Huang-Lao
Encyclopedia
Huang-Lao or Huanglao was the most influential Chinese school of thought
in the early 2nd-century BCE Han Dynasty
, and is generally interpreted as encompassing Daoism and Legalism
. Excepting the Huangdi Neijing, most Huang-Lao texts have vanished, and traditional scholarship associates this philosophical school with Chinese classics such as Xunzi, Hanfeizi, and Huainanzi
. Modern scholars are reinterpreting Huang-Lao following the 1973 discovery of the Mawangdui Silk Texts
, which included four manuscripts, called the Huang-Lao boshu (黄老帛书 "Huang-Lao Silk Texts"), that are controversially identified as the long-lost Huangdi Sijing
("Yellow Emperor's Four Classics").
Huang-Lao is a portmanteau word, with Huang referring to Huangdi (黃帝 "Yellow Emperor") and Lao to Laozi
(老子 "Old Master").
The term Huang-Lao first appears in the (109 – 91 BCE) Shiji ("Records of the Grand Historian"), which was begun by Sima Tan
and completed by his son Sima Qian
. Sima Tan studied under a Huang-Lao master, with a philosophical lineage dating back to the Warring States Period
Jixia Academy at the court of Qi
(modern Shandong
).
The related Daoist name Huanglao jun was a deification of Laozi and a reincarnated personification of the Dao.
(r. 180 – 157 BCE) and Emperor Jing
(r. 157 – 141 BCE), before Emperor Wu
(r. 141– 87 BCE) established Confucianism
as the state philosophy. In the Eastern Han period, Huang-Lao regained favor during 88-92 CE when Empress Dou
ruled as dowager
between the reigns of her husband Emperor Zhang
and son Emperor He
.
Hans van Ess (1993:173) analyzed the Shiji and Hanshu biographies of 2nd-century BCE individuals described as "Huang-Lao" followers, and found they were either members of a Huang-Lao faction or a Ru "Confucian" and Fa "Legalist" faction. Thus, the historian Sima Qian
used the term Huang-Lao "as a characterization of persons belonging to a political group which was the faction he belonged to as well." These historical members of the Huang-Lao faction had three political policies in common: "opposing the campaigns in the north" against the Xiongnu
, "affiliation to rich and independent families with a power-base far from the capital" at Chang'an
, and "opposing the measures to deprive the feudal kings of their power."
During the Eastern Han period, the Way of the Celestial Masters movement incorporated Daoist immortality
techniques with Huang-Lao thought, and was associated with the Yellow Turban Rebellion
and Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion
(184 – 215 CE). "Later on, virtually all of the early texts disappeared and knowledge about original Huang-Lao was lost." (Yates 2008:508)
Some representative thinkers include Shen Buhai
(c. 400 – 337 BCE), Shen Dao
(c. 360 – c. 285 BCE), Confucian Xunzi (c. 335 – c. 238 BCE), Mohist Song Xian
(c. 334 – 301 BCE), naturalist Zou Yan
(c. 305 – c. 240 BCE), and Legalist Han Feizi (c. 280 – c. 233 BCE). Two influential ministers of Emperor Gaozu of Han reportedly studied and applied Huang-Lao political ideology, Chancellors Cao Shen (d. 190 BCE) and his successor Chen Ping
(d. 178 BCE) employed the policy of wuwei ("inaction") and brought peace and stability to the state of Qi (van Ess 1993:163). Chao Cuo
(d. 154 BCE), Chancellor to Emperor Jing, was another Huang-Lao official. He believed that the imperial rule should combine Huang-Lao and Confucianism, with punishment supplemented by reward, and coercion mitigated by persuasion. (Fu 1993:49)
Scholars have identified various Huang-Lao writings in the Chinese classics. Proposals include parts of the Daoist Zhuangzi
(Schwartz 1985:216), the syncretic Huainanzi
(Major 1983:8-14 and 43-53), sections of the historical Guoyu
("Discourses of the States"), Chunqiu Fanlu ("Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals"), and Lüshi Chunqiu
("Mister Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals"), the Heguanzi (鶴冠子 "Book of Master Pheasant-Cap"), and the military Huang Shigong San Lüe ("Three Strategies of Huang Shigong"). Randall P. Peerenboom (1990) criticizes the tendency to classify all these texts together and "make of "Huang-Lao" a dustbin by sweeping too much into it."
