The Huainanzi

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by An Liu


  Summary and Key Themes

  The subject and the literary form of “Responses of the Way” are closely linked.6 The chapter is written in a distinctive anecdotal form that we regard as unique to early Chinese prose literature. Each anecdote has a beginning, a middle, and an end, with its setting and characters loosely conforming to conventional patterns. The time frame and dramatis personae are limited, and locales generally are common stereotypes that provide a frame for the action (a royal court, a battlefield, a riverbank, a gateway, a bridge). A skillfully crafted anecdote memorably illustrates an abstract principle (“what many consider right is often wrong”) or some quality of a significant cultural icon (“Confucius knew how to judge the subtle tendencies of things”). Furthermore, some anecdotes have a “snapshot” quality that conveys a historical moment captured in writing.

  Although these anecdotes might now be identified as a subgenre of prose composition in the Warring States and Han periods, there was no word when they were written that unambiguously meant “anecdote.” The genre most closely associated with the anecdote as a written form was the shui , or “persuasion.” As chapters 16 and 17 demonstrate, a “persuasion” could be reduced to a “talking point” on which a speaker could frame an argument designed to sway the opinion of his listeners. Although an anecdote was often worked into the body of a persuasion using various techniques of contextualization and rhetorical framing, it was not itself a shui but was part of the raw material out of which a persuasion could be built. Moreover, unlike the shui collected in the “Shui lin” (A Forest of Persuasions) chapter of the Hanfeizi, in which anecdotes predominate as the material from which most persuasions are built, the two collections of shui in the Huainanzi do not consist mainly of anecdotes. Instead, they favor a shorter generic form of persuasive utterance, also found in the Hanfeizi’s “A Forest of Persuasions,” albeit less developed there.7

  Anecdotes were the building blocks of much of the prose writing of the late Warring States and Former Han periods, on which authors constructed larger prose pieces. Besides the Lüshi chunqiu, one of the longest earlier works assembled from anecdotal prose, all or part of many other texts also use this form. Indeed, these anecdotal units became so common that eventually entire texts of deracinated anecdotes, such as the Zhanguoce and Shuo yuan, were compiled to meet the demand for them.

  As is true of several other chapters of the Huainanzi consisting of many short sections (for example, chapters 10, 14, 16, 17, and 18), “Responses of the Way” begins with an establishing anecdote that sets the theme for the chapter as a whole. Here, section 12.1 features short dialogues between Grand Purity and Inexhaustible, Non-action and Non-beginning, concerning the nature of the Way. These dialogues affirm the unity of the Way (a unity that is beyond the power of words to describe) and are reinforced by two quotations from the Laozi, the first stating that “when all the world recognizes good as good, there is ill” and the second, the famous affirmation that “those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.” The reader thus is prepared to read the anecdotes that follow as a discourse on the nature of the Way, with interpretations backed by the authority of the Laozi.

  These anecdotes depict crucial moments and dilemmas in a wide range of political contexts, discussing the principles to be implemented and attributes to be embodied by the ideal ruler under varying circumstances to ensure that he will succeed and not fail. The text also recommends to the ruler highly syncretic techniques, thereby reconciling disparate received traditions into an idea of rulership within the larger context of change. In “Responses to the Way,” these anecdotes can be grouped in three categories: (1) epistemology, (2) ethics, and (3) pragmatics.

  Epistemology: Knowing, Articulating, and Transmitting the Way

  The seventeen anecdotes in the category of epistemology address such fundamental questions as: Can knowledge of the Way be acquired? How does one know the Way? How does one communicate knowledge of the Way to others?8 These stories share many parallels with anecdotes found in the later chapters of the received Zhuangzi.9 They suggest that the dual aspects of the Way as changing/unchanging, differentiated/undifferentiated, and eternal/ephemeral may be known by following two distinct but complementary epistemological routes: “knowing” and “not knowing.” In turn, these correspond to learning through others and learning through the self. Learning the Way through others refers to articulating and transmitting the Way through conventionally accepted understandings of wisdom, mediated through human culture and involving reading, writing, and speaking. Learning the Way through direct experience necessitates practicing “apophatic” regimens of inner cultivation.10 The knowledge thus gained cannot be transmitted through reading, writing, and speaking but must rely on nonverbal forms of communication.

