by An Liu
xun li to act in accordance with, to accord with patterns or principles
Xun li denotes a mode of activity of both the Way and the sage. The motions of the Way are not totally random. When observed carefully, they may reveal complex and consistent patterns. One of the hallmarks of the sage is that he is able to perceive these patterns and act in accordance with them. Thus every policy he advocates and every institution he builds conforms to the basic patterns structuring the phenomenal universe and derives maximum efficacy from operating in harmony with the cosmos.
yang xing to nourish the/one’s nature
Yang xing is one formula by which the Huainanzi denotes its prescribed program of personal cultivation. The inborn capacities and tendencies that constitute nature come from the Way and express its potency and efficacy. Thus any program that amplifies and actualizes the potential of nature brings human beings closer to embodying the Way. “Nourishing one’s nature” exemplifies the Huainanzi’s concept of the human organism as an integrated mind–body system. Since nature is the controlling mechanism of both consciousness and vitality, “nourishing one’s nature” produces both elevated states of consciousness and beneficial conditions of bodily health and longevity. Techniques such as dietary regimens, breathing meditation, and macrobiotic yoga are what the Huainanzi terms “nourishing nature.”
yi unity, to unify; one, the One
Unification is a key theme in the Huainanzi for obvious reasons, as the text conceives of the ideal political realm as an empire uniting the entire world. This political concern is echoed in the text’s cosmological thought. The “One” is another sobriquet for the Way, as the Way is the one reality outside which there may be nothing else (see taiyi). The text self-consciously uses the parallels between the unification of the phenomenal universe in the Way and the unification of the world under the sage (or, less abstractly, the Han dynasty).
yi suitability, suitable, appropriate
“Suitability” is an important concept in the Huainanzi. The cosmos is filled with intrinsic patterns, so the policies and institutions that are “suitable” in response to any cosmic condition match those underlying patterns. In the same vein, human beings have various capacities and tendencies as a function of the dynamic nature they receive at birth (see xing ). A hallmark of the sage is that he is able to assign roles to people and place them into stations suited to their innate dispositions and potential.
yi awareness, thought, intention
Awareness or thought (often with connotations of intentionality) is a natural product of the conscious mind arising in response to interaction with the external world. The Huainanzi exhorts the practitioner to dispel (or transcend) awareness and seek grounding in a prior and less contingent level of consciousness.
yi change; the Changes
Yi denotes “change,” although in its generic sense it signifies forms of change less fundamentally intrinsic than “transformation” (see hua). To “change” something is to swap one thing for another, whereas a “transformation” entails a complete and substantial metamorphosis (as from a caterpillar to a butterfly). As a proper noun, however, Yi denotes the Yijing (Classic of Changes), one of the Five Classics of the Confucian canon. The Huainanzi quotes and ascribes great authority to the Changes as a powerful tool for discerning and modeling cosmic patterns. It denies that the Changes is a text of ultimate wisdom, however, because the Way is ultimately beyond all form and cannot be captured in any pattern that depends on differentiation.
yi to shift, to adapt, to modify, to adjust
Yi is another term in the Huainanzi’s rich lexicon of change. It generally is indicative of subtle, minor, or temporary changes, often with connotations of spatial location: a movement of an object’s position or a slight modification of a person’s mode of activity. A frequent use of the term is in injunctions to “shift with the times,” to adjust the methods and procedures that will accommodate the changing conditions of the cosmos and human society. In our attempt to distinguish among these different forms of change, we have usually translated yi as “to shift,” “to adapt,” “to modify,” or “to adjust.”
