Chinese culture that can bloom the light of history mainly concentrated in the five hundred years of the Spring and Warring States Period. During that period, the thought of Huang Lao sprang up suddenly and almost swept the ideology and culture of Pre-Qin. This upsurge went up and down until the end of Qin Dynasty and the beginning of Han Dynasty when Huai Nan Zi absorbed the essence of hundred schools of thoughts of Pre-Qin and summarized the thought of Huang Lao Taoism stretching for hundreds of years bringing it to the highest of its thought and also made this book become the essence of studying Pre-Qin Academic Thought.
Although Huai Nan Zi has a very close relationship with Taoism in the Pre-Qin, It is not the pure Taoism of Lao zhuang, and it is not equivalent to Huanglaozhishu implemented in the early Han Dynasty, either, both are compatible and incorporate the essence of other schools of ideas in view of the needs of the development of current situation, making it a book that conforms to the trend of the times. Therefore, it has been the summary of schools of Huang lao since the Warring States period and Qin and Han Dynasty, so to speak.
This dissertation emphasizes that Huai Nan Zi is the work of political philosophy. The authors synthesize various directors to achieve their political goals or ideals with the help of Taoist lofty ideals, spirits of benevolence of Confucianism, advocate for love of Mohism, and Legalist method of governing of Pre-Qin. Since the research is mainly political philosophy, the introduction in this dissertation also needs to explain the birth and effect of political and philosophy besides discussing shortly the research motivation,significance, and purpose of oneself. It is more important for the researcher to learn the discussion of relevant literature and research trends of this book over the years through history process in order to analyze and compare for comprehensive use.
Chapter Two of this dissertation describes the authors of Huai Nan Zi and their background, motivation, purpose of writing this book. Chapter Three describes mainly the whole frame and content of this book, and outlines the construction methods and steps of political philosophy from the book as the discussion focus for the next Chapters. From the beginning of Chapter Four, it discusses deep into core part of this dissertation, that is the philosophy of Huai Nan Zi, including Taoism, cosmology, view of history, view of human nature, and Theory of healthy living. Chapter Five discusses political ideology of Huai Nan Zi, including origins of Political Thought, Inaction, Monarch Thought, Military and Political Thought.
Chapter Six discusses the ideas and ideals of governance, emphasizing mainly the great governance ideal by merging Taoism, Confucianism and Law and ruling, and the grand system of both central and local. The Last Chapter concludes with the significance of the times of the thought of Huai Nan Zi, the meaning in literature and literary value of this book, and the research achievement and future prospects of it in the end.