  “Responses of the Way” depicts knowledge that elucidates the eternal, unchanging, and undifferentiated Way as profound, refined, and internal and describes knowledge of the ephemeral, changing, and differentiated Way as shallow, coarse, and external. Although the eternal Way is prized more highly, the ephemeral Way also is recognized as valuable. Each complements the other. This hierarchical reading of wisdom is used to resolve and harmonize conflicting positions on the fundamental question of epistemology represented in the various intellectual positions found in preunification China. In this way, the most extreme claims of the Zhuangzi that eschew politics altogether are tamed, and the most potentially subversive readings of the Laozi, supportive of a minimalist government and an undetectable ruler, are domesticated as a vision of ideal rule conducive to the intellectual unity and harmony embodied in the Huainanzi as a whole.

  Ethics: Bringing the Moral Potency of the Way to the Realm

  The second group, ethics, consisting of twenty-three anecdotes,11 portrays a more public wisdom grounded in details of the political realm and notions of ethical leadership, judgment, and a responsibility to the collective future. These anecdotes provide moral inspiration to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Accordingly, they deal with the ethical conduct and moral character of rulers in relation to the people and members of the bureaucracy, illustrating the ways in which they affect current political circumstances. Through these illustrations, the ruler is advised to embody certain kinds of virtue and exhibit certain kinds of ethical conduct so as to bring Moral Potency to ruler and ruled alike.

  This group of anecdotes also shows a deep commitment to a vision of governance in which the ruler nurtures and transforms the people through his moral example and feels himself to be bound up with them in a mutually beneficial and harmonious relationship. He exhibits concern for the welfare of people, even those from a foreign state, through his commitment to cultivating the moral aspects of his person12 and seeking the advice, heeding the counsel, and using the ability of his worthy ministers.13 These anecdotes demonstrate that when rulers govern through such virtues as humaneness, rightness, sincerity, trustworthiness, and moderation, they will not only receive support from their officials and their people but also generate the requisite conditions for humans to flourish. These anecdotes speak of enduring ideals of ethical rule and the common good, which contrast with the last group of stories, which deal with the exigencies of political power and purchase.

  Pragmatics: Surviving Potential Harm and Destruction

  The last group of anecdotes counsels the ruler to implement practical measures to ensure that his positional advantage (shi ) will not be compromised, his political power will not be challenged, and his state or person will not be destroyed. These anecdotes emphasize techniques of bureaucratic recruitment and control, recommending those that enable the ruler to secure men of worth and talent and arguing that the most efficacious rulers do not overlook talented men. That is, such rulers employ men with a wide range of talents, since a ruler cannot predict when a seemingly insignificant talent may become indispensable to his ability to avoid harm or to resolve a challenging problem. Good examples are the humorous and entertaining vignettes in whi
ch Gongsun Long hires a rustic man who is good at yelling and the Chu general Zifa hires an infamous thief.14 Ideal rulers, moreover, concentrate on the strong points of others and overlook their minor flaws. According to the Huainanzi compiler(s), this is the lesson to be gleaned from the well-known story of neglect and discovery in which Duke Huan of Qi employs Ning Qi.15 We also read about those who lost their states and suffered defeat as well as those who managed to hang on to them and enjoy long-term prosperity. This collection of sixteen anecdotes contains the greatest number of parallels and near parallels with the Lüshi chunqiu.16

  Sources

  Each of the fifty-six sections of “Responses of the Way” begins with an anecdote and is usually capped by a citation from the Laozi.17 In that way, chapter 12 of the Huainanzi is reminiscent of chapter 21 of the Hanfeizi, “Illustrating the Laozi” (Yu Lao ). Hanfeizi 21 is the earliest extant example of a commentary attached to the Laozi that uses well-known and widely circulated stories to illustrate the relevance of the Laozi to statecraft concerns.18 “Illustrating the Laozi” sees the Laozi primarily as a resource for exercising political power rather than as a guide for cultivating the body or achieving one’s place in the natural and cosmic realms.19 “Responses of the Way” also personifies and contextualizes passages of the Laozi but uses the anecdotes and quotations to demonstrate their relevance to contemporary political concerns. This chapter is thus an important descendant of a literary prototype represented by the Hanfeizi in the Warring States period.

