean embryo to an intricate structure of organs, limbs, and extremities. The person evolves from unself-conscious infant through increasingly sophisticated stages of self-awareness and maturity. History moves from the earliest eras of unalloyed simplicity through eras of successively more sophisticated and complex forms of economic, political, and social organization. Finally, the political realm begins with the simple apophatic self-cultivation of the ruler but extends through increasingly differentiated moral and cultural realms until it arrives at the minute contingencies of standards, measures, methods, and procedures. Intrinsic to the Huainanzi’s conceptualization of the root is the principle that the root is not consumed or dissipated by the process by which it differentiates into posterior phenomena. Rather, it persists and continues to pervade and control the ramified structure that it generated. For example, even in a latter age of intense elaboration, the Way remains the initiating and motive force at the basis of all processes and the single root that must be accessed if one hopes to influence or control events.
| benmo |  |
root and branch, fundamental and peripheral |
“Root and branch” designates the basic structural relationship informing all cosmic and human realms. In all domains, “root” and “branch” constituents may be identified. For example, in the cosmos the Way is the root, and Heaven, Earth, yin, and yang are branches; in the mind, tranquillity is the root, and perceptions, feelings, and thoughts are branches. In all root–branch relations, the root stands in a position of both diachronic, temporal priority and synchronic, normative priority to the branches. Thus the Way is prior to Heaven and Earth in that it existed first and continues to impel and control the latter phenomena even after they come into existence. In the same way, the mind’s basic tranquillity precedes all perception, emotion, and thought and normatively should control and regulate all the operations of the mind even after its tranquillity has been stimulated to motion by external phenomena. Other root–branch structural relationships described by the Huainanzi likewise stand in the same position of relative temporal/normative priority and posteriority to one another (see ben).
| bian |  |
to alter, to vary, to change; permutations |
Several words for “change” are used throughout the Huainanzi, and in our translation we have tried to distinguish among them consistently. Bian has the sense of alteration among states of being (for example, from a yin to a yang state, or vice versa) or of variation within defined parameters. It differs from hua 
, “transformation,” in implying alternation or variation rather than fundamental and lasting change. The change from a caterpillar to a butterfly, for example, which is both substantive and irreversible, is a frequently cited instance of hua in the earlier literature. By contrast, a change that involves the realignment of constituent parts in a dynamic system (and that may be or is regularly reversed), such as that from day to night and back again, would be considered an instance of bian. In a few instances, we translate bian simply as “to change.” See also hua 
, yi 
, and yi 
.
| cheng |  |
sincerity |
“Sincerity” denotes complete, uninhibited integration between a person’s most basic, spontaneous impulses and his or her expressed words and actions. In the Huainanzi’s conception of human psychology, the baseline energy of human consciousness (that is, the shen, “spirit”) is merged with the Way and partakes of its extreme potency and dynamism. When stimulated by external phenomena, consciousness moves within the mind–body matrix as a wave of qi that culminates in feeling or thought or sound or motion or some combination of them. Most of these expressions emerge depleted of the potency and dynamism intrinsic to the field from which they have arisen, because they are refracted through the prisms of self-consciousness, preconception, and insecurity that obstruct the ordinary human mind. In the rare instances that (or among the rare individuals for whom) an internal response evolves from baseline to full expression totally unimpeded, it produces a moment imbued with extraordinary power. Such sincerity can evoke a response in the minds and bodies of others or paranormal phenomena such as telekinesis. For these aspects of cheng, see chapters 6, 9, and 10. For the related term “Quintessential Sincerity” (jing cheng 
), see chapter 20.
| chunqiu |  |
spring and autumn, one year; Spring and Autumn Annals |
“Spring and autumn” is a conventional synecdoche for a single year and is used occasionally in the text of the Huainanzi. From this connection is derived the name of the Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals), which is a yearly chronicle of the state of Lu from 770 to 476 B.C.E. By the Han period, the tradition attributing the authorship of the Chunqiu to Confucius himself had been long established. The Huainanzi affirms this tradition as well as the prevalent Confucian notion that when composing the Chunqiu, Confucius used subtle language to “praise and blame” the rulers of the era he chronicled, thus restoring moral rectitude to an age that in its own time was utterly corrupt and personally assuming the status of an “uncrowned king” (suwang 
). The authors of the Huainanzi appropriated many themes and tropes from the Confucian exegetical tradition surrounding the Chunqiu to construct their own theories of political and especially military affairs.
| dao |  |
the Way |
dao the Way The “Way” is the Huainanzi’s most basic signifier of ultimacy, and as such it is difficult to describe definitively in words. To say that it is the origin, totality, and animating impulse of all that is, ever was, and ever shall be is inadequate, for this would exclude what is not, never was, and never shall be. To say that the Way pervades and controls all existence and transformation distorts it, as this would imply that it is separable from all existence and transformation (even if only analytically). The text itself insists that the Way is ultimately ineffable and thus cannot be “understood” cognitively. Even though it cannot be known intellectually, because the Way is fundamental to all being, it can be experienced and embodied. This concept of the Way is not original to the Huainanzi; it is derivative of earlier texts such as the Zhuangzi and the Daodejing.
Occasionally, the Huainanzi uses “the Way” in the more limited sense in which it is used in early texts such as the Analects, in which the Way is not a cosmic entity but a cultural construct (for example, “the Way of the sage-kings,” “the Way of Yao and Shun”). The word dao is sometimes employed in an even more limited sense as a particular “teaching” (for example, “the Way of archery”). Such usages always operate within a particular context, however. The default reading of the “Way” in any passage in which it is not clearly marked as denoting a more limited meaning is as the cosmic ultimate. Moreover, in many places where the Way is not used specifically, the concept is signified by metaphoric sobriquets such as “the Grand One” and “Grand Beginning.” The Huainanzi’s most detailed discussion of the Way is in chapter 1, although the concept figures prominently throughout the text.
| de |  |
Potency, Moral Potency |
In the Huainanzi, as in the Daodejing, “Potency” is consistently conceptualized in terms of a fixed relationship with the Way. Whereas the Way is the root of all existence, Potency is the manifestation of the generative, transformative, and destructive dynamism of the Way in the phenomenal realm. Wherever the unimpeded operation of the Way may be perceived in the universe, Potency is manifest, and whenever a particular phenomenon perfectly embodies the Way in space and time, its unique Potency is on display. Thus in the movement of the stars and the change of the seasons, we see the Potency of Heaven, and in the ripening of the grain and the loftiness of mountains, we see the Potency of Earth. For human beings, Potency derives from perfectly embodying the Way in the workings of their minds and bodies, a state that for most people is consistently achievable only through self-cultivation. In this way, individuals may develop vast funds of Potency that can influence the human and cosmic realms in mysterious ways that transcend the ordinary limitations of time and space. For example, an individual of abundant Potency can calm the minds of rebellious subjects without leaving the palace hall or can make the harvest plentiful without issuing any commands. The Huainanzi’s most detailed discussion of Potency is in chapter 2, although the concept figures prominently throughout the text.
The Huainanzi occasionally uses the term de in contexts that accord with its usage in earlier Confucian texts such as the Analects. Here de represents a form of Potency that derives from exemplary moral action, and in these instances we translate de as “Moral Potency.” Moral Potency has a discrete efficacy that can be discursively identified with values such as “Humaneness” (ren) and “Rightness” (yi) and contrasted with coercive force (as in the conventional formula xingde, “punishment and Moral Potency”). This does not mean that Potency and Moral Potency are two distinct phenomena, however. Moral Potency remains an expression of the dynamism of the Way in the phenomenal realm, forming a continuum with other more primordial and undifferentiated forms of Potency.
| di |  |
Earth, earthly |
Earth was long venerated in the religious traditions of ancient China and remains so today. Every local potentate of ancient times maintained an altar to the soil, and a similar shrine may still be found in almost every rural Chinese village. In classical cosmological thought, Earth was a force that ranked alongside and just subordinate to Heaven (see tian). In the Huainanzi, Earth is given fourth place among the primal entities discussed on a chapter-by-chapter basis (see chapter 4). It was among the first phenomena to emerge from the undifferentiated Way. Although Heaven is usually cited as the force responsible for conditions beyond the control of humankind, Earth is also accorded great power within the phenomenal realm that houses human society. The Huainanzi generally views Heaven as more powerful because it encompasses forms of qi that are more rarefied and thus (within the conceptual framework of the text) more primordial and dynamic. Earth encompasses all those forms of qi that are more turbid and inert, but this still gives Earth a very significant role. For example, although the rarefied forms of qi that constitute the mind and spirit are said to come from Heaven, the grosser qi that forms our flesh, bones, and sinews is said to come from Earth (see chapter 7). Earth is thus instrumental in determining the material constitution of each individual’s mind–body system, and characteristic differences between distinct groups of people are attributed to the unique qi of their respective native Earth.
| dong |  |
movement, disturbance; to move, to disturb; action, active |
“Movement” or “action” is an important conceptual category in the Huainanzi, as it is the progeny and defining opposite of stillness (jing). Stillness is generally understood as the original and normative state of both the cosmos and human consciousness, but movement is acknowledged as an inevitable and indispensable product of cosmogenesis and sentience. Without both movement and stillness, time would not exist, as only by the contrast between the two can moments be differentiated from each other and the flow of time be made accessible to human perception. All phenomena begin in and are generated from stillness, but the process of differentiation that produces the phenomenal world is contingent on movement.
| du |  |
measure, standard, degree |
“Standards” and “measures” are vital components of the Huainanzi’s political lexicon. These two meanings of du are inseparable and largely interchangeable in a Han cultural context. For example, the Han court issued a uniform cast-metal weight to serve as the standard for determining a single jin, and the same weight could be placed on a scale opposite some object or substance (say, one jin of tax grain) to measure it. The creation and dissemination of such standards was understood as a central and defining function of imperial power, for both its value in facilitating social intercourse and cohesion and its role in coordinating the relationship of local society and the imperial state. In the Huainanzi, the significance of standards has another dimension, as the text proposes that in any given age appropriate standards can be derived from a survey of the basic patterns of the cosmos. An example of this is the derivation of a perfect calendar year through careful astronomical observation. This operation ties in the third meaning of “degree,” as the standard course of celestial bodies was measured in such units. (In this usage, du has the precise meaning of 1/365.25 of a circle; in such instances, we indicate Chinese “degrees” by a superscript “d” [for example, 11d].) Standards thus give a sage-ruler a versatile mechanism to coordinate not only the state and society but also the entire human community and the cosmos at large.
| fan |  |
return, to revert, reversion, on the contrary, oppose, contradict |
“Return” or “reversion” is a key concept in the Huainanzi. In the basic root–branches framework through which the text conceives all cosmic and human realms (see ben and benmo), any move from a “branch” state back toward a “root” state is marked as a “return” or “reversion.” On a cosmic level, reversion is characteristic of the Way itself, as contingent phenomena tend over time (through death, decay, or destruction) to revert to the undifferentiated root from which they emerged. On a human level, reversion or return can be a process that unlocks great potential power, as in the “return to one’s nature” (fanxing), “return to the self” (fanji 
), or “return to one’s spirit” (fanshen) achieved by the adept of apophatic personal cultivation. In general, any reversion or return to the root is normatively privileged by the Huainanzi, although the text asserts that certain forms of reversion are not possible. For example, the text insists that the progressive elaboration of human social and political institutions over time is not ultimately reversible, but it does concede that the effective operation of institutions in a latter age depends on a return to the root by political leaders through personal cultivation.
In some contexts, the Huainanzi uses the term fan in a more strictly logical or grammatical sense, meaning “on the contrary” or “conversely.” This often reflects a conventional usage dating back to the Warring States period, marking an idea, a fact, or an argument that directly contradicts a particular persuasion (shui) or discourse (lun). In this sense, fan may also be used verbally and in such cases is translated as “to oppose” or “to contradict.”
| ganying |  |
resonance, stimulus and response |
“Resonance” is a central operative principle of the cosmos as conceived by the Huainanzi. The phrase itself means “stimulus” (gan 
) and “response” (ying 
), which is how we have translated it when the Huainanzi refers specifically to the discrete component processes that the term denotes. Fundamentally, “resonance” is a process of dynamic interaction that transcends the limits of time, space, and ordinary linear causality. Through the mechanism of resonance, an event in one location (the “stimulus”) produces simultaneous effects in another location (the “response”), even though the two phenomena have no direct spatial or mechanical contact. They may indeed be separated by vast gulfs of space. For example, connections between celestial events (eclipses, planetary motions) and events in the human community were understood as examples of “resonance.”
For the authors of the Huainanzi, such connections were not coincidence or mere correspondence but dynamic influences exchanged through the energetic medium of qi. All phenomena are both composed of and impelled by qi, and since all currently differentiated qi emerged from an originally undifferentiated Grand One, all qi remains mutually resonantly linked. The pathways of resonance are not random, however. Objects are most sensitive to resonant influences emanating from other objects that share the same constituent form of qi.
The best example of this is an empirically observable phenomenon often cited by ancient authors to illustrate the concept of resonance itself: the harmonic resonance observable among musical instruments. If a string tuned to the pentatonic note gong on one qin is plucked, for example, the corresponding string on a separate qin will be perceived to vibrate. This was thought to occur because of the presence of Earth qi, which is responsible for the note gong in both instruments. When the Earth qi in the first instrument is activated (the stimulus), the corresponding Earth qi note in the other resonates (the response).
Such interactions were thought to be operative in the universe at all times. Someone who understood the patterns of these interactions could manipulate them to produce marvelous and beneficial effects across space-time. For example, during the summer, when Fire qi is ascendant (according to the Five-Phase understanding of seasonal influences), the ruler can wear red clothes (red being the color produced by Fire qi) so as to send out harmonizing resonances through the general matrix of cosmic qi and bring cosmic forces into line with the needs of the human community. The Huainanzi’s most thorough discussion of resonance is found in chapter 6.
| he |  |
harmony |
“Harmony” is a key concept in the political lexicon of the Huainanzi. As was true for many other early Chinese texts, “harmony” is the single word that most perfectly expresses the Huainanzi’s normatively ideal state of human government and society. Among different traditions in ancient Chinese thought, there was no great variation in how harmony was conceived. For most, if not all, writers, harmony was generally marked by an absence of strife between ruler and ruled and among all the constituent elements of state and society. Where ancient authors differed was in articulating the means by which harmony was to be achieved. The Huainanzi’s vision of harmony is like that of most ancient texts, although it stresses the importance of harmony simultaneously suffusing and interconnecting both the human and cosmic realms. It is never enough in the Huainanzi for human beings to be in harmony with one another. Such a state can never be achieved or endure if human society is not dynamically coordinated with Heaven, Earth, and the larger forces of the cosmos.
