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Heguanzi and Huang-Lao Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

R.P. Peerenboom
R.P. Peerenboom*
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Abstract

The Heguanzi, an eclectic, composite work arguably of the late Warring States to Han period, has long been associated with a school of thought known as Huang-Lao. Unfortunately, little was known about the school until the recent Mawangdui discovery of four ancient treatises commonly referred to as the Silk Manuscripts of Huang-Lao (Huang-Lao Boshu). This article examines the relation between the Heguanzi and Huang-Lao thought as represented in the Silk Manuscripts. The author argues that many of the chapters of the Heguanzi display key features of Huang-Lao thought, most notably a commitment to foundational naturalism and natural law that is first articulated in mature form in the Silk Manuscripts.

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Articles
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Early China , Volume 16 , 1991 , pp. 169 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1991

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References

1. See Williams, Bruce C., “Ho-kuan tzu: Authenticity, Textual History and Analysis Together with an Annotated Translation of Chapters 1 through 4” (Master's Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1987), 1–69Google Scholar. See also Graham, A.C., “A neglected pre-Han philosophical text: Ho-kuan-tzu,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 52:3 (1989), 497–509CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tōru, Ōgata 大形徹, “Kakkanshi no seiritsu” , Osaka furitsu daigaku kiyō, Jimbun shakai kagaku 大阪府立大學糸己要：人文社會科學 31 (1983), 11–23Google Scholar; Guang, Wu 吳光， Huang-Lao zhi xue tonglun #老之學通論, (Hang-zhou: Zhejiang People's Press, 1985), 151–158Google Scholar. Of course, given the imprecise dating of both the Boshu and the Heguanzi, it is difficult to determine who was citing whom.

2. Roger Ames has recently called into question the appropriateness of the organic or organismic metaphor as a characterization of Chinese philosophy on the grounds that it a) entails a sense of wholeness typical of many Western cosmogonie traditions but absent in the self-generative cosmologies of pre-Qin China, b) imparts a potentiality/actuality distinction that obviates the sui generis character and unduly restricts the creativity of the particular, and most importantly, c) conjures up images of Aristotelian teleology and the notion of a progressive and steady advance toward a predetermined perfection; see Ames, , “The Focus Field Self in Classical Confucianism,” in Concepts of Self: East West Perspectives, ed. Dissanayake, Wimal (Honolulu: East West Center, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

While Ames' criticisms serve notice that one must take care in employing the organism metaphor — as one must with any metaphor, particularly one laden with philosophical associations from an alternative tradition — they do not require its abandonment. Its continued use may be justified in that it does bring out the contrast between the holistic world view of much Chinese philosophy in which the cosmic natural order embraces both humans and non-human nature and a dualistic view in which humans are juxtaposed to nature. This also justifies, in my opinion, the use of the term ‘ecosystem’ even though normative order does not emerge out of interaction among the members of the system but is conceptually predetermined. Dao as the de facto order is indeed the totality comprised by the particulars which do exist in the given moment such that on a descriptive level dao is the result of an interaction of its constituent parts. Prescriptively, or normatively, however, dao cum the cosmic natural order is predetermined.

3. The foundational character of Huang-Lao naturalism is signalled primarily in three ways: by the transcendence of the cosmic natural order, the realist underpinnings of Huang-Lao philosophy, and the author's correspondence theory of language and epistemology; see R.P. Peerenboom, Law and Morality in Ancient China: The Silk Manuscripts of Huang-Lao (forthcoming).

4. That law in the Heguanzi is natural law is suggested by Jiajian, Tan 潭家健, “Heguanzi shilun” 《鹖冠子》 試論, Jiang Han luntan 江漢論壇 1986.2, 59Google Scholar; Kazutoshi, Hosokawa 系田川一敏, “Kakkanshi to Hansho Kōrō shisō to no kankei to sono igi” , Bungei ronsō 文藝論叢 14:2 (1979), 12Google Scholar; Rand, Christopher, “Chinese Military Thought and Philosophical Taoism,” Monumenta Serica 34 (1979–1980), 208CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tōru, Ōgata 大形徹, “Kakkanshi — fukyū no kokka o gensō shita inj a no hon” , Tōhō shūkyō 東方宗敎 59 (1982), 50–51Google Scholar; Williams, , “Ho-kuan tzu,” 122Google Scholar.

For natural law in the Boshu, see Peerenboom, R.P., “Natural Law in the Huang-Lao Boshu,” Philosophy East and West 40:3 (1990), 309–330CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Turner, Karen, “The Theory of Law in the Ching-fa,” Early China 14 (1989), 55–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For Han Fei and to a lesser extent Shang Yang as natural law advocates see Wang, Hsiao-po and Chang, Leo, Philosophical Foundations of Han Fei's Political Vieory, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986)Google Scholar. For Confucius, see Bodde, Derk and Morris, Clarence, Law in Imperial China, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967), 21CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilization in China vol. 2, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956), 544Google Scholar.

