The Book
The date of composition for the Huainanzi is more certain than for most early Chinese texts. Both the Book of Han and Records of the Grand Historian record that when Liu An paid a state visit to his nephew the Emperor Wu of Han in 139 BCE, he presented a copy of his "recently completed" book in twenty-one chapters.
The Huainanzi is an eclectic compilation of chapters or essays that range across topics of mythology, history, astronomy, geography, philosophy, science, metaphysics, nature, and politics. It discusses many pre-Han schools of thought (especially Huang-Lao Daoism), and contains more than 800 quotations from Chinese classics. The textual diversity is apparent from the chapter titles (tr. Le Blanc, 1985, 15-16):
| Number | Name | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 原道訓 | Yuandao | Searching out Dao |
| 2 | 俶真訓 | Chuzhen | Beginning of Reality |
| 3 | 天文訓 | Tianwen | Patterns of Heaven |
| 4 | 墜形訓 | Zhuixing | Forms of Earth |
| 5 | 時則訓 | Shize | Seasonal Regulations |
| 6 | 覽冥訓 | Lanming | Peering into the Obscure |
| 7 | 精神訓 | Jingshen | Seminal Breath and Spirit |
| 8 | 本經訓 | Benjing | Fundamental Norm |
| 9 | 主術訓 | Zhushu | Craft of the Ruler |
| 10 | 繆稱訓 | Miucheng | On Erroneous Designations |
| 11 | 齊俗訓 | Qisu | Placing Customs on a Par |
| 12 | 道應訓 | Daoying | Responses of Dao |
| 13 | 氾論訓 | Fanlun | A Compendious Essay |
| 14 | 詮言訓 | Quanyan | An Explanatory Discourse |
| 15 | 兵略訓 | Binglue | On Military Strategy |
| 16 | 說山訓 | Shuoshan | Discourse on Mountains |
| 17 | 說林訓 | Shuolin | Discourse on Forests |
| 18 | 人間訓 | Renjian | In the World of Man |
| 19 | 脩務訓 | Youwu | Necessity of Training |
| 20 | 泰族訓 | Taizu | Grand Reunion |
| 21 | 要略 | Yaolue | Outline of the Essentials |
Some Huainanzi passages are philosophically significant, for instance, this combination of Five Phases and Daoist themes.
When the lute-tuner strikes the kung note, the kung note responds: when he plucks the chiao note, the chiao note vibrates. This results from having corresponding musical notes in mutual harmony. Now, someone changes the tuning of one string in such a way that it does not match any of the five notes, and by striking it sets all twenty-five strings resonating. In this case there has as yet been no differentiation as regards sound; it just happens that that which governs all musical notes has been evoked.
Thus, he who is merged with Supreme Harmony is beclouded as if dead-drunk, and drifts about in its midst in sweet contentment, unaware how he came there; engulfed in pure delight as he sinks to the depths; benumbed as he reaches the end, he is as if he had not yet begun to emerge from his origin. This is called the Great Merging. (chapter 6, tr. Le Blanc 1985:138)
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