Besides these received texts, the imperial library bibliography preserved in the (111 CE) Hanshu ("Han History") lists many books titled with the Yellow Emperor's name. However, with the exception of the medical Huangdi Neijing ("Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic"), all were believed destroyed or lost – until the recent Mawangdui discoveries.
discovered near Changsha in 1973 included four manuscripts that some scholars interpret as primary Huang-Lao texts.
Silk manuscripts found in Mawangdui tomb number three, dated 186 BCE, included two versions of the Daodejing, one of which ("B" or yi 乙) had copies of four texts attached in front. They are titled (tr. Peerenboom 1993:6) Jingfa (經法 "Canonical Laws" or "Standards of Regularity"), Shiliujing (十六經 "Sixteen Classics", also read as Shidajing 十大經 "Ten Great Classics"), Cheng (稱 "Weighing by the Scales", a collection of aphorisms), and Yuandao (原道 "Origins of the Way", also the title of Huainanzi chapter 1).
Some Chinese specialists, such as Tang Lan (唐兰, 1975) and Yu Mingguang (余明光, 1993), interpreted these four manuscripts as the no longer extant Huangdi Sijing
(黃帝四經 "Yellow Emperor's Four Classics"), which the Yiwenzhi (藝文志) bibliography of the Hanshu listed as having four sections. Tang's reasons included the Jingfa and Shiliujing titles with jing (經 "classic; canon") and the frequent references to Huangdi ("Yellow Emperor") in the Shiliujing.
Other specialists, such as Robin Yates (1997) and Edmund Ryden (1997), interpreted the four manuscripts as mutually incompatible texts deriving from diverse philosophical traditions. Paola Carrozza (2002:61) refers to this approach as "different authors, different times, and different places."
practiced both Huang-Lao and Buddhism, Huang-Lao did not mean Huangdi and Laozi, but "Buddhists (literally Yellow-Ancients, perhaps so-called from the colour of their garments)." Following the Mawangdui discoveries, the "Huang-Lao craze" (Roth 1997:300) in scholarship has significantly reshaped our understanding of early Daoism.
Tu Wei-Ming (1979:102-108) describes five common doctrines in the Huang-Lao silk texts. Dao
(道 "way; path") is the ultimate basis for fa (法 "model; law") and li
(理 "pattern; principle") essential for sagely governance. The true king uses guan (觀 "see; observe; contemplate") or "penetrating insight" to observe the inner workings of the universe, and cheng (稱 "balance; scale; steelyard") enables timely responses to the challenges of the world. Loewe (1999:986-7) lists another principal idea of the Huang-Lao silk texts: xingming (刑名 "forms and names"), which is usually associated with Shen Buhai. Xing ("form or reality") exist first and should be followed by their ming ("name or description").
Tu (1979:107) concludes, "The Huang-Lao doctrine is neither Taoist nor Legalist in the conventional sense, nor is it, strictly speaking, a form of Legalized Taoism. It is rather, a unique system of thought."
John S. Major (1983:12) summarizes Huang-Lao ideology. Dao
is the "highest and most primary expression of universal potentiality, order, and potency", and "is expressed in cosmic order, which embraces both the world of nature and the human world." Royal government must conform to natural order, thus the king should practice wuwei
("non-striving" or "taking no action contrary to nature") and use his shenming (神明 "penetrating insight") to "learn all that can be learned about the natural order, so as to make his actions conform with it." Therefore, "The government of the true king is neither sentimental nor vacillating, and neither arbitrary nor domineering," it fully conforms with the "pattern of the Dao as expressed in the natural order, it is balanced, moderate, and irresistibly strong."