  Nonetheless, “Responses of the Way” departs from Hanfeizi 21 in noteworthy ways. Perhaps one of the most striking deviations from the earlier model is its linking of several narratives in the received Zhuangzi20 with Laozi citations to promote “the techniques of Lao-Zhuang” in a single commentary. These anecdotes thus help readers interpret key Laozi passages as specific references to the meditative techniques and mystical gnosis of the Zhuangzi.21 Conversely, using citations from the Laozi to gloss these Zhuangzi narratives gives these stories new nuances of meaning as well as canonical authority.

  “Responses of the Way” also resembles the Lüshi chunqiu, which uses “historical” anecdotes to illustrate both broad ethical themes and practical political advice. In addition, twenty-three of the anecdotes in “Responses of the Way” also appear in the Lüshi chunqiu.22 Although such an extensive overlapping of material is common in Western Han literature, its implications are not entirely clear. The compilers of chapter 12 of the Huainanzi may have used the Lüshi chunqiu as a source of anecdotal literature; the chapter may have used another written source or sources not known to us; or both the Huiananzi and the Lüshi chunqiu may have drawn from a common pool of anecdotal literature that circulated as modular units of “text” in written or oral form.23 Whatever the case, the Huainanzi compiler(s) clearly used these stories to promote practical knowledge and techniques that rulers needed to successfully navigate the political challenges of administering a complex bureaucracy and heading a vast empire. These anecdotes were consistent with the syncretic aims of the Huainanzi project as a whole and summarized, illustrated, and reiterated concepts and themes developed elsewhere in the text.

  “Responses of the Way” does not simply reiterate anecdotes that also appear in the Lüshi chunqiu to advance similar arguments but also uses them to highlight different didactic principles.24 In the Lüshi chunqiu, many chapters begin with a general claim or statement that frames the anecdotes that follow. In contrast, “Responses of the Way” presents the anecdote first and ends it with a quotation from the Laozi. Thus an anecdote that might be read in different ways uses the quotation to narrow it down to one interpretation. In anchoring well-known stories to particular lines in the Laozi, “Responses of the Way” not only explains the Laozi in novel ways but also refashions ancient stories to suit its own aims and goals.

  Finally, “Responses of the Way” shares important similarities of structure and content with Han Ying’s Hanshi waizhuan (Master Han’s Supplementary Disquisitions on the Book of Odes). Han Ying’s text also is a collection of anecdotes containing moral disquisitions, ethical prescriptions, and practical advice, with most entries concluding with a quotation from the Shijing to reinforce the point of the story or argument.25 Likewise, Han Ying’s text borrows from a wide range of disparate sources—in this case, the Xunzi, Zhuangzi, Lüshi chunqiu, Yanzi chunqiu, Laozi, and Mengzi26—and some of the same anecdotes appear in both texts.27 The two also serve a similar function as texts meant primarily to instruct through the use of anecdotes linked to suitable quotations. For the Hanshi waizhuan, the Odes has the same function as the Laozi does for chapter 12 of the Huainanzi.

  The Chapter in the Context of the Huainanzi as a Whole

  “Responses of the Way” describes the eternal, unchanging, and undifferentiated aspects of the Way that the ideal ruler learns through firsthand experience. The sagely ruler understands that once discovered, such “knowledge” cannot be transmitted to others through verbal communication. Instead, he must rely on nonverbal forms of communication. Other anecdotes in this chapter offer a public wisdom based on daily political matters and encompassing leadership, judgment, and responsibility, which in turn provides a kind of moral inspiration to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Still other anecdotes address more pragmatic political issues to illustrate how the ruler can keep his person safe, his state intact, and his ministers in line. In short, the ideal ruler envisioned in chapter 12 of the Huainanzi should be a mystic, a moralist, and a realist. Through paired narrative and citation, “Responses of the Way” describes a program of intellectual, moral, and strategic behavior. Filtered through the lens of the Laozi, these anecdotes illustrate the applicability of the Way to a variety of human affairs.

