Huainanzi

A large compendium in 21 chapters, produced by scholars at the court of Liu An, King of Huainan, and presented to Emperor Wu of Han in 139 BCE. It aims to gather everything a ruler needs to know into one framework grounded in the Dao. It begins with the Way as the source of all things, then moves through astronomy and the calendar, geography, the seasonal ordinances and the nature of the human spirit. Later chapters turn to the art of rulership, advising the ruler to remain still and let capable officials act, and to customs, warfare and the unpredictability of fortune, illustrated by the story of the old man at the frontier who loses his horse. The book blends Daoist cosmology with Confucian, Legalist and yin-yang ideas, a synthesis often called Huang-Lao thought. It also preserves myths such as Nüwa repairing the sky.

It shows how early Han thinkers tried to join cosmology, politics and self-cultivation into one system, and it preserves myths, early science and stories found nowhere else.