Because the cosmic vision of the Huainanzi centers on the notion of the Way derived from texts like the Daodejing (Laozi), it frequently acknowledges that ultimate harmony may occasionally incorporate elements of destruction that are jarring to human sensibilities. Just as the spontaneous operations of the cosmos naturally include periods of dormancy and contraction (such as the cold of the winter months), the harmonious operations of the human polity may necessarily include destructive activities like punishment and warfare. In an ultimate sense, harmony does not depend on a total absence of violence but on the timeliness of all activities undertaken in the human realm and the persistence of all elements of the dynamic system that make up the human–cosmic matrix in their normatively correct relationship to one another.
Music is an important metaphor on which the concept of harmony is constructed, in both the Huainanzi and other early texts. The timely sounding of each note in a musical performance and their melodious relationship to one another exemplified the dynamic harmony that ideally should prevail in the human and cosmic realms. It is important, however, to refrain from anachronistically overreading modern notions of “musical harmony” into ancient Chinese texts. Many authorities insist that harmony in the strict technical sense of “an ordered progression of simultaneous sounds blended into musical chords” was a much later invention, but of course no one really knows what early Chinese music sounded like. With this cautionary note in mind, when applied to music we use the word “harmony” in a looser sense of “a pleasing consonant arrangement of musical notes.”
| hua |  |
transformation, to transform, metamorphosis, to turn into |
Transformation is key to the total conceptual framework of the Huainanzi, as the text pictures all cosmic and human reality as pervaded on all levels by constant transformation. In this view, it is the inherent disposition of all cosmic qi to transform continually. Such ceaseless transformation instantiates the intrinsic dynamism of the Way that brought the phenomenal world into being and that continues to impel it to evolve. This constant flow of transformation cannot be resisted; human beings can hope only to align themselves harmoniously with its ongoing course.
Collectively, such an alignment is achieved by organizing the human community within political and cultural structures, like those outlined in the Huainanzi, that are versatile enough to respond to the flow of cosmic change. Collective structures will never work effectively, however, unless individual leaders personally tap into and immerse themselves in the larger flow of transformation. The human mind–body system is a microcosm of the universe, so a person who harnesses and regulates the flow of energetic transformation within himself or herself (through the kinds of personal cultivation the Huainanzi advocates) becomes an agent who can direct cosmic transformation to channels that are harmonious and conducive to human flourishing.
Transformation also occurs naturally in the nonhuman world—for example, in chapter 5, where mice are said to turn into quail in the third month of spring. In such cases, we translate hua as “metamorphosis” or “to turn into.”
| ji |  |
crux; fulcral moment, activation, mechanism |
Ji originally referred to the trigger mechanism of a crossbow. Then in the Huainanzi and other early texts, it came to signify the unique moment or condition that activated a dramatic shift from one state to another. The ability to recognize and actualize the potential of such fulcral moments is cited throughout the Huainanzi as a hallmark of the Genuine Person and the sage. Another related meaning that uses the image of the crossbow is “mechanism” or “dynamism”; that is, ji may signify any complex system imbued with intrinsic motive power (for example, tian ji, the “Mechanism of Heaven”).
| jing |  |
vital essence, essence, quintessence |
Jing, or “essence,” denotes a form of qi that is more rarefied, potent, and dynamic than the coarse qi constituting gross tangible matter. The character itself originally signified the seed kernel of a grain plant and later came to stand for human semen. As an adjective, jing may mean “essential” or “excellent.” When used to describe troops, for example, jing denotes those soldiers that are most selectively recruited and highly trained: the elite.
In its most common nominal form, however, “essence” is a form of vitalizing energy. Like all qi, it has material substance, but it is not generally perceptible to the ordinary sense organs. Only its effects may be detected by ordinary perception. Essence is responsible for all the distinctive properties of animate beings—for example, the growth of plants and the awareness and mobility of animals. Certain inanimate objects are imbued with special properties by the presence of essence. It gives rise to the luster of jade and the potencies inherent in certain medicines. In human beings, essence impels all the gross motor skills and basic nervous responses.
| jing |  |
tranquillity, quiescence, stillness, at rest |
“Stillness” denotes both a cosmic and an existential state. On the cosmic level, stillness is the original state prior to all change and transformation; all things begin in and return to stillness. Even in the universe of differentiated phenomena, stillness is a primal force, for it is only by contrast with stillness that motion and thus time may be perceived. In this sense, stillness is closely related to Nothingness (wu 
). It is, in fact, the temporal embodiment of Nothingness, whose spatial counterpart is vacuity (xu 
). Stillness is the opposite of movement (dong).
Existentially, stillness (along with vacuity) is the original state of the mind and the root of all cognitive processes. The mind’s normative condition is stillness; it is moved only by external stimuli. When still, the mind retains and nurtures its vitalizing energies. If the stillness of the mind is chronically disturbed, its energies become depleted, sometimes leading to derangement, illness, or death. “Stilling the mind” through sustained meditative practice is thus a core element of the personal cultivation program advocated by the Huainanzi and a key route to the attainment of sagehood.
| jingshen |  |
essence and spirit, Quintessential Spirit |
The binome jingshen occurs frequently in the Huainanzi. Where parallelism or other factors indicate that the text is treating these concepts separately, we have translated it as “essence and spirit” (see jing 
and shen 
). In some places, however, the Huainanzi clearly uses this binome to denote a particular substance: “Quintessential Spirit.” Like jing, or “essence,” jingshen also is a form of qi, one even more rarefied, potent, and dynamic than essence itself. When essence is responsible for basic animation, Quintessential Spirit is the intensely potent energy that constitutes the mind and gives rise to consciousness and illumination. Quintessential spirit circulates throughout the body, coordinating the body’s activities under the control of the mind. All thoughts and emotions occur within a matrix composed of Quintessential Spirit, and violent feelings or fixation on externalities can cause jingshen to dissipate from the mind–body system. The apophatic self-cultivation of the sage is often conceptualized in terms of preserving and nurturing one’s fund of Quintessential Spirit. Greater concentrations of Quintessential Spirit lead to progressively advanced levels of consciousness and awareness, sometimes developing into the realm of paranormal or what is today called “extrasensory perception.” The Huainanzi’s most thorough discussion of jingshen is in chapter 7.
| junzi |  |
Superior Man |
Junzi originally meant “aristocrat” (literally, “the son of a lord”), and Confucius redefined it to denote a person of extraordinary moral merit rather than high birth. The Huainanzi generally uses the term as Confucius defined it, to mean a person who has acquired qualities of moral excellence, such as Humaneness and Rightness, through extensive study and education. The Huainanzi accords the Superior Man a role in maintaining communal harmony in the latter ages, and some of the “branch” chapters of the text, notably chapter 10, exalt “the Way of the Superior Man.” But the Superior Man is usually seen in the work as a whole as being surpassed by the sage (sheng), the Genuine Person (zhenren), and the Perfected Person (zhiren), whose attainments have reached a higher level.
| li |  |
pattern, principle, to put in order; to regulate |
pattern, principle, to put in order; to regulate “Pattern” denotes the basic tendency of the cosmos to embody and express harmonious order. Originally the word signified the striations that could be seen in a piece of jade. Later it evolved to mean any sort of visual, dynamic, or logical pattern. The Huainanzi conceives of the cosmos as imbued with patterns that may be discerned by the most highly refined and sensitive human observers. For example, both the cycles of the moon and the changes of the seasons were understood as grand and broadly evident cosmic patterns. One of the chief benefits of the personal cultivation of the sage is gaining insight into the patterns of the cosmos, enabling him to construct institutions perfectly suited to the circumstances of the age. Chapter 5 offers an example in which all the seasonal ordinances are presented as human cultural institutions derived from underlying cosmic patterns.
| li |  |
profit, (material) benefit, advantage |
“Profit” was an extraordinarily important and versatile category in the philosophical writings of the Warring States period. The character itself depicts a stalk of grain and a knife, indicating that it was meant to be understood in strictly material terms: harvested grain. Profit thus denotes material necessities like food, clothing, and shelter that are the mainstays of life. The Warring States thinker Mozi proposed that all moral and political imperatives be quantified and prioritized in terms of profit. Although his position was far from universally adopted, it was broadly influential. The Huainanzi does not give profit such an elevated status but insists, in contrast to Mozi and others, that states of being can be reached through personal cultivation that put the adept beyond the control of or desire for profit. The Huainanzi does concede, however, that profit is a useful and versatile measure by which to gauge the efficiency and utility of political institutions. The term is occasionally used verbally, as in the phrase li min 
, “benefiting the people.” See also lihai 
.
| li |  |
propriety, ritual, the rites, protocol |
“Ritual” is a fundamental concept in the writings of Confucius and his later disciples. As such, it denotes all forms of symbolic action, ranging from the grandest ceremonies of the state cult to common courtesies such as bowing. Confucians asserted that ritual was the ideal instrument of social organization in that participation in ritual could coordinate human activity without recourse to bribery or threats. They conceived of a utopian community in which all social interaction would unfold with the same harmonious spontaneity of a ceremonial dance. Moreover, Confucians exalted ritual as among the essential instruments of personal transformation, because (according to them) sincere participation in ritual refined the energies and capacities of the mind–body system and cultivated the moral disposition of the individual.
The Huainanzi does not assign ritual such primal value. According to the Huainanzi, ritual did not exist in the earliest ideal societies, and at one time it was possible to order both the person and society at large in the complete absence of ritual. The text does agree with contemporary Confucians, however, that ritual has become an indispensable tool of state power in the current latter age. The Huainanzi also basically agrees that ritual can have beneficial effects for those who have not been improved by personal cultivation, although it would not accept (as Confucians insist) that learning or participating in ritual is a necessary path to the highest levels of personal attainment. Finally, the Huainanzi differs with Confucians over the normatively correct origins of ritual. Confucians insisted that correct rituals were the creations of the ancient sage-kings and that current-day rituals must be painstakingly reconstructed from the evidence of ancient practice. In contrast, the Huainanzi asserts that ritual must be made appropriate to the age and that correct ritual can be created in the current day only by a sage-ruler who can fathom the patterns of the cosmos and human history, thereby creating rituals perfectly suited to the circumstances of his own day. The Huainanzi ’s views on ritual are detailed in chapter 11.
| lihai |  |
benefit and harm, advantage and disadvantage |
“Benefit” and “harm” are a matched pair in the statecraft theory of the Warring States period. The desire for benefit and the avoidance of harm were adduced as the two poles that conditioned and controlled human action, and so many early thinkers regarded the state’s ability to dispense both forces (in the form of rewards and punishments) as the seminal instrument of state power and the structural foundation on which all order and prosperity could be built. The Huainanzi does not share the enthusiasm of such early statecraft thinkers as Mozi and Han Feizi for benefit and harm as instruments of state control, but it does acknowledge their utility to the efficient operation of certain institutions indispensable to government in latter ages. The Huainanzi insists, however, that benefit and harm are truly effective as instruments of state power only when they are wielded by rulers and officials who, because of their elevated levels of personal cultivation, are themselves beyond the controlling effects of benefit and harm. Only such rulers can use the instruments of benefit and harm completely dispassionately and with perfect insight into the appropriateness of their application from situation to situation. See also xingde 
.
| lihai |  |
numinous, divine |
Ling denotes a quality of marvelous or extraordinary power that may exist in an object or a person. The ability to foretell the future or perceive current events from great distances, for example, are qualities described as “numinous.” Numinous phenomena are assumed to display the same capacities as spirits, as they are able to transcend the ordinary limits of time and space, albeit within discrete contexts. Although numinous qualities might be colloquially described as “magical,” the Huainanzi does not view such phenomena as supernatural. Rather, an object or a person is made “numinous” by possessing the same types of highly rarefied, potent, and dynamic qi (jingshen, “Quintessential Spirit”) of which spirits are composed and which forms the material basis of their marvelous powers and properties.
| liuhe |  |
the six coordinates |
The “six coordinates” refer to the spatial realm encompassing what might be called “the known world.” The six consist of the four cardinal directions (probably in practice conceived of as “front and back” and “left and right”) combined with the dimensional planes of “up” and “down.” Although in principle the vectors of the six coordinates extend without limit in all directions, as used in the text “the expanse within the six coordinates” is usually synonymous with “the known world.” The whole universe of human habitation (both civilized and not), in contrast, is sometimes referred to as “the Nine Continents” (jiu zhou 
), and the farthest distance one can travel is denoted as “the Eight End Points” (ba ji 
). The entire cosmos is encompassed by the very expansive term “space-time” (yuzhou 
).
| lun |  |
to reason, to assess; assessment, argument, discourse |
Lun denotes logical speech in various forms and contexts. Any instance of reasoned argumentation may be called lun, as may an argument or the task of reasoned argumentation in the abstract. Beyond this, lun may be used verbally in the sense of “to assess,” or in the related nominal sense of “an assessment.” A loosely defined genre of polemical writing known as lun was quite popular during the age of the Huainanzi’s composition, and the text contains many discussions and examples of it (most prominently, chapter 13). When lun is used in this sense, we have translated it as “discourse.”
| ming |  |
life span, life circumstances, fate, destiny, to order, a decree |
The base meaning of ming is “order” or “decree,” from which came its alternative significance of “fate.” The Huainanzi conceives of many contingencies affecting the human condition that are beyond individual control and are thus attributed to fate—for example, whether or not one is born in an orderly or a chaotic age. From this meaning comes that of “life span,” as people were understood to have a certain fixed span of years mandated by their physiology at birth. An individual could generally do nothing to exceed his or her mandated life span, but it was possible to fall short of it by inviting harm or ruining one’s physical constitution by overindulgence. One of the benefits of apophatic self-cultivation is refining both the energies of the mind–body system and personal conduct so that an individual’s fated life span can be fulfilled.
| ming |  |
name, reputation, (official) title |
The question of naming became a central controversy in the philosophical discourse of the Warring States period, which influenced the Huainanzi’s use of this term. There was general agreement that name should correspond to reality (shi 
, with which ming was frequently paired in the binome mingshi, “name and reality”). But whether particular realities required certain names or whether the initial pairing of name and reality was a matter of convention and, if so, by what mechanism such conventions were legitimately established, were contested issues. The Huainanzi generally holds that “naming” is a matter of human convention, although it asserts that the relation of name to reality cannot be completely arbitrary. Language as a system of names must have an organic integrity if the harmony of the human community and its alignment with the cosmos are to be maintained. For this reason, names should ideally be selected and assigned by a sage, as his comprehension of human and cosmic conditions empowers him to find the most appropriate name for each thing or affair. Above all, the Huainanzi asserts that ultimate truth cannot be captured in names. The Nameless (wuming 
) is another sobriquet for the Way that generated, contains, and controls the cosmos. The sage’s unique naming ability comes about because his consciousness is merged with the Nameless.
