A Study of 'Yao Lue' 要略, 'A Sumary of the Essentials': The Huainanzi 淮南子 from the Point of View of the Postface

The Huainanzi is a Former Han 前漢 dynasty (202 B.C.E.–9 C.E.) compendium of knowledge written at the court of Huainan and presented to Emperor Wu of the Han 漢武帝 in 139 by Liu An 劉安 (?179–122), the king of Huainan. Liu An was the grandson of the Han “progenitor” Gaozu 高祖 (Liu Bang 劉邦 r. 202–195), and he was the uncle of the reigning emperor Wu (r. 140–87). According to the author(s) of the text’s postface, “Yao lue” 要略 or “A Summary of the Essentials,” the work seeks to provide a comprehensive account or chronicle of the dao 道 (conventionally translated as the “Way”), understood broadly to encompass the cosmos (tiandi 天地 or “Heaven and Earth”), human beings (ren 人) and their affairs (shi 事), and the relationship between them. The account of the dao presented in its chapters is not, however, purely descriptive. The Huainanzi is foremost a political treatise containing instructions worthy of a sage-king (shengwang 聖王) to be employed by the ruler as the proper model or standard by which to govern the empire.