Randall P. Peerenboom (1990) recaps, "Huang-Lao's Boshu, while advocating a rule of law compatible with an organismic cosmology, is unique in that it supports a natural law grounded in the natural order." Peerenboom (1993:27-31) characterizes Huang-Lao as "foundational naturalism", meaning naturalism
based upon a cosmic natural order that includes both the rendao (人道 "way of humans") and tiandao (天道 "way of Heaven"). Huang-Lao ideology gives "normative priority" to the natural order, with human social order based upon and in harmony with the cosmic order.
Jeffrey L. Richey (2006:336-339) contrasts Huang-Lao and Mohist theories about the cosmic roots of fa "law". In the Jingfa, fa originates with the impersonal Dao; in the Mozi
, it originates with the anthropomorphic Tian
("heaven; god").
Harold D. Roth (1991, 1997) contends that the original meaning of Chinese Daojia (道家 "Daoism") was Huang-Lao instead of the traditional understanding as "Lao-Zhuang" (老莊, namely the Laozi and Zhuangzi
texts) Daoism. Sima Tan
coined the term Daojia in his Shiji summary of the six philosophical jia ("schools").
Thus, Huang-Lao Daoism incorporated concepts from five traditions: School of Naturalists
, Confucianism
, Mohism
, School of Names, and Legalism
. Roth (2004:8) describes the hallmarks of Huang-Lao: the ruler should use self-transformation "as a technique of government, the emphasis on the precise coordination of the political and cosmic orders by the thus-enlightened ruler, and a syncretic social and political philosophy that borrows relevant ideas from the earlier Legalist and the Confucian schools while retaining the Taoist cosmological context."
Hundred Schools of Thought
The Hundred Schools of Thought were philosophers and schools that flourished from 770 to 221 BC during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period , an era of great cultural and intellectual expansion in China...
in the early 2nd-century BCE Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
, and is generally interpreted as encompassing Daoism and Legalism
Legalism (Chinese philosophy)
In Chinese history, Legalism was one of the main philosophic currents during the Warring States Period, although the term itself was invented in the Han Dynasty and thus does not refer to an organized 'school' of thought....
. Excepting the Huangdi Neijing, most Huang-Lao texts have vanished, and traditional scholarship associates this philosophical school with Chinese classics such as Xunzi, Hanfeizi, and Huainanzi
Huainanzi
The Huáinánzǐ is a 2nd century BCE Chinese philosophical classic from the Han dynasty that blends Daoist, Confucianist, and Legalist concepts, including theories such as Yin-Yang and the Five Phases. It was written under the patronage of Liu An, Prince of Huainan, a legendarily prodigious author...
. Modern scholars are reinterpreting Huang-Lao following the 1973 discovery of the Mawangdui Silk Texts
Mawangdui Silk Texts
The Mawangdui Silk Texts are texts of Chinese philosophical and medical works written on silk and found at Mawangdui in China in 1973. They include some of the earliest attested manuscripts of existing texts such as the I Ching, two copies of the Tao Te Ching, one similar copy of Strategies of the...
, which included four manuscripts, called the Huang-Lao boshu (黄老帛书 "Huang-Lao Silk Texts"), that are controversially identified as the long-lost Huangdi Sijing
Huangdi Sijing
The Huangdi sijing are long-lost Chinese manuscripts that were discovered among the Mawangdui Silk Texts. They are also known as the Huang-Lao boshu , in association with the "Huang-Lao" philosophy named after the legendary Huangdi and Laozi...
("Yellow Emperor's Four Classics").
Name
Laozi
Laozi was a mystic philosopher of ancient China, best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching . His association with the Tao Te Ching has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of Taoism...
(老子 "Old Master").
The term Huang-Lao first appears in the (109 – 91 BCE) Shiji ("Records of the Grand Historian"), which was begun by Sima Tan
Sima Tan
Sima Tan was an early Chinese historian who worked under the Western Han. He studied astronomy with Tang Du, the I Ching under Yang He and Daoism under Master Huang. He held the position of Grand Historian between 140-110 BC. While Sima Tan had begun the Records of the Grand Historian , he died...
and completed by his son Sima Qian
Sima Qian
Sima Qian was a Prefect of the Grand Scribes of the Han Dynasty. He is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography for his highly praised work, Records of the Grand Historian , a "Jizhuanti"-style general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to...
