The Essential Huainanzi

John S. Major taught East Asian history at Dartmouth College from 1971 to 1984. Since then-as an independent scholar, writer, editor, and lecturer-he has published many scholarly and general-interest books on Asia, including (with Constance A. Cook) Defining Chu: Image and Reality in Ancient China and (with Roger V. DesForges) The Asian World, 600-1500. Sarah A. Queen is professor of history at Connecticut College. She is the author of From Chronicle to Canon: The Hermeneutics of the Spring and Autumn, According to Tung Chung-shu, and the coeditor (with Michael Puett) of The Production of an Early Han Text: Studies in the Huainanzi. She and John S. Major are completing a full translation of the Chunqiu fanlu, attributed to Dong Zhongshu. Andrew Seth Meyer is associate professor of history at Brooklyn College and the author of The Dao of the Military: Liu An's Art of War. Harold D. Roth is professor of religious studies and East Asian studies at Brown University and the author or editor of six books and more than forty-five scholarly articles. His best known work is Original Tao: Inward Training and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism.

Contents Sketch of Early Chinese History, with Special Reference to the Huainanzi Introduction 1. Originating in the Way 2. Activating the Genuine 3. Celestial Patterns 4. Terrestrial Forms 5. Seasonal Rules 6. Surveying Obscurities 7. Quintessential Spirit 8. The Basic Warp 9. The Ruler's Techniques 10. Profound Precepts 11. Integrating Customs 12. Responses of the Way 13. Boundless Discourses 14. Sayings Explained 15. An Overview of the Military 16 and 17. A Mountain of Persuasions and A Forest of Persuasions 18. Among Others 19. Cultivating Effort 20. The Exalted Lineage 21. An Overview of the Essentials Glossary of Personal Names Brief Bibliography Index