“YAO LÜE,” or “An Overview of the Essentials,” brings the Huainanzi to its close. Although “Yao lüe” appears at the end of the work (following the established convention of Chinese works of the late Warring States and early Han periods),1 it is in effect an introduction because it orients readers to the contents of the text. We believe that the chapter was originally written by Liu An himself for oral recitation at the imperial court as a way of introducing the Huainanzi when it was first presented to Emperor Wu.2 Having been recited at court, the “overview” would then have been appended in written form to the twenty substantive chapters of the Huainanzi, serving as a postscript to review and summarize its content. The chapter consists of four complementary sections. The first introduces the work as a whole and provides a rhymed list of the twenty chapter titles. The second gives a thoughtful and illuminating summary of each chapter in turn. The next section links the twenty chapters together in a grand design, showing that each chapter builds on those that precede it. The final section argues for the cogency and significance of the work as a whole by placing it in a comparative and historical framework.
The Chapter Title
We have translated the chapter title “Yao lüe” 
as “An Overview of the Essentials.”3 As the title suggests, this chapter introduces readers to the most important aspects of both the individual chapters and the work as a whole. Yao, meaning “essential” or “main,” is conveniently ambiguous—referring to the author’s interest in capturing the text’s most distinctive elements while suggesting the author’s ambition to provide the emperor with all the knowledge “essential” to establishing efficacious and enlightened rulership. Lüe, meaning “outline,” “summary,” or “sketch,” with the related meaning of “to put in order,” indicates the synoptic and orderly approach adopted in the chapter’s various sections. An intriguing idea, as Martin Kern has suggested, is that one could assign this chapter the alternative title “Liu An’s fu 
on Presenting the Huainanzi to the Emperor.”
Summary and Key Themes
The most conspicuous feature of this chapter is its literary form. It is a fu, a “poetic exposition,” a form of oratory that was both very popular and highly admired in the Western Han period. Fu were intended above all for oral presentation, but the person reciting the fu would in most cases have been reading from a prepared written script. Although the Han imperial library catalog in the Han shu lists more than a thousand fu, only a few dozen examples now survive. Fu were polished literary pieces, but they often were written specifically as works of political and moral argumentation; their literary brilliance added credibility to the points they made. Fu are in that sense akin to the “persuasions” that appear in many Warring States and Han works, including some chapters of the Huainanzi.4
Typically of the genre, the “Overview of the Essentials” is characterized by the intense use of rhyme, metrical variety, deft shifts from one metrical form to another (for example, from classical tetrameter as found in the Odes to more complex meters echoing some of the poems of the Chuci), frequent use of syntactic parallelism, occasional passages of prose demarcating stages of the poetical argument, rich vocabulary, and an overall air of linguistic and literary virtuosity. The “Yao lüe” would have been recited at the court of Emperor Wu, perhaps by Liu An himself or perhaps by a skilled performer reciting on his behalf, in the course of presenting a copy of the Huainanzi to the throne; the dexterity of the oral presentation would have been understood as part of the argument for the validity of the work.
An example of the ingenuity that went into the composition of this expository piece is the list of chapter titles at the end of 21.1, which turns out to be not simply a series of titles, but a passage of rhymed trisyllabic verse. (Note that words that rhymed in Han dynasty Chinese do not necessarily rhyme in modern Mandarin.) Here is the list, with rhymes noted by numbers in parentheses:
You yuan dao  |
It has “Originating in the Way,” |
you chu zhen  (1) |
It has “Activating the Genuine,” |
you tian wen  (1) |
it has “Celestial Patterns,” |
you di xing  (1) |
it has “Terrestrial Forms,” |
you shi ze  |
it has “Seasonal Rules,” |
you lan ming  (1) |
it has “Surveying Obscurities,” |
you jing shen  (1) |
it has “Quintessential Spirit,” |
you ben jing  (1) |
it has “The Basic Warp,” |
you zhu shu  |
it has “The Ruler’s Techniques,” |
you mou cheng  (2) |
it has “Profound Precepts,” |
you qi su  |
it has “Integrating Customs,” |
you dao ying  (2) |
it has “Responses of the Way,” |
you fan lun  |
it has “Boundless Discourses,” |
you quan yan  (3) |
it has “Sayings Explained,” |
you bing lüe  |
it has “An Overview of the Military,” |
you shui shan  (3) |
it has “A Mountain of Persuasions,” |
you shui lin  |
it has “A Forest of Persuasions,” |
you ren jian  (3) |
it has “Among Others,” |
you xiu wu  (4) |
it has “Cultivating Effort,” |
you tai zu  (4) |
[and] it has “The Exalted Lineage.”5 |
From this, a number of interesting conclusions follow: the chapters of the Huainanzi were assembled in a deliberate order; the chapter titles were added during or after the compilation of the text, and were worded so as to rhyme; and there are an even number of chapters in order to allow chapter titles to follow the standard fu scheme of rhyming on even lines (with optional rhymes on a few odd lines as well). One can even gain insight into fine-grained editorial decisions affecting the compilation of the text. For example, one can see that if based on content alone, “Shui shan” (A Mountain of Persuasions) and “Shui lin” (A Forest of Persuasions) could easily have been a single chapter. But it was necessary to divide their content between two chapters in order to have an even number of chapters in the book (excluding the final twenty-first chapter) and to have an unrhymed odd line, in the list of chapter titles, between the rhymed even lines “Shui shan” and “Ren jian” (Among Others). Clearly, this evidence of deliberate editorial care shows the old view of the Huainanzi as a miscellaneous compilation, lacking order or coherence, to be completely untenable.
In keeping with the rhetorical strategy of the lüe, “overview,” this fu surveys the entire Huainanzi —not once, but four times, each with a different approach. “An Overview of the Essentials” begins by outlining the chapter’s aims and giving a rhymed list of the twenty chapter names. It next summarizes the twenty preceding chapters, then shows how the chapters are linked together in an organizational chain, and concludes with a review of previous writings on related subjects, declaring the Huainanzi to have surpassed them all.
In the chapter’s introductory paragraph, the author lays out his broad philosophical claims about the text and identifies the contents of each chapter. The opening lines explain that the Huainanzi contains all the knowledge and techniques needed to govern the Chinese empire both effectively and virtuously. The author states that the Huainanzi provides an account of the Way and its Potency and describes their relationship to human beings and their affairs. Arguing that previous and contemporaneous works had failed to make this connection explicit, the author’s most important task, according to the account of the text given in “Yao lüe,” is to demonstrate the critical link between cosmic and political order. Thus both the beginning and the end of this introduction emphasize the interrelationship between the Way and human affairs, asserting that such knowledge will enable the ruler to adapt to the times and so will ensure the efficacy and longevity of his reign. This short introductory section ends by listing the twenty chapter titles.