. Sima Tan studied under a Huang-Lao master, with a philosophical lineage dating back to the Warring States Period
Warring States Period
The Warring States Period , also known as the Era of Warring States, or the Warring Kingdoms period, covers the Iron Age period from about 475 BC to the reunification of China under the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC...
Jixia Academy at the court of Qi
Qi (state)
Qi was a powerful state during the Spring and Autumn Period and Period of the Warring States in ancient China. Its capital was Linzi, now part of the modern day city of Zibo in Shandong Province....
(modern Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
).
The related Daoist name Huanglao jun was a deification of Laozi and a reincarnated personification of the Dao.
History
Huang-Lao Daoist philosophy was favored at the Western Han courts of Emperor WenEmperor Wen of Han
Emperor Wen of Han was the fifth emperor of the Han Dynasty in China. His given name is Heng.Liu Heng was a son of Emperor Gao of Han and Consort Bo, later empress dowager...
(r. 180 – 157 BCE) and Emperor Jing
Emperor Jing of Han
Emperor Jing of Han was an emperor of China in the Han Dynasty from 156 BC to 141 BC. His reign saw the limit and curtailment of power of feudal princes which resulted in the Rebellion of the Seven States in 154 BC. Emperor Jing managed to crush the revolt and princes were thereafter denied rights...
(r. 157 – 141 BCE), before Emperor Wu
Emperor Wu of Han
Emperor Wu of Han , , personal name Liu Che , was the seventh emperor of the Han Dynasty of China, ruling from 141 BC to 87 BC. Emperor Wu is best remembered for the vast territorial expansion that occurred under his reign, as well as the strong and centralized Confucian state he organized...
(r. 141– 87 BCE) established Confucianism
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
as the state philosophy. In the Eastern Han period, Huang-Lao regained favor during 88-92 CE when Empress Dou
Empress Dou (Zhang)
Empress Dou , formally Empress Zhangde , was an empress during Han Dynasty. Her husband was Emperor Zhang. She was already influential during her husband's reign, but became particularly powerful as empress dowager regent for her adoptive son Emperor He after Emperor Zhang's death...
ruled as dowager
Empress Dowager
Empress Dowager was the title given to the mother of a Chinese, Korean, Japanese or Vietnamese emperor.The title was also given occasionally to another woman of the same generation, while a woman from the previous generation was sometimes given the title of Grand empress dowager. Numerous empress...
between the reigns of her husband Emperor Zhang
Emperor Zhang of Han
Emperor Zhang of Han, ch. 漢章帝, py. hàn zhāng dì, wg. Han Chang-ti, was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty from 75 to 88. He was the third emperor of the Chinese Eastern Han Dynasty....
and son Emperor He
Emperor He of Han
Emperor He of Han, ch. 漢和帝, py. hàn hé dì, wg. Han Ho-ti, was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty who ruled from 88 to 105. He was the 4th emperor of the Eastern Han dynasty....
.
Hans van Ess (1993:173) analyzed the Shiji and Hanshu biographies of 2nd-century BCE individuals described as "Huang-Lao" followers, and found they were either members of a Huang-Lao faction or a Ru "Confucian" and Fa "Legalist" faction. Thus, the historian Sima Qian
Sima Qian
Sima Qian was a Prefect of the Grand Scribes of the Han Dynasty. He is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography for his highly praised work, Records of the Grand Historian , a "Jizhuanti"-style general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to...
used the term Huang-Lao "as a characterization of persons belonging to a political group which was the faction he belonged to as well." These historical members of the Huang-Lao faction had three political policies in common: "opposing the campaigns in the north" against the Xiongnu
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu were ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han Dynasty. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...
, "affiliation to rich and independent families with a power-base far from the capital" at Chang'an
Chang'an
Chang'an is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xi'an. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the city was renamed "Constant Peace" ; yet after its fall in AD 23, the old name was restored...
, and "opposing the measures to deprive the feudal kings of their power."
