Page 549 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

H UAN G-LAO 509

Heguan; sometime from the mid-third century to early second century BeE;
Defoort 1997); the *Huainan zi (139 BeE; Major 1993); sections of the Chunqiu
fanlu !€Ff): ~ ~ (Profusion of Dew on the Spring and Autumn Annals) of the
Confucian Dong Zhongshu :ilH:pWf (ca. 195- II5 BeE; Queen 1996); and the
many texts containing in th~ir title the name of the Yellow Emperor or his
assistants in the imperial bibliography preserved in the Hanshu (History of
the Former Han; Csikszentmihalyi 1994).
These latter texts appear in the sections devoted to the Various Masters
(zajia 9$*), the Military Specialists (bingjia ~*), the Arts of the Numbers
(shushu :f&1*J), and the Methods and Techniques (*fangji). The most famous
of these works, and the only one to have survived transmission to modern
times, is the foundational text of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the *Huangdi
neijing (Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon). Recently discovered fragments of
these "Yellow Emperor" texts, however, show strong influence of Yin-Yang
thought, and it is perhaps premature to attribute all of these texts as belonging
to Huang-Lao Taoism.

Features of Huang-Lao thought. Despite the historical evidence, the precise nature
and characteristics of Huang-Lao thought and the date of its appearance on
the Chinese philosophical stage are still matters of great scholarly dispute.
The discovery of the silk manuscripts at *Mawangdui in the winter of 1973- 74
is believed by some to have solved the enigma. The four manuscripts copied
in front of the B (yi z,) manuscript of the Daode jing have been interpreted
as being the long lost Huangdi sijing ~ * Q!l ~ (Four Scriptures of the Yellow
Emperor), the core text of Huang-Lao (Chang 1. S. and Yu Feng 1998; Chen
Guying 1995; Decaux 1989; Tang Lan 1974; Yu Mingguang 1989; Yu Mingguang
et al. 1993). However, this identification, in the opinion of other scholars, is
problematic (Yates 1997; Ryden 1997; Carrozza 1999). They argue that the sec-
tions in these texts derive from a variety of different traditions and are philo-
sophically and / or linguistically incompatible with each other. Consequently,
many of the interpretations of the nature and characteristics of Huang-Lao
Taoist thought that have been based on a reading of the Mawangdui manu-
scripts are debatable, since they are based on the assumption that these texts
form an integral whole and are really affiliated with Huang-Lao.
Randall P Peerenboom (1993, 27) argues that Huang-Lao consists essentially
of a "foundational naturalism" (cf. Turner 1989). By this he means that the
cosmic natural order includes both the way of humans (rendao A:@:) and the
way of Heaven (tiandao ::Rill), is accorded "normative priority," and is the
basis for human social order that models itself upon and is in harmony with
the cosmic order. John S. Major adds the importance of Dao as the "highest
and most primary expression of universal potentiality, order, and potency"
that is immanent in the cosmic order. The ruler, in possession of "penetrat-