Huashu

Authorship of the Huashu is associated with three people. The Southern Tang (937–975 CE) chancellor Song Qiqiu 宋齊丘 first published it under his name, but evidence suggests he plagiarized the Huashu from its primary author Tan Qiao 譚峭, who later scholars confabulated with another roughly contemporaneous Daoist Tan Zixiao 譚紫霄 (see Kurz's 2006 discussion). Didier analyzes the authorship in detail, and believes (1998:147) "one reasonably can conclude only that while T'an Ch'iao wrote the essence of the Hua shu text, Sung edited and also emended it, and in the process corrupted both the structure of and the apparent philosophy expressed through the work."

The received Huashu text contains 110 articles or sections (pian 篇) arranged in 6 chapters (juan 卷), named after types of hua 化 "transformation; change; conversion".

Most Huashu articles begin with a parable or example and then elaborate upon it. Individual articles are identified by chapter and number, for instance 1.1 Ziji Gong bi 紫極宮碑 "Stele at the Palace of the Purple Ultimate", 1.2 Sheqiao 蛇雀 "Snakes and Sparrows," 1.3 Laofeng 老楓 "Old Maple Trees", 1.4 Ermu 耳目 "Ears and Eyes". Unlike this 1.1 with four Chinese characters, all the other 109 Huashu titles have two characters, which suggests textual corruption or alteration.

The textual history of the Huashu was analyzed by Didier (1998:127–147) who differentiated two lines of transmission, the "secular" text originally published under the authorship of Song Qiqiu and the "Daoist" text written by Tan Qiao. The first transmission dates back to Song's 930 CE preface, which describes the Huashu as having 6 chapters and 110 articles. The second textual transmission dates back to Chen Jingyuan's 1060 CE edition of the Huashu credited to Tan Qiao. Didier (1998:131) concludes that in 14th-century China, the book "was widely known and read" and "two of what we might call Hua shu cultures existed, the secular or external and the Taoist/alchemical or internal."

The secular Huashu text, called the Qiqiuzi 齊丘子 "[Book of] Master [Song] Qiqiu" or Song Qiqiu Huashu 宋齊丘化書, is related to the 1144–46 CE Daozang "Daoist Canon" edition of the Huashu. Texts in this lineage have 110 articles, beginning with 1.1 "Stele at the Palace of the Purple Ultimate". The Daoist Huashu text, called the Tanzi 譚子 "[Book of] Master Tan [Qiao]" or Tanzi Huashu 譚子化書, is related to the 1457–1464 Daiwang 代王 (Hubei) government-printed Huashu edition. Texts in this lineage have 109 articles, or 110 beginning with different 1.1 Daohua 道化 "Way Transformations" (also the chapter 1 title) or Shenhua 神化 "Spirit Transformations" titles. Many Huashu editions are currently available, and the Daozang includes two versions (CT 1044 and 1478).

Based on differences among Huashu editions (variant characters, taboo usages, etc.) and a 1023–33 CE text called the Wuhua 五化 "Five Transformations" credited to Tanzi "Master Tan", Didier (1998:141-44) suggests the original Huashu had 5 chapters instead of 6. This Wuhua closely resembles the Huashu except that it begins "The Utmost Way has five transformations therein" and that the "Way Transformations" (chapter 1 in received texts) subsumes the 5 Huashu chapters "Techniques, Potency, Humaneness, Food, and Frugality Transformations". His hypothesis that the original Huashu text had a quinary instead of sexpartite structure, and that the first chapter was Tan's original preface, is strengthened by the importance of 5 among numbers in Chinese culture. Take for instance the Huashu articles Wuxing 五行 "Five Phases/Elements" (4.2) and Wuchang 五常 "Five Constant [Virtues]" (3.1).

The textual theme and namesake is hua 化 " transform, change, convert, turn into; (physically) melt, dissolve; digest; incinerate; (individually) change into; metamorphose; take the form of; disguise oneself; (Buddhism) reincarnate; (euphemism) die; pass away". Wenlin interprets this Chinese character, "化 huà depicts a person and a person upside-down. The left side is 亻 (人 rén) 'person'. The right side 匕 was originally 人 upside-down. A person who flips, changes." The closest synonym is bian 變 "change, change into, become; transform; adapt; perform (magic, etc.), and their compound is bianhua 變化 "change; vary, variation; metamorphose; transmute". Two other common hua-compounds are huaxue 化學 (lit. "transformation study") "chemistry" and wenhua 文化 ("literacy transformation") "culture; civilization".

Hua "transformations" are a key topic in the Daoist Zhuangzi. For instance, Victor H. Mair translates it as "evolution" in this context.