During the Eastern Han period, the Way of the Celestial Masters movement incorporated Daoist immortality
Xian (Taoism)
Xian is a Chinese word for an enlightened person, translatable in English as:*"spiritually immortal; transcendent; super-human; celestial being"...
techniques with Huang-Lao thought, and was associated with the Yellow Turban Rebellion
Yellow Turban Rebellion
The Yellow Turban Rebellion, also translated as Yellow Scarves Rebellion, was a peasant revolt that broke out in 184 AD in China during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty...
and Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion
Way of the Five Pecks of Rice
Way of the Five Pecks of Rice or the Way of the Celestial Master, commonly abbreviated to simply The Celestial Masters, is a Chinese Taoist movement that was founded by the first Celestial Master Zhang Daoling in 142 CE. At its height, the movement controlled a theocratic state in the Hanzhong...
(184 – 215 CE). "Later on, virtually all of the early texts disappeared and knowledge about original Huang-Lao was lost." (Yates 2008:508)
Influences
Huang-Lao thought influenced many prominent Chinese philosophers and officials from the fourth through second centuries BCE.Some representative thinkers include Shen Buhai
Shen Buhai
Shen Buhai was a Chinese bureaucrat who was the Chancellor of Han under Marquis Zhao of Han from 351 BC to 337 BC. Shen was born in the State of Zheng; he was likely to have been a minor official for the State of Zheng. After Han conquered Zheng in 375 BC, he rose up in the ranks of the Han...
(c. 400 – 337 BCE), Shen Dao
Shen Dao
Shen Dao was an itinerant Chinese philosopher from Zhao, who was a scholar at the Jixia Academy in Qi. He is usually referred to as Shenzi 慎子.-Overview:...
(c. 360 – c. 285 BCE), Confucian Xunzi (c. 335 – c. 238 BCE), Mohist Song Xian
Song Xian
Song Xian was a military general serving under the warlord Lü Bu during the late Han Dynasty era of Chinese history. In 198, when Cao Cao besieged Lü Bu at the Battle of Xiapi, Song Xian and his colleagues Hou Cheng and Wei Xu kidnapped Lü Bu's chief advisor Chen Gong and defected to Cao Cao's side...
(c. 334 – 301 BCE), naturalist Zou Yan
Zou Yan
Zou Yan was the representative thinker of the Yin and Yang during the Hundred Schools of Thought era in Chinese philosophy. Zou Yan was a noted scholar of the Jixia Academy in the state of Qi...
(c. 305 – c. 240 BCE), and Legalist Han Feizi (c. 280 – c. 233 BCE). Two influential ministers of Emperor Gaozu of Han reportedly studied and applied Huang-Lao political ideology, Chancellors Cao Shen (d. 190 BCE) and his successor Chen Ping
Chen Ping (Han Dynasty)
Chen Ping was an adviser to Liu Bang during the Chu–Han Contention period of Chinese history. After Liu Bang founded the Han Dynasty and became known as Emperor Gaozu, Chen Ping served as a chancellor and received titles of a marquis.-Biography:Chen Ping was a native of Huyou Town , Yangwu...
(d. 178 BCE) employed the policy of wuwei ("inaction") and brought peace and stability to the state of Qi (van Ess 1993:163). Chao Cuo
Chao Cuo
Cháo Cuò was a Chinese political advisor and official of the Han Dynasty , renowned for his intellectual capabilities and foresight in martial and political matters. Although not against the philosophy of Confucius , he was described by later Eastern Han scholars as a Legalist...
(d. 154 BCE), Chancellor to Emperor Jing, was another Huang-Lao official. He believed that the imperial rule should combine Huang-Lao and Confucianism, with punishment supplemented by reward, and coercion mitigated by persuasion. (Fu 1993:49)
Scholars have identified various Huang-Lao writings in the Chinese classics. Proposals include parts of the Daoist Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi (book)
The Taoist book Zhuangzi was named after its purported author Zhuangzi, the philosopher. Since 742 CE, when Emperor Xuanzong of Tang mandated honorific titles for Taoist texts, it has also been known as the Nánhuá Zhēnjīng , literally meaning "True Classic of Southern Florescence," alluding to...