5. Murphy, Jeffrie and Coleman, Jules, The Philosophy of Law, (Totowa: Rowman and Allenheld, 1984), 17Google Scholar.

6. I discuss these ideas and the evolution of Huang-Lao thought at length in Law and Morality in Ancient China.

7. See his Heguanzi xu 鶴冠子序, included in Heguanzi 驗冠子 (Taibei: Zhonghua Press, 1968)Google Scholar.

8. See Williams, , “Ho-kuan tzu,” 115–126Google Scholar; Guang, Wu, Huang-Lao zhi xue tonglun, 151–165Google Scholar; Graham, , “Ho-kuan-tzu,” 508–509Google Scholar; Jiajian, Tan, “Heguanzi,” 58–60Google Scholar; Tō;ru, Ōgata, Kakkanshi no seiritsu, 18–19Google Scholar; Kazutoshi, Hosokawa, “Kakkanshi,” 1–14Google Scholar; Baoyuan, Du, “Heguanzi yanjiu 《鶴冠子》 研究, Zhongguo lishi wenxian yanjiu jikan 中國歷史文獻研究集刊 1984.5, 54–57Google Scholar; Xueqin, Li 李學勤, “Mawangdui boshu yu Heguanzi 馬王堆帛書與 《鵾冠子》, Jiang Han kaogu 江漢考古 1983.2, 53–56Google Scholar; Keming, Chen 陳克明, “Shilun Heguanzi yu Huang-Lao sixiang de guanxi” 試論 《驗冠子》 與黄老思想的關係, Zhexue shi luncong 哲學史論叢 (1981), 224–244Google Scholar.

9. Klaus Karl Neugebauer rejects as additions sections 14-19; Hoh-kuan tsi: Eine Untersuchung der dialogischen Kapitel, (Frankfurt am Mein: Peter Lang, 1986)Google Scholar. Ōgata rejects 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19; “Kakkanshi — fukyū no kokka o gensō shita inj a no hon,” 64, n. 18. Wu Guang rejects 12,16,19; Huang-Lao zhi xue tonglun, 155-56. Graham rejects only 16 and 19, though he is able to locate only ten of the nineteen chapters within three schools: Legalist, Yin Yang (Huang-Lao) and Daoist anarchist; excluding chapters 16 and 19, that leaves seven chapters unclassified; “Ho-kuan-tzu,” 501.

10. This method is nearly universal among commentators, though not all agree that the author is from Chu; see Graham, , “Ho-kuan-tzu” 508Google Scholar; Williams, , “Ho-kuan tzu,” 116Google Scholar; Xueqin, Li, “Boshu yu Heguanzi,” 57Google Scholar; Tōru, Ōgata, “Kakkanshi no seiritsu,” 18–19Google Scholar.

11. Huang-Lao practice “accords with the great order of the Yin Yang school, selects what is good from the doctrines of Confucians and Mohists, and combines with them the essential points of the School of Names and Legalists”; Shi ji 史記 130.3289.

12. Williams, , “Ho-kuan tzu,” 115Google Scholar; Baoyuan, Du, “Heguanzi,” 53–57Google Scholar; Xueqin, Li, “Boshu yu Heguanzi,” 54–56Google Scholar; Jiajian, Tan, “Heguanzi” 58–60Google Scholar.

13. In Rand's terms, both the Heguanzi and Boshu represent syncretic-rationalist-metaphysical-ethical-pragmatic military philosophies; see Rand, , “Chinese Military Thought,” 206–218Google Scholar. Heguanzi is categorized as a military text in the Han shu 漢書, though it was later deleted as a repetition of a text listed under Daoism. Heguanzi the person is often thought to have been a military man, in part because his pseudonym refers to a pheasant cap which “had a definite military significance”; Williams, , “Ho-kuan tzu,” 4Google Scholar.

14. Guang, Wu, Huang-Lao zhi xue tonglun, 162–166Google Scholar; see also Jiajian, Tan, “Heguanzi” 59Google Scholar.

15. See Heguanzi chapters 9, 10, 11 and 4/16b/2; Boshu 61:78b, 87:173b. Citations to Heguanzi are to the Sibu beiyao edition (rpt. Taibei: Zhonghua Press, 1970)Google Scholar, and are ofthe form: chapter number/page number/line number. Citations of the Boshu are to Mawangdui Hanmu boshu 馬王堆漢墓帛書 vol. 3 (Beijing: Wen Wu Press, 1980)Google Scholar, andare of the form: page number of text:line number of original text.

