Unraveling and Explicating the <i>Han Feizi</i> ’s Dissection of the <i>Laozi</i>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This chapter suggests that it may be a useful heuristic to read the “Jie Lao” and “Yu Lao” chapters as if they were written by Han Fei. It asks a set of related philosophical questions: (1) What sort of philosophical vision can we draw out of these two commentaries on the Laozi? (2) Is there a reading of these two commentaries that is both internally consistent and consistent with the rest of the Han Feizi? and (3) What role does the Laozi play for the author(s) of these two commentaries, whoever they were? It concludes that the “Jie Lao” and “Yu Lao” appear to be earnest attempts to elucidate the meaning of those chapters (or parts thereof) upon which they comment. And, while they do so primarily by explicating the political implications of the Laozi, neither chapter pushes the text as far as they could, had the goal been to use the Laozi to defend the more substantial amoral political realism that appears throughout much of the Han Feizi. Thus, we end up with a political vision that is not a fully comfortable fit with the rest of the Han Feizi, primarily because Han Fei cannot quite accept either the Laozi’s view of the possibility of thoroughgoing change in human nature or its conception of a Way that allows for non-coercive methods of changing the actions of the populace.</jats:p>