The second and largest section of “An Overview of the Essentials” comprises the individual chapter summaries. It introduces the main topics of each chapter as well as the categories, concepts, and vocabulary pertaining to them. Most important, it outlines both the practical applications and the benefits of the knowledge derived from mastering the contents of each chapter. This link between the theoretical and the practical, or the descriptive and prescriptive, qualities of the chapters is evident in the semantic and syntactic structures of the chapter summaries. Here, again, we see the author’s effort to harmonize the “Way” (dao) and “human affairs” (shi)— that is, the cosmological and political dimensions of the work—which the author claims is one of the principal and distinctive contributions of the Huainanzi’s twenty chapters.
In contrast to the second section, which treats chapters separately, the third section of “An Overview of the Essentials” summarizes the chapters in relation to one another. The Huainanzi is a systematic, coherent, and exhaustive arrangement of topics, intended to be read and studied from beginning to end. Accordingly, this section demonstrates that comprehending the content of each succeeding chapter is predicated on successfully mastering the principles presented in the preceding one. Both this summary and the text as a whole move from cosmogony to cosmology to ontology; from the metaphenomenal Way as utter nondifferentiation to the phenomenal world of differentiated things that it generates and sustains; from the Way’s macrocosmic aspects visible in Heaven, Earth, and the four seasons to its microcosmic manifestations in human beings; from cosmogony to human genesis; from the motions of the celestial bodies to the movements of human history; and from the cultivation of oneself to the virtuous and efficacious rulership of the world. Hence, this summary describes the text’s authority as a compendium encapsulating everything worth knowing and using in governing the world.
The conclusion to the third section once again highlights the Huainanzi’s unique adeptness at clarifying the inherent connections between the Way and human affairs, by drawing analogies from history, culture, and the arts. The theme of each analogy is incompleteness. Yet each deficiency noted can be remedied by supplying the missing component, thereby achieving a synthesis. Similarly, the author asserts that discussions of the Way are incomplete, and so the distinctive contribution of the Huainanzi is that it speaks of the Way not in isolation but in relation to concrete things and that it speaks of techniques (shu) not in isolation but in relation to concrete affairs. By elucidating the links between both the “Way” and “things” and “techniques” and “affairs,” only the Huainanzi, the author explains, expands the discussion of their interrelation until “it will leave no empty spaces”—in other words, until nothing more can be said. Its contribution, therefore, lies in its capacity to relate them, a quality of the text that is emphasized throughout the different sections of “An Overview of the Essentials.”
The fourth section deepens the author’s claim for comprehensiveness by situating the Huainanzi at the culmination of an evolution of practices and texts stretching from King Wen of the Zhou dynasty through innovations in Warring States times and during the Qin dynasty. The author summarizes several noteworthy events during these diverse periods by recounting both their particular historical circumstances and the technical and textual contributions made by key advisers and thinkers who figured prominently in each era. Nonetheless, the creation of the Huainanzi is different from the time- and context-bound nature of these earlier innovations because of its purported timelessness and comprehensiveness. This polemical claim is reinforced in the concluding passage of this narrative, in which the author summarizes the “book of the Liu clan” itself and characterizes the Huainanzi as an exhaustive repository of knowledge concerning matters both theoretical and practical.
Sources
The most obvious and important influence of “An Overview of the Essentials” is the long-standing genre of inventories or taxonomies that originated with such well-known Warring States exemplars as the “Fei Ru” (Opposing the Confucians) section of the Mozi, the “Xianxue” (Eminent Learning) section of the Hanfeizi, and the “Fei shi er zi” (Opposing the Twelve Masters) chapter of the Xunzi. The “Tianxia” (The World) chapter of the Zhuangzi may also have been a source for the author of “An Overview of the Essentials”; these two chapters appear to reflect a common literary and intellectual milieu. In this regard, the Huainanzi’s postscript and the taxonomy it contains are not unique, and undoubtedly the author is not the first to include them in a work. However, with the different examples of this genre in mind, the author of “An Overview of the Essentials” used various methods of categorization to construct his rationale for depicting early China’s intellectual landscape so as to highlight the uniqueness of his own literary production. For example, unlike earlier examples of this genre, the taxonomy included in “An Overview of the Essentials” explicitly links past innovations to specific historical events and circumstances, thereby serving one of the overarching rhetorical purposes of the postface—to demonstrate that the Huainanzi both completely subsumes and surpasses all that came before it by virtue of its innovativeness, timelessness, and comprehensiveness. And by couching the postface in the performative fu genre, Liu An achieved the considerable feat of using an aesthetic act to reinforce the chapter’s intellectual argument.
The Chapter in the Context of the Huainanzi as a Whole
“An Overview of the Essentials” stands out from the rest of the chapters in the Huainanzi on several accounts. Its form sets it apart; whereas the other chapters of the text are by no means lacking in literary sophistication, and some even contain extended passages in the fu style (for example, 5.15, 8.9, and 19.1), this is the only chapter that is a fu in its entirety. The chapter’s literary style is dense and sometimes difficult; it includes some of the most arcane terminology in the entire text and clearly was intended to dazzle its audience. The unique literary qualities of this chapter are matched by an equally striking originality of ideas. Whereas the novelty of most chapters derives from a combination of selection, arrangement, and topical comment, “An Overview of the Essentials” is far less indebted to and dependent on received sources to argue its main points. This is all the more striking when this feature of the chapter is considered in conjunction with its distinctly uniform voice, which in turn derives from the essentially performative character of the fu genre. Rather than the deliberate diversity of viewpoints characteristic of the body of the work, this chapter employs a singular and consistent voice to survey the content of the text and explain its indispensable contribution to rulership. Moreover, this voice explicitly identifies the Huainanzi as the “book of the Liu clan” and tries to persuade the reader (that is, the ruler) that one imperial relative is willing and able to make a substantial contribution to the cause of empire. In this chapter, we seem to hear the voice of Liu An himself, who used the occasion of his visit to the imperial court to recite this fu (or have it recited on his behalf) in the course of formally presenting the Huainanzi to Emperor Wu and who then added its written script as a postface to the book itself to preserve it for posterity. In this poetic exposition, Liu An recounts the vision that inspired him to attract to his court the best minds of his day to create this literary monument to a syncretic and pluralistic vision of empire. The Huainanzi’s authors deliberately used the elastic and malleable terms dao and de, with their multiplicity of conceptual and practical resonances, as universal subjects of debate and discussion shared by all the traditions across the empire and spanning the earlier dynasties and generations. With such a conception of the Way and its Potency, therefore, the Huainanzi was not limited to one perspective or interpretation, or one application of its meaning, but tried to harmonize these different resonances and thereby provide a new account of the Way in all its multiplicity, which would encapsulate and surpass all preceding literary endeavors and ensure that this illustrious work would stand the test of time.6