16. See Heguanzi 4/11b/2; 6/160/12; Boshu 49:24b.

17. See Boshu 19:129b, 51:36a, 54:55b.

18. See Boshu 69:111b, 51:37b.

19. See Boshu 57:66b.

20. See Boshu 47:20b, 52:46b.

21. See Boshu 43:6b.

22. See Boshu 51:35b, 52:45b, 50:34a.

23. See Boshu 49:24b.

24. See Boshu 51:35b.

25. This of course does not mean that all are the product of a single hand or are authentic Warring States to Han works.

26. Graham, , “Ho-kuan-tzu,” 520Google Scholar.

27. Graham, , “Ho-kuan-tzu,” 527Google Scholar.

28. This line of argument is obviously limited. In some cases, the parallel passages contain ideas which are also the basis for claiming a similarity in content, and hencefor identifying the chapters as Huang-Lao.

29. See Lan, Tang, “Mawangdui chutu Laozi yiben juanqian guyishu de yanjiu” 馬王堆出土 《老子》 乙本卷前古佚書的硏究, kaogu xuebao 1975.1, 17Google Scholar.

30. Chapter 12 also contains a parallel passage to chapters 13 and 16. Chapter 13 is not consistent with the Huang-Lao chapters, as Graham has observed. Perhaps it was included on the basis of the parallel to chapter 12 which, given its Huang-Lao characteristics, served as a bridge to the core Huang-Lao chapters. Similarly, chapter 16 is a military discussion which many believe to be part of the military text of Pang Xuan 龐援 mentioned in the “Yi wen zhi” 藝文志. Given the military focus along with the mention of Pang Xuan in chapter 19, there is reason to believe that it too originally belonged to the Pang Xuan text It may have been inserted along with chapter 16 — which in turn may have been inserted because of its parallel to chapter 12, which despite its Huang-Lao characteristics and parallels to the Shiliu jing appears to be somewhat out of step with the core Huang-Lao chapters of the Heguanzi.

31. See Tōru, Ōgata, “Kakkanshi no seiritsu,” 22Google Scholar.

32. Graham translates: “the pattern in things as it essentially is”; Graham, , “Ho-kuan tzu,” 512Google Scholar.

33. The Boshu (53:49b) reads: “The stellar formations have their quantifiable relations, and do not deviate from their paths — these are the models for reliability (xin 信).Heaven illumines the three in order to fix the two.” For the rule-governed natural order in Heguanzi, see also 11/21b/12.

34. See Boshu 52-44b, 53:51a, 72:221a.

35. “Only when heaven and earth (i.e. nature) move and act within his breast is the work accomplished outside. Only after the myriad things come in and out of him is the generation of things unharmed. He opens and shuts the four seasons, pulls on and shifts the yin and yang … And the world supposes them so of themselves”; 11/22b/7.

36. See also 2/3a/4: “The exemplary ruler … moves at the right time and does not act carelessly.” For the Boshu, see 82:153b, 71:117a.

37. More literally, to “heaven it, earth it and human it.” See 17A6a/8: “In regards to warfare, there is heaven, earth and man.” See also Boshu, 71:116b. For a discussion of the “metaphysical” or natu ral-cosmic justification for war in the Heguanzi, see Rand, , “Chinese Military Thought,” 206–211Google Scholar; for the Huang-Lao school in general, Lewis, Mark Edward, Sanctioned Violence in Early China, (Albany: SUNY, 1990), 213–241Google Scholar.

38. See also 7/21a/9: “If the ruler's understanding is not clear he takes the nobles as the way, his own intentions as the law … What calamity exceeds this? One such as this, on the day of retreat, subsequently understands his command is lost.” Chapter 7, however, advances not rule of foundational natural law but a rule of law which depends in the final analysis on the judgment of sages. For rule of law in the Boshu, see 47:20b; and Peerenboom, “Natural Law in the Huang-Lao Boshu.”

39. For Heguanzi's concern with the limitations of average rulers, see Ōgata Tōru, “Kakkanshi — fukyū no kokka o genso shita inj a no hon.” For discussion of the five forms of government as a quasi-historical descent from past utopia to present realities, see Graham, , “Ho-kuan-tzu,” 523Google Scholar.

40. See Boshu 81:149b, 43:1a.

41. See Boshu 58:75b.

42. See Boshu 43:1a.

43. In advocating rule of man rather than rule of natural law, the position of the author is closer to that advanced in the “Xinshu shang” chapter of the Guanzi: “Laws are derived from authoritative discretion (quan 權) and authoritative discretion is derived from the way”; Guanzi, 1b11.

44. For an elaboration of the difference between Confucius' “coherence” theory of law and Huang-Lao foundational natural law, see Peerenboom, Law and Morality in Ancient China.

45. See also 10/14a/4: “The Supreme One is that which maintains the organization of the same-on-the-widest-scale, tunes the qi of the Supreme Immensity, and corrects the positions of the intuitive and illumined.”

46. Graham, , “Ho-kuan-tzu,” 514Google Scholar.

47. See Guang, Wu, Huang-Lao zhi xue tonglun, 158–161Google Scholar; Jiajian, Tan, “Heguanzi” 59Google Scholar.

48. For a similar view, see Jiajian, Tan, “Heguanzi,” 59–60Google Scholar.