Throughout the ancient literature, the same term is used to denote “name” and “reputation.” This was not a case of metonymy but arose from the particular understanding of how “reputation” was constituted: it hinged on whether a particular “name” (for example, “loyal,” “humane”) could be legitimately applied to the “reality” of a person’s conduct and character. The Huainanzi frequently uses ming in this regard, and we have translated it accordingly. The text does not treat the question of personal reputation as completely inconsequential, and it expresses concern that distortion of reputation and reality can cause disharmony in the social and political realms. As in the case with “names,” the Huainanzi insists that the ultimate power to rectify misalignments of reputation and reality lies in a domain transcending all moral and ethical distinctions. An individual’s reputation is therefore never, even in ideal social and political circumstances, an infallible gauge of his or her worth, and the nurturing or preservation of one’s reputation is not an ultimately efficacious path of personal development.
| ming |  |
to clarify, clarity; to discern, discernment; to illuminate, illumination, bright, brightness |
The basic meaning of ming is “bright.” The character combines the pictographs of the sun and the moon, a visual image of brightness. From that basis come the meanings “to clarify/clarity” and “to discern/discernment.” The Huainanzi uses the term in all these senses. Beyond these basic meanings, the Huainanzi follows earlier texts like the Zhuangzi in using ming to denote the state of elevated consciousness that can be achieved through personal cultivation and is characteristic of the sage and the Genuine Person. In this sense, the term signifies a state of mind marked by exceptional cognitive and perceptual sensitivity and incisiveness, and we have generally translated it in these contexts as “clarity” or “illumination.”
| Mingtang |  |
“Hall of Light” (generally not translated) |
The Mingtang is a special structure mentioned in much of the early literature on ritual and sacrifice. Throughout imperial history, debates about the precise design and function of the Mingtang were frequent and heated. Generally it was agreed that whatever its function or design, the construction and use of a Mingtang was the exclusive prerogative of the Son of Heaven. Confucian canonical texts describe the Mingtang as a temple in which sacrifices were conducted. In the Huainanzi, the Mingtang is a multichambered palace building of simple construction and austere appearance in which the ruler holds court in a prescribed pattern of shifting from room to room in order to carry out the seasonal ordinances.
| qi |  |
vital energy, vital breath (paired with jing  or in inner-cultivation contexts); otherwise qi (not translated) |
Qi is both matter and energy, the basic substance out of which the entire universe is composed. The original meaning of the character was “steam” or “vapor,” and in later cosmological thought, a vapor or gas was understood to be the original and pristine state of qi. Before time and space came into being, all qi was one and undifferentiated, existing in its primordial gaseous form. In that state, qi displays maximum dynamism and potential, and so it can (and does) transform into any shape or substance. During cosmogenesis, qi differentiated, combined, and transformed, acquiring the characteristics that produce the diversity of the phenomenal world. The most basic transformation was the division of qi into yin and yang polarities, and from that state qi further differentiated into the Five Phases of Earth, Fire, Water, Metal, and Wood. These five remain the most elementally perceptible forms of qi in the phenomenal universe, and most of the observable qualities and activities of matter are a product of one or more of these forms of qi. No quantum of qi remains perpetually in one form. All qi cycles continuously between the two poles of yin and yang and the stations of the Five Phases, returning periodically to its original, undifferentiated state. All the observable motions of the cosmos and all the organic processes of living beings are produced by this perennial movement of qi between different states and forms.
Qi is a central concept to virtually all the cosmological, cultural, and political concerns of the Huainanzi. It is especially important to the text’s theory of personal cultivation. Following a venerable body of cultivation and medical lore, the Huainanzi conceptualizes the human body as a dynamic system engineered to accumulate, refine, and circulate different forms of qi. Cultivation thus centers on facilitating and perfecting the mind–body system’s faculties for collecting and refining qi, a process in which breathing and breath control figure prominently. When qi is being used in a context of personal cultivation, we have translated it as “vital energy” or “vital breath” (when it refers literally to the intake of breath during meditation). Otherwise, we have left it untranslated.
| qing |  |
feelings, emotional responses, dispositional responsiveness, genuine responses, instinctive responses, disposition, true or genuine or essential qualities |
Qing is a profoundly multivalent and versatile term that is featured prominently in a wide range of early texts. Its most basic meaning in the Huainanzi is “feeling”: the emotional responses of joy, anger, desire, grief, and fear all are exemplary qing. In accordance with older texts (such as the text Xing zi ming chu 
, archaeologically recovered at Guodian), the Huainanzi conceives of these emotional responses as inherent dispositions originally present in human beings as a product of nature. In its pristine state, our mind is still; when we are stimulated by external events, our mind responds with a qing. This “feeling” is understood as a wave of qi in the originally placid matrix of the mind-body system. As it evolves, this wave of qi creates motions and sounds, such as laughing and dancing in the case of joy or screaming and fleeing in the case of fear. Such reactions are not learned but are built into the dynamic structure of the mind–body system and become manifest when the conditions are right. It is important to note that the Huainanzi (along with other earlier texts) does not clearly distinguish between a particular instance of emotional response and the inborn disposition from which it arises; for example, both a particular moment of joy and the ability to feel joy are labeled qing. “Feeling” is thus often inadequate as a translation of qing, since in the Huainanzi’s theory of human psychology this concept encompasses both what in English would be called “feeling” and what would be termed “instinct” or “disposition.”
A related meaning of qing denotes any condition or quality of a thing or person that is genuine or authentic. Just as emotional responses are considered irreducible elements of the human condition from birth, any characteristic that is original to and inseparable from a particular phenomenon may be described as qing. When qing is used in the text in this sense, we have translated it as “genuine qualities” or “essential qualities.”
Throughout the text, we have varied our translations of the term in accordance with its meaning in context.
| qingxing |  |
disposition and nature, dispositional nature |
Qing and xing are closely linked concepts in the Huainanzi, as the text conceives of emotional responses as constituent components of nature. Whereas xing, “nature,” denotes the totality of all the potentials and inherent dispositions present in the human being at birth, qing denotes the particular affective dispositions subsumed within xing. Qingxing often appears as a binome in the Huainanzi, denoting the inborn capacities of human beings in their particular and global aspects. Where the text enumerates them separately, we have translated qingxing as “disposition and nature” or “feelings and nature.” And where the text uses qing to modify xing, we have translated it as “dispositional nature.”
| quna |  |
expediency, heft, weight |
The quan is the weight used in conjunction with a steelyard or a set of balanced scales or, by extension, the entire weighing apparatus. From this meaning evolved the usage of the character in the Huainanzi and other ancient philosophical prose to denote “expediency.” Quan entails weighing the exigencies of the moment against the imperatives of morality, and it refers to an act that violates a moral precept yet ultimately serves the greater good. Another technical usage of quan occurs in the Huainanzi’s discussion of military affairs (especially in chapter 15). There quan denotes a form of potential power that is intrinsic to a combatant before going into battle, an advantage that can “tip the scales” and lead to victory after the combat has begun. Examples are the training of the troops or the education of the commander. In these contexts, we have translated quan as “heft.” In its literal meaning of “weight,” quan is one of the six exemplary tools (along with the compass, square, marking cord, level, and the beam of a steelyard or scale) posited as standards (du) to guide the ruler’s conduct under various circumstances (see 5.15).
| ren |  |
Humaneness, humane |
Humaneness is the cardinal virtue of Confucius and his later disciples. It generally refers to an ability to empathize with others and treat them with compassion. For most ancient Confucians, personal perfection could be understood in terms of this virtue: the path to sagehood was one of ever-deepening and expansive Humaneness. The Huainanzi does not generally assign Humaneness such exalted status but agrees with the Daodejing that neither the Way nor the sage is ultimately humane. The Huainanzi does state, though, that Humaneness is an indispensable principle for organizing human relations and human society in the current age. Humaneness is often paired with Rightness (yi), as the Way (dao) is often paired with Potency (de).
| ru |  |
Confucian |
Ru is an archaic term that originally referred to a ceremonial office at the royal court. During the Warring States period, it was adopted as the self-identifying sobriquet of Confucius’s followers. In accordance with conventional English usage, we have translated this term as “Confucian.” During the Han period, the parameters of the “Confucian” community were quite fluid. Those who considered themselves ru generally shared an esteem for Confucius as the greatest teacher of the classical age and a reverence for those texts identified by Confucius and his disciples as canonical (most often including, but not necessarily limited to, the “Five Classics”: the Changes, Odes, Documents, Rites, and Spring and Autumn Annals). The Huainanzi is generally very critical of the Confucians as being too narrowly focused on cultural contingencies and phenomenal concerns. There were reportedly Confucians at the court of Liu An, however, and their influence can be seen in the prevalence of quotations from and allusions to the texts of the Five Classics throughout the Huainanzi. Although the Huainanzi denies that Confucian values embody ultimate truth or are universally efficacious, it does acknowledge the limited validity of Confucian moral teachings as essential to social harmony in latter ages.
| shen |  |
the spirit, spirits, spiritlike, divine, god |
“Spirit” is a versatile word with many meanings and subtleties of meaning. In the ancient ancestral religion, spirits were powerful deities and the shades of departed ancestors who wielded power over the living world and had to be propitiated and appeased by sacrifice. The Huainanzi frequently uses “spirit” to signify this meaning, providing a detailed discussion of various spirits and their cults. However, throughout the Huainanzi, “spirit” also means an integral aspect of all living human beings, the “ghost in the machine” that is the site of all awareness and cognition. There is no contradiction in these usages, as the Huainanzi assumes that spirits may exist in embodied and disembodied forms. The spirit that today animates an individual’s living body may become an object of the ancestral cult tomorrow after that person’s death.
It is important to note that whether the Huainanzi is discussing embodied or disembodied spirits, it does not distinguish between a “spiritual” and a “material” realm. All spirits are thought to be a part of the same energetic system of qi from which all matter is composed. Spirits are not tangible or visible, but this does not mean that they lack material substance. They are merely composed of qi in a highly ethereal and dynamic state that is nonetheless equivalent to the qi from which all grosser matter is formed.
During a person’s lifetime, the spirit is the animating impulse of the body and the energetic structure in which the mind is housed. Spirit and body form a single organic system of qi; they are thus pragmatically inseparable but analytically distinct. In the same way that one may have an injured hand but a healthy eye, one may have a sound body but a disordered spirit, and vice versa. Despite occupying autonomous realms of activity, spirit and body interpenetrate through the medium of qi and remain mutually influential. The techniques of personal cultivation discussed in the Huainanzi thus engage both poles of this spectrum, encompassing contemplative meditations focused on the spirit and dietary and yogic regimens targeting the physiological processes of the body.
Spirit and mind are likewise analytically distinct. The thoughts, memories, and emotional dispositions that constitute the mind are comparable to the ridges and figures of a seal pressed into the “wax” of the spirit. Although our mind embodies our ordinary experience of consciousness, our spirit is always present as the basic substrate of awareness. This is where the spirit is merged with and partakes of the impulsive dynamism of the Way itself; thus the goals of apophatic personal cultivation are often described in the Huainanzi as an effort to escape “mind” in favor of the unmediated experience of “spirit.” The more the ordinary contents of consciousness are stripped away, the closer one approaches fusion with the cosmic ultimate and embodiment of its unlimited potential.
Like many ancient Chinese words, shen has both nominal and adjectival uses. When shen is used adjectivally in association with the ancestral spirits or other deities, we have translated it as “divine.” However, the implication of spirit in the energetic matrix of qi also gives rise to a particular modifying use of shen that is related to, but not identical with, this meaning of “divine.”
The remarkable properties of consciousness—its incredible sensitivity and speed—were understood to be products of the highly dynamic form of qi from which spirit was composed (see jingshen). The same was true for the extraordinary powers displayed by disembodied spirits like the departed ancestors. They could know conditions thousands of miles away, for example, because they could transverse such distances at the speed of thought (that is, in no time at all). The same type of highly rarefied and dynamic qi that composed human and ancestral spirits was thought to be present elsewhere in nature and to give rise to correspondingly marvelous phenomena. Lightning, magnetism, and the mechanism of cosmic resonance by which events separated by vast gulfs of space simultaneously influence one another (see ganying) were thought to evince the presence and operation of “spirit qi” (that is, the same type of qi of which spirits are composed) and are described as shen. When the Huainanzi uses shen in this mode, we have translated it as “spiritlike.”
| shen |  |
person, the self |
Shen denotes the individual person in all his or her physiological, psychological, and social aspects. It encompasses what in English would be identified as the body as well as the intellect and the personality. The shen therefore is the locus of individual personhood, but in many usages of the term, what in modern European and American culture might be deemed “externalities”—such as manner of speech, dress, and deportment, as well as acquired or inherited status—were also understood as component aspects of the “person.” The Huainanzi generally agrees with the long tradition of self-cultivation theory in focusing on the “person,” but distinguishes between more and less fundamental aspects of the person in the formulation of its cultivation regime.
Two related terms are “return to the self” (fanji 
) and “return to one’s nature” (fanxing 
) (see fan).
| sheng or shengren |  |
the sage |
Following many texts of the classical period, the Huainanzi uses the term “the sage” to denote the highest attainable level of human perfection. Sages have ultimate insight and are ingeniously creative. They have power not only to bring harmony to their own personal lives and environment but also to fashion standards and institutions on behalf of humanity at large. Indeed, sages in the Huainanzi are conceived of as a cosmic force unto themselves, as they exert a beneficent influence on the universe as a whole.
Like the Confucian Five Classics, the Huainanzi credits great sages of high antiquity, like Fuxi, with creating the seminal fundaments of human civilization. Unlike the Confucian canon, however, the Huainanzi does not locate the chief efficacy of the sage in the past. It is not enough to preserve and transmit the achievements of antiquity; the maintenance and harmonious operation of effective political and cultural institutions requires the guiding hand of a sage in the present day. The Huainanzi underscores the present-day political role of the sage as the ruler at the apex of the empire’s political structure who is charged with becoming a sage and/or enlisting the aid of sage-ministers.
