The Heguanzi () is a circa 3rd century BCE syncretic collection of writings from the Chinese Hundred Schools of Thought, particularly the schools of Huang-Lao, Daoism, Legalism, and the Military. Assumed a forgery in later Imperial China, discovery of the 2nd-century BCE Han dynasty Mawangdui Silk Texts lead to renewed studies into its textual history and philosophical significance. The previously unknown Huang-Lao Silk Manuscripts have many passages similar and identical with the Heguanzi,
The 111 CE Book of Han history is the earliest extant source to mention the Heguanzi, yet the next reliable sources referring to it date from the early 6th century. In 805, the influential Tang dynasty writer Liu Zongyuan found a copy of the Heguanzi and disparaged it as a post-Han apocryphal forgery. His opinion was widely accepted by scholars for the next twelve centuries, during which the text was seldom read and infrequently mentioned.
Dating
The emerging consensus is that, although the Heguanzi text may be a composite of the writings of multiple authors representing various schools of thought, much if not all of it belongs to the late Warring States (475–221 BCE) to Han (202 BCE-220 CE) periods.
Several Heguanzi chapters (esp. 1 and 2) follow the strict naming taboo on writing a Chinese emperor's given name. During the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE), it was forbidden to write Qin Shi Huang's personal name or the related word , and was substituted for both—demonstrating that the received version was at least partly redacted under Qin rule.
In December 1973, archaeologists working on the Mawangdui site, near Changsha, Hunan discovered a hoard of manuscripts written on silk scrolls in Mawangdui Tomb No. 3, which had been sealed up in 168 BCE. These now-famous "Mawangdui Silk Texts" included the earliest attested copies of Chinese classics such as the Yijing and two versions of the Daodejing, as well as previously unknown books on subjects including philosophy, astronomy, medicine, and military strategy.
The scroll with one of the Daodejing versions also included four manuscripts that strongly resembled the Heguanzi in thought and language. These were originally identified as the , a lost text that the Book of Hans Yiwenzhi section lists as a Daoist work in 4 pian, but most scholars now refer to them as the . The Mawangdui silk manuscripts revealed that the forgotten Heguanzi, traditionally disregarded as a post-Han fake, was a vital key to understanding Huang-Lao thought within the Hundred Schools of pre-Qin philosophy.
Textual history Han dynasty scholars first recorded the Heguanzi two thousand years ago. The librarian Liu Xin's 8 BCE bibliography listed the Heguanzi twice, under both School of Daoism and School of the Military. When the historian Ban Gu incorporated the Qilüe into the Book of Han'''s 78 CE Yiwenzhi bibliographical catalog of the Imperial Library, he eliminated the Heguanzi entry under School of the Military, noting "listed among titles deleted from this section as duplicated elsewhere"; included it, in 1 , under School of Daoism, and gave the earliest biographical information about Master Pheasant Cap, "A man of Chu, lived deep in the mountains, wore a pheasant cap." The Yiwenzhi also lists two copies of a text called , i.e., Master Pang who was Master Pheasant Cap's disciple in the Heguanzi, a 2 pian version under School of Diplomacy and 3 pian one under School of the Military.Tr. .
While the Book of Han bibliographic catalog specifies that the Heguanzi book has 1 pian ("chapter"), later historical bibliographies (e.g., 636 Book of Sui, 945 Old Book of Tang, and 1060 New Book of Tang) list it as a work of 3 , like the received text. For this reason, some scholars have concluded that portions of the Heguanzi must have been forged after the Han dynasty. Instead of plagiarism or forgery, the sinologist David R. Knechtges proposes a simpler explanation for the discrepancy between 1 pian and 3 juan versions of the Heguanzi. It is possible that the text of 1 pian contained only the Daoist sections of the work, and that the Heguanzi which Ban Gu eliminated from the School of the Military category contained the sections concerned with military strategy, perhaps derived from the 2 and 3 pian Pang Xuan texts that Ban Gu added.
Subsequent to the 1st century CE Book of Han reference to the Heguanzi, there is a four-century gap until the next reliable sources. The lost compilation by the Liang dynasty (502–557) scholar Yu Zhongrong () listed the Heguanzi (3 juan) in the table of contents. The Tang historian Wei Zheng's 631 political encyclopedia has extracts from chapters 1, 2 and 16, including the chapter titles. The Tang prose master Han Yu (768–824) quoted from Heguanzi chapters 1 and 15 with their titles.
Some early versions of the Master Pheasant Cap were arranged differently. Between the Tang (618–907) and Song (960–1279) dynasties, the number of chapters is given as 15, 16, or 19; but since the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), only 19-chapter editions have circulated. Han Yu saw a 16-chapter Heguanzi version with scribal errors and lacunae. Chao Gongwu (; d. 1171) extracted a 19-chapter version from a 32-chapter text that included Mozi interpolations and post-Han discursive essays. In the 1920s, Fu Cengxiang (; 1872–1950) obtained a Dunhuang manuscript with the first half of the Heguanzi and an anonymous commentary dated 629.
Five printed complete Heguanzi editions are all based on Lu Dian's commentary version: the 1445 Daozang (Daoist Canon); 1805 , reprinted in the 1936 ; 1935 ; 1577 , reprinted, with punctuation, in the 1937 ; and the 1919–1922 reprint of a Ming facsimile of a Song edition. The 1408 Yongle Encyclopedia quotes all of Heguanzi chapter 11, predating the 1445 Daozang first received edition.