Sarah A. Queen, Judson Murray, and John S. Major
1. See, for example, the similar concluding summaries in Zhuangzi 33 and Shiji 130.
2. We are very grateful to Martin Kern (private communication) for sharing his seminal views on the literary form of the “Yao lüe.” See also Martin Kern, “Western Han Aesthetics and the Genesis of the Fu,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 63 (2003): 383–437, and “Language, Argument, and Southern Culture in the Huainanzi: A Look at the ‘Yaolüe’” (paper presented at the conference “Liu An’s Vision of Empire: New Perspectives on the Huainanzi,” Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., May 31, 2008).
3. Le Blanc and Mathieu 2003, chap. 21, translate “Yao lüe” as “Sommaire.”
4. Kern, “Western Han Aesthetics,” 389–407.
5. Again, we are grateful to Martin Kern (private communication) for sharing his insights into the rhyme-scheme of this passage. The rhymes are (1) zhen 
and geng 
(a “combined rhyme”), (2) zheng 
, (3) yuan 
, and (4) hou 
and wu 
(a “combined rhyme”).
6. For detailed analyses of these and other important aspects of the Huainanzi ’s postscript, see Sarah A. Queen, “Inventories of the Past: Rethinking the ‘School’ Affiliation of the Huainanzi,” Asia Major, 3rd ser., 14, no. 1 (2001): 51–72; and Judson B. Murray, “A Study of ‘Yao lue’ 
, ‘A Summary of the Essentials’: Understanding the Huainanzi Through the Point of View of the Author of the Postface,” Early China 29 (2004): 45–108, and “The Consummate Dao: The ‘Way’ (Dao) and ‘Human Affairs’ (shi) in the Huainanzi ” (Ph.D. diss., Brown University, 2007), esp. 58–121.
We have created and composed these writings and discourses as a means to
knot the net of the Way and its Potency
and weave the web of humankind and its affairs,1
above investigating them in Heaven,
below examining them on Earth,
and in the middle comprehending them through patterns.2
Although they are not yet able to draw out fully the core of the Profound Mystery, they are abundantly sufficient to observe its ends and beginnings.3 If we [only] summarized the essentials or provided an overview and our words did not discriminate the Pure, Uncarved Block and differentiate the Great Ancestor, then it would cause people in their confusion to fail to understand them. Thus,
numerous are the words we have composed
and extensive are the illustrations we have provided,
yet we still fear that people will depart from the root and follow the branches.
Thus,
if we speak of the Way but do not speak of affairs,
there would be no means to shift with4 the times.
[Conversely],
if we speak of affairs but do not speak of the Way,
there would be no means to move with5 [the processes of] transformation.
Therefore we composed [the book’s] twenty essays [as follows]:
It has “Originating in the Way,”
it has “Activating the Genuine,”
it has “Celestial Patterns,”
it has “Terrestrial Forms,”
it has “Seasonal Rules,”
it has “Surveying Obscurities,”
it has “Quintessential Spirit,”
it has “The Basic Warp,”
it has “The Ruler’s Techniques,”
it has “Profound Precepts,”
it has “Integrating Customs,”
it has “Responses of the Way,”
it has “Boundless Discourses,”
it has “Sayings Explained,”
it has “An Overview of the Military,”
it has “A Mountain of Persuasions,”
it has “A Forest of Persuasions,”
it has “Among Others,”
it has “Cultivating Effort,”
[and] it has “The Exalted Lineage.”6 [21/223/21–28]
“Originating in the Way”
[begins with] the six coordinates contracted7 and compressed
and the myriad things chaotic and confused.
[It then] diagrams the features of the Grand
One and fathoms the depths of the Dark Unseen,
thereby soaring beyond the frame8 of Empty Nothingness.
By relying on the small, it embraces the great;
by guarding the contracted, it orders the expansive.
It enables you to understand
the bad or good fortune of taking the lead or following behind
and the benefit or harm of taking action or remaining still.
If you sincerely comprehend its import, floodlike, you can achieve a grand vision.
If you desire a single expression to awaken to it:
“Revere the heavenly and preserve your genuineness.”
If you desire a second expression to comprehend it:
“Devalue things and honor your person.”
If you desire a third expression to fathom it:
“Externalize desires and return to your genuine dispositions.”
If you grasp its main tenets,
inwardly you will harmonize the Five Orbs
and enrich the flesh and skin.
If you adhere to its models and standards
and partake of them to the end of your days,
they will provide the means
to respond and attend to the myriad aspects of the world
and observe and accompany its manifold alterations,
as if rolling a ball in the palm of your hand.
Surely it will suffice to make you joyous! [21/224/1–5]
“Activating the Genuine” exhaustively traces the transformation [of things] from their ends to their beginnings;
infuses and fills the essence of Something and Nothing;
distinguishes and differentiates the alterations of the myriad things;
unifies and equates the forms of death and life.
It enables you to
know to disregard things and return to the self;
investigate the distinctions between Humaneness and Rightness;
comprehend the patterns of identity and difference;
observe the guiding thread of Utmost Potency;
and know the binding cords of alterations and transformations.
Its explanations tally with the core of the Profound Mystery
and comprehend9 the mother of creation and transformation. [21/224/7–9]
“Celestial Patterns” provides the means by which to
harmonize the qi of yin and yang,
order the radiances of the sun and moon,
regulate the seasons of opening [spring/summer] and closing [fall/winter],
tabulate the movements of the stars and planets,
know the permutations of [their] retrograde and proper motion,
avoid the misfortunes associated with prohibitions and taboos,
follow the responses of the seasonal cycles,
and imitate the constancy of the Five Gods.
It enables you to
possess the means to gaze upward to Heaven and uphold what to follow
and thereby avoid disordering Heaven’s regularities. [21/224/11–12]
“Terrestrial Forms” provides the means by which to
encompass the length from north to south,
reach the breadth from east to west,
survey the topography of the mountains and hillocks,
demarcate the locations of the rivers and valleys,
illuminate the master of the myriad things,
know the multitude of categories of living things,
tabulate the enumerations of mountains and chasms,
and chart the roadways far and near.