This emphasis on the political role of the sage stems partly from the Huainanzi’s conception of how sagehood is achieved and the relationship of the sage to the cosmic Way. The sage of the Huainanzi is much closer to that of the Daodejing than that of the Confucian classics, as he is not only a moral or an ethical paragon or a repository of knowledge. The sage does not achieve sagehood only through study of the phenomenal world or the imparted wisdom of past ages but especially through a program of apophatic personal cultivation centered on practices of contemplative meditation and yogic regimens. He thereby nurtures and purifies the energies of the mind–body system and brings consciousness into perfect alignment with the cosmic Way, effectively becoming an embodiment of the Way. In mind, body, speech, and deed, the sage perfectly embodies the potent dynamism of the Way, and all his responses to emerging circumstances have the same spontaneous efficacy.
Without such a leader, the Huainanzi asserts, human government cannot work. Both the cosmos and human society evolve so rapidly that it is never enough to reproduce the practices of the past. Each age requires a sage who embodies the Way in his person and can thus perceive through his penetrating insight how standards and institutions must be configured in the present day to bring the human community into harmony, both internally and with the underlying patterns of the cosmos.
The achievement of sagehood is thus the ultimate hallmark of political legitimacy, as the role of the sage is the cornerstone on which the entire imperial edifice envisioned by the Huainanzi is built. This would seem to create the potential for profound instability, as in a vast empire it is more likely for a sage to arise among the ruler’s myriad subjects than for the ruler himself to achieve this lofty goal. The Huainanzi is aware of this problem and thus states that even a sage is incapable of overthrowing an established imperial government unless it has already descended into chaos. A sitting ruler thus does not have to perfectly embody the sage-ideal in order to secure his dynasty’s throne; it is enough that he recognize the “sage-imperative” and strive toward becoming a sage, thereby staving off the disorder that would make his dynasty prone to usurpation.
| shenhua |  |
spiritlike transformation, spirit transformation |
Shenhua denotes a transformational effect that transcends the ordinary physical limits of time and space. This phrase is most often employed in reference to the sage, who is able to exert a pacifying and edifying influence on his subjects from even a vast distance. This is not regarded as a function of moral example but as a marvelous dynamism operating through the physical medium of qi. In this sense, it is called “spirit transformation” because it displays the same qualities as the activities of spirits and is driven by the radiating influence of the sage’s own highly refined and potent spirit. Chapter 9 discusses spirit transformation at length, equating it with the transformational effect that spring and summer have on the living world during the calendar year.
| shenming |  |
spirit illumination, spiritlike illumination |
“Spirit illumination” denotes an aspect of both the Way and the sage throughout the text of the Huainanzi. At one point, the text asks rhetorically whether spirit illumination is comparable to sunlight (see 12.44) and answers that although like sunlight it is all-pervading, unlike sunlight spirit illumination cannot be blocked by window shutters or doors. Spirit illumination thus signifies the faculty by which both the Way and the sage (who perfectly embodies the Way in his person [see shengren]) comprehend and coordinate the entire phenomenal universe. Although when making a comparison between shenming and sunlight the text may be speaking figuratively, it seems likely that the Huainanzi envisions spirit illumination as having an actual physical substrate, a form of qi that is even more subtle, suffusive, potent, and dynamic than light (see jingshen). This is why one of the most often cited characteristics of the sage is that he “communicates with spirit illumination.” In other words, the abundant and highly refined qi of the sage’s spirit (see shen 
) is seamlessly merged with the vast field of spirit illumination that pervades the entire universe. Through this medium, therefore, the sage can be aware of distant conditions and influence far-off events.
| shi |  |
affair, task, event, phenomenon, effort, practicalities, management |
Shi has a wide range of meanings. In its most common usage, we translate it as “affair,” referring to all the discrete undertakings that must be accomplished and all the various contingencies that may be encountered in the conduct of government. One of the Huainanzi’s main goals is to demonstrate how the Way finds expression in affairs. In this sense, shi has a broader significance, in that it need not be confined to the political or even the human realm. Almost any contingent occurrence or fact may be described as a shi, and in places where it is clearly being used in this broader sense, we have translated it as “event” or “phenomenon.”
Shi is also used verbally, meaning “to work at,” “to manage,” or “to put forth effort,” and even occasionally as a modifier meaning “effortful.” In this context, shi denotes a mode of activity that is the converse of wu wei (non-action or effortless action), and when it appears as such, we have translated it accordingly.
| shi |  |
propensity, trajectory, positional advantage, force, power |
Shi is a very rich term that has no close equivalent in English. Its origin seems to have been in the military literature of the Warring States period, when it was devised as a conceptual gauge by which conditions on the battlefield could be measured and compared. The shi of a unit, position, or formation is derived from all the intrinsic (for example, the soldiers’ weapons and training) and extrinsic (for example, the possession of the high ground, the achievement of surprise) factors, taken together, that contribute to its combat effectiveness. For example, all else being equal, well-trained archers have more shi than do poorly trained archers. The difference might be reversed, however, if the former were positioned in a defile and the latter were perched on a high hill. We have thus chosen to translate shi as “force” when it is used in the discussion of military affairs, as it combines two different dimensions of calculation in the same way that, in physics, “force” is a function of intrinsic (mass) and extrinsic (acceleration) factors.
From this military usage, shi was later imported into other realms of discourse such as politics, cosmology, and logic. One of the most common of these expanded meanings comes into the Huainanzi from early statecraft theory. In a political or social structure, an individual is said to have shi contingent on the systemic powers of the office or station that he or she occupies and the actual functioning of the system as a whole. Ideally, the shi of the prime minister, for example, should be less than that of the sovereign and more than that of the palace eunuchs, but this ideal situation could (and often was) distorted when individuals were able to accrue and exercise powers beyond the normative parameters of their station. When shi appears in these contexts, we have rendered it as “positional advantage.”
From its seminal applications in military and statecraft theory, shi acquired a versatile general utility for discussing cosmic processes and human affairs. In its original usages, shi always implies both potency and directionality, never indiscriminate power but power tending toward specific effects. Thus it ultimately became common for ancient authors to write of the shi of a given situation or set of conditions, meaning its intrinsic tendency to evolve along a particular course. For example, it is the shi of a round object to roll; it is the shi of a poorly led state to become chaotic. When shi occurs in this context, we have translated it as “propensity” or “trajectory.”
| shi |  |
poetry; the Odes |
Poetry, like music, was celebrated by Confucians as one of the defining excellences of humanity and seminal to our capacity for ethical self-improvement. In this regard, an entire text, the Shijing (Classic of Odes), composed of the collected poetry of the ancient sages, was included in the Five Classics. When the character shi appears in the Huainanzi, it sometimes refers to the generic phenomenon of poetry, but more often it refers specifically to the text of the Odes. The Huainanzi generally rejects the Confucian position on the ultimate importance of poetry but grants canonical status to the Odes.
The Huainanzi quotes the Odes as a source of wisdom but consistently regards it as a lesser manifestation characteristic of the latter age that does not channel the Potency of the ineffable Way. Likewise, the Huainanzi denigrates poetry as a pursuit that cannot lead to the highest levels of human perfectibility. Nonetheless, the Huainanzi evinces appreciation for the composers of lyrical verse. The text periodically shifts into verse for stylistic effect, even though it tends to express a heretical (from the Confucian perspective) preference for the baroque adornment of the Chuci (Elegies of Chu) over the more spartan style of the Odes. The Huainanzi authors were literati and aesthetes, and at several points the text admits that even though poetry may be a lesser attainment, it is an indispensable skill for leaders in the latter ages.
| shouyi |  |
to preserve/to guard the One, to hold fast to the One |
Shouyi signifies an aspect of the program of personal cultivation advocated throughout the Huainanzi, and “guarding the One” is often a metaphor for the process of personal cultivation itself. The ultimate goal of cultivation is to perfectly embody the Way in one’s person. Just as “the One” is often a metaphor for the Way, “guarding the One” is used for the orientation of personal cultivation toward the Way. “Guarding the One” also expresses the Huainanzi’s conception of both the Way and the process of personal cultivation as possessing a physical substrate. The Way is most pristinely manifest in the phenomenal realm in the most rarefied and dynamic forms of qi, and the personal experience of the Way entails and arises from suffusion of the mind–body system with those same forms of qi. “Guarding the One” thus implies the actual psychophysiological process of nurturing and preserving the mind–body system’s funds of highly rarefied qi through meditation and yogic exercise, a course that, if maintained to its ultimate end, may lead to sagehood.
| shu |  |
(cf. shu  ), enumerate, norms |
The basic meaning of shu is “number.” The Huainanzi frequently uses this term in reference to various forms of human and cosmic order, and throughout the text shu works in tandem with the concept of “pattern” (see li 
). Various mathematical properties and relationships are cited as intrinsic to the fundamental “pattern” of objects, organisms, or processes (for example, the division of the calendar year into twelve months). In human beings’ interaction with the larger cosmos, counting and ordering things may be indispensable to the realization of their potential inherent pattern or harmony. From this sense comes the related meaning of “norm,” as we have translated the character when used in this context. This character shu is often used in the Huainanzi as a loan for the character shu 
, “technique.”
| shu |  |
writing, prose; the Documents |
Shu denotes the act of writing in general. As a verb it means “to write,” in the sense of literally picking up a brush and beginning to write characters on a solid medium. Nominally shu signifies prose writing. In this sense, it forms the name of the Shujing (or Shang shu ; Classic of Documents), which was one of the Five Classics of the Confucian canon. For Confucians, the Documents was both a source of binding ethical principles and normative political injunctions and a timeless model for the correct composition of elegant prose. The Huainanzi cites the Documents as a source of ancient wisdom but does not accord it the ultimate authority that Confucians ascribe to it. Nor does it accept that prose composition is as important as Confucians view it to be or, if it were, that the Documents could stand as a particularly good model for how to do it. That being the case, the authors of the Huainanzi nevertheless are engaged with the concerns of prose composition. In chapter 21 and elsewhere, they note that parts of the text were designed as models for aspiring prose stylists of the age.
| shu |  |
techniques, arts |
Shu denotes any set of routines, protocols, or procedures that may be used to a particular effect. The craft of a carpenter, the assessment protocols that a ruler may use to survey and control his ministers, and the forms of breath-control meditation that may lead to higher states of consciousness (and that are among the special procedures known as dao shu 
, “techniques of the Way”) are examples of what the Huainanzi refers to as “techniques.” “Techniques” are an especially urgent concern in the Huainanzi. In many respects, the text conceptualizes the central task of rulership as identifying those techniques indispensable to the production of harmony and order, and deploying and integrating them in a hierarchical system that will realize these effects.
| shuo (shui) |  |
to speak, to describe, to persuade, persuasion |
Shuo is the most common word used for the act of speaking in modern vernacular Chinese, and in the Huainanzi it occasionally appears in this or related contexts. Most often, however, shuo has the connotation of “persuasion,” and the term is frequently used to denote specifically persuasive instances of speech or the rhetorical aspects of speech more generally. As a matter of word choice, lun refers to speech more grounded in logic, whereas shuo usually refers to speech that is more grounded in rhetoric. Shuo (often pronounced shui in this context) in fact became the name for a genre of persuasive speech/oral performance that sometimes combined rhetorical formulas with anecdotal illustrations, and where it is used in this way we have translated it as “persuasion.” The Huainanzi ’s most detailed treatment of this form of speech is found in chapters 16 and 17.
| su) |  |
customs, conventions, vulgar |
Su is a general term that encompasses all the constituent elements of “culture.” All modes of dress, speech, behavior, or religious observance may be denoted as “customs.” The most salient connotation of su is something that is widely shared or common; thus classical usage frequently distinguished between those forms of culture that were ya 
(refined, elegant), implying elite exclusivity, and those that were su (common, vulgar). (Unlike su, ya cannot be used nominally to refer to “customs” generically.) This sense of the term is generally confined to its use as a modifier, although su is occasionally used nominally to refer to the “vulgar (people)” (that is, the masses). The authors of the Huainanzi followed colloquial convention in occasionally using su in this way, and where it appears in this context, we have translated it accordingly. It is a hallmark of the Huainanzi, however, that it generally embraces the term su to mean any and all customs, expressing its conviction that conventional distinctions between “refined” and “vulgar” or “barbarian” and “civilized” are ultimately arbitrary. This point of view is found throughout the work but is argued most cogently in chapter 11.
| tai chu |  |
Grand Beginning |
“Grand Beginning” and the closely related term “Grand Inception” (tai shi 
) are metaphors for the Way, expressing its status as the cosmogonic root of the phenomenal universe. Although it obviously connotes the moment of the cosmic origin, this image does not fully encompass the term’s significance. The Way remains the “Grand Beginning” even during the time of differentiated cosmic maturity, as it is the root source from which all phenomenal transformations spring and to which all phenomena repeatedly return.
| tai qing |  |
Grand Purity |
“Grand Purity” appears at several points in the text. Most commonly, it is another sobriquet for the Way. As such, it expresses the idea that the Way began in pristine undifferentiated purity and that it remains pure despite any degree of differentiation. The Way is never diminished or blemished by decay or corruption in the phenomenal world, as its potential for dynamic transformation remains infinitely elastic.
At other points in the text, Grand Purity is used figuratively, although its association with the Way is always implicit. In chapter 12, for example, Grand Purity is personified in dialogue with other anthropomorphized qualities of the Way, such as “Inexhaustible.” Chapter 8 discusses the “reign of Grand Purity,” an era in which none of the diverse techniques of rulership of latter ages were necessary and social harmony could be maintained by the ruler’s embodiment of the Way alone.
| tai yi |  |
Grand One |
“Grand One” is another metaphor for the Way. The Way suffuses and encompasses all things. No matter what level of individuation or seeming durability an object or a phenomenon achieves, it remains wholly integral to the Way and is indissolubly implicated in its dynamic transformation.
