
Explaining and Illustrating the Laozi
The Earliest Commentaries on the Daodejing
Oxford University Press Inc
Will be published approx. on 21. November 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-0-19-751491-7 (ISBN)
Description
Although the ancient Chinese text Laozi--also known as the Daodejing--is highly popular worldwide, few Anglophone readers are familiar with the history of how the Chinese themselves have interpreted it. This volume aims to introduce students and general readers to the two earliest surviving commentaries on the Laozi, through translations that are approachable for non-specialists and can be read on their own. These two commentaries, the "Jie Lao" (Explaining the Laozi) and "Yu Lao" (Illustrating the Laozi), appear as two chapters in the book Han Feizi, traditionally dated to the 3rd century BCE. They are interesting not only for showing how at least one very early reader understood the Laozi, but also for what they may reveal about the state of the Laozi itself at that time, before it achieved the form of the text that is so famous nowadays. The book also includes original essays that explore the commentaries' relation to the rest of the Han Feizi, compare and contrast them with other Laozi commentaries, and analyze their place in the larger history of Chinese commentarial writing.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
Weight
3 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-751491-7 (9780197514917)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Explaining and Illustrating the Laozi
The Earliest Commentaries on the Daodejing
Book
approx. 09/2026
Oxford University Press Inc
€106.50
Not yet published
Persons
Eirik Lang Harris is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University. He is the author of Adventures in Chinese Realism (2022) and The Shenzi Fragments (2016).
Eric L. Hutton is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah. He is the translator of Xunzi: The Complete Text (2014) among numerous articles on ancient Chinese and comparative philosophy.
Eric L. Hutton is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah. He is the translator of Xunzi: The Complete Text (2014) among numerous articles on ancient Chinese and comparative philosophy.
Edited and translated
Associate Professor, Department of PhilosophyAssociate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Colorado State University
Professor, Department of PhilosophyProfessor, Department of Philosophy, University of Utah
Content
- Introduction
- Part I. Translations: Translator's Foreword
- 1: Eric L. Hutton: Jie Lao è§£è: Explaining the Laozi
- 2: Yu Lao å'è: Illustrating the Laozi
- Part II. Analyses
- 3: Eirik Lang Harris: Unraveling and Explicating the Han Feizi's Dissection of the Laozi
- 4: Alan K. L. Chan: The Interiority of Virtue and Its Logical Entailments: The "Jie Lao" in Comparison with Other Early Laozi Commentaries
- 5: Yuet Keung Lo: Situating the "Jie Lao" and "Yu Lao" among the Practices of Commentary in Early China