Lüshi Chunqiu. Huainanzi

Author: Lü Buwei Liu An
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-11-01
Features: The Lüshi Chunqiu and the Huainanzi were respectively compiled by Lü Buwei, the Chancellor of the Qin Dynasty, and Liu An, the King of Huainan in the Han Dynasty. The entire works draw heavily from various schools of thought, lacking a unified ideology. However, what fascinates modern readers is the rich collection of ancient historical and cultural materials in these two works: numerous myths and legends, lost anecdotes from ancient history, preserved sayings of predecessors, ancient scientific knowledge, and long-lost schools of thought. The prose in these works is concise and clear in its reasoning; the Huainanzi, in particular, is renowned for its elegant and colorful language.
The Lüshi Chunqiu and the Huainanzi were annotated as early as the Han Dynasty. The current plain text edition is published for popularization. The base text for the former is Chen Qiyou’s Collected Annotations to the Lüshi Chunqiu, while the latter adopts Liu Wanding’s Collected Explanations to the Huainanzi. The punctuation and division of sections in the Lüshi Chunqiu follow Chen’s edition, whereas the Huainanzi is punctuated and divided by Mr. Yang Jian, who referred to the annotations of predecessors. This book is included in the Classical Masterpieces Popularization Library series by the Yuelu Book Society.