yi Rightness
“Rightness” is a fundamental ethical concept throughout the philosophical writings of the Warring States and Han periods. Despite some variation from text to text, “Rightness” almost always refers to an ethical imperative that constrains people according to the social and political context in which they live. Serving one’s ruler to the best of one’s ability or resisting the temptation of corruption are typical examples of Rightness. The Huainanzi generally does not give Rightness ultimate value but insists that Rightness acquired substance and relevance only when human society declined from its state of primordial harmony. The text acknowledges, however, that human history has reached a juncture at which Rightness (often paired with Humaneness [see ren]) is indispensable to effective political and social organization and that as an instrument of state power, the teaching and practice of Rightness is superior to the use of force or “rewards and punishments.”
yin to follow the natural course of things, to adapt to the natural pattern of things
Yin is often used to characterize the activity of the sage or the Genuine Person. Because the sage is not grounded in the duality of self and other, he does not try to impose preconceived conditions on the world but achieves efficacious ends by following along with the spontaneous tendency of the cosmos from moment to moment.
yin–yang yin–yang (not translated)
In their earliest uses, these characters referred to the shady and sunny parts of a hill and later came to signify the two fundamental polarities of qi. In the Huainanzi’s cosmogenic scheme, qi at first was unitary and undifferentiated. As the phenomenal world came into being, qi polarized into two modes: yin and yang. In its yin state, qi is inert, dark, cold, soft, and feminine. In its yang state, qi is kinetic, bright, warm, hard, and masculine. No tangible thing is made exclusively of yin or yang; all phenomena contain both yin and yang, and all qi is perpetually in motion from one polarity to the other. Yin and yang are the two most basic categories in the Huainanzi’s correlative cosmology. The “recision and accretion” of yin and yang, for example, provide a basic template by which the entire calendar year may be periodized according to the ascendancy of one type of qi or the other. Yin–yang affinities are thus one of the basic structural principles of the operation of cosmic resonance (see ganying), although the further division of qi into the Five Phases (see wu xing) is the template for much more intricate systems of correlation.
you something, being, existence
The basic meaning of you is “to have,” but the Huainanzi frequently uses this term nominally to denote “Something,” the cosmological complementary opposite and progeny of “Nothing” (see wu ). All differentiable things combine both you and wu aspects. For example, the hard wooden form of a bowl is Something, and the empty cavity that provides the utility of the bowl is Nothing, but the bowl would not be a bowl without both these aspects. Ordinary perception privileges Something as the most relevant realm of activity, but the Huainanzi asserts that Something is both inferior to and derivative of the realm of Nothing.
yuan origin, source, to get to the source of; to find one’s source in, yuan X = trace X to its source
Origins have a privileged status in the Huainanzi because of the basic root–branch cosmology that informs the text as a whole (see ben and benmo). The moment of origin is filled with dynamic potential, and the presence of the origin continues to pervade and impel a structure or phenomenon even as it matures and differentiates. When something is marked as an “origin,” the Huainanzi accords it both temporal and normative priority. For example, one metaphor commonly used for the Way itself is the “Origin.”
Yuan is also used as a verb throughout the text to mean “get to the source of” or “find (one’s) origin.” This meaning operates on many levels because in any domain there is great efficacy in accessing and actualizing t
he power of the origin. For example, in personal cultivation, the goal is to penetrate beyond posterior and contingent fixtures of mind, such as thought and memory, to arrive at the Way that is the origin of all consciousness.
yuan source, origin, to originate in
Yuan is largely synonymous with its homophone yuan and has most of the same nominal and verbal meanings. In general, the latter yuan is more often chosen to denote grand cosmic origins, and this yuan most frequently refers to the particular source of contingent phenomena. This is by no means a rigid rule, however, and in fact the first chapter of the text is entitled “Yuan dao,” which we translate as “Originating in the Way” but which may also be understood to mean “The Dao as Origin.”
yue music
Music was highly valued in Confucian discourse as an expression of humanity’s most elevated and sublimely humanizing qualities. The Huainanzi does not similarly view human culture as a source of ultimate value and so does not see music as equally significant. It does, however, regard music as deeply rooted in human beings’ spontaneous impulses. Music is thus privileged as a cultural form that, although of human origin, can embody and express the dynamic power of underlying cosmic forces.