  Sarah A. Queen

  1. The Laozi is quoted fifty-three times. These citations correspond to sections from the following forty chapters in the received Wang Bi edition: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 36, 38, 39, 43, 44, 45, 47, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 62, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, and 78.

  2. The opening lines of chap. 21 of the Huainanzi state:

  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.

  The idea is repeated later in the same paragraph where the author explains:

  Thus,

  if we speak of the Way but do not speak of affairs,

  there would be no means to shift with 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.

  3. As we discuss in the introduction to this book, the Laozi is one of four texts that the Huainanzi authors treat as canonical by (usually) citing them by name (rather than, as with many other texts, quoting or paraphrasing them without attribution); the others are the Odes, the Changes, and the Documents.

  4. Evan Morgan, Tao, the Great Luminant: Essays from Huai Nan Tzu (Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1933).

  5. Le Blanc and Mathieu 2003.

  6. The same may be said of chap. 18, which uses the anecdotal form to great effect. See the introduction to that chapter.

  7. For a more detailed discussion of the persuasions in the Hanfeizi compared with chaps. 16 and 17 of the Huainanzi, see the introduction to those chapters.

  8. These anecdotes correspond to the following sections: 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.7, 12.11, 12.18, 12.20, 12.25, 12.34, 12.37, 12.39, 12.42, 12.44, 12.45, 12.46, and 12.48.

  9. By noting such parallels, we do not intend to argue that the Huainanzi compilers necessarily drew on the Zhuangzi and that if they did, it had already achieved a static form or its final form as we know it today. Moreover, Roth has argued that the received Zhuangzi may have been compiled at the court of Huainan. For his arguments, see Harold D. Roth, “Who Compiled the Chuang Tzu?�
�� in Chinese Texts and Philosophical Contexts: Essays Dedicated to Angus C. Graham, ed. Henry Rosemont Jr. (La Salle, Ill.: Open Court Press, 1991), 79–128, and the introduction to chap. 2.

  10. Harold D. Roth, “Bimodal Mystical Experience in the ‘Qiwulun’ Chapter of the Zhuangzi” (paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Chicago, March 1997); “Evidence for Stages of Meditation in Early Taoism,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 60, no. 2 (1997): 295–314; and “The Yellow Emperor’s Guru: A Narrative Analysis from Chuang Tzu 11,” Taoist Resources 7, no. 1 (1997): 43–60. See also Lee Yearley, “The Perfected Person in the Radical Chuang Tzu,” in Experimental Essays on Chuang-tzu, ed. Victor Mair (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1983), 125–39, and “Zhuangzi ’s Understanding of Skillfulness and the Ultimate Spiritual State,” in Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi, ed. Paul Kjellberg and Philip J. Ivanhoe (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), 152–82.

  11. See 12.8, 12.9, 12.10, 12.12, 12.15, 12.16, 12.17, 12.21, 12.22, 12.24, 12.26, 12.27, 12.28, 12.30, 12.31, 12.36, 12.43, 12.47, 12.49, 12.50, 12.51, 12.53, and 12.54.

  12. See, for example, 12.17.

  13. See, for example, 12.10, which attributes the perfect merit achieved by Yao, Shun, and King Wu to their able ministers whose capabilities surpassed those of their respective rulers.

  14. See 12.29 and 12.38. Note that the story of Zifa concludes: “Thus, there are no petty skills and there are no insignificant abilities; it all depends on how the ruler uses them” (12.38).

  15. See 12.14.

  16. For these anecdotes, see 12.5, 12.6, 12.13, 12.14, 12.19, 12.23, 12.29, 12.32, 12.33, 12.35, 12.38, 12.40, 12.41, 12.52, 12.55, and 12.56.

 

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