Posted 2017/4/1
The Huainanzi (淮南子, The Masters/Philosophers of Huainan), or, the Huainan Honglie (淮南鸿烈, The Great Brilliance of Huainan) was composed by guests under the direction of Liu An, King Huainan as imperial clan of West Han Dynasty. "Hong" means grandness and "Lie" means brilliance. The author considered the book covers the general ideas of grandness and brilliance.
The Masters of Huainan falls into "Inner Chapters", "Outer Chapters" and "Middle Chapters". And the 21 chapters left now might all belong to Inner Chapters of the original book.
Contents of The Masters of Huainan cover a wide range, which give priority to Daoism, employ the theory of Yin and Yang and Five Elements and touch upon various fields such as immortals and alchemy etc. History of Han Dynasty· Records of Literature lists it into the Miscellaneous School.