It enables you to
circulate comprehensively and prepare exhaustively,
so that you cannot be roused by things
or startled by oddities. [21/224/14–16]
“Seasonal Rules” provides the means by which to
follow Heaven’s seasons above,
use Earth’s resources below,
determine standards and implement correspondences,
aligning them with human norms.
It is formed into twelve sections to serve as models and guides.
Ending and beginning anew,
they repeat limitlessly,
adapting, complying, imitating, and according
in predicting bad and good fortune.
Taking and giving, opening and closing,
each has its prohibited days,
issuing commands and administering orders,
instructing and warning according to the season.
[It] enables the ruler of humankind to know the means by which to manage affairs. [21/224/18–20]
“Surveying Obscurities” provides the means by which to discuss
Utmost Essence penetrating the Nine Heavens,
Utmost Subtlety sinking into the Formless,
Unblemished Purity entering Utmost Clarity,
and Luminous Brightness penetrating Dark Obscurity.
It begins by
grasping things and deducing their categories,
observing them, taking hold of them,
lifting them up, and arranging them,
and pervasively positing them as categories of similarity,
by which things can be understood as ideas and visualized as forms.
It then
penetrates various obstructions,
bursts open various blockages,
to guide your awareness,
to connect it to the Limitless.
[It] then thereby illuminates
the stimuli of the various categories of things,
the responses of identical qi,
the unions of yin and yang,
and the intricacies of forms and shapes.
It is what leads you to observe and discern in a far-reaching and expansive way. [21/224/22–25]
“Quintessential Spirit” provides the means by which to
trace to the source the root from which human life arises
and understand what animates humans’ form, frame, and nine orifices.
Taking its images from Heaven,
it coordinates and identifies humans’ blood and qi
with thunder and lightning, wind and rain;
correlates and categorizes humans’ happiness and anger
with dawn and dusk, cold and heat.
Judging the distinctions between life and death,
distinguishing the traces of identity and difference,
regulating the workings of movement and stillness,
it thereby returns to the Ancestor of nature and destiny.
It is what enables you to
cherish and nourish the essence and spirit,
pacify and still the ethereal and earthly souls,
not change the self on account of things,
and fortify and preserve the abode of Emptiness and Nothingness. [21/224/27–21/225/2]
“The Basic Warp” provides the means by which to
illuminate the Potency of the great sages
and penetrate the Way of the Unique Inception.10
Delineating and summarizing the devolution of decadent eras from past to present,
it thereby praises the flourishing prosperity of earlier ages11
and criticizes the corrupt governments of later ages.
It is what enables you to
dispense with the acuity and keenness of hearing and sight,
still the responses and movements of the essence and spirit,
restrain effusive and ephemeral viewpoints,
temper the harmony of nourishing your nature,
distinguish the conduct of [the Five] Thearchs and [Three] Kings,
and set out the differences between small and great. [21/225/4–6]
“The Ruler’s Techniques” [addresses] the affairs of the ruler of humankind. It provides the means by which to adapt tasks [to individuals] and scrutinize responsibilities so as to ensure that each of the numerous officials exerts his abilities exhaustively. [It] illuminates
how to wield authority and manage the handles of governance
and thereby regulate the multitudes below;
how to match official titles with actual performance
and investigate them [with the techniques of] threes and fives.12
It is what enables the ruler of men to
grasp techniques and sustain essentials
and not act recklessly based on happiness or anger.
Its techniques
straighten the bent and correct the crooked,
set aside self-interest and establish the public good,
enabling the one hundred officials to communicate in an orderly fashion
and gather around the ruler like the spokes of a wheel,
each exerting his utmost in his respective task,
while the people succeed in their accomplishments.
Such is the brilliance of the ruler’s techniques. [21/225/8–11]
“Profound Precepts”
parses and analyzes [various] assessments of the Way and its Potency,
ranks and puts in sequence [diverse] differentiations of Humaneness and Rightness,
summarizes and juxtaposes the affairs of the human realm,
generally bringing them into conformity with the Potency of spirit illumination.
It proposes similes and selects appositions
to match them with analogies and illustrations;
it divides into segments and forms sections
to respond to brief aphorisms.
It is what makes it possible to find fault with persuasions and attack arguments, responding to provocations without error. [21/225/13–14]
“Integrating Customs” provides the means by which to
unify the weaknesses and strengths of the various living things,
equate the customs and habits of the nine Yi [tribes],
comprehend past and present discourses,
and thread together the patterns of the myriad things.
[It]
manages and regulates the suitability of Ritual and Rightness
and demarcates and delineates the ends and beginnings of human affairs. [21/225/16–17]
“Responses of the Way”
picks out and draws together the relics of past affairs,
pursues and surveys the traces of bygone antiquity,
and investigates the reversals of bad and good fortune, benefit and harm.
It tests and verifies them according to the techniques of Lao and Zhuang,13
thus matching them to the trajectories of gain and loss. [21/225/19–20]
“Boundless Discourses” provides the means by which to
stitch up the spaces in ragged seams and hems
and plug up the gaps in crooked and chattering teeth.14
It welcomes the straightforward and straightens out the devious,
in order to extend the Original Unhewn15 and thereby anticipate
the alternations of success and failure
and the reversals of benefit and harm.16
It is what enables you to
not be foolishly immersed in the advantages of political power,
not be seductively confused by the exigencies of affairs,
and so tally with constancy and change17
to link up and discern timely and generational alterations,
and extend and adjust [your policies] in accordance with transformations. [21/225/22–24]
“Sayings Explained” provides the means by which to
compare through analogy the tenets of human affairs
and elucidate through illustration the substance of order and disorder.
It ranks the hidden meanings of subtle sayings,
explaining them with literary expressions that reflect ultimate principles.
Thus it patches up and mends deficiencies due to errors and oversights. [21/225/26–27]
“An Overview of the Military” provides the means by which to illuminate
the techniques of battle, victory, assault, and capture;
the force of formations and movements;
and the variations of deception and subterfuge
embodying the Way of Adaptation and Compliance
and upholding the Theory of Holding Back;
it is what [enables you] to
know that when you form for battle or deploy to fight contrary to the Way, it will not work;
know that when you assault and capture or fortify and defend contrary to Moral Potency, it will not be formidable.
If you truly realize its implications,
whether advancing or retreating, moving right or left,
there will be no place to be attacked or endangered.
