Liu An And HuaiNanZi

Liu An' s HuaiNanZi was one great summary thought at that time. Because of the influences of the policy weakening the power of vassal states and the conflict of royalties in the beginning of Western Han Dynasty, Liu An's whole life experienced from being a king to compelled rebel, and ultimately died a suicide death . With great diligence Liu An learned so much, versatile and being a center himself, met together a batch of scholars, then the scholar group of Huainan endowed with special features of poetry and poetic-prose had been formed . Liu An' s creation was just placed in the social and political background of the beginning of Han Dynasty, a particular period with the social economy from depression to recovery, the thought from governing by doing nothing to by doing something, the governing strategy from partition of power to centralization, and during the period the culture transformed from pluralism to single after the theory of Huang-Lao became the essential thought at that time . Being a leader of cultural group, he made efforts to sum up the thoughts of various school and provide the idea of administering a country for ruler. The creations of Liu An and the scholar group he led were abundant, but the works that circulated by now were not much. According to Biography of Lisao and other ancient literature, it is clearly that Liu An is the first person studying and sorting Lisao and he contributed very much for the gathering and circulating of Chuci. HuaiNanZi distinctly embodied the philosophy and literature thoughts of Liu An. On the basis of summarizing previous academic , he firmly insist the thought of Huang-Lao,a theory that Taoism is at its very core, and endow it with new age connotation , advocated the thought of governing by doing nothing, consequently, produced the important influence on later feudalism ruling and academic development. This thesis, Liu An and HuaiNanZi, on the basis of sorting and analyzing of classical books , has investigated and expounded the problems above. The thesis was divided into five chapters.Chapter one: Liu An's experience and his whole life. According to ShiJi and HanShu , Liu An had experienced a complicated life course , from being a versatile king to rebel, and ultimately a suicide death . Lu An's father, Liu Chang, also had experienced a process from an orphan to a young king, and ultimately the prisoner. Because of particular history, Liu Chang lost his mother from birth, and as the youngest son of Liu Bang, the founder and the first emperor of Han Dynasty , he was conferred with the king of Huainan .After the Emperor Wen came to power, in order to make his royalty power stronger ,Liu Chang was exiled to the prefecture of Shu with the offence of being overbearing and died there . In view of his father lesson, Liu An studied very hard , learned so much , and was conferred with the king of Huainan when he was a youth . He retained many scholars and formed the scholar group ofHuainan in which he was the most essential . However , owing to the Rebellion of Seven Vassal States , Liu An was involved in the conflict of royalties and ultimately died a suicide death because of the offences of rebel. By studying historical materials , it can be seen that Liu An's rebellion was completely made by royal court, and in addition to historical data from royal court ,so Liu An has been regarded as a rebelling king .So we should have right recognition about this.Chapter two: Liu An's living ages. Liu An lived in the historical period transformed from the beginning of Western Han Dynasty to the middle. At that time the social economy recovered gradually from depression , the governing idea of Han Dynasty changed from by doing nothing to by doing something, and the strategy of administering changed from partition to centralization , and by the period of the Emperor Wu , social economy reached prosperity , but the centralization of state power arrived at the peak at the same time and the ruling right of vassal states was thoroughly deprived . On the academic culture, the early ruler of H...