by An Liu
A second question of interest is: Was the work presented to Emperor Wu the same as the received version of the Huainanzi? We agree with most scholars in believing that it was, although absolute proof is lacking. Records indicate that the work presented to Emperor Wu was a book in twenty-one chapters, and the present Huainanzi has exactly that number. The fact that the Huainanzi has been preserved (when all other works of Liu An have been lost except for scattered quotations in other texts) may be because it was added to the Han imperial library after Liu An’s visit in 139 B.C.E. As we argue at greater length later, chapter 21, which serves as a post-face summarizing and integrating the content of the first twenty chapters,14 may well have been written especially for the occasion of presenting the text to Emperor Wu, to explain clearly to him what he was getting. The literary form of that chapter suggests that it was written for oral performance at the imperial court, as a poetic oration delivered, presumably, by Liu An himself. The reference in chapter 21 to “this book of the Liu clan” reinforces this view. It is also quite possible that the specific content of the work’s chapters was modified for the purpose of making a presentation to the emperor—for example, adding material showing the benefits of relying on loyal and talented subordinates, or warning against the perils of centralized despotism. Our view, then, is that the work presented to Emperor Wu was substantially the same as the Huainanzi as we know it.
Other scholars, however, Michael Loewe prominent among them,15 contend that while portions of the work as it now exists date from the period between 164 and 139 B.C.E., work on the compendium continued until Liu An’s death seventeen years later.16 Liu An’s books and papers were confiscated by Emperor Wu’s officials after his suicide, so any works written by Liu An or at his direction between the years 139 and 122 could easily have been incorporated into (or used to replace) the copy of the Huainanzi already in the imperial library. We have not encountered convincing arguments in favor of this position, however, which seems to rest primarily on the fact that it could have been so. But the notion that chapters may have been added to the text after it was presented to the throne in 139 requires rejecting the idea that chapter 21 was written exactly for that occasion. This argument also implicitly endorses the idea that the Huainanzi is at best a minimally organized text to which material could be added indiscriminately from time to time. In contrast, in our view, the chapters of the Huainanzi correspond to the Nei shu as described by Ban Gu17 and were arranged in a deliberate and conscious order, all of a piece. This sense of conscious order is powerfully reinforced by the fact that the chapter titles themselves form a rhymed set.18 As we will see, the text’s structure and organization are purposeful and coherent, and the author’s viewpoints on the key issues of the day are informed, reasoned, and readily discernable through careful consideration of its contents. Moreover, the work’s systematic arrangement and the rhetorical and polemical arguments are summarized and described by the person most intimately associated with the text, Liu An, the putative author of chapter 21.
Of course, when the Huainanzi was entered into the imperial library collection in the late second century B.C.E., it embarked on a journey of its own. The text as we now know it undoubtedly reflects the work of later redactors and editors. One of us has written extensively on the textual history of the Huainanzi,19 and the complex evolution of the text in the centuries after it was written is summarized in appendix C.
Having considered the questions of when and by whom the Huainanzi was written and what the original content of the work may have been, we will return to the questions of the book’s intended audience and its intended effect on that audience. First, however, we need to say more about the life of Liu An.
During the early years of Emperor Wu’s reign, Liu An’s political ambitions did not meet with much success. Despite the cordial reception given him by the emperor in 139 B.C.E., he seems to have acquired little actual influence at court. In 139 and on subsequent visits, he apparently tried to win (or buy) the favor of influential court figures but never gained entry into the emperor’s inner circle. Then with the death of Empress Dowager Dou in 135, Liu An’s ambitions suffered a serious setback. Emperor Wu, now a strong-minded young man, set about purging the court of figures favored by the late Empress Dowager and her son Emperor Jing, men whose views, like Liu An’s Huainanzi, privileged the canonical status of the Laozi. Liu An now found his position shifting from that of a would-be uncle/adviser to the emperor, to the compiler of a potentially seditious political work informed by a disfavored point of view. His gamble in presenting the Huainanzi to the throne had not succeeded, and he himself was in a dangerous position.
Back in Huainan, Liu An may have occupied his time by working with his court scholars on the middle book and the outer book of the Huainanzi; we do not know when those now-lost portions of the work were written.20 But literary and scholarly efforts were not enough for him. Perhaps feeling frustrated and resentful, he was accused (how justly, it is now difficult to say) of harboring imperial ambitions and having engaged in treasonous plotting. If he was a conspirator, he was an inept one. Even as he was said to have plotted, reports of his growing disloyalty reached the imperial court. In 123 B.C.E., an imperial commission concluded that Liu An was guilty of gross impropriety. Some later scholars have questioned that verdict, in part because the principal testimony against him came from an accused co-conspirator, Wu Bei (one of the scholars identified by Gao You as having shared in the writing of the Huainanzi), who was trying to save his own neck. But some of the evidence was damning; for example, Liu An had ordered an imperial seal carved for his own use. As officials made their way to Huainan to arrest Liu An and bring him to Chang’an, the last king of Huainan committed suicide in 122. His principal wife and his heir were executed, along with some other family members; his goods (including his extensive library) were confiscated by the throne; and the kingdom of Huainan was once again, and permanently, abolished. According to a later legend, recorded in the Tang Daoist hagiographical collection called the Shenxianzhuan (Accounts of Spirit Immortals), at the moment of his death Liu An and the members of his household, including even his domestic animals, were transformed into immortals and rose bodily into the heavens in broad daylight. Thus while Liu An might be accounted a political failure in his own era, he was not only esteemed as a thinker and a writer but also revered as an actual immortal, by at least some people in later times.
