Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought

Chapter Three, Four, and Five of the Huainanzi

The Huainanzi has in recent years been recognized by scholars as one of the seminal works of Chinese thought at the beginning of the imperial ear, a summary of the full flowering of early Taoist philosophy. This book presents a study of three key chapters of the Huainanzi, "The Treatise on the Patterns of Heaven,", "The Treatise on Topography," and "The Treatise on the Seasonal Rules," which collectively comprise the most comprehensive extant statement of cosmological thinking in the early Han period.

Major presents, for the first time, full English translations of these treatises. He supplements the translations with detailed commentaries that clarify the sometimes arcane language of the text and presents a fascinating picture of the ancient Chinese view of how the world was formed and sustained, and of the role of humans in the cosmos.

"It presents a careful, accurate, thoroughly annotated translation of a major section of one of the most important texts in the intellectual history of early imperial China, a translation which copes admirably with both the sinological difficulties and the astronomical technicalities of the text." Mark Edward Lewis, University of Cambridge

Contents

Preliminary Considerations
A General Introduction to Early Han Cosmology
Tianwenxun, The Treatise on the Patterns of Heaven Translation and Commentary
Dixingxun, The Treatise on Topography, Translation and Commentary
Shicixun, The Treatise on the Seasonal Rules, Translation and Commentary
A Chinese Eratosthenes of the Flat Earth: A Study of a Fragment of Cosmology in Huainanzi by Christopher Cullen
The Heavenly Stems, the Earthly Branches and the Sexagenary Cycle.

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These Chinese medical manuscripts representing a broad range of lost medical literature from ancient times have been carefully translated by a sinoantropologist. Two of the texts describe the paths of eleven mai (channels or vessels) inside the body. One is a brief discussion of channel theory in three parts - pathogenic conditions of qi and cauterization; lancing technique; and channel diagnosis p... Read More...