It takes relying on force as its substance
and clarity and stillness as its constant.
It avoids fullness and follows emptiness,
as if driving forward a flock of sheep.
Such are the means to discuss military affairs. [21/225/29–31]
“A Mountain of Persuasions” and “A Forest of Persuasions” demonstrate how to
skillfully and elegantly penetrate and bore open the blockages and obstructions of the many affairs
and thoroughly and comprehensively penetrate and pierce the barriers and hindrances of the myriad things,
proposing analogies and selecting similes,
distinguishing categories and differentiating forms,
it thereby
leads and orders your awareness,
loosens and unties what is knotted up,
and unravels and unwinds what is wound up,
so as to illuminate the boundaries of affairs. [21/226/1–3]
“Among Others” provides the means by which to
observe the alterations of bad and good fortune,
discern the reversals of benefit and harm,
diagnose18 the symptoms of success and failure,
and mark out and hold up to view the boundaries of ends and beginnings.19
[It]
differentiates and distinguishes the subtleties of the one hundred affairs
and discloses and reveals the mechanisms of preservation and loss,
enabling you to know
bad fortune as good fortune,
loss as gain,
success as failure,
and benefit as harm.
If you truly grasp [its] utmost implications, you will possess the means to move to and fro and up and down among the vulgar of the age, while remaining unharmed by slander, abuse, venom, or poison. [21/226/5–7]
“Cultivating Effort” provides the means by which those
whose entry into the Way is not profound
and whose appreciation of argumentation is not deep
can, by observing these literary expressions, turn themselves around
to take clarity and purity as constants
and mildness and serenity as roots.
[But those who]
idly and lazily set aside their studies,
give free rein to their desires and indulge their feelings.
and wish to misappropriate what they lack,
will be obstructed from the Great Way.
Now,
madmen have no anxiety,
and sages, too, have no anxiety.
Sages have no anxiety
because they harmonize by means of Potency,
whereas madmen have no anxiety
because they do not know [the difference between] bad and good fortune.
Thus,
the non-action of those who fully comprehend [the Way]
and the non-action of those who are obstructed from [the Way]
are alike with regard to their non-action
but differ with regard to the means by which they are non-active.
Thus, on their behalf, what can be heeded has been brought to the surface, declared, circulated, and explained, thereby inspiring scholars to diligently appropriate [these principles] for themselves. [21/226/9–13]
“The Exalted Lineage”
traverses the eight end points,
extends to the highest heights,
illuminates the three luminaries above,
and harmonizes water and earth below.
It aligns the Way of past and present,
orders the hierarchy of human relationships and patterns,
summarizes the tenets of the myriad regions,
and returns them home to a single root,
thereby
knotting the net of the Way of Governance
and weaving the web of the affairs of the True King.20
[It] then
traces to the source the techniques of the mind,
sets in order instinct and nature,
and thereby
provides a lodging place for the numen of Clarity and Equanimity.
It clarifies and purifies the quintessence of spirit illumination,
thereby enfolding and cleaving to the harmony of Heaven.
It provides the means to observe how the Five Thearchs and the Three Kings
embraced the heavenly qi,
cherished the Heavenly Heart,
and grasped centrality and savored harmony.
Their Moral Potency having taken shape within [them],
it then cohered Heaven and Earth,
issued forth and aroused yin and yang,
ordered the four seasons,
rectified the changeable directions,
calmed things with its tranquillity,
and extended them with its efficaciousness.
[Their Moral Potency] then thereby
fired and smelted the myriad things,21
buoyed up and transformed the innumerable life forms,
singing forth, they harmonized,
moving about, they followed along,
so that all things within the Four Seas with a single mind unanimously offered their allegiance.
Thus,
lucky stars appeared,
auspicious winds arrived,
the Yellow Dragon descended,
phoenix nests lined the trees,
and the qilin tarried in the open fields.
Had Moral Potency not taken shape within [them],
yet their laws and tributes were implemented,
and their regulations and measures were employed exclusively,
then the spirits and divinities would not have responded to them;
good fortune and blessings would not have returned home to them;
all things within the Four Seas would not have submitted to them;
and subjects would not have been transformed by them.
Thus,
Moral Potency that takes shape within
is the great foundation of governance.
This is [the message of] “The Exalted Lineage” of the Profoundly Illustrious.22 [21/226/15–21]
In all, these interconnected writings are the means to focus on the Way and remove obstructions, enabling succeeding generations to know what is appropriate to uphold or abandon and what is suitable to endorse or reject.
Externally, when they interact with things, they will not be bewildered;
internally, they will possess the means to lodge their spirit and nourish their qi.
They will take ease in and merge with utmost harmony, delighting themselves in what they have received from Heaven and Earth.
Therefore,
Had we discussed the Way [“Originating in the Way”]23 and not illuminated ends and beginnings [“Activating the Genuine”],
you would not know the models to follow.
Had we discussed ends and beginnings and not illuminated Heaven, Earth, and the four seasons [“Celestial Patterns,” “Terrestrial Forms,” and “Seasonal Rules,” respectively],
you would not know the taboos to avoid.
Had we discussed Heaven, Earth, and the four seasons and not introduced examples and elucidated categories,
you would not recognize the subtleties of the Quintessential qi [“Surveying Obscurities”].
Had we discussed the Utmost Essence and not traced to its source the spiritlike qi of human beings,
you would not know the mechanism by which to nourish your vitality [“Quintessential Spirit”].
Had we traced to their source the genuine dispositions of human beings and not discussed the Potency of the great sages,
you would not know the [human] shortcomings associated with the Five Phases [“The Basic Warp”].
Had we discussed the Way of the [Five] Thearchs and not discussed the affairs of the ruler,
you would not know the proper order distinguishing the small from the great [“The Ruler’s Techniques”].
Had we discussed the affairs of the ruler and not provided precepts and illustrations,
you would not know the times for taking action or remaining still [“Profound Precepts”].
Had we discussed precepts and illustrations and not discussed alterations in customs,
you would not know how to coordinate and equate their main tenets. [“Integrating Customs”].
Had we discussed alterations in customs and not discussed past events,
you would not know the responses of the Way and its Potency [“Responses of the Way”].
To know the Way and its Potency but not know the perversions of the age,
you would lack the means to accommodate yourself to the myriad aspects of the world [“Boundless Discourses”].
To know “Boundless Discourses” but not know “Sayings Explained,”
you would lack the means to take your ease.
To comprehend writings and compositions but not know the tenets of military affairs,
you would lack the means to respond to [enemy] troops [“An Overview of the Military”].