The Content and Organization of the Huainanzi
The Organization of the Text
In seeking to understand the principles that guided Liu An and his court scholars in arranging the twenty-one chapters of the text, we relied first on the Huainanzi’s chapter 21, “An Overview of the Essentials” (Yao lüe). Such an approach assumes that the postface was likely written by Liu An himself when the text was nearing completion or had just been completed, but before its presentation to Emperor Wu in 139 B.C.E. Most probably the postface, which has the literary form of a fu (poetic expression), was recited orally by Liu An when he presented the Huainanzi to the throne. We believe this to be a plausible assumption based on both internal and external evidence: the form and content of the postface itself, the biographical details of Liu An, and the bibliographical descriptions of the Huainanzi. As the preceding discussion indicates, “An Overview of the Essentials” is invaluable in providing an emic or internal understanding of the content, organization, and aims of the text. This chapter claims that the Huainanzi is (1) a comprehensive text containing all the theoretical knowledge a ruler needs to govern his empire successfully; (2) an eminently practical text, chiefly concerned with elucidating the interconnections between the Way as an abstract entity and its manifestations in concrete affairs; (3) a programmatic text providing the ruler with the requisite techniques to act efficaciously in any circumstance he might confront, whether looking outward to the world at large or focusing inward on the self; and (4) an unprecedented landmark text that both continues the pioneering work of the ancient sa
ges and sage-kings of China’s antiquity and, more important, innovatively expands on the legacy of the sages. The intended result was an unparalleled synthesis of early Chinese thought and political philosophy that subsumed and surpassed all that had come before it.
To appreciate these and other features of the work, a good procedure is for readers to read chapter 21 first, to familiarize themselves with the content, organization, and aims of both the text as a whole and its individual chapters, treating the postface as a preface written to help them navigate this long and complex compendium. There, readers will see that they are intended to proceed from the beginning of the work to its end, reading its chapters successively and reaping the benefits that each offers. Thus the Huainanzi constitutes a coherent work, following a purposeful organization that is anything but haphazard. The authors’ vision of the text is one of interlinked and overarching coherence built on a cumulative reading of its individual chapters.
Looking across the twenty chapters that constitute the work, excluding the concluding postface, the text appears to fall into two parts that correspond roughly to the first and the second half of the text. Charles Le Blanc has argued that the first part of the text is devoted to “Basic Principles” (chapters 1–8) and that the second half is concerned with “Applications and Illustrations” (chapters 9–20).21 We agree with Le Blanc’s description of the structure of the text and his argument that the text shifts from basic principles to applications and illustrations. It is supported by a consideration of the chapter titles. The titles of the first twenty chapters of the text rhyme; the first rhyme sequence ends with the title of chapter 8, and the title of chapter 9 begins a new rhyme sequence.22 It is further supported by the explicit language of the postface, which characterizes the change in emphasis in accordance with two complementary claims: that the work moves from explicating principles of the Way (dao ) to illustrating its various applications in affairs (shi ; that is, the ordinary tasks and concerns of humans), and from roots (ben ) to branches (mo ). Such a reading of the text also is supported by the summary of chapter 9 found in chapter 21, which equates “techniques” (shu) and “affairs” (shi): “‘The Ruler’s Techniques’ [addresses] the affairs [shi] of the ruler of humankind.”
The Structure of the Work: Roots and Branches
Roots: Theoretical Principles of the Way
We propose that this two-part division has even more profound significance than has heretofore been realized. The division between the Way and affairs, its content understood as signifying principles and applications, is a powerful guide to understanding the overall meaning of the text as well as a manifestation of the still more fundamental metaphor of “roots and branches” that operates on many levels throughout the entire work. Perhaps the author of the postface puts it best in his attempt to give an overview:
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 with23 the times.
[Conversely,]
if we speak of affairs but do not speak of the Way,
there would be no means to move with [the processes of] transformation. (21.1)
And furthermore,
. . . 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. (21.3)
For the author of the postface, the text was composed to incorporate both the root of the Way and the branches as expressed in human affairs. Moreover, the text is organized in close accordance with the root–branch metaphor that structures its discussion of cosmology, cosmogony, human history, and self-development at many points. Chapter 1, “Originating in the Way,” is the root of the entire text, and the text moves through increasingly ramified and posterior realms until it lands in the “current day” of the Han in chapter 20.