Tai yi was also the name of a star, a stellar embodiment of a deity. Emperor Wu instituted the worship of Tai yi at the winter solstice of 113 B.C.E., barely a generation after the Huainanzi was written, as a major cult under the patronage of the imperial throne.
| tian |  |
Heaven, heavenly |
The Huainanzi follows a venerable tradition of ancient Chinese religious and political thought by identifying Heaven as the supreme power among those in the phenomenal world. The physical locus of Heaven was literally understood to be the sky, and all the grand transformations most closely associated with the sky were viewed as manifestations of Heaven’s power: the cyclical movement of the stars and planets, the tempestuous movements of wind and rain, the changing of the seasons. It is not difficult to imagine why a thoroughly agrarian society like that of ancient China would accord such primacy of place to Heaven thus conceived. Heaven’s agency was not reducible to celestial events, however. Phenomena like the innate instincts of a living organism are often identified by such terms as “Heaven[-born] nature” (tianxing 
).
In the Huainanzi’s cosmology, Heaven takes second place as a cosmic force after the all-encompassing Way. Heaven was generated from the Way and continues to be contained within and controlled by it. Nonetheless, Heaven occupies a significant place in the Huainanzi’s cosmogony and cosmology. Heaven is one of the first of the phenomena to emerge from the undifferentiated primal Way (preceded only by the polarities of yin and yang) and as such is one of the fundamental structures of the cosmos. In the “root–branch” schema according to which the text is laid out, Heaven is treated third (see chapter 3), before all the constituent elements of the human and political realms. Heaven is not a moral force for the Huainanzi, as it is in much of Confucian literature, but it is an essential model to which human sages must look when fashioning techniques and institutions that will harmonize the human community and bring it into alignment with the greater cosmic order.
| tianming |  |
decree of Heaven, Heaven’s decree (for nonruler), Mandate of Heaven (for ruler) |
Two meanings of “Heaven’s decree” were prevalent in the classical literature before the Huainanzi. In a more limited sense, tianming could refer to the Heaven-mandated life span that was an individual’s bequest. For Confucians, this had both biological and moral dimensions, as it could be an individual’s fate to die in fulfillment of a moral imperative before his or her biological life span had expired. The Huainanzi generally accepts this notion of tianming, although it almost always refers to the concept of a fated life span with the single character ming rather than the binome tianming. This reflects the tendency of the Huainanzi’s authors to deemphasize the moral dimensions of fate, contending that a truly illuminated individual will avoid entrapment in a fatal moral dilemma.
The more expansive meaning of tianming is generally rendered in English as “the Mandate of Heaven.” This is a venerable concept dating back to the pre-Confucian political tradition, signifying the legitimating moral mandate that a ruling dynasty receives from Heaven, charging it to rule the world as Heaven’s proxy. The Mandate of Heaven was the central political principle of much preimperial and Han political thought, and it was the precept on which successive dynasties and dynastic pretenders based their claims to imperial power. In this context, the Huainanzi is remarkable for virtually eliminating this notion from its political lexicon. The sage of the Huainanzi does not rule on the basis of the Mandate of Heaven. Instead, his claim to authority is rooted in his perfect embodiment of the Way through personal cultivation, which empowers him not only to rule the human realm with perfect impartiality and efficiency but also to perceive how the human community may best be brought into alignment with the cosmos.
| tian xia |  |
the world, the empire; under Heaven |
Tianxia literally means “(all)-under-Heaven.” It denotes a geographic area, but precisely which area is somewhat ambiguous. The literal meaning of “all-under-Heaven” would include cosmographic realms assumed by the Huainanzi’s authors to lie beyond the scope of human habitation. In the contexts in which tianxia is used, however, it is clear that this is not what the term implies. Tianxia is almost always used for an implicit political geography to denote the domain within which the Son of Heaven holds sway or within which the question of who is to be the Son of Heaven is contested. Thus the salient meaning of “under Heaven” is political and does not literally refer to all spaces under the sky, but to all domains that are under the sovereign authority of Heaven’s Son. For this reason, we have usually translated tianxia as “the world” (as the Son of Heaven was theoretically ruler of the world) or occasionally, when its specific designation of a political entity is clear, “the empire.”
| wen |  |
patterns, culture, writings, civil (vs. military), text, decorative elegance |
Wen is an exceptionally multivalent term that was accorded profound and increasing significance in the writings of the classical and imperial eras. Its root meaning is “pattern,” but it is distinct from li 
in that when it is used as such, wen almost always denotes a visual pattern (such as those made by the stars in the sky or the embroidery on a garment), whereas li may include an array of nonvisual patterns (for example, a drumbeat).
From this sense of visual pattern evolved the meanings “writing” and “text.” Every form of written expression may be described as wen, including the Huainanzi itself. The centrality of the written word to all forms of cultural production helped give wen the expanded meaning of “culture” more generally. Thus ritual, music, song, and dance all were considered examples of wen in this broader sense. On this basis, wen acquired the connotation of “civil” versus “military,” as ruling or effecting policy through cultural suasion was considered the complementary opposite of exercising power through military coercion. The Huainanzi uses wen in all these senses, as was universally conventional during the Former Han. We have translated the term variously as appropriate to the context of each use.
Confucians revered wen as one of the highest expressions of human potential, and the production and appreciation of wen as one of the chief paths to human fulfillment and perfection. The Huainanzi is less radically exalting of wen. Here, the line between human and cosmic wen was highly permeable, as the most valid and efficacious forms of human culture were based on perceived cosmic patterns. Many early Confucian writers (for example, Xunzi) agreed with this concept. Where the Huainanzi parts ways with such Confucians was in its insistence that even the cosmic phenomena on which human wen was patterned (for example, Heaven and Earth) were lesser and contingent devolutions from the undifferentiated and ineffable (and therefore impossible to capture in wen) Way. Thus no wen could ever be a carrier of truly ultimate value in the way that Confucian thinkers proposed. It is striking that of the 166 instances of the word wen in the Huainanzi, only 18, slightly less than 11 percent, occur in the “root” portion of the book (chapters 1–8).
The Huainanzi authors were consummate literati, however, and as such they were absorbed in and engaged with all the many concerns of literary production. Indeed, as we state in our general introduction, chapters 9 through 20 may effectively be read as an extended discourse on wen in all its various aspects and permutations. Each chapter is both an exploration and an exemplar of a discrete form of wen and its operation as part of a larger edifice of culture. Moreover, chapter 21, written entirely in the fu (poetic expression) style, is a superlative example of wen. Thus for the Huainanzi, although wen may not be regarded as a source of ultimate value, it is treated as an endeavor of profound (if not quite ultimate) significance.
| wu |  |
without, nothing, non-being, nonexistence, Nothingness |
Wu is a common grammatical term of negation in classical Chinese, meaning “without” or “having no . . .” It is used throughout the Huainanzi in this common sense. However, following earlier texts such as the Zhuangzi and the Daodejing, the Huainanzi also constructs wu as a highly charged nominal category of profound philosophical significance. In this sense, wu is contrasted with you 
(something or being). These two words are simple grammatical antonyms, but the Huainanzi uses them for the two penultimately fundamental parameters of cosmic reality.
Wu and you are often translated as “non-being” and “being,” and we have done so at points in the text where such a translation is required for comprehensibility in English. Conceptually, however, these terms refer to notions closer to “absence” and “presence.” A concrete example is a house. The walls, roof, and floor all constitute the aspects of the house that are you. The spaces for the windows and doors, and the open area in which people move and live, constitute that aspect of the house that is wu. Two points are of axiomatic significance to the Huainanzi (and earlier texts that it draws from). In this example, (1) wu is as determinative as you of the identity of the house (that is, a house becomes a house as much because of what is absent as what is present), and (2) wu is in fact superior to you, in that it is unitary, primal, and more replete with potential.
The sense in which wu is unitary may be self-evident. You realities are characterized as such principally by being distinguishable from one another. Wu, by contrast, is singular and indivisible; all wu forms a boundless unity and thus stands as a reality less contingent and thereby more substantive than that of you. The sense in which wu is more primal and potent than you is less obvious to those who do not share the Huainanzi’s grounding assumptions. One reason that “non-being” is a distortional translation of wu is that no space is ever considered completely devoid of any material substance whatsoever. Even completely “empty” space is permeated by highly rarefied qi in its most primordial and dynamic state, which in fact constitutes the material substrate of wu. As the cosmogonies described in chapter 2 make clear, wu was the original state of the entire cosmos before the appearance of any you phenomena. In that moment before time, the potential for the entire cascade of generation and transformation that would follow was latently contained; thus wu is a state imbued with virtually unlimited power. The you aspects of present-day phenomena therefore manifest a degraded and devolved state of cosmic senescence, whereas the wu aspects preserve the pristine potency of the cosmic origin.
Several other points must be mentioned with respect to the concept of wu as it is used in the Huainanzi. The preceding example of the house refers to the spatial dimension of wu, which is frequently specified in the text as xu 
(emptiness or vacuity). Wu also has a temporal dimension, which is identified as jing 
(stillness). Just as different objects cannot be distinguished without the gaps of empty space between them, discrete events cannot be differentiated unless they are punctuated by (or contrasted with) moments of stillness and inertness.
Both these spatial and temporal dimensions of wu are implicated in the Huainanzi’s discussion of its role in human consciousness. Like a house, the functional processes of the mind are conditioned by both wu and you aspects. Thoughts, feelings, and memories are you, but they are differentiated and made coherent only by the mind’s capacity for and continual return to a state of emptiness and stillness. These moments of wu, in fact, are the baseline state of consciousness. The mind is normally empty and still and becomes stirred by thoughts and feelings only on contact with the external world. Much of the Huainanzi’s program of personal cultivation is thus centered on inducing a controlled experience of this original mind, emptying and stilling consciousness through focused meditation and yogic exercise. This is a key step on the path to sagehood demarcated by the text.
Finally, it is important to note that the text does not completely identify wu with the source of ultimate value; instead, that place is held by the Way. Although wu precedes you, the Way precedes wu; it is an ultimate that transcends even the distinction between “something” and “nothing.” In the quest for human perfection, wu is thus a vital juncture, but it is not a goal in itself. As section 12.45 asserts, being “without something” is an admirable attainment, but being “without nothing” is an even higher level of attainment—the point at which the distinction between wu and you dissolves and one is wholly merged with the Way.
| wu |  |
object, thing |
Any differentiable phenomenon may be termed an “object” in the Huainanzi. The status of object is of normative significance, as the source of ultimate value (the Way) encompasses all objects and can never be an object itself. Anything that may be termed an object thus represents a devolution from the ultimate and has diminished normative value.
Nonetheless, the status of object is not absolute but is subject to differing levels of degree. One extent to which a phenomenon is an object is contingent on how many comparable objects it may be contrasted with. Therefore, Heaven is less an object than is an ordinary stone because a stone is one among millions, but Heaven may be truly contrasted only with Earth.
Another plane along which the “objectness” of a phenomenon may be measured is its degree of agency. The more that any object may autonomously act on and influence other objects, the less an object it is. Here, again, Heaven compares favorably with a stone in this regard. Related to this sense of the word is the text’s occasional use of wu as a verb (for example, in 10.107). If the English word “to thing” existed, it would be an appropriate translation. Lacking that verb in English, we translate wu in its verbal sense as “to differentiate.”
These conceptual principles inform the Huainanzi’s discussion of the human existential condition. Human beings are likewise less like objects than are rocks, but only as a matter of degree. Moreover, this degree varies from human being to human being. The more that human beings are controlled by their attachments and responses to external objects, the more like objects they become. One way in which the Huainanzi conceptualizes the process of personal cultivation is as a path toward becoming more an agent and less an object. The final goal of that process is to become a sage, whom the text describes as “treating objects as objects, not being made an object by objects.”
| wu wei |  |
non-action, non-deliberative action, non-intentional action, non-purposive action, non-striving, without striving, inaction, do nothing, without effort, effortless action |
Wu wei is a central concept to the cosmological, political, and ethical thought of the Huainanzi, but its use is informed by earlier texts, especially the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi. In all these writings, wu wei denotes a mode of activity that is common to both the Way and the sage. It is thus a potent means of articulating how ultimate value is instantiated in the phenomenal realm.
Wu wei presents a bevy of translational and interpretive problems, as its layers of accrued association, meaning, and implication are exceptionally rich. The phrase literally means “inaction” or “doing nothing,” and in the Huainanzi it frequently is used in this sense. This is indeed the meaning with which it first appears in the early philosophical literature: the Analects describes Shun as a ruler who was so morally elevated that he could “order [the world] by doing nothing” (that is, rule by moral example alone). The Huainanzi and its antecedent texts appropriated the original implication of the term and fashioned new meanings from that figurative template. In this new mode, wu wei can apply to behavior that is to all appearances quite active, but even in such kinetic instances, a genuine moment of wu wei is not wholly unrelated to “doing nothing.”
For the Huainanzi, these affinities are explicable in terms of the text’s understanding of human psychology. The baseline of consciousness for all people is the original stillness and emptiness of the mind; thoughts, feelings, and actions arise only on contact with external stimuli. What distinguishes ordinary people from the sage is that they self-identify with (and are thus controlled by) these latter active products of consciousness. Thus the only time that ordinary people instantiate wu wei is when they are literally doing nothing. Only then are they grounded in the original stillness and emptiness of the mind. In contrast, the sage is always grounded in the original stillness and emptiness of the mind, even when he is responding actively and thoughtfully to external stimuli. His subjective, existential state when he is engaged in deliberation, combat, or any other activity is thus indistinguishable from that when he is doing nothing. In this sense, he is always engaged in wu wei.
Wu wei does not imply a state of unconsciousness, but it does indicate a total transcendence of self-consciousness. For the Huainanzi, the implications of this fact are both psychological and cosmological. When the Way impels some change (for example, the shift from spring to summer), it likewise does not do so self-consciously or through any prism of preconception or bias. Wu wei is thus the constant mode of activity of the Way itself, and when the sage engages in wu wei, he embodies the basic motive dynamism of the cosmic source. The difference between the activity of the sage and that of ordinary people is therefore not merely subjective. Because the sage channels the cosmic source through wu wei, his actions are infused with the same spontaneous power and efficacy as those of the Way itself and (despite occasionally appearing otherwise to ordinary perception) are just as conducive to cosmic and human harmony.
