Huai-nan Tzu : philosophical synthesis in early Han thought : the idea of resonance (Kan-ying)

Abstract

Huai-nan Tzu (139BC) was viewed, for its great diversity of subject-matter, ideas and style, by traditional Chinese scholars as a composite work of the Eclectic School. It is the author's contention, however, that one overriding concern pervades the work: the attempt to define the essential conditions for a Taoist political utopianism.The present study emphasizes Chapter Six of Huai-nan Tzu in expounding the theory of kan-ying STIMULUS-RESPONSE; RESONANCE, which postulates that all things in the universe are interrelated and influence each other according to pre-set patterns. Only in the True Man, who is 'one with Tao' and 'attuned to the cosmos', does kan- ying attain its ultimate realization, 'the Great Peace' and 'the Great Merging'. After all,' concludes the author, ' it is in Huai-nan Tzu that we find the statement' "The relation of the Sage to Tao is like the relation of the sunflower to the sun; although they cannot be together all the time, the fidelity of their tendency never wavers."