Solution to the Classic - Selected Works of Famous Scholars in National Studies

Author: Lu Simian / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-06-01
Features: The book now transmitted contains twenty-one chapters. The outer and middle chapters mentioned in the Book of Han have long been lost. The Han Dynasty Bibliography refers to both the outer and inner chapters simply as Huainanzi. The current title Huainanzi with the character "zi" was added by later scholars (many modern titles with the character "zi" were also added by later scholars). The Book of Sui and the Old and New Tang Bibliographies both record it as twenty-one volumes, with annotations by Xu Shen and Gao You listed together. The Old Tang Bibliography also mentions The Sound of Huainanzi Honglie (two volumes) by He You. The New Tang Bibliography attributes it to Gao You as well. The Song Bibliography still records the Xu Annotation as twenty-one volumes, while the Gao Annotation is recorded as thirteen volumes. Chao Gongwu's Bibliography of Readings cites the Chongwen General Catalogue, stating three chapters are lost. Li Shu's Bianhe Tujizhi claims two chapters are missing. However, Hong Mai's Rongzhai states that the surviving twenty-one volumes match the current edition. It seems the book had lost copies after the Song Dynasty but still retained complete versions. Gao Simu's Brief Account of the Masters mentions twenty chapters, excluding the Yaolüe (Introduction) as Huainanzi's self-introduction, and the Four Treasuries Catalogue also considered it incomplete, which is incorrect (the Catalogue also mentions that Bai Juyi's Six Annotations cites the "Birds and Crows Filling the River" story from Huainanzi, which is not present in the text, suggesting missing passages—this must not be from the inner chapters, and the Four Treasuries Catalogue is mistaken on this point). The Sound (two volumes) was indeed by He You. The New Tang Bibliography mistakenly attributes it to Gao You as well. The current edition retains the full number of chapters, but the annotations by Xu Shen and Gao You have been merged. (The above is based on Zhuang Kuiji's Preface). The previously circulated version was Zhuang Kuiji's annotated edition, originally based on Qian Qian's annotations of the Daozang edition. The modern Liu Wendi's Collected Annotations of Huainanzi Honglie is meticulously compiled and rigorously executed (as seen in Hu Shi's Preface), truly excellent. The Original Dao chapter discusses the nature and application of the Dao, aligning with what is traditionally called Daoist thought, and is highly refined (in the Huainanzi, what is traditionally called Daoist thought, I suspect largely overlaps with Confucian thought. I follow the common naming convention and still refer to it as Daoist thought). Among the twenty-one chapters, the Yaolüe does not have the character "xun" (), and Yao Fan notes that the "xun" character may have been added by Gao You to label his annotations, not as part of the chapter title. The Jiaozhen Xun is a cosmological treatise from ancient philosophy, extending its arguments to the boundless changes of things and the indistinguishability of life and death, and is highly refined. The Tianwen Xun discusses astronomy, music theory, calendar, measurement, and metrology, also extending its arguments into philosophical realms. P270-271