The Huainanzi uses wu wei in many different contexts, with a flexibility as to part of speech or shades of meaning that is very difficult to capture in English. We have tried to translate it in each instance using English phraseology that will be comprehensible in context but still will give some sense of the larger conceptual discourse informing the text’s use of the term. This has required using different English phrases chosen to match the inflection of the term in the particular context in which it appears.
| wu xing |  |
Five Phases, Five Conducts (Mencian contexts) |
The binome wu xing became increasingly common and significant during the Han and subsequent eras. The basic meaning of xing is “to walk,” although it also could mean “action” or “conduct.” There was, in fact, a particular context in which wu xing meant “the Five Conducts,” and this sometimes appears in the text of the Huainanzi. The more prevalent Han-era usage of wu xing is for the five basic forms in which qi appears in the material world: Earth, Water, Wood, Metal, and Fire. In the Warring States text Lüshi chunqiu, these five forms of qi were referred to as the wu de, or “Five Powers.” By the Han period, it had become more common to refer to them as wu xing, a construction reflecting the fact that no qi was thought to remain in a single form permanently but to cycle perpetually through different forms in sequence. For this reason, it has become conventional to translate the binome as “Five Phases,” and we have followed this convention. Here the word “phase” is borrowed from the vocabulary of modern chemistry; for example, ice, liquid water, and water vapor have quite different properties, but all are phases of H2O. Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water have different properties, but all are phases of qi.
Originally qi was uniformly undifferentiated. With cosmogenesis, it first was differentiated into yin and yang polarities and then into the Five Phases. All perceptible matter is a manifestation of one or more of these Five Phases in various combinations and degrees of rarefaction. At their most rarefied, none of the Five Phases can be completely identified with the concrete materials from which they take their names. Rather, each may exist in a highly essential form that is more akin to energy than matter. Moreover, all qi is intrinsically volatile and dynamic, and it not only cycles perpetually among different phases and yin–yang polarities but also occasionally returns to its undifferentiated original state.
Yin, yang, and the Five Phases are the basic categories of all traditional correlative cosmology, and much of the cosmological thought of the Huainanzi is constructed around the elaboration of various systems of Five Phases correlations. Since almost all tangible material properties were thought to arise from the essential qualities of the Five Phases, many correlative links could be forged on the basis of Five-Phase affinities. For example, since Wood qi was thought to both suffuse the spleen and give rise to the flavor of sour, eating sour foods was asserted to be beneficial to the spleen. Wood was further correlated with the color (blue)green, the spring season, the direction east, the musical note jue, and so forth, creating an unlimited range of permutations of cross-correlation among spatial, temporal, physiological, cultural, and material dimensions. Such Five-Phase correlations are most prevalent in chapters 3, 4, and 5, but they appear prominently throughout the Huainanzi and constitute a conceptual template informing the text’s discussion of the physical world.
As mentioned earlier, another usage of wu xing is “Five Conducts” rather than “Five Phases,” and that sense of the term also appears in the Huainanzi. The “Five Conducts” are mentioned in the Xunzi as a doctrine attributed to Zisi and his latter-day disciple, Mencius. The exact referent of this phrase was a mystery until the discovery of a text entitled Wu xing pian among the writings recovered at Mawangdui. That text enumerates the Five Conducts as Humanity, Rightness, Propriety, Wisdom (the virtues that grow from Mencius’s “Four Buds”), and Sageliness. Textual parallels—for example, in chapters 10 and 20—suggest that the Huainanzi’s authors were familiar with the Wu xing pian, and where wu xing appears to refer to the “Five Conducts,” that is how we have translated it.
| wu zang |  |
Five Orbs |
The term wu zang is not original to the Huainanzi but comes to the text from what by Han times had already become a rich literature on medicine and human physiology. Wu zang corresponds to the five organs of the human physiology that were thought to be critical generative and coordinating junctures for the dynamic matrix of qi that composed the mind–body system: the lungs, liver, spleen, gall bladder, and kidneys. As a noun, zang literally means “storehouse” or “repository,” but in the physiological model built on these constructs, no one of the wu zang was envisioned as exclusively active or situated in the particular organ from which it takes its name. Each organ was thought to be the central coordinating point of a distinct ramified network of qi that pervaded the entire body, and it is to these five networks rather than to the specific organs themselves that the term wu zang refers. Thus (following the lead of the historian of Chinese medicine Manfred Porkert) we have translated the term as “Five Orbs,” reflecting the expanded scope of each orb throughout the mind–body system.
The Five Orbs are important to the Huainanzi because they provide a conceptual bridge among the cosmic, physiological, and cognitive realms. In medical theory, each of the Five Orbs was correlated with one of the Five Phases of qi and was understood to be responsible for the generation and circulation of its particular form of qi throughout the mind–body system. The Five Orbs thus provide, through the extended network of Five-Phases cosmological correlations (see wu xing), an analytical scheme of relationships between the inner workings of the body and the external structures and transformations of the physical world. Moreover, the Five Orbs were thought to be the governing faculties of the five organs of sense perception, which were in turn the five gateways by which external stimuli gave rise to the qing 
(emotional responses) of the mind–body system. The Five Orbs were thus conceived to be the material locus in which emotional responses were experienced, setting up a mutual feedback mechanism between physiology and consciousness. If the emotions were overstimulated or erratic, qi would hemorrhage from the Five Orbs; if the Five Orbs were well nourished and replete with qi, it would help regulate the mind’s emotional responses to external events.
| xin |  |
mind, heart |
Xin denotes both “heart,” in the sense of the physical organ located in the chest, and “mind.” These meanings are related in more than a metonymic sense. The heart is conceived of as the generative and coordinating point of a larger matrix of qi in the same way that the lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, and gall bladder are coordinating points of their respective orbs (see wu zang). The heart is distinguished by two aspects. First, it is the controlling mechanism of the total system of which it and the Five Orbs are part; all Five Orbs normally operate under the coordinating regulation of the heart. Here again, as with each of the Five Orbs, “the heart” does not refer to the organ alone but to the matrix of qi, whose coordinating point is the heart. Second, it is the exclusive seat of discursive intelligence and self-awareness. Whereas the Five Orbs are the locus of discrete emotional responses and thus in some sense may “feel,” the heart is the only component of this dynamic system that may think and thus perceive its own activity.
In English, the historical background of “heart” in literary and philosophical movements such as Romanticism creates unnecessarily false impressions if xin is consistently rendered as “heart.” For example, when the Huainanzi declares that an individual’s “xin does not understand,” such a statement has none of the many and weighty implications of declaring in English that one’s “heart does not understand.” For these reasons, we have most frequently translated xin where it occurs in the text as “mind,” the only exceptions being where the term clearly refers either to the physical organ or to the locus of feelings, a component of the mind–body system alongside the Five Orbs. Another special case is the phrase “the Heavenly Heart” (tian xin 
), a profoundly empathetic state characteristic of the sage, emphasized in chapter 20.
The choice for “mind” is well justified and unavoidable, but it remains the lesser of two evils. The English word “mind” fails to match the semantic range and conceptual content of xin in certain important respects. The first relates to the deep-rooted heart–mind distinction in English. Translated as “heart,” xin does not denote the romantic emotional center of English usage, but neither does xin translated as “mind” denote a purely rational faculty. The emotional responses are seated in the Five Orbs, but the experience of them penetrates and implicates the xin. Chapter 7 discusses how the emotional responses of the Five Orbs should ideally be regulated by the mind. They may become so intense as to “overthrow” the mind’s regulating function and thus become the controlling impulses of cognition and behavior, resulting in a loss of qi affecting both the orbs and the xin. This raises questions about the exact structural relationship between the orbs and the heart–mind that the Huainanzi never explicitly answers. It would seem, in aggregate, that the mind is a structural matrix of qi analytically distinguishable from, but pragmatically forming a seamless continuum with, those of the Five Orbs. Thus whatever is experienced by any of the orbs coterminously occurs in the “mind.”
Another problem that makes “mind” an inadequate translation for xin involves the latent Cartesian implication in classical English-language thought that “mind” constitutes an entity distinct from both “body” and “spirit.” Any superficial perusal of the Huainanzi will demonstrate that this is a conceptual model alien to the text. In the Huainanzi’s conceptual framework, the mind and the spirit are likewise analytically distinct but pragmatically inseparable: the spirit (see shen 
) is the matrix of super-rarefied qi (see jingshen) constituting the physiological substrate of the mind. The mind is effectively made up of thoughts, memories, skills, and dispositions (learned and unlearned) suspended in the matrix of the spirit like impressions in a wax seal, or the “software” programmed into the “hardware” of the spirit.
This analytical divide is the root cause of the most perilous human vulnerability. Although by nature (see xing 
) the spirit is tranquil and facilitates the mind’s control of the Five Orbs, the structural edifice of the mind itself is unstable and prone to being drawn along aberrant and self-destructive paths. The learned attitudes, dispositions, and biases that help constitute the mind occlude the spirit’s stabilizing power, making the mind susceptible to chronic flights of delusion and emotional excess that expend the qi reserves of the mind–body system. The attitudes, dispositions, and biases in question need not be extreme or extraordinary to create such vulnerability. They include fundamental distinctions acquired in the normal maturation process of almost any ordinary mind, such as that between self and other or life and death. For this reason, one of the chief personal cultivation prescriptions of the text centers on the “Techniques of the Mind” (see xinshu), aimed at “unlearning” cognitive impediments like the distinction between life and death, thereby penetrating beyond the level of the ordinary mind to an unmediated experience of spirit (and thus of the Way, which likewise transcends distinctions such as life and death, self and other).
In the same way that mind and spirit pragmatically form a seamless whole, this same mind–spirit complex is suffused throughout the bodily physiology and implicated in the same system of qi that animates the entire frame. Once again, an analytical distinction can be made, as the text notes many examples of people whose mind–spirit is ill, even though their physical body is well (and vice versa). Nonetheless, it consistently asserts that the interpenetration of these realms is so thorough that a harmful or beneficial effect in one sphere will produce congruent influences in the other. Any regimen whose goal is to refine consciousness thus cannot neglect the physical well-being of the body.
 |
shape, physical form, military formation |
“Shape” or “form” is an important conceptual category in the Huainanzi, as it is a definitive aspect of the realm of “Something” (you 
). Form is contingent on differentiation, and thus any phenomenon that is at all identifiable belongs to the realm of form. The “Formless” (wu xing 
) therefore denotes states of both cosmic development and human consciousness that are prior to and more replete with potential power (and thus closer to the embodiment of the Way) than the contingent realities of form.
In military parlance, “form” literally referred to the shapes into which troops were deployed on the field of battle to produce particular tactical effects; thus when the Huainanzi uses xing in this context, we have translated it as “military formation.” As is common in these cases of homonymic affinity, the Huainanzi makes maximum use of the double entendres that may be derived from the dual significance of xing as both “form” and “formation,” declaring, for example, that although the tactics of the military rely on “form/formation,” military victory is nonetheless rooted in the “formless.”
 |
nature, natural tendencies |
“Nature” was a current and extraordinarily controversial concept in the philosophical literature of the Warring States period, and it became an almost ubiquitous fixture in the lexicon of ancient thinkers across the whole intellectual spectrum. The question of what constituted human “nature” was perceived as basic to the urgent task of determining what types of political and social institutions were best suited to controlling and harmonizing people, both collectively and individually. Although by the third century B.C.E., almost all authors used the term, few defined it in the same way.
The Huainanzi defines “nature” as all the inborn propensities, capacities, and dispositions that both guide the long-term growth and maturation of the human being and inform a person’s cognition and behavior from moment to moment. Thus the fact that we grow two sets of teeth, that we have the ability to develop language skills, and that we are disposed to feel emotions like anger and joy all are “nature.” The Huainanzi does not distinguish between material and metaphysical aspects of nature, as became common in late imperial Neo-Confucian philosophy. All aspects of nature are treated as instantiated in the matrix of qi that constitutes the human being from birth
The Huainanzi does not generally concern itself with the question (much debated in the intellectual lineage of Confucianism) of whether human nature is “good” or “evil.” Instead, the text emphasizes the role of nature in instilling and impelling vitality, health, and longevity to the near exclusion of any discussion of nature as a moralizing agent. According to the Huainanzi, it is human beings’ nature to grow and live long, although how long varies from person to person. In this latter regard, nature is closely allied to “fate” (see ming 
). At birth, a certain maximum life span is hard-wired into an individual’s physiological bequest as a matter of nature.
Because one of the functions of nature is to sustain an individual in fulfilling his or her “fated” life span, the normative dynamic workings of nature provide a guide to the forms of behavior and mental states that will be most conducive to vitality and longevity. For example, it is natural for our minds to be still unless stimulated by external stimuli, and thus the maintenance of the stillness of the mind (through avoiding overstimulation, indulgence, excess, and the like) is conducive to health and vitality. The cultivation of the ability to deliberately sustain and/or return to stillness on encountering external things (see yang xing) is even more beneficial to the long-term flourishing of the mind–body system.
Although it may serve as a guide to preserving vitality, nature is fraught with vulnerability. Responsiveness to external stimuli is inherent to nature (see qing), but nature does not foreordain how such responses will translate into behavior. Dysfunctional learned attitudes, preconceptions, or dispositions fixed in the mind (see xin) can cause emotional responses to be manifested in behavior that destroys health and vitality. Long-term persistence in and habituation to such behavior can cause these aberrant responses to become “second nature,” creating a vicious cycle in which the individual becomes more and more inclined to self-destructive behavior even while shortening his or her potential life span.
This inherent vulnerability of nature is matched by countervailing potential. All the workings of nature come from and express the dynamic impulses of the Way itself. Therefore, the more one strips away the impediments to the free and unobstructed operation of nature, the closer one comes to embodying the Way. In ultimate terms, nature thus contains not only the template for vitality and longevity but also the potential that, if unlocked, may transform the human being into a sage.
| xingde |  |
harm and benefit, recision and accretion, punishment and reward (when context clearly demands this sense) |
The binome xingde became a standard trope in the statecraft and cosmological writings of the Warring States and Han periods. Its earlier meaning was two fundamental modes of state power. Xing literally means “punishment,” and de (
) literally means “Moral Potency.” These two terms signify the basic choice between rule by coercion or by moral suasion or, more broadly, the state’s power to inflict harm or bestow benefits on its subjects collectively or individually. In practical terms, xingde were most often not treated as opposites but as complementary components of a single program of rule. Therefore, rather than “coercion and moral suasion,” they colloquially refer to the more mundane state functions of punishment and reward (what in today’s parlance might be called “hard” and “soft” power).