The theoretical coherence of the text is most obvious in the first eight chapters, which can be seen as providing the foundational principles or “root” of the entire work. Chapter 1 is the root of these chapters and these chapters are the roots of the work, and within each chapter is found the same “root–branch” structure. We propose that this root–branch principle is operative at many ontological and existential levels throughout the Huainanzi. At the cosmic level, it may be perceived in the process of cosmogenesis: the universe began as a unitary, undifferentiated mass of energy that then coalesced by stages into yin and yang, the Five Phases, and the increasingly complex and differentiated world of space-time and matter (see the various cosmogonies laid out in 2.1).24 At the level of human development, the root– branch process can be seen in the progress of the prenascent human being from “corporeal mass” to embryo to the progressive incorporation of distinct elements such as flesh, muscle, and bone (see 7.2). At the historical level, the principle is evident in the evolution of human society from the totally unstructured spontaneity of the age of Fuxi and Nüwa25 through the ever-increasingly diversified and sophisticated forms of social and political organization in subsequent eras (this process is laid out at many points in the text, especially 6.7, 8.1, and 9.3).
The many levels (cosmic, personal, historicopolitical) at which the root–branch structure is conceptualized operate both synchronically and diachronically throughout the Huainanzi. An excellent example of this is found in 8.7:
The thearch embodies the Grand One;
the king emulates yin and yang;
the hegemon follows the four seasons;
the prince uses the six pitch pipes.26
The succession from thearchs to kings, hegemons, and princes is on one level a historical one: earlier rulers such as the Yellow Emperor were traditionally accorded the title di (emperor or thearch), while later rulers like the Zhou dynasts went by the title wang (king). During the Spring and Autumn period, some powerful aristocrats are said to have served as “hegemons,” exercising authority over other rulers of territorial states; during the Warring States period, some rulers reigned as princes essentially independently of the Zhou monarchy. Thus in historical terms, each of these types of rulers modeled themselves on the cosmic principle most suited to the time in which each lived. Because the di lived in a simpler time, they embodied the cosmogonically prior and monistic Grand One; because the kings lived in a later and more complex era, they modeled themselves on the cosmogonically “younger” and structurally dualistic yin and yang; and so on. This digression may also be read synchronically. Han elites lived in an era that simultaneously possessed both emperors (for example, Emperor Wu, the ruler to whom the Huainanzi was presented) and kings (for example, Liu An, the patron of the text itself). The cosmogonic root– branch model provides not only a structural map of earlier eras in human history but also a normative guide to the prioritized stations of the “present-day” political matrix. Emperors must continue to embody the superior Grand One (which persists in and pervades the ramified reality of latter days), and kings must continue to model themselves on the subordinate phenomenon of yin and yang.27 These simultaneous synchronic and diachronic valences are operative throughout the text of the Huainanzi and are key to understanding its overall structure.
Branches: Applications and Illustrations of the Way in Human Affairs
The coherence of the second half of the text is somewhat less obvious. This has led some scholars to conclude that the organization and coherence of the text tend to break down after chapter 9.28 In this regard
, we would confirm with some qualifications the position of Charles Le Blanc, who has argued that the later chapters are chiefly concerned with illustrations and applications and that such concern is borne out by their literary form, content, and titles. These chapters are generally compilations of materials from different literary genres meant to illustrate broader principles of the Way introduced in chapters 1 through 8 as specific kinds of human affairs, often accompanied by editorializing comments provided by the Huainanzi compilers.29 Accordingly, chapters in this half of the text carry titles containing terms such as “precepts” (cheng ), “responses” (ying ), “overviews” (lüe ), “discourses” (lun ), “sayings” (yan ), and “persuasions” (shui ).30
Thus we would argue that there is a purposeful shift in focus between the first and second parts of the text that corresponds to the claims of the Huainanzi postface that the text aims to clarify the relationship between the Way and its affairs. So conceived, the relationship between the first and the second half of the text becomes eminently transparent; it is one of roots and branches. It also explains why the coherence and logical progression of the text might appear to break down. In the second half of the text, the reader encounters a bewildering stream of illustrations and applications. Such a panoply bespeaks the authors’ stated intent to present a comprehensive account of the root that is the Way and its branches that are the applications to human affairs, an account that will stand the test of time and bring honor and glory to the Liu clan and prosperity and longevity to its reigning dynasty.
Both the Way-and-affairs and the roots-and-branches approaches to the text can be summarized in table 1, in which we hope to demonstrate that content and form are inextricably linked. In both the Way-and-affairs and the roots-and-branches perspectives, chapter 9 serves as the fulcrum linking and balancing the two parts of the work. Each of chapters 9 to 19 deals with an affair (shi) and how it naturally gives rise to a genre form of literature (wen), with the chapter itself illustrating the genre it surveys.