To know grand overviews but not know analogies and illustrations,
you would lack the means to clarify affairs by elaboration [“A Mountain of Persuasions” and “A Forest of Persuasions”].
To know the Public Way but not know interpersonal relations,
you would lack the means to respond to ill and good fortune [“Among Others”].
To know interpersonal relations but not know “Cultivating Effort,”
you would lack the means to inspire scholars to exert their utmost strength.
Should you desire
to forcibly abridge this composition
by observing and summarizing only its essentials
without traveling its winding paths and entering its subtle domains, this will not suffice to exhaust the meanings of the Way and its Potency.
Therefore, we composed [these] writings in twenty chapters. Thereby
the patterns of Heaven and Earth are thoroughly examined;
the affairs of the human realm are comprehensively engaged;
and the Way of [the Five] Thearchs and [Three] Kings is fully described.
Their discussions are
sometimes detailed and sometimes general,
sometimes subtle and sometimes obvious.
The tenets advanced in each chapter are different,
and each has a reason for being expressed.
Now, if we spoke exclusively of the Way, there would be nothing that is not contained in it. Nevertheless, only sages are capable of grasping its root and thereby knowing its branches. At this time, scholars lack the capabilities of sages, and if we do not provide them with detailed explanations,
then to the end of their days they will flounder in the midst of darkness and obscurity
without knowing the great awakening brought about by these writings’ luminous and brilliant techniques. [21/226/23–21/227/4]
Now, the “Qian” and “Kun” [trigrams] of the Changes suffice to comprehend the Way and disclose its meanings. With the eight trigrams you can understand the inauspicious and auspicious and know bad and good fortune. Nevertheless, Fu Xi made them into the sixty-four permutations24 [i.e., hexagrams], and the house of Zhou added six line-texts to each of the hexagrams, and these are the means to
trace to the source and fathom the Way of Purity and Clarity
and grasp and follow the Ancestor of the myriad things.
The number of the five notes does not exceed gong, shang, jue, zhi, and yu. Nevertheless, you cannot play them all on the [unstopped] five strings of a qin. You must control and harmonize the fine and thick strings, and only then can you produce a melody.
Now, if you draw only the head of a dragon, those observing it will not be able to identify what animal it is. But if you add the body, there will be no confusion as to the animal’s identity.
Now,
if our references to the “Way” were numerous,
[but] if our references to “things” were few;
if our references to “techniques” were extensive,
[but] if our references to “affairs” were superficial,
and we extended this [throughout] our discussions,
we would be left speechless.
Anyone who intended to study this
and who firmly wished to build on it, would [also] find himself with nothing to say. [21/227/6–11]
Now,
discussions about the Way are surpassingly profound;
therefore, we have written many compositions on it [i.e., the Way] to reveal its true qualities.
The myriad things are surpassingly numerous;
therefore we have broadly offered explanations of them to communicate their significance.
Though these compositions may be
winding and endless,
complicated and slow going,
intertwined and numerous,
and distant and dawdling,
in order to distill and purify their utmost meaning and ensure that they are neither opaque nor impenetrable, we have retained them and not discarded them.
Now, although the debris and putrid carcasses floating in the Yangzi and Yellow rivers cannot be surpassed in number, nevertheless those who offer sacrifices draw water from them. [This is because] the rivers are so large.
Although a cup of wine may be sweet, if a fly is immersed in it, even commoners will not drink it. [This is because] the cup is so small.
If you sincerely comprehend the discussions in these twenty chapters, you will thereby
observe their general patterns and grasp their essentials,
penetrate the Nine Fields,
pass through the Ten Gates,
externalize Heaven and Earth,
and extend beyond the mountains and rivers.
Wandering and ambling through the span of a single age,
governing and fashioning the forms of the Myriad Things,
surely this is an excellent journey! This being the case,
you will clasp the sun and the moon without being burned,
and you will anoint the myriad things without drying up.
How ample! How lucid!
It is enough to read this [alone]!
How far-reaching and vast! How boundless!
Here you may wander! [21/227/13–18]
In the age of King Wen,
[the Shang tyrant] Djou became the Son of Heaven.
Taxes and levies had no measures,
and executions and killings had no end.
[Djou] indulged himself in sensual pleasures
and drowned himself in intoxicating liquors.
Inside his palace compound, he constructed a public market
and created the punishment of the roasting beam.
[He] dismembered one who remonstrated with him25
and cut out the fetus from a pregnant woman.
The world shared the same mind in condemning him.
King Wen, however, with the accumulated goodness of four generations, cultivated Moral Potency and practiced Rightness as he dwelled in the region of Qizhou. Though his territory was no more than one hundred li square, two-thirds26 of the world gave allegiance to him. King Wen hoped that by means of humility and softness, he would restrain the powerful and violent and thereby rid the world of brutality and cleanse it of tyranny and plundering to establish the Kingly Way. Thus, the Strategies of the Grand Duke27 were born. [21/227/20–23]
When King Wen’s work was left unfinished,
King Wu continued his efforts.
Employing the strategies of the Grand Duke,
he mobilized a small contingent of troops28
and personally donned battle armor and helmet
to chastise the impious and punish the unjust. He vanquished the enemy troops at Muye29 and thereby ascended to the position of Son of Heaven. At that time,
the world was not yet settled,
and the lands within the seas were not yet calmed.
Yet King Wu hoped that by illuminating the exceptional Moral Potency of King Wen, he might inspire the Yi and Di [tribes]30 each to come and pay tribute with their respective riches. Since those from the most distant lands had not yet arrived, King Wu decreed three years of mourning and entombed King Wen in a state chamber where his remains awaited those from these distant regions.
King Wu was on the throne for three years and then expired. His son King Cheng was still in his infancy [when his father died], and he was not yet able to attend to the affairs [of governance]. Cai Shu and Guan Shu31 backed Prince Lufu [heir of the tyrant Djou], and they wanted to foment a rebellion. The Duke of Zhou,32 however, continued the efforts of King Wen. He preserved the governance of the Son of Heaven by aiding and supporting the Zhou household and assisting King Cheng.
Fearing that if the path of war were not quelled,
then ministers and subjects might imperil the sovereign,
he consequently
retired his war horses to Mount Hua,
pastured his war oxen in Peach Grove,
destroyed his war drums and snapped his war drumsticks,33
and taking up the tablet of a minister, he held forth in audience,
thereby placating and settling the royal household
and calming and comforting the Lords of the Land.