Nuncle Scattered and Nuncle Slippery were observing the mounds of the Earl of Darkness in the emptiness of K'unlun where the Yellow Emperor rested. Suddenly a willow began to sprout from Nuncle Slippery's left elbow. He looked startled, as though he resented it."Do you resent it?" asked Nuncle Scattered. "No," said Nuncle Slippery. "Why should I resent it? Our lives are just a borrowed pretext. That which we borrow to maintain our lives is merely so much dust. Life and death alternate like day and night. As you and I were observing evolution, it caught up with me. So why should I resent it? (1994:169)

James D. Sellmann elucidates the Daoist significance of hua.

There is no conclusion, no end, no finish for the Zhuangzi. Things transpose, and keep on changing. Therefore, the compassionate meaning and empathic understanding of "transformation" as it is mentioned in the context of the Zhuangzi encompasses each and every thing – in the natural world and the human world. From this perspective, transformation entails a magnitude of meaning, or "spiritual" dimension (in the sense of "high spirits" or "laughter"). Transformation is not just change of form and shape (bian 變) or a change of things and situations (yi 易), but it also entails a complete renewal of the experience of life's meaning (hua 化). Hua provides a way to move through various shapes or bodily forms within a species and across species to merge with each unique perspective, and to experience a mystical continuity with the particulars of nature. In chapter two of the Zhuangzi, the mystical experience is described in these terms; "heaven and earth were born together with me, and the myriad things and I are one" (5/2/52-53). The way hua is played out in the Zhuangzi is very telling, especially in the context of elaborating on the mystical experience. (1998:170)

This 10th-century Huashu "Book of Transformations", written by Tan Qiao and edited by Song Qiqiu, should be distinguished from a similarly titled 13th-century Daoist text — the Wendi huashu 文帝化書 "Book on the Transformations of Lord Wen" or Zitong dijun huashu 梓潼帝君化書 "Book of Transformations of the Divine Lord of Zitong" (tr. Kleeman 1994). It was supposedly revealed in automatic writing in 1181 and 1194 CE, and details the transformations of Wenchang 文昌, patron deity of the literary arts, also known as Zitong dijun 梓潼帝君.

The English title of the Huashu is usually "Book of Transformations" or "Book of Transformation", but it is also translated "Book of Alternations" (Moeller 2004:151) and "Scripture of Changes" — not to be confused with the Yijing" (Lembert and Schenkel 2002:213). "Book of Transformations" is used in titles of books about the Yijing (Anagarika Govinda 1981) and magic (Marian Green 2001), and "Book of Transformation" in one by the Dalai Lama (2001).

While generations of Chinese literati have studied the Huashu as a philosophical text, notably in terms of Neo-Confucianism, Western scholars are only beginning to appreciate it. Alexander Wylie (1901:158–159) first described the book, "The 化書 Hwa shoo or "Book of Transformation," written by 譚峭 T'an Seaou in the early part of the 10th century, is an ethical treatise, strongly impregnated with Taouist [sic] tendencies." The earliest European-language translation of the Huashu was in German. Alfred Forke (1934:338-49) discussed Tan Qiao's philosophy and translated over 20 articles.

Joseph Needham and others studying the history of science and technology in China have rediscovered the Huashu, which he called (1956:444) "a work of much importance". Note that Needham's unusual system of romanization is changed to pinyin, for instance, substituting [Tan Qiao] for "Than Chhiao".

Evaluating Chinese proto-scientific texts from the Tang and Song dynasties, Needham cites Xingying 形影 "Objects and Images" (1.7),

Of all these books, the most original from the point of view of the philosophy of science is probably the Hua Shu. [Tan Qiao] (if he was really its author) developed a special kind of subjective realism, in which he emphasized that though the external world was real, our knowledge of it was so deeply affected by subjective factors that its full reality could not be said to have been seized (this, of course, is an attempt to express his point of view in modern terms). First he considers an infinite regress of images of an object in oppositely placed plane mirrors. The form and colour of the object ([xing] 形) is perfectly retained in each of the successive images (ying 影). Since it can exist without them, it is not alone and in itself complete ([shi] 實), but since they perfectly reproduce its form and colour, they are not in themselves empty ([xu] 虛); or, as might be said in modern terms, it is not fully real, but they are not fully unreal. Now that which is neither real nor not-real, concludes [Tan Qiao], is akin to the Tao. (1956:450)

Moeller (2004:152) notes Tan's room of parallel mirror images "is obviously indebted to an earlier Buddhist example." The Huayan patriarch Fazang used an illuminated statue of the Buddha inside a room of mirroring mirrors to illustrate Indra's net to Empress Wu Zetian. Needham additionally (1956:450) cites a zoological example of subjectivity from Xiaoji 梟雞 "Owls and Hens" (1.9) – written eight centuries before John Locke made the primary/secondary quality distinction. "For the owl, [Tan Qiao] says, the night is bright and the day dark; for the hen the converse is true, as for ourselves. Which of the two, he asks, in good Taoist style, is to be considered 'normal' and which 'abnormal'?"