The term was adopted by cosmological theorists to denote opposing processes of harm and benefit observable in the workings of the natural world. Its most common use in this context in the Huainanzi is to denote the “recision and accretion” of yang throughout the calendar year. From the winter solstice to the summer solstice, yang energy accretes, figuratively likened to the cosmic dispensation of “rewards” to the living world in the form of light and warmth. From the summer solstice to the winter solstice, yang energy recedes, figuratively likened to the cosmic dispensation of “punishments” to the living world in the form of darkness and cold. This cycle of recision and accretion can be charted (for example, for astrological purposes), especially through the movement of the sun but also through observations of the moon, the planets, and the constellations. Accordingly, many astronomical phenomena are identified for astrological purposes in terms of their place in a “recision and accretion” model of celestial mechanics.
| xingming |  |
form and name |
The basic significance of “form and name” was found in ancient linguistic theory: a language was held to maintain functionality to the degree that the names of phenomena (see ming 
) consistently matched their actual form. This idea lent its name to a prescribed technique in statecraft theory. Within the newly routinized systems of authority designed by ancient Chinese statecraft theorists, the smooth functioning of a bureaucratized governmental structure depended on the ruler’s consistent matching of each official’s “name” (that is, the title of his office) with his “form” (that is, the systemic powers and responsibilities delegated to his office). For example, if an official bore the title of “minister of waterworks,” the ruler was to periodically check to make sure that he was neither falling short of the entailed duties of his title (by, say, allowing dikes to fall into disrepair) nor exceeding them (by trespassing on the authority of the minister of roads). “Form and name” became shorthand for this basic principle of routinized governmental functionality, and it is mentioned frequently in the Huainanzi as one of the indispensable technologies of statecraft in the latter age.
| xingming |  |
nature and life circumstances, nature and fate |
Xing and ming are closely related concepts in the Huainanzi and antecedent texts, principally because both denote forces that affect the individual from birth. “Nature” refers to all natal factors that are intrinsic to the genetic makeup of the human being and that continue to operate throughout the human lifetime (see xing 
). “Fate” may also be intrinsic (for example, it includes one’s predetermined maximum life span, which is hard-wired into the physiological constitution of one’s mind–body system) but includes extrinsic factors such as one’s inherited status at birth or the political climate of the age into which one is born (see ming 
).
| xing ming zhi qing |  |
the instinctive responses evoked by one’s nature and life circumstances, the innate tendencies of nature and destiny, the emotional responses evoked by nature and fate, the dispositional responsiveness evoked by one’s nature and life circumstances, the essential qualities of one’s nature and life circumstances |
Xing ming zhi qing is a phrase that occurs frequently in the Huainanzi and that presents unique difficulties for translation. It is not original to the Huainanzi but appears in earlier texts such as the Lüshi chunqiu and the “outer chapters” of the Zhuangzi. Xing ming zhi qing has two related meanings, neither of which is amenable to elegant phrasing in English, and both of which make sense only with a particular understanding of emotional or dispositional responses (see qing) and nature (see xing 
).
In the Huainanzi ’s conceptual framework, all emotions are understood as responses to external stimuli. The basic template of an emotional response is hard-wired into our nature, but the actual real-time expression of an emotional response is subject to the distortional influence of many factors. For example, an innately appropriate fear response to a fatal threat is encoded in your nature, but your actual feelings and behavior in the face of such a threat are informed by the attitudes, values, and dispositions that you acquire during your lifetime. If your learned values and acquired habits had conditioned you to love life too dearly, your response to such a threat might be expressed as paralyzing cowardice rather than healthy fear. In this example, the latter response of “healthy fear” would exemplify what the Huainanzi refers to as xing ming zhi qing, the emotional response that arises from nature and fate rather than the emotional response (in this case, paralyzing fear) that arises from dysfunctional attitudes, values, and habits. “Fate” is implicated in this conceptual construct in two ways. First, the innately appropriate responses that are hard-wired into one’s nature are part of the “mandated” (see ming 
) bequest that forms one’s genetic makeup at birth. Second, the same responses are most conducive to the fulfillment of a person’s fated life span (as in the preceding example, you will live longer if you take flight from healthy fear than if you freeze from paralyzing cowardice).
The second sense of xing ming zhi qing arises from both the theory of qing that informs the text and the general semantic range of the term itself. Qing is often used to denote “an essential quality [of a thing],” and in the Huainanzi’s understanding of nature, the inborn disposition to particular emotional responses are among nature’s most definitive and essential qualities. Occasionally when the Huainanzi uses the term xing ming zhi qing, it is referring to qing in this more abstract sense (a usage that, as explained earlier, is nonetheless consistent with the more particular meaning of qing as “emotional response”). Where this occurs, we have translated it as “the essential quality of one’s nature and life circumstances.”
In either sense, xing ming zhi qing denotes a key conceptual concern in the Huainanzi as a whole. The text frequently exhorts the practitioner of personal cultivation to “penetrate the innate tendencies of nature and destiny.” This is one of the paramount goals of the Huainanzi’s program of self-transformation: to jettison the dysfunctional tendencies acquired through learning or habit and to actualize the spontaneously efficacious responsiveness that is innate in the mind–body system.
Occasionally, the text shortens this phrase to xing zhi qing rather than xing ming zhi qing. We have rendered these occurrences as the “emotional responses of nature, “or the “essential qualities of nature “as appropriate to each case. In practical terms, however, the longer and shorter forms of this phrase signify the same concept.
| xinshu |  |
Techniques of the Mind |
The Huainanzi focuses on “techniques” as an essential instrument of rulership (see shu 
). Among the techniques it discusses, the “Techniques of the Mind” are given very high priority. The text emphasizes the apophatic personal cultivation of the sage and his ministers as the root from which all normatively functional political processes grow, and within that crucial program of personal cultivation, the Techniques of the Mind are crucial. The Huainanzi does not give detailed descriptions of what these techniques entailed, but they obviously included forms of meditation aimed at stilling and emptying the mind so as to induce the experience of unmediated unity with the Way that might be accessed at the root of consciousness.
| xu |  |
emptiness, vacuity |
Emptiness is both a spatial and an existential manifestation of Nothingness (see wu 
). Within the cosmos, all spaces devoid of tangible, differentiable objects are empty, although, as indicated in our discussion of qi 
, no space is ever absolutely empty, as qi itself is all-pervasive. Such spaces are prized in the Huainanzi because they embody the state of the cosmos at its origin and so retain the potential power and dynamism of that seminal moment. The human mind is empty when it is devoid of thoughts and feelings. Such a state is prized because it affords an experience of the Way that forms the original baseline of consciousness. Accordingly, many of the prescriptions of the Huainanzi focus on emptying the mind.
| xun li |  |
to act in accordance with, to accord with patterns or principles |
Xun li denotes a mode of activity of both the Way and the sage. The motions of the Way are not totally random. When observed carefully, they may reveal complex and consistent patterns. One of the hallmarks of the sage is that he is able to perceive these patterns and act in accordance with them. Thus every policy he advocates and every institution he builds conforms to the basic patterns structuring the phenomenal universe and derives maximum efficacy from operating in harmony with the cosmos.
| yang xing |  |
to nourish the/one’s nature |
Yang xing is one formula by which the Huainanzi denotes its prescribed program of personal cultivation. The inborn capacities and tendencies that constitute nature come from the Way and express its potency and efficacy. Thus any program that amplifies and actualizes the potential of nature brings human beings closer to embodying the Way. “Nourishing one’s nature” exemplifies the Huainanzi’s concept of the human organism as an integrated mind–body system. Since nature is the controlling mechanism of both consciousness and vitality, “nourishing one’s nature” produces both elevated states of consciousness and beneficial conditions of bodily health and longevity. Techniques such as dietary regimens, breathing meditation, and macrobiotic yoga are what the Huainanzi terms “nourishing nature.”
| yi |  |
unity, to unify; one, the One |
Unification is a key theme in the Huainanzi for obvious reasons, as the text conceives of the ideal political realm as an empire uniting the entire world. This political concern is echoed in the text’s cosmological thought. The “One” is another sobriquet for the Way, as the Way is the one reality outside which there may be nothing else (see taiyi). The text self-consciously uses the parallels between the unification of the phenomenal universe in the Way and the unification of the world under the sage (or, less abstractly, the Han dynasty).
| yi |  |
suitability, suitable, appropriate |
“Suitability” is an important concept in the Huainanzi. The cosmos is filled with intrinsic patterns, so the policies and institutions that are “suitable” in response to any cosmic condition match those underlying patterns. In the same vein, human beings have various capacities and tendencies as a function of the dynamic nature they receive at birth (see xing 
). A hallmark of the sage is that he is able to assign roles to people and place them into stations suited to their innate dispositions and potential.
| yi |  |
awareness, thought, intention |
Awareness or thought (often with connotations of intentionality) is a natural product of the conscious mind arising in response to interaction with the external world. The Huainanzi exhorts the practitioner to dispel (or transcend) awareness and seek grounding in a prior and less contingent level of consciousness.
| yi |  |
change; the Changes |
Yi denotes “change,” although in its generic sense it signifies forms of change less fundamentally intrinsic than “transformation” (see hua). To “change” something is to swap one thing for another, whereas a “transformation” entails a complete and substantial metamorphosis (as from a caterpillar to a butterfly). As a proper noun, however, Yi denotes the Yijing (Classic of Changes), one of the Five Classics of the Confucian canon. The Huainanzi quotes and ascribes great authority to the Changes as a powerful tool for discerning and modeling cosmic patterns. It denies that the Changes is a text of ultimate wisdom, however, because the Way is ultimately beyond all form and cannot be captured in any pattern that depends on differentiation.
| yi |  |
to shift, to adapt, to modify, to adjust |
Yi is another term in the Huainanzi’s rich lexicon of change. It generally is indicative of subtle, minor, or temporary changes, often with connotations of spatial location: a movement of an object’s position or a slight modification of a person’s mode of activity. A frequent use of the term is in injunctions to “shift with the times,” to adjust the methods and procedures that will accommodate the changing conditions of the cosmos and human society. In our attempt to distinguish among these different forms of change, we have usually translated yi as “to shift,” “to adapt,” “to modify,” or “to adjust.”
| yi |  |
Rightness |
“Rightness” is a fundamental ethical concept throughout the philosophical writings of the Warring States and Han periods. Despite some variation from text to text, “Rightness” almost always refers to an ethical imperative that constrains people according to the social and political context in which they live. Serving one’s ruler to the best of one’s ability or resisting the temptation of corruption are typical examples of Rightness. The Huainanzi generally does not give Rightness ultimate value but insists that Rightness acquired substance and relevance only when human society declined from its state of primordial harmony. The text acknowledges, however, that human history has reached a juncture at which Rightness (often paired with Humaneness [see ren]) is indispensable to effective political and social organization and that as an instrument of state power, the teaching and practice of Rightness is superior to the use of force or “rewards and punishments.”
| yin |  |
to follow the natural course of things, to adapt to the natural pattern of things |
Yin is often used to characterize the activity of the sage or the Genuine Person. Because the sage is not grounded in the duality of self and other, he does not try to impose preconceived conditions on the world but achieves efficacious ends by following along with the spontaneous tendency of the cosmos from moment to moment.
| yin–yang |  |
yin–yang (not translated) |
In their earliest uses, these characters referred to the shady and sunny parts of a hill and later came to signify the two fundamental polarities of qi. In the Huainanzi’s cosmogenic scheme, qi at first was unitary and undifferentiated. As the phenomenal world came into being, qi polarized into two modes: yin and yang. In its yin state, qi is inert, dark, cold, soft, and feminine. In its yang state, qi is kinetic, bright, warm, hard, and masculine. No tangible thing is made exclusively of yin or yang; all phenomena contain both yin and yang, and all qi is perpetually in motion from one polarity to the other. Yin and yang are the two most basic categories in the Huainanzi’s correlative cosmology. The “recision and accretion” of yin and yang, for example, provide a basic template by which the entire calendar year may be periodized according to the ascendancy of one type of qi or the other. Yin–yang affinities are thus one of the basic structural principles of the operation of cosmic resonance (see ganying), although the further division of qi into the Five Phases (see wu xing) is the template for much more intricate systems of correlation.
| you |  |
something, being, existence |
The basic meaning of you is “to have,” but the Huainanzi frequently uses this term nominally to denote “Something,” the cosmological complementary opposite and progeny of “Nothing” (see wu 
). All differentiable things combine both you and wu aspects. For example, the hard wooden form of a bowl is Something, and the empty cavity that provides the utility of the bowl is Nothing, but the bowl would not be a bowl without both these aspects. Ordinary perception privileges Something as the most relevant realm of activity, but the Huainanzi asserts that Something is both inferior to and derivative of the realm of Nothing.
| yuan |  |
origin, source, to get to the source of; to find one’s source in, yuan X = trace X to its source |
Origins have a privileged status in the Huainanzi because of the basic root–branch cosmology that informs the text as a whole (see ben and benmo). The moment of origin is filled with dynamic potential, and the presence of the origin continues to pervade and impel a structure or phenomenon even as it matures and differentiates. When something is marked as an “origin,” the Huainanzi accords it both temporal and normative priority. For example, one metaphor commonly used for the Way itself is the “Origin.”
Yuan is also used as a verb throughout the text to mean “get to the source of” or “find (one’s) origin.” This meaning operates on many levels because in any domain there is great efficacy in accessing and actualizing the power of the origin. For example, in personal cultivation, the goal is to penetrate beyond posterior and contingent fixtures of mind, such as thought and memory, to arrive at the Way that is the origin of all consciousness.
| yuan |  |
source, origin, to originate in |
Yuan is largely synonymous with its homophone yuan 
and has most of the same nominal and verbal meanings. In general, the latter yuan is more often chosen to denote grand cosmic origins, and this yuan most frequently refers to the particular source of contingent phenomena. This is by no means a rigid rule, however, and in fact the first chapter of the text is entitled “Yuan dao,” which we translate as “Originating in the Way” but which may also be understood to mean “The Dao as Origin.”
| yue |  |
music |
Music was highly valued in Confucian discourse as an expression of humanity’s most elevated and sublimely humanizing qualities. The Huainanzi does not similarly view human culture as a source of ultimate value and so does not see music as equally significant. It does, however, regard music as deeply rooted in human beings’ spontaneous impulses. Music is thus privileged as a cultural form that, although of human origin, can embody and express the dynamic power of underlying cosmic forces.
Note that the same character 
can also be pronounced le, in which case it has the related but distinct meaning of “joy.” We consistently translate le as “joy” or “delight,” distinguishing it from xi 
, “happiness, pleasure.”