When King Cheng came of age and could attend to the affairs of governance, the Duke of Zhou was enfeoffed in [the state of] Lu where he modified the prevailing habits and changed the local customs.
Confucius
cultivated the Way of [Kings] Cheng and Kang,
and transmitted the teachings of the Duke of Zhou,
thereby
instructing his seventy disciples
and inspiring them to don the robes and caps [of officialdom]
and administer the documents and records. Thus, the learning of the Confucians was born. [21/227/25–21/228/2]
Master Mo
studied the work of the Confucians34
and received the techniques of Confucius.
[However,] he regarded
their rituals to be worrisome and inappropriate,
their lavish funerals to be wasteful of resources, impoverishing the people,
while their lengthy mourning periods harmed life and impeded undertakings.
Thus, Master Mo rejected the Way of the Zhou dynasty and used the regulations of the Xia dynasty.35
In the age of Yu,36 when the world was engulfed by a great flood, Yu personally
took up basket and spade, and putting [the interests of] the people first, he
dredged the Yellow River and channeled its nine tributaries;
bored out the Yangzi River and opened up its nine channels;
scooped out the five lakes and settled [the boundaries of] the Eastern Sea.
At that time,
since the burning heat was unrelenting,
and since the inundating dampness was unabsorbed,
those who died in the highlands were buried in the highlands;
[whereas] those who died in the marshes were buried in the marshes.37
Thus, economizing expenditures, frugal burials, and brief mourning periods were born. [21/228/4–7]
In the age of Duke Huan of Qi,38
the Son of Heaven was debased and weak;
the Lords of the Land were violent and aggressive.
The Southern Yi and Northern Di [tribes]
in succession invaded the Central States,
and the continuity of the Central States hung by a thread.
The territory of the Qi kingdom was
sustained by the sea to the east
and barricaded by the Yellow River to the north.
Though its territory was narrow and its cultivated fields were sparse,
the people were very intelligent and resourceful.
Duke Huan was
vexed by the calamities of the Central States
and embittered by the rebellions of the Yi and Di [tribes].
He hoped that by preserving those whose kingdoms had perished and by continuing those whose bloodlines had been cut off,
the prestige of the Son of Heaven would be restored,
and the efforts of Kings Wen and Wu would be expanded.
Thus the writings of Master Guan39 were born. [21/228/9–11]
Duke Jing of Qi40
enjoyed music and sex while inside his palace
and enjoyed dogs and horses while outside his palace.
When hunting and shooting, he would forget to return home.
When enjoying sex, he did so indiscriminately.
He built a terrace with a magnificent bedroom
and cast a grand bell.
When it was struck in the audience hall,
the sound [was so thunderous that] all the pheasants outside the city walls cried out.
In a single morning [session of court] he distributed three thousand bushels [of grain] as largesse. Liangqiu Ju and Zijia Kuai41 led him about from the left and the right.42
Thus, the admonitions of Master Yan were born.43 [21/228/13–14]
In the twilight of the [Zhou] era, with the lords of the six states
the gorges were differentiated and the valleys were set apart,
the rivers were divided up and the mountains parceled out.
Each
governed his own realm
and defended his allotted territory
by seizing the handles of power
and by enforcing his governmental ordinances.
Below there were no regional governors,
while above there was no Son of Heaven.
They launched violent military campaigns in their struggles for power,
and the victor became the most honored.
They
relied on alliances with states,
bound themselves through important exchanges,
divided pledge tallies,
and established relations with distant regions,
thereby
preserving their principalities
and maintaining their ancestral altars.
Thus, the Vertical and Horizontal44 Alliances and the Long- and Short-Term Coalitions were born. [21/228/16–18]
Master Shen45 was the assistant of Marquis Zhaoxi of Hann46 when the state of Hann broke off from the state of Jin. The land of these states was barren and their subjects were hostile, being wedged between powerful states.
The ancient rituals of the Jin state had not yet been destroyed,
while the new laws of the Hann state were repeatedly promulgated.
Ordinances of the previous rulers had not yet been rescinded,
while the ordinances of the later rulers were also being handed down.
Since new and old contradicted each other
and before and after undermined each other,
the various officials [of the state of Hann] were at cross-purposes and in confusion;
they did not know what [practices] to employ.
Thus, the writings on performance and title47 were born. [21/228/20–22]
The customs of the kingdom of Qin were covetous and wolfish, forceful and violent.
They diminished Rightness and pursued profit.
Though they could awe others through punishments,
they could not transform them through goodness.
Though they could encourage others through rewards,
they could not restrain them by [appeals to] their reputations.
Shielded by precipices and encircled by the Yellow River,
the Qin’s four borders were thereby fortified.
The land was fertile and the topography advantageous
so that the Qin stockpiled reserves and burgeoned wealth.
Duke Xiao of Qin48 wanted to swallow up the Lords of the Land with the ferocity of a tiger or wolf. Thus, the laws of Shang Yang49 were born. [21/228/24–26]
In this book of the Liu clan [i.e., the Huainanzi], [we have]
observed the phenomena of Heaven and Earth,
penetrated past and present discussions,
weighed affairs and established regulations,
measured forms and applied what is suitable,
traced to its source the heart of the Way and its Potency,
and united the customs of the Three Kings,50
collecting them and alloying them.
At the core of the Profound Mystery,
the infinitesimal movements of the essence have been revealed.
By casting aside limits and boundaries
and by drawing on the pure and the tranquil,
[We have] thereby
unified the world,
brought order to the myriad things,
responded to alterations and transformations,
and comprehended their distinctions and categories.
We have not
followed a path made by a solitary footprint
or adhered to instructions from a single perspective
or allowed ourselves to be entrapped or fettered by things so that we would not advance or shift according to the age.
Thus,
situate [this book] in the narrowest of circumstances and nothing will obstruct it;
extend it to the whole world and it will leave no empty spaces. [21/228/28–31]
Translated by Sarah A. Queen and Judson Murray
1. For jigang 
and jingwei 
as verbs, see the related description of the Grand One as one who “knots the net of the eight directional end points and weaves the web of the six coordinates” in 8.7.
2. For the various usages and meanings of li 
, see app. A.
3. Zhongshi 
.
4. Literally, “float and sink.”
5. Literally, “go and stop.”
6. This list of chapters is in rhymed trisyllabic verse. For its rhyme-scheme, see the introduction to this chapter.
7. The phrase lu mou 
is rather obscure. Most commentators take it as equivalent to lu mou 
, “pupil of the eye”; the implication is that the six coordinates (i.e., the three dimensions: up–down, front–back, left–right) are compressed to the size of the pupil of an eye.
