Huang-Lao

Huang–Lao or Huanglao (simplified Chinese: 黄老; traditional Chinese: 黃老; pinyin: Huáng-Lǎo; Wade–Giles: Huang-Lao; literally: "Yellow [Emperor] Old [Master]") was the most influential Chinese school of thought in the early 2nd-century BCE Han dynasty, having its origins in a broader political-philosophical drive looking for solutions to strengthen the feudal order as depicted in Zhou propaganda. Not systematically explained by historiographer Sima Qian, it is generally interpreted as a school of syncretism, developing into a major religion - the beginnings of the religious Taoism. Emphasizing the search for immorality, Feng Youlan and Herrlee Creel considered said religious Taoism to be different from if not contradictory to the more philosophical Zhuangzi strain of Taoism. Probably originating together around 300 BC, 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 Legalism, and the term Taoism (dao-jia) was probably coined with Huang–Lao and Zhuangzhi content in mind.

Huang–Lao was probably the earliest movement that linked together Laozi, Zhuangzi, the worship of Yellow Emperor, the School of Naturalists, elements of Chinese folk religion, and aspects from the other Hundred Schools of Thought. These would be the raw ingredients of Taoism. Huang–Lao Daoist philosophy was favoured at the Western Han courts of Emperor Wen (r. 180–157 BCE) and Emperor Jing (r. 157–141 BCE), before Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BCE) established Confucianism as the state philosophy. Hans van Ess (1993:173) analyzed the Shiji and Hanshu biographies of 2nd-century BCE individuals described as "Huang-Lao" followers, and found they were either members of a Huang–Lao faction or a Ru "Confucian" and Fa "Legalist" faction. The historian Sima Qian used the term Huang–Lao "as a characterization of persons belonging to a political group which was the faction he belonged to as well." These historical members of the Huang–Lao faction had three political policies in common: "opposing the campaigns in the north" against the Xiongnu, "affiliation to rich and independent families with a power-base far from the capital" at Chang'an, and "opposing the measures to deprive the feudal kings of their power."

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