Studies of the Han Feizi in China, Taiwan, and Japan

Abstract

In spite of unanimous agreement about the text’s philological and philosophical importance, research on the Han Feizi in English speaking countries has been much less common than on other Warring States texts like the Zhuangzi and the Xunzi (not to mention the Analects and the Mencius). A half century has passed since the full translation by W.K. Liao 廖文奎 was published in 1959 (Liao 1939–1959), and only a few monographs have appeared in English since then (Wang 1986; Lundahl 1992). In contrast, there is a vast amount of Chinese and Japanese literature on the Han Feizi.