Ruler is the Heart of the State

①《淮南子》为西汉淮南王刘安及其门客所著。本名《鸿烈》，鸿，大也；烈，明也；以为大明道之言也。内容广博，对政治、哲理、天文、地理、自然、养生、军事都有所论述，融合先秦诸子的思想，而以道家老庄为主，采纳儒家和阴阳家的观点，修正先秦道家的无为。

②《论语》是春秋时期思想家、教育家孔子的弟子及再传弟子记录孔子及其弟子言行而编成的语录文集，成书于战国前期。 全书共20篇492章，以语录体为主，叙事体为辅，较为集中地体现了孔子及儒家学派的政治主张、伦理思想、道德观念、教育原则等。作品辞约义富，有些语句、篇章形象生动，其主要特点是语言简练，浅近易懂，而用意深远，有一种雍容和顺、纡徐含蓄的风格，能在简单的对话和行动中展示人物形象。 《论语》自宋代以后，被列为“四书”之一，成为古代学校官定教科书和科举考试必读书

③《晉書》，中國的二十四史之一，于唐朝貞觀二十二年（公元648年）寫成。唐朝名相房玄齡等人合著，作者共二十一人。記載的歷史上起三國時期司馬懿早年，下至東晉恭帝元熙二年（公元420年）劉裕廢晉帝自立，以宋代晉。該書同時還以「載記」形式，記述了十六國政權的狀況。原有敘例、目錄各一卷，帝紀十卷，志二十卷，列傳七十卷，載記三十卷，共一百三十二卷。後來敘例、目錄失傳，今存一百三十卷。此句三代指夏、商、周。

Notes:

①The 《Huainanzi》 was compiled by Liu An, King of Huainan in the Western Han dynasty, together with his retainers. Its original title was 《Honglie》 (Vast and Luminosity): hong meaning “great,” and lie meaning “bright,” signifying words that illuminate the Dao on a grand scale. The work is encyclopedic in scope, addressing politics, philosophy, astronomy, geography, nature, health cultivation, and military affairs. It blends the thought of the pre-Qin philosophers with Daoism, especially Laozi and Zhuangzi, as its core, while also drawing on Confucian and Yin-Yang ideas, and revising the earlier Daoist doctrine of non-action (wuwei).

 ②The 《Analects》 is a collection of sayings and conversations compiled by Confucius’s disciples and later followers, recording the words and deeds of Confucius and his students. It was completed in the early Warring States period. The work consists of 20 books and 492 chapters, written primarily in the form of dialogues with some narrative passages. It provides a relatively concentrated expression of Confucius’s and the Confucian school’s political views, ethical thought, moral concepts, and educational principles. The work is concise in wording yet rich in meaning, with some sentences and passages vivid in imagery. Its main features are brevity of language, clarity and accessibility, while conveying profound intentions. It carries a style of calm dignity, gentle harmony, and restrained subtlety, capable of presenting character images through simple dialogue and action. Since the Song dynasty, The 《Analects》 has been ranked among the “Four Books,” becoming an officially prescribed textbook in traditional schools and a required reading for the imperial civil service examinations.

③ The 《Book of Jin》, one of China’s Twenty-Four Histories, was completed in the 22nd year of the Zhenguan reign of the Tang dynasty (A.D. 648). It was a collaborative work by the renowned Tang statesman Fang Xuanling and others, with a total of twenty-one authors. The history it records begins with the early years of Sima Yi of the Three Kingdoms period and ends in the 2nd year of the Yuanxi era of Emperor Gong of the Eastern Jin (A.D. 420), when Liu Yu deposed the Jin emperor and founded the Song, thereby replacing Jin.

In addition, the book also includes accounts in the form of “Biographies of States” (zaiji), describing the situation of the Sixteen Kingdoms. The original work consisted of one fascicle each of Prefatory Principles and Table of Contents, ten fascicles of Annals of Emperors, twenty fascicles of Treatises, seventy fascicles of Biographies, and thirty fascicles of Biographies of States, making a total of 132 fascicles. Later, the Prefatory Principles and Table of Contents were lost, and 130 fascicles remain today. In this context, the term “Three Dynasties” refers to the Xia, Shang, and Zhou.