(Schwartz 1985:216), the syncretic Huainanzi
Huainanzi
The Huáinánzǐ is a 2nd century BCE Chinese philosophical classic from the Han dynasty that blends Daoist, Confucianist, and Legalist concepts, including theories such as Yin-Yang and the Five Phases. It was written under the patronage of Liu An, Prince of Huainan, a legendarily prodigious author...
(Major 1983:8-14 and 43-53), sections of the historical Guoyu
Guoyu (book)
The Discourses of the States or Guoyu is a classical Chinese history book that collected the historical records of numerous states from Western Zhou to 453 BC. Its author is unknown, but it is sometimes attributed to Zuo Qiuming, a contemporary of Confucius...
("Discourses of the States"), Chunqiu Fanlu ("Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals"), and Lüshi Chunqiu
Lüshi Chunqiu
The Lüshi Chunqiu is an encyclopedic Chinese classic text compiled around 239 BCE under the patronage of the Qin Dynasty Chancellor Lü Buwei...
("Mister Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals"), the Heguanzi (鶴冠子 "Book of Master Pheasant-Cap"), and the military Huang Shigong San Lüe ("Three Strategies of Huang Shigong"). Randall P. Peerenboom (1990) criticizes the tendency to classify all these texts together and "make of "Huang-Lao" a dustbin by sweeping too much into it."
Besides these received texts, the imperial library bibliography preserved in the (111 CE) Hanshu ("Han History") lists many books titled with the Yellow Emperor's name. However, with the exception of the medical Huangdi Neijing ("Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic"), all were believed destroyed or lost – until the recent Mawangdui discoveries.
Mawangdui silk texts
The Mawangdui Silk TextsMawangdui Silk Texts
The Mawangdui Silk Texts are texts of Chinese philosophical and medical works written on silk and found at Mawangdui in China in 1973. They include some of the earliest attested manuscripts of existing texts such as the I Ching, two copies of the Tao Te Ching, one similar copy of Strategies of the...
discovered near Changsha in 1973 included four manuscripts that some scholars interpret as primary Huang-Lao texts.
Silk manuscripts found in Mawangdui tomb number three, dated 186 BCE, included two versions of the Daodejing, one of which ("B" or yi 乙) had copies of four texts attached in front. They are titled (tr. Peerenboom 1993:6) Jingfa (經法 "Canonical Laws" or "Standards of Regularity"), Shiliujing (十六經 "Sixteen Classics", also read as Shidajing 十大經 "Ten Great Classics"), Cheng (稱 "Weighing by the Scales", a collection of aphorisms), and Yuandao (原道 "Origins of the Way", also the title of Huainanzi chapter 1).
Some Chinese specialists, such as Tang Lan (唐兰, 1975) and Yu Mingguang (余明光, 1993), interpreted these four manuscripts as the no longer extant Huangdi Sijing
Huangdi Sijing
The Huangdi sijing are long-lost Chinese manuscripts that were discovered among the Mawangdui Silk Texts. They are also known as the Huang-Lao boshu , in association with the "Huang-Lao" philosophy named after the legendary Huangdi and Laozi...
(黃帝四經 "Yellow Emperor's Four Classics"), which the Yiwenzhi (藝文志) bibliography of the Hanshu listed as having four sections. Tang's reasons included the Jingfa and Shiliujing titles with jing (經 "classic; canon") and the frequent references to Huangdi ("Yellow Emperor") in the Shiliujing.
Other specialists, such as Robin Yates (1997) and Edmund Ryden (1997), interpreted the four manuscripts as mutually incompatible texts deriving from diverse philosophical traditions. Paola Carrozza (2002:61) refers to this approach as "different authors, different times, and different places."