Note that the same character can also be pronounced le, in which case it has the related but distinct meaning of “joy.” We consistently translate le as “joy” or “delight,” distinguishing it from xi , “happiness, pleasure.”
In some instances, the text uses a double entendre linking the two senses of the character yue/le (see, for example, 19.3: “Now singing is evidence of joy”). The Chinese, of course, means both “singing is evidence of joy” and “singing is evidence of music.” Because it is impossible to convey the pun in English, in such cases we have added an explanatory footnote.
yuzhou eaves and roof beams; the cosmos, space-time
“Eaves and roof beams” is a synecdoche that may stand for the entire space of a domicile, as together these structural elements comprise its total area and volume. The Huainanzi (following earlier texts) appropriates this image as a metaphor for the cosmos, taking “eaves” and “roof beams” to represent the dimensions of space and time that compose the entire phenomenal universe.
zhen genuine, authentic
The Huainanzi often uses “Genuine” in a figurative sense to denote the embodiment of the Way in a person or thing. A Genuine phenomenon is thus replete with Potency (see de), and, indeed, the Huainanzi frequently uses zhen and de as synonyms.
zheng to align, to correct, to rectify, rectitude, upright
Zheng is an important term in the Huainanzi’s normative lexicon. Much of the ruler’s task is described as bringing affairs into “alignment” or “rectifying” aberrant conditions. More often than not, however, such “rectification” is not described in moral terms (as it would be, for example, in Confucian discourse) but as bringing human and cosmic structures into integral alignment with one another. Zheng is, moreover, a resonant concept in the text’s discussion of personal cultivation, in that it simultaneously implies both the rectification of aberrant forms of consciousness and the alignment of the body into the proper upright posture for meditation.
zhenren Genuine Person, Authentic Person, Realized Person
A genuine person is an adept who has reached a high level of attainment along the path of personal cultivation advocated by the Huainanzi. The Genuine Person has discarded the dysfunctional fixtures of the ordinary mind–body system that hinder the experience of the Way and is thus able to embody the Way in cognition, word, and deed. The Huainanzi distinguishes among the Superior Man (junzi), the sage (sheng), the Genuine Person, and the Perfected Person (zhiren). The Superior Man is generally portrayed as a person of lesser attainments than the other three, but chapter 10 accords the junzi an ultimately efficacious role in the social order. The terms “the sage,” “the Genuine Person,” and “the Perfected Person” appear to be used with slightly varying nuances in different chapters of the text, and their domains overlap. The sage is usually seen as playing a more direct and dynamic role in the social order than the others. In chapter 2, the sage is explicitly described as superior in attainments to the Genuine Person; in the same chapter, the Perfected Person is presented as the epitome of human development. In all cases, the exact implications of these terms are strongly dependent on context.
zhi will, purpose, attention
Zhi denotes the characteristic tendency of consciousness to focus on an object, whether some abstract future goal or some physical object of immediate perception. In Huainanzi’s conceptual framework, once zhi attaches to an object, it reorients all the energies of the mind–body system toward it. This operation is ordinarily very routine and is intrinsic to the normal functioning of everyday consciousness (for example, when we are hungry, zhi orients us toward the acquisition of food until that need is satisfied), but it is vulnerable to intensifying into fixation or obsession, resulting in harmful or self-destructive cognition and behavior. The Huainanzi advances an ideal in which consciousness can operate in the absence of zhi. The sage has no “will” in the ordinary sense outlined earlier. His cognition and actions are driven entirely by the intrinsic impulses of the mind–body system itself, without needing the energetic link of zhi to some external object of volition.
zhi to put in order, to regulate, to govern
Order is an ideal advocated in the Huainanzi, as in earlier texts. It expresses the goal of the integral system of techniques (see shu ) prescribed by the text for efficacious rule. The Huainanzi also follows earlier traditions in drawing parallels between the internal ordering of the mind–body system and the holistic ordering of the body politic, portraying the latter as dependent on and flowing from the former.