Author
Little is known about Master Pheasant Caps anonymous author or compiler, or according to some, authors or compilers. Since its reevaluation after the 1973 Mawangdui discovery, a considerable part of Heguanzi scholarship has focused on the provenance and dates of the person Heguanzi, with the current consensus that he was from the southern state of Chu and lived circa the second half of the 3rd century BCE. Internal evidence from the Heguanzi confirms the early Han view that Master Pheasant Cap came from Chu, such as a chapter 9 list of official titles typically used in Chu, for example, for "prime minister"; as well as linguistic parallels in terminology and rhyme found in other early texts associated with Chu (e.g., Songs of Chu). However, the Heguanzi predominantly mentions the northern state of Zhao. While Chinese classics typically refer to historical events, the Heguanzi (chap. 12) only mentions one datable event, Zhao general Pang Xuan's victory in 242 BCE.
The author's eponym is a Classical Chinese trope for a warrior. The namesake Chinese pheasant is identified as: "Brown-eared pheasant or Manchurian snow-pheasant (Crossoptilon mantchuricum), dark brown with white-tipped tailfeathers, the tailfeathers often being used as decoration for caps". usually refers to a formal hat or headdress, e.g., .
The 5th century Book of the Later Han describes the heguan cap as a badge of military valor that was introduced by King Wuling of Zhao, whom Pang Xuan instructs in Heguanzi chapter 19, and who was famous for military reforms beginning in 307 BCE, notably replacing traditional Zhou dynasty warfare involving chariots and armored infantry with nomadic cavalry style "barbarian clothing and mounted archery" (. In the Warring States period, the snow pheasant was considered a ferocious fighter and thus warriors symbolically wore its tailfeathers in their hats.
Content The received text of Heguanzi or Pheasant Cap Master comprises 19 organized in 3 , specifically, scroll 1 with chapters 1–7, 2 with 8–11, and scroll 3 with 12–19. This format was followed by the standard Heguanzi edition with the commentary of Song dynasty scholar and lexicographer Lu Dian (, 1042–1102). The chapters' length ranges from extremely short (135 characters in chapter 3) to rather long (2,404 in chapter 9).
+ Contents of the Heguanzi Chapter (pian ) Title Translation 1 Boxuan () Wide Selection 2 Zhuxi () Manifest Hope 3 Yexing () The Night Walker 4 Tianze () Heaven's Model 5 Hualiu () Circular Flow 6 Daoduan () The Way's Governance 7 Jinyi () Impending Collapse 8 Duwan () Fathoming Myriads 9 Wangfu () Royal Axe 10 Taihong () Grand Galaxy 11 Tailu () Grand Record 12 Shibing () Generations of Arms 13 Beizhi () Prepared Knowledge 14 Bingzheng () Armed Campaigns 15 Xuewen () Study Problems 16 Shixian () Generations of Worthies 17 Tianquan () Heaven's Authority 18 Nengtian () Enabling Heaven 19 Wulingwang () King Wuling
The Heguanzi text is usually differentiated between its seven dialog chapters and twelve essay chapters. Five of the dialog chapters (7–9 and 14–15) consist of discussions in which Heguanzi answers questions about war or government from his disciple Pangzi (, Master Pang). Pangzi is generally identified as General Pang Xuan (; c. 295-c. 240 BCE) from the state of Zhao (403–222 BCE), who defeated Yan in 242 BCE and led the failed campaign of the six allied states against Qin in the next year. General or Master Pang is the common link between the above five dialog chapters that mention Heguanzi and the two remaining ones that do not; in chapter 16, Pang Xuan gives advice to King Daoxiang of Zhao (r. 244–236), and in chapter 19, Pang Huan (), who Lu Dian identifies as Pang Xuan, reading as a scribal error for , instructs King Wuling of Zhao (r. 325–299).
The twelve Heguanzi essay chapters also exhibit considerable variety. Chapters 1–6 share long passages with other early sources and have been studied in relation to them. Essays in chapters 10 and 11, "Supreme Flood" and "Supreme Indistinctness", are similar and may originally have constituted one chapter. The subsequent chapters 12 and 13 are also sometimes read together as promoting Daoist primitivism. Lastly, the enigmatic essay chapters 17 and 18, "Heaven's Authority" and "Enabling Heaven" are connected. Both are practically incomprehensible, perhaps due to "textual corruption or cryptic content", and set between two most problematic chapters 16 and 19 that do not mention the person Heguanzi.
The Heguanzi's mixed content exemplifies the School of Syncretism or School of Miscellany, in terms of Ban Gu's Yiwenzhi classification of the Hundred Schools of Thought. Master Pheasant Cap has passages from many intellectual sources, particularly from the Schools of Huang-Lao (i.e., Yellow Emperor and Laozi), Daoism, Yin-Yang, Five Agents, Legalism, Confucianism, Mohism, School of Diplomacy, and the Military. Moreover, textual comments and observations indicate the authors' expertise in Chinese astronomy, calendar and divination, meditation practices, and at least some knowledge of music, medicine, and various other technical matters.
Themes David R. Knechtges says a major theme of the Heguanzi is the Daoist idea that nature moves cyclically, and the need for the ruler to harmonize his thought and action with the workings of heaven, which by its continual movement establishes the norms () for human society. The military chapters stress the importance of the ruler attracting the most able advisers (preferably those who were "one hundred times better than oneself") and following the principles of propriety, duty, loyalty, and fidelity.