Heguanzi 鶡冠子

Heguanzi 鶡冠子 "Master Pheasant Cap", also written 鶴冠子, is a collection of philosophical treatises from the Warring States period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE). In the imperial bibliography Yiwen zhi 藝文志 in the official dynastic history Hanshu 漢書, it is classified as a Daoist writing. Yet, it is sometimes also called a military classic. Seen from the content, the book covers a wide range of topics based on many different philosophical sources, like Huang-Lao thought 黃老, the theories of Yin-Yang 陰陽 and the Five Agents (wuxing 五行), Daoism, legalism, and military strategists. Because of its eclectic character, the Heguanzi is in most book catalogues listed in the group of miscellaneous writings.

The real name of the author is not known. He is said to have lived in the regional state of Chu 楚 and used to wear a cap of pheasant (feathers?) which gave him his name. The book contains a series of official titles typically used in Chu. Master Pheasant Cap was a teacher of Pang Nuan 龐煖, a general of the state of Zhao 趙, and served as an advisor to several kings of this regional state. He thus must have lived in the early 3rd century BCE.

The text was presumably arranged in different chapters in ancient times. The transmitted version corresponds to the version used for Lu Xi's 陸細 commentary from the Song-period 宋 (960-1279). It has 19 chapters spread over 3 juan. Since the Qing period 清 (1644-1911), scholars are sure that the text comprises two different sources: a Daoist text, and a military treatise called Pang Nuan. This argument was brought forward in Wu Shigong's 吳世拱 commentary Heguanzi Wuzhu 鶴冠子吳注 from 1929.

Many scholars who believed Liu Zongyuan's 柳宗元 (773-819) statement that the Heguanzi was a forgery doubted the text's authenticity. The Qing-period scholar Yao Jiheng 姚際恒 (1647-1715) still followed this tradition. Yet among the books discovered during the 1970s in the tomb of Yinqueshan 銀雀山, Shandong, from the Former-Han-period 前漢 (206 BC-8 AD), no text called Heguanzi was found. However, the discovered texts included many sentences showing that thoughts and theories very similar to that found in the transmitted Heguanzi were very widespread during the early Han period. One characteristic of the so-called Huang-Lao thought is that it links all fields of human activity and embeds them into an all-embracing cosmology. Therefore, the book Heguanzi is of enormous importance for studying the Huang-Lao religion, which we still do not know much about.

The received Heguanzi is arranged in 3 fascicles and includes between 16 and 19 chapters. There are many different editions and prints of the Heguanzi. It is included in the series Shizi quanshu 十子全書, Zhuzi huihan 諸子彙函, Zishu baijia 子書百家, Sibu congkan 四部叢刊, Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編 and Siku quanshu 四庫全書.

There is a translation into English by Carine Defoort. 1997. The Pheasant Cap Master: A Rhetorical Reading. Albany: State Unversity of New York Press.