Consequently, many of the interpretations of the nature and characteristics of Huang-Lao Taoist thought that have been based on a reading of the Mawangdui manuscripts are debatable, since they are based on the assumption that these texts form an integral whole and are really affiliated with Huang-Lao. (Yates 2008:509)
Philosophical interpretations
Sinologists have long disputed the nature of Huang-Lao philosophy. Before the 1973 Mawangdui excavation, some western interpretations of Huang-Lao were fanciful. For instance, Herbert J. Allen (1906:268) proposed that since Han prince Liu YingLiu Ying
Liu Ying was a son of Emperor Guangwu of Han, and half-brother of Emperor Ming. After becoming Prince of Chu, he was a known supporter of many religions...
practiced both Huang-Lao and Buddhism, Huang-Lao did not mean Huangdi and Laozi, but "Buddhists (literally Yellow-Ancients, perhaps so-called from the colour of their garments)." Following the Mawangdui discoveries, the "Huang-Lao craze" (Roth 1997:300) in scholarship has significantly reshaped our understanding of early Daoism.
Tu Wei-Ming (1979:102-108) describes five common doctrines in the Huang-Lao silk texts. Dao
DAO
DAO may refer to:* D-amino acid oxidase, a peroxisomal enzyme.* Data access object, a design pattern used in object-oriented software engineering* De-asphalted oil, a crude oil refinery process stream...
(道 "way; path") is the ultimate basis for fa (法 "model; law") and li
Li (Neo-Confucianism)
Li （理）is a concept found in Neo-Confucian Chinese philosophy.It refers to the underlying reason and order of nature as reflected in its organic forms....
(理 "pattern; principle") essential for sagely governance. The true king uses guan (觀 "see; observe; contemplate") or "penetrating insight" to observe the inner workings of the universe, and cheng (稱 "balance; scale; steelyard") enables timely responses to the challenges of the world. Loewe (1999:986-7) lists another principal idea of the Huang-Lao silk texts: xingming (刑名 "forms and names"), which is usually associated with Shen Buhai. Xing ("form or reality") exist first and should be followed by their ming ("name or description").
Our limited exposure to the "lost texts" in the Silk Manuscripts seems to indicate that the thought of Huang-Lao contains several apparently unrelated but actually fully integrated philosophical concepts: a cosmological vision of the Way (tao) as the primordial source of inspiration; an administrative technique (fa-li), based on the principle and model of the naturalness of the Way; a concern for the cultivation of penetrating insight (kuan), so that a king could reign without imposing his limited, self-centered view on the order of things originally manifested in nature; and the necessity of attaining a kind of dynamic balancing (ch'eng) in order to ensure a steady flow, as it were, of the political system as a mirror image of the cosmos. (1979:108)
Tu (1979:107) concludes, "The Huang-Lao doctrine is neither Taoist nor Legalist in the conventional sense, nor is it, strictly speaking, a form of Legalized Taoism. It is rather, a unique system of thought."
John S. Major (1983:12) summarizes Huang-Lao ideology. Dao
DAO
DAO may refer to:* D-amino acid oxidase, a peroxisomal enzyme.* Data access object, a design pattern used in object-oriented software engineering* De-asphalted oil, a crude oil refinery process stream...
is the "highest and most primary expression of universal potentiality, order, and potency", and "is expressed in cosmic order, which embraces both the world of nature and the human world." Royal government must conform to natural order, thus the king should practice wuwei
Wu Wei
Wu Wei may refer to:*Wu wei, important tenet of Taoism that involves knowing when to act and when not to act*Wu Wei , Chinese landscape painter during the Ming Dynasty*Wei Wu Wei , Taoist philosopher and writer...
("non-striving" or "taking no action contrary to nature") and use his shenming (神明 "penetrating insight") to "learn all that can be learned about the natural order, so as to make his actions conform with it." Therefore, "The government of the true king is neither sentimental nor vacillating, and neither arbitrary nor domineering," it fully conforms with the "pattern of the Dao as expressed in the natural order, it is balanced, moderate, and irresistibly strong."