In some instances, the text uses a double entendre linking the two senses of the character yue/le (see, for example, 19.3: “Now singing is evidence of joy”). The Chinese, of course, means both “singing is evidence of joy” and “singing is evidence of music.” Because it is impossible to convey the pun in English, in such cases we have added an explanatory footnote.
| yuzhou |  |
eaves and roof beams; the cosmos, space-time |
“Eaves and roof beams” is a synecdoche that may stand for the entire space of a domicile, as together these structural elements comprise its total area and volume. The Huainanzi (following earlier texts) appropriates this image as a metaphor for the cosmos, taking “eaves” and “roof beams” to represent the dimensions of space and time that compose the entire phenomenal universe.
| zhen |  |
genuine, authentic |
The Huainanzi often uses “Genuine” in a figurative sense to denote the embodiment of the Way in a person or thing. A Genuine phenomenon is thus replete with Potency (see de), and, indeed, the Huainanzi frequently uses zhen and de as synonyms.
| zheng |  |
to align, to correct, to rectify, rectitude, upright |
Zheng is an important term in the Huainanzi’s normative lexicon. Much of the ruler’s task is described as bringing affairs into “alignment” or “rectifying” aberrant conditions. More often than not, however, such “rectification” is not described in moral terms (as it would be, for example, in Confucian discourse) but as bringing human and cosmic structures into integral alignment with one another. Zheng is, moreover, a resonant concept in the text’s discussion of personal cultivation, in that it simultaneously implies both the rectification of aberrant forms of consciousness and the alignment of the body into the proper upright posture for meditation.
| zhenren |  |
Genuine Person, Authentic Person, Realized Person |
A genuine person is an adept who has reached a high level of attainment along the path of personal cultivation advocated by the Huainanzi. The Genuine Person has discarded the dysfunctional fixtures of the ordinary mind–body system that hinder the experience of the Way and is thus able to embody the Way in cognition, word, and deed. The Huainanzi distinguishes among the Superior Man (junzi), the sage (sheng), the Genuine Person, and the Perfected Person (zhiren). The Superior Man is generally portrayed as a person of lesser attainments than the other three, but chapter 10 accords the junzi an ultimately efficacious role in the social order. The terms “the sage,” “the Genuine Person,” and “the Perfected Person” appear to be used with slightly varying nuances in different chapters of the text, and their domains overlap. The sage is usually seen as playing a more direct and dynamic role in the social order than the others. In chapter 2, the sage is explicitly described as superior in attainments to the Genuine Person; in the same chapter, the Perfected Person is presented as the epitome of human development. In all cases, the exact implications of these terms are strongly dependent on context.
| zhi |  |
will, purpose, attention |
Zhi denotes the characteristic tendency of consciousness to focus on an object, whether some abstract future goal or some physical object of immediate perception. In Huainanzi’s conceptual framework, once zhi attaches to an object, it reorients all the energies of the mind–body system toward it. This operation is ordinarily very routine and is intrinsic to the normal functioning of everyday consciousness (for example, when we are hungry, zhi orients us toward the acquisition of food until that need is satisfied), but it is vulnerable to intensifying into fixation or obsession, resulting in harmful or self-destructive cognition and behavior. The Huainanzi advances an ideal in which consciousness can operate in the absence of zhi. The sage has no “will” in the ordinary sense outlined earlier. His cognition and actions are driven entirely by the intrinsic impulses of the mind–body system itself, without needing the energetic link of zhi to some external object of volition.
| zhi |  |
to put in order, to regulate, to govern |
Order is an ideal advocated in the Huainanzi, as in earlier texts. It expresses the goal of the integral system of techniques (see shu 
) prescribed by the text for efficacious rule. The Huainanzi also follows earlier traditions in drawing parallels between the internal ordering of the mind–body system and the holistic ordering of the body politic, portraying the latter as dependent on and flowing from the former.
| zhi |  |
knowledge, cleverness, crafty knowledge; wisdom, intelligence |
Zhi denotes any mental faculty that can produce tangible results in the world, encompassing both quickness of wit and breadth of knowledge. The Huainanzi cites many positive examples of cleverness and erudition and generally acknowledges that zhi may be a powerful and efficacious quality. However, the text generally asserts that cleverness and knowledge are inferior to the deeper potentials that may be unlocked by apophatic personal cultivation. For every positive exemplar of cleverness in the Huainanzi, there is an example of someone whose reliance on such abilities resulted in defeat, self-subversion, or death.
| zhi |  |
to know, knowledge; wisdom, intelligence |
All the faculties of mind that are rooted in its capacities for self-awareness and discrimination come under the compass of zhi, so zhi is variously used to mean “to know,” “to understand,” or “to recognize,” and we have translated it as appropriate to each context. In addition, someone whose faculties of knowledge and understanding are particularly acute may be described as zhi, and in these contexts we have translated zhi as “wise” or “intelligent;” or as “wisdom” and “intelligence” when these qualities are being discussed in the abstract.
As in the case of the closely related term “cleverness” (see zhi 
), the Huainanzi acknowledges the validity and utility of wisdom or intelligence in discrete contexts. It likewise insists, however, that the mind’s ultimate potential can be found only in levels of consciousness that precede the subject–object dualism on which wisdom and intelligence are contingent. The Genuine Person and the sage are thus often described as having “discarded wisdom” to arrive at their level of personal attainment.
| zhigu |  |
intelligence and precedent, intelligence and acting on precedent Whereas |
Whereas zhi denotes the mind’s faculty of intelligence and wisdom, gu refers to discrete facts that may be assimilated by the mind and stored in memory. Together they describe the basic components of a decision-making process commonly undertaken by an ordinary mind. We act on both what we apprehend in the present moment and what we know about the past. The Huainanzi usually marks this as an inferior mode of engagement with the phenomenal world. The sage “discards wisdom and precedent,” and so he does not undertake the kind of parsing that exemplifies the ordinary mind. Rather, his responses are grounded in a total comprehension of the situation at hand that does not distinguish between internal and external, subject and object, past and present.
| zhilu |  |
intelligence and forethought |
“Intelligence and forethought” represents a basic operation of ordinary consciousness that is complementary to “intelligence and precedent” (see zhigu). Whereas “intelligence and precedent” represents the tendency of the mind to recall facts about the past when responding to the current moment, “intelligence and forethought” denotes the tendency of the ordinary mind to use the present conditions to imagine future outcomes. In contrast, the sage does not distinguish between present and future but responds with spontaneous and unself-conscious efficacy to the comprehensive cosmic context of any situation he encounters.
| zhiren |  |
Perfected Person, Accomplished Person, the Perfected |
Zhiren is a figurative term used throughout the Huainanzi to describe a person who has achieved the highest levels of human perfection delineated by the text. A Perfected Person completely embodies the Way in all cognition, word, and deed without any obstruction or distortion. The zhiren thus has achieved levels of self-cultivation more advanced than those of the Genuine Person (see zhenren). The terms “the sage” and “the Perfected” overlap in meaning, and they receive different emphasis and have different nuances of meaning in various chapters the Huainanzi. The distinctions between the two often must be inferred from the contexts in which they appear.
| ziran |  |
spontaneously, naturally |
Literally “so of itself,” ziran describes the perfect spontaneity of all the activities of the Way and those cosmic phenomena (such as Heaven and Earth) that channel its Potency without obstruction. Ziran thus also denotes a state of action that can be achieved by human beings who embody the Way in their own persons. Whereas ordinary people are controlled by their attachment or responsiveness to external things, the activities of a sage or a Genuine Person are grounded in the most authentic root of their being (the Way) and are thus “so of themselves.”
| zong |  |
origins, ancestor |
The “Ancestor” is used by the Huainanzi as a metaphor for the Way. Because all things emerged from the Way, the Way is literally the ancestor of all things. The text further exploits the suggestive parallels between the Way as “Ancestor” and the Liu clan as a kinship group united by common descent from a single sage-ancestor, Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han dynasty. Just as the diversified universe operates harmoniously under the control of the Ancestor, the extended Liu clan can embody the same spontaneous harmony in support of the ancestral throne.
Andrew Meyer
English-Language Finding List for Chinese Terms
Accomplished Person |
zhiren |
accord with patterns |
xun li |
action |
dong |
activation |
ji |
active |
dong |
adapt |
yi |
adapt to natural patterns of things |
yin |
adjust |
yi |
advantage |
li |
advantage and disadvantage |
lihai |
affair |
shi |
align |
zheng |
alter |
bian |
Ancestor |
zong |
appropriate |
yi |
argument |
lun |
arts |
shu |
assess, assessment |
lun |
attention |
zhi |
authentic |
zhen |
Authentic Person |
zhenren |
awareness |
yi |
basic |
ben |
basis |
ben |
being |
you |
benefit |
li |
benefit and harm |
lihai |
bright, brightness |
ming |
change |
yi, bian |
Changes, the |
Yi |
clarify, clarity |
ming |
cleverness |
zhi |
Confucian |
ru |
contradict, on the contrary |
fan |
convention |
su |
correct |
zheng |
cosmos |
yuzhou |
crafty knowledge |
zhi |
crux |
ji |
culture |
wen |
custom |
su |
decorative elegance |
wen |
decree |
ming |
Decree of Heaven |
tianming |
degree |
du |
describe |
shuo |
destiny |
ming |
discern, discernment |
ming |
discourse |
lun |
disposition |
qing |
disposition and nature |
qingxing |
dispositional nature |
qingxing |
dispositional responsiveness |
qing |
dispositional responsiveness evoked by nature and life circumstances |
xingming zhi qing |
disturbance, to disturb |
dong |
divine |
ling, shen |
do nothing |
wuwei |
Documents, the |
Shu |
Earth, earthly |
di |
eaves and roof beams |
yuzhou |
effort |
shi |
emotional responses |
qing |
emotional responses evoked by nature and fate |
xingming zhi qing |
empire |
tianxia |
emptiness |
xu |
enumerate |
shu |
essence |
jing |
essence and spirit |
jingshen |
essential qualities |
qing |
essential qualities of nature and life circumstances |
xingming zhi qing |
event |
shi |
existence |
you |
expediency |
quan |
fate |
ming |
feelings |
qing |
find one’s source in |
yuan |
Five Conducts |
wu xing |
Five Orbs |
wu zang |
Five Phases |
wu xing |
follow the natural course of things |
yin |
force |
shi |
form and name |
xingming |
foundation |
ben |
fulcral moment |
ji |
fundamental |
ben |
fundamental and peripheral |
benmo |
genuine |
zhen |
Genuine Person |
zhenren |
genuine qualities |
qing |
genuine responses |
qing |
get to the source of |
yuan |
god |
shen |
govern |
zhi |
Grand Beginning, Grand Inception |
taichu |
Grand One |
taiyi |
Grand Purity |
taiqing |
guard the One |
shouyi |
Hall of Light |
Mingtang |
harm and benefit |
xingde |
harmony |
he |
heart |
xin |
Heaven, heavenly |
tian |
Heaven, under |
tianxia |
Heavenly Heart |
xin |
Heaven’s Decree |
tianming |
hegemon |
ba |
heft |
quan |
hold fast to the One |
shouyi |
Humaneness, humane |
ren |
illuminate, illumination |
ming |
inaction |
wuwei |
innate tendencies of nature and destiny |
xing ming zhi qing |
instinctive responses |
qing |
instinctive responses evoked by nature and life circumstances |
xing ming zhi qing |
intelligence |
zhi |
intelligence and forethought |
zhilu |
intelligence and precedent |
zhigu |
intention |
yi |
know, knowledge |
zhi |
life circumstances |
ming |
life span |
ming |
Mandate of Heaven |
tianming |
measure |
du |
mechanism |
ji |
military formation |
|
mind |
xin |
modify |
yi |
Moral Potency |
de |
movement, to move |
dong |
music |
yue |
name |
ming |
naturally |
ziran |
nature |
|
nature and fate |
xing ming |
nature and life circumstances |
xing ming |
non-action |
wu wei |
non-being |
wu |
non-deliberative action |
wuwei |
nonexistence |
wu |
non-intentional action |
wuwei |
non-purposive action |
wuwei |
non-striving |
wuwei |
norms |
shu |
nothing, Nothingness |
wu |
nourish one’s nature |
yangxing |
numinous |
ling |
object |
wu |
Odes, the |
Shi |
One |
yi |
one year |
chunqiu |
oppose |
fan |
order (v.) |
ming |
origin |
yuan |
origins |
zong |
Pattern |
li |
patterns |
wen |
Perfected Person |
zhiren |
person |
shen |
persuade, persuasion |
shuo (shui) |
phenomenon |
shi |
physical form |
|
poetry |
shi |
positional advantage |
shi |
Potency |
de |
preserve the One |
shouyi |
principle |
li |
profit |
li |
propensity |
shi |
propriety |
li |
prose |
shu |
protocol |
li |
punishment and reward |
xingde |
purpose |
zhi |
put in order |
li |
put in order |
zhi |
qi |
qi |
Quintessential Sincerity |
cheng |
Quintessential Spirit |
jingshen |
Realized Person |
zhenren |
reason (v.) |
lun |
recision and accretion |
xingde |
rectify, rectitude |
zheng |
regulate |
li |
regulate |
zhi |
reputation |
ming |
resonance |
ganying |
return |
fan |
reversion |
fan |
revert |
fan |
Rightness |
yi |
rites |
li |
ritual |
li |
root |
ben |
root and branch |
benmo |
sage |
shengren |
self |
shen |
shape |
|
shift |
yi |
sincerity |
cheng |
six coordinates |
liuhe |
Something |
you |
source |
yuan |
space-time |
yuzhou |
speak |
shuo |
spirit |
shen |
spirit illumination |
shenming |
spirit transformation |
shenhua |
spiritlike |
shen |
spiritlike illumination |
shenming |
spiritlike transformation |
shenhua |
spontaneously |
ziran |
spring and autumn |
chunqiu |
Spring and Autumn Annals |
Chunqiu |
standard |
du |
stimulus and response |
ganying |
suitability, suitable |
yi |
Superior Man |
junzi |
task |
shi |
techniques |
shu |
Techniques of the Mind |
xinshu |
text |
wen |
thing |
wu |
thought |
yi |
trace X to its source |
yuan |
trajectory |
shi |
transformation |
hua |
unity, unify |
yi |
upright |
zheng |
vacuity |
xu |
vary |
bian |
vital breath |
qi |
vital energy |
qi |
vital essence |
jing |
vulgar |
su |
weight |
quan |
will |
zhi |
wisdom |
zhi |
without |
wu |
without striving |
wuwei |
world |
tianxia |
writing |
shu |
writings |
wen |
yin–yang |
yin–yang |