8. The term zhen 
literally means “carriage crossbar” but also is a synecdoche for “chariot frame” and, by extension, for a framework of any kind.
9. Deleting hui 
as an erroneous intrusion, and rejecting Lau’s (HNZ 21/224/9) emendation of hui to dong 
.
10. Wei chu 
, taking wei here as a modifier implying a singular inception of the cosmos.
11. Reading sheng 
as shi 
. See Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 2:2136n.29.
12. Canwu 
, “(correlations of ) threes and fives,” is a system for analyzing problems; “threes” refers to the triad of Heaven, Earth, and Man; “fives,” to the Five Phases. See 9.19 and 20.11.
13. That is, Laozi and Zhuangzi.
14. “Ragged seams and hems” and “gaps in crooked and chattering teeth” are metaphors for the various shortcomings of the age, the consequences of persistent decline from the primordial era of sage-rulership.
15. This is a reference to both the primordial age’s radical reliance on the Way and the inherent nature of the sage-ruler.
16. Bing 
, literally, “illness,” but here used in a more general sense to mean “harm” or “misfortune.”
17. Yan ni 
, metaphorically, “constancy and change,” but literally, “the path of the sun across the sky”—which is constant in the sense of being entirely predictable but also ever-changing as the position of sunrise and sunset on the horizon and the height of the sun’s arc across the sky shift every day throughout the seasons of the year.
18. The term we translate as “diagnose,” zuanmai 
, means “needle and pulse,” both used as verbs: to insert an acupuncture needle (into someone) and to take (someone’s) pulse.
19. That is, it allows you to investigate these things from their faint, almost archaeological, traces (metaphorically, footprints and eroded boundary markers).
20. These two lines reiterate the knotting and weaving metaphors (jigang 
and jingwei 
) found in the opening paragraph of this chapter.
21. That is, the myriad things are fired (tao) like ceramics and smelted (ye) like metal.
22. Profoundly Illustrious (Honglie 
) was an early alternative title for the Huainanzi.
23. For clarity, the corresponding chapter titles are in brackets.
24. Bian 
.
25. Bi Gan is the most famous example of a person executed for remonstrating with the vicious King Djou of the Shang dynasty.
26. The expression er chui 
, which also occurs in 12.35, is variously interpreted as meaning “two-thirds” or “one-half.” See Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 2:1273n.1.
27. The tutor to Kings Wen and Wu, the Grand Duke (taigong 
, also known as Grand Duke Wang of Lü) was said to have assisted the Zhou in their conquest of the Shang. In the Lüshi chunqiu, he is cited on numerous occasions for the good influence he had on these kings. See, for example, Knoblock and Riegel 2000, 2/4.2A, 4/3.1, 24/2.1. Several works attributed to him are listed in Han shu 30 under the rubric dao jia, or “Daoist school.” See Han shu 30/1729.
28. Following Xu Shen’s reading of the character fu 
“tax” as bing 
, “soldiers.” See Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 2:2153n.7.
29. Muye was the location of the decisive battle in the Zhou conquest of the Shang.
30. The Yi and Di tribes were people living beyond the Central States. The people of the Central States considered their customs barbarous and uncivilized.
31. Cai Shu and Guan Shu were the two eldest of the younger brothers (shu) of King Wu; they were deputed to govern parts of the former Shang territory after King Wu conquered the Shang. When King Wu died, his heir, King Cheng, was still a minor, and the youngest brother of King Wu (Dan, the Duke of Zhou) became his regent. Cai Shu and Guan Shu, apparently dissatisfied with that arrangement, rebelled against the Zhou house. They supported an attempted restoration of the Shang under Prince Lufu but were defeated by the Duke of Zhou in the ensuing civil war. See 11.18, 20.14, and 20.25.
32. The youngest brother of King Wu of Zhou, the Duke of Zhou acted as regent to King Cheng when he was a minor; he is regarded as a paragon of good government and filial piety.
33. This was in order that the drum signal to retreat could not be given.
34. That is, the ru. See the discussion of this term in the general introduction to this book.
35. Although still not securely historically attested, the Xia dynasty was believed to have preceded the Shang dynasty. Its dates are thought to have been approximately 1950 to 1550 B.C.E. In Mozi’s time, any knowledge of Xia rituals would have been highly speculative.
36. Yu, the legendary tamer of China’s version of the Great Flood, was also considered the founder of the Xia dynasty.
37. That is, no special effort was made to find auspicious sites for tombs.
38. Duke Huan of Qi (r. 685–643 B.C.E.) was the first of the Lords of the Land to be named a hegemon (ba 
).
39. These writings have likely come down to us as the work entitled Guanzi, named for Guan Zhong, the most famous (but possibly legendary) minister to Duke Huan of Qi. He is often credited with reforming his state and assisting the duke in his rise to become the first of the Five Hegemons of the Central States.
40. Duke Jing of Qi (r. 547–509 B.C.E.) reigned as a hegemon.
41. Liangqiu Ju 
is depicted in the Yanzi chunqiu as a sycophant who had a deleterious influence on Duke Jing. The identity of Zijia Kuai 
is unclear; he may be Hui Qian 
(also known as Yi Kuan 
), a minister often depicted as being in cahoots with Liangqiu Ju.
42. That is, in their capacity as his civil and military ministers.
43. The admonitions of Master Yan has likely come down to us as the work entitled Yanzi Chunqiu (The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan), a collection of admonitions delivered by Yan Ying (ca. 589–500 B.C.E.) principally to Duke Jing of Qi. The admonitions and other anecdotes about Yanzi depict and convey his virtuous character.
44. See chap. 20, n. 95.
45. Master Shen, or Shen Buhai, served Marquis Zhao of Hann and, in that capacity, advocated government by strict laws. He particularly emphasized administrative techniques—the devices by which a ruler can examine and test his bureaucracy. In particular, he advocated that officials were to act in strict accordance with the prescriptive titles of their posts. This technique was intended to consolidate the ruler’s power.
46. Marquis Zhaoxi of Hann reigned from 362 to 333 B.C.E.
47. H. G. Creel, “The Meaning of Hsing-ming,” in What Is Taoism? And Other Studies in Chinese Cultural History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), 79–91.
48. Duke Xiao of Qin died in 338 B.C.E.
49. Shang Yang helped carry out a series of reforms in the Qin state when he served Duke Xiao.
50. The Three Kings were Yu of the Xia, Tang of the Shang, and Wen or Wu of the Zhou.