Randall P. Peerenboom (1990) recaps, "Huang-Lao's Boshu, while advocating a rule of law compatible with an organismic cosmology, is unique in that it supports a natural law grounded in the natural order." Peerenboom (1993:27-31) characterizes Huang-Lao as "foundational naturalism", meaning naturalism
Naturalism
Naturalism is any of several philosophical stances wherein all phenomena or hypotheses, commonly labeled as supernatural, are either false or not inherently different from natural phenomena or hypotheses.Naturalism may also refer to:-In the arts:...
based upon a cosmic natural order that includes both the rendao (人道 "way of humans") and tiandao (天道 "way of Heaven"). Huang-Lao ideology gives "normative priority" to the natural order, with human social order based upon and in harmony with the cosmic order.
Jeffrey L. Richey (2006:336-339) contrasts Huang-Lao and Mohist theories about the cosmic roots of fa "law". In the Jingfa, fa originates with the impersonal Dao; in the Mozi
Mozi
Mozi |Lat.]] as Micius, ca. 470 BC – ca. 391 BC), original name Mo Di , was a Chinese philosopher during the Hundred Schools of Thought period . Born in Tengzhou, Shandong Province, China, he founded the school of Mohism, and argued strongly against Confucianism and Daoism...
, it originates with the anthropomorphic Tian
Tian
Tian is one of the oldest Chinese terms for the cosmos and a key concept in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and religion. During the Shang Dynasty the Chinese called god Shangdi or Di , and during the Zhou Dynasty Tian "heaven; god" became synonymous with Shangdi...
("heaven; god").
Harold D. Roth (1991, 1997) contends that the original meaning of Chinese Daojia (道家 "Daoism") was Huang-Lao instead of the traditional understanding as "Lao-Zhuang" (老莊, namely the Laozi and Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi (book)
The Taoist book Zhuangzi was named after its purported author Zhuangzi, the philosopher. Since 742 CE, when Emperor Xuanzong of Tang mandated honorific titles for Taoist texts, it has also been known as the Nánhuá Zhēnjīng , literally meaning "True Classic of Southern Florescence," alluding to...
texts) Daoism. Sima Tan
Sima Tan
Sima Tan was an early Chinese historian who worked under the Western Han. He studied astronomy with Tang Du, the I Ching under Yang He and Daoism under Master Huang. He held the position of Grand Historian between 140-110 BC. While Sima Tan had begun the Records of the Grand Historian , he died...
coined the term Daojia in his Shiji summary of the six philosophical jia ("schools").
The Taoist school enables man's numinous essence to be concentrated and unified, to move in unison with the formless, and to provide adequately for the myriad things. As for its methods, it follows the general tendency of the Naturalists (Yinyang chia), picks out the best of the Confucians and Mohists, and adopts the essentials of the Terminologists (Ming-chia) and Legalists. It shifts with the times and changes in response to things; and in establishing customs and in practical applications it is nowhere unsuitable. The general drift of its teaching is simple and easy to hold onto, much is achieved with little effort. (tr. Roth 1991:605)
Thus, Huang-Lao Daoism incorporated concepts from five traditions: School of Naturalists
School of Naturalists
The School of Naturalists or the School of Yin-yang was a Warring States era philosophy that synthesized the concepts of yin-yang and the Five Elements; Zou Yan is considered the founder of this school...
, Confucianism
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
, Mohism
Mohism
Mohism or Moism was a Chinese philosophy developed by the followers of Mozi , 470 BC–c.391 BC...
, School of Names, and Legalism
Legalism (Chinese philosophy)
In Chinese history, Legalism was one of the main philosophic currents during the Warring States Period, although the term itself was invented in the Han Dynasty and thus does not refer to an organized 'school' of thought....
. Roth (2004:8) describes the hallmarks of Huang-Lao: the ruler should use self-transformation "as a technique of government, the emphasis on the precise coordination of the political and cosmic orders by the thus-enlightened ruler, and a syncretic social and political philosophy that borrows relevant ideas from the earlier Legalist and the Confucian schools while retaining the Taoist cosmological context."
External links
- Huang-Lao Ideology, R. Eno
- The Huang-Lao Tradition, FYSK Daoist Culture Centre Database
- The Status of Lao-Zhuang Daoism, Chad Hansen
- Daoist Syncretism, The Huang-Lao Tradition, Brian Hoffert
- Huangdi sijing 黃帝四經 "The Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor", Ulrich Theobald