School

Huang–Lao

Overview

Huang–Lao (simplified Chinese: 黄老; traditional Chinese: 黃老; pinyin: Huáng-Lǎo; Wade–Giles: Huang-lao; lit. 'Huangdi–Laozi') was the most influential Chinese school of thought in the early Han dynasty, having its origins in a broader political-philosophical drive looking for solutions to strengthen the feudal order as depicted in Zhou politics. Not systematically explained by historiographer Sima Qian, it is generally interpreted as a school of Syncretism, developing into a major religion, the beginnings of religious Taoism.

Emphasizing the search for immortality, Feng Youlan and Herrlee Creel considered its religious Taoism to be different from if not contradictory to the more philosophical strain of Taoism found in the Zhuangzi. Probably originating together around 300 BCE, the more politically dominant Huang–Lao denoted both for much of the Han. Highly favoured by superstitious rulers, it dominated the intellectual life of the Qin and early Han together with "Chinese Legalism", and the term "Taoism" (Chinese: 道家; pinyin: dàojiā) was probably coined with elements of Huang–Lao literature in mind.

Coming to mean something like Daoism, Sima Tan likely coined the term Daojia (Dao family or "school") with Huang–Lao content in mind, and is traditionally classified under it. Likely shorthand for dao and de ("the way and its power"), and then a new synthesis, Daojia would not have meant the exact same thing as Huang-Lao, but they are often used interchangeably in the Shiji. Laozi and Zhuangzi would later be taken as baseline examples of the dao school. Although Sima Qian does favour them, Tan's description of the school arguably accords more with content they had described as Huang–Lao.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.

This is called 'Hiding the light of his procedure.' 2. Therefore the man of skill is a master (to be looked up to) by him who has not the skill; and he who has not the skill is the helper of (the reputation of) him who has the skill. If the one did not honour his master, and the other did not rejoice in his helper, an (observer), though intelligent, might greatly err about them. This is called 'The utmost degree of…
Laozi, The Tao Teh King
States what Huang–Lao is; the author is tied to Huang–Lao in the knowledge graph.
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Another passage in the same place has this sense, “He whom ye look at and do not see, is named I; thou hearkenest to him and hearest him not, and he is called Hi; thou seekest for him with thy hand and touchest him not, and his name is Weï. Thou meetest him and seest not his head; thou goest behind him and seest not his back.” These contradictory expressions are called the “chain of reason.” One naturally thinks in…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Huang–Lao is.
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Finally, there is another theory which, like the ancestor hypothesis, seeks to derive gods, or at least the beings generally regarded as gods, from more primitive mythological ideas. This theory, which was developed by Hermann Usener, the most prominent student of the science of religion among recent classical philologists, might perhaps be referred to, in distinction from the soul and ancestor hypothesis, as the…
Wilhelm Max Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
States what Huang–Lao is.
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Huang–Lao

Overview

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Philosophers who discussed Huang–Lao

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Place in the tradition