zhi knowledge, cleverness, crafty knowledge; wisdom, intelligence
Zhi denotes any mental faculty that can produce tangible results in the world, encompassing both quickness of wit and breadth of knowledge. The Huainanzi cites many positive examples of cleverness and erudition and generally acknowledges that zhi may be a powerful and efficacious quality. However, the text generally asserts that cleverness and knowledge are inferior to the deeper potentials that may be unlocked by apophatic personal cultivation. For every positive exemplar of cleverness in the Huainanzi, there is an example of someone whose reliance on such abilities resulted in defeat, self-subversion, or death.
zhi to know, knowledge; wisdom, intelligence
All the faculties of mind that are rooted in its capacities for self-awareness and discrimination come under the compass of zhi, so zhi is variously used to mean “to know,” “to understand,” or “to recognize,” and we have translated it as appropriate to each context. In addition, someone whose faculties of knowledge and understanding are particularly acute may be described as zhi, and in these contexts we have translated zhi as “wise” or “intelligent;” or as “wisdom” and “intelligence” when these qualities are being discussed in the abstract.
As in the case of the closely related term “cleverness” (see zhi ), the Huainanzi acknowledges the validity and utility of wisdom or intelligence in discrete contexts. It likewise insists, however, that the mind’s ultimate potential can be found only in levels of consciousness that precede the subject–object dualism on which wisdom and intelligence are contingent. The Genuine Person and the sage are thus often described as having “discarded wisdom” to arrive at their level of personal attainment.
zhigu intelligence and precedent, intelligence and acting on precedent Whereas
Whereas zhi denotes the mind’s faculty of intelligence and wisdom, gu refers to discrete facts that may be assimilated by the mind and stored in memory. Together they describe the basic components of a decision-making process commonly undertaken by an ordinary mind. We act on both what we apprehend in the present moment and what we know about the past. The Huainanzi usually marks this as an inferior mode of engagement with the phenomenal world. The sage “discards wisdom and precedent,” and so he does
not undertake the kind of parsing that exemplifies the ordinary mind. Rather, his responses are grounded in a total comprehension of the situation at hand that does not distinguish between internal and external, subject and object, past and present.
zhilu intelligence and forethought
“Intelligence and forethought” represents a basic operation of ordinary consciousness that is complementary to “intelligence and precedent” (see zhigu). Whereas “intelligence and precedent” represents the tendency of the mind to recall facts about the past when responding to the current moment, “intelligence and forethought” denotes the tendency of the ordinary mind to use the present conditions to imagine future outcomes. In contrast, the sage does not distinguish between present and future but responds with spontaneous and unself-conscious efficacy to the comprehensive cosmic context of any situation he encounters.
zhiren Perfected Person, Accomplished Person, the Perfected
Zhiren is a figurative term used throughout the Huainanzi to describe a person who has achieved the highest levels of human perfection delineated by the text. A Perfected Person completely embodies the Way in all cognition, word, and deed without any obstruction or distortion. The zhiren thus has achieved levels of self-cultivation more advanced than those of the Genuine Person (see zhenren). The terms “the sage” and “the Perfected” overlap in meaning, and they receive different emphasis and have different nuances of meaning in various chapters the Huainanzi. The distinctions between the two often must be inferred from the contexts in which they appear.
ziran spontaneously, naturally
Literally “so of itself,” ziran describes the perfect spontaneity of all the activities of the Way and those cosmic phenomena (such as Heaven and Earth) that channel its Potency without obstruction. Ziran thus also denotes a state of action that can be achieved by human beings who embody the Way in their own persons. Whereas ordinary people are controlled by their attachment or responsiveness to external things, the activities of a sage or a Genuine Person are grounded in the most authentic root of their being (the Way) and are thus “so of themselves.”