Needham (1956:451) refers to Shehu 射虎 "Shooting Tigers" (1.11), which relates optical illusions with Daoist philosophy of perception. "A man may shoot at a striped stone, he says, under the impression that it is a tiger, or at a ripple on the water, under the impression that it is a crocodile. Moreover, even if these animals are really there, his attention may be so concentrated on them that he will simply not see the stones or the water beside them."

The Huashu article Sijing 四鏡 "Four Lenses" (1.10), with the earliest known reference to the basic types of simple lenses, metaphorically illustrates relativism and, in modern terms, subjective idealism.

I have always by me four lenses. The first is called [gui] 璧 (the 'sceptre', a diverging bi-concave lens). The second is called [zhu] 珠 (the 'pearl', biconvex). The third is called [zhi] 砥 (the 'whetstone', plano-concave). The fourth is called [yu] 盂 (the 'bowl', plano-convex). With [gui] the object is larger (than the image). With [zhu] the object is smaller (than the image). With [zhi] the image appears upright. With [yu] the image appears inverted. When one looks at shapes or human forms through such instruments, one realizes that there is no such thing as (absolute) large or small, short or long, beautiful or ugly, desirable or hateful. (tr. Needham 1956:451, 1962:117)

Needham notes that Giambattista della Porta's 1593 De refraction, optics parte was the first European treatment of these fundamental lens types.

Dahan 大含 "Great Containment" (1.24) discusses how sound originates from disturbances in qi 氣 "air; vapor; pneuma; energy; vital force", a theory that Needham (1962:207) calls "far more advanced than the Pythagorean conception of sounds as a stuff composed of numbers."

The void ([xu] 虛) is transformed into (magical) power (shen 神). (Magical) power is transformed into [qi]. [Qi] is transformed into material things ([xing] 形). Material things and [qi] ride on one another ([xing qi xiang cheng] 形氣相乘), and thus sound is formed. It is not the ear which listens to sound but sound which of itself makes its way into the ear. It is not the valley which of itself gives out echoing sound, but sound of itself fills up the entire valley.
An ear is a small hollow ([qiao] 竅) and a valley is a large hollow. Mountains and marshes are a 'small valley' and Heaven and Earth are a 'large valley'. (Theoretically speaking, then) if one hollow gives out sound ten thousand hollows will all give out sound; if sound can be heard in one valley it should be heard in all the ten thousand valleys. Sound leads (back again) to [qi]; [qi] leads (back again) to (magical) power (shen 神); (magical) power leads (back again) to the void. (But) the void has in it (the potentiality for) power. The power has in it (the potentiality for) [qi]. [Qi] has in it (the potentiality for) sound. One leads (back again) to the other, which has (a potentiality for) the former within itself. (If this reversion and production were to be prolonged) even the tiny noises of mosquitoes and flies would be able to reach everywhere. (tr. Needham 1962:207–208)

Several other Huashu articles mention this Daoist transformational series between xu 虚 "emptiness; void", shen 神 "spirit; god", qi 氣, and xing 形 "form; shape; material things". They are said to be reversible back to emptiness (1.1), to exist everywhere (1.3), to all be one (1.16), to all contain each other (2.19), to transform from life to death and back to emptiness (1.20), and, adding a transformation from xing to jing 精 "essence" (cf. the Three Treasures), to underlie all human problems (1.15).

Other scholars quote the Huashu from Needham. Galeotti, Menconi, and Fronzoni (2003:90) suggest "surprising references to the butterfly effect" in "Great Containment" (1.24). Davies (2003:4) compares Francis Crick's The Astonishing Hypothesis with "Shooting Tigers" (1.11) that uses "optical illusions and human inattention to press the view that we pick out certain elements of reality to form our world-picture."

The Huashu has untold significance to the histories of philosophy and science. One final example mentions classical conditioning a millennium before Ivan Pavlov discovered it. Geng Xin 庚辛 "The Geng and Xin [Families]" (5.10) recounts how two neighbors, figuratively named after the 7th and 8th Celestial stems, used different materials to construct fish ponds.

The Geng's fish pond had a bamboo railing that made a ce-ce 策策 sound when leaned upon, and the Xin's had a wooden one that made a tang-tang 堂堂 sound. Both families fed their fish daily and the fish learned to leap out of the water when they heard these sounds. But even if they were not being fed, the fish leapt whenever they heard these respective sounds. Thus, the Geng's fish could be called with ce-ce and the Xin's fish with tang-tang, which is a Food Transformation. [庚氏穴池，构竹为凭槛，登之者其声“策策”焉。辛氏穴池，构木为凭槛，登之者其“堂堂”焉。二氏俱牧鱼于池中，每凭槛投饥，鱼必踊跃而出。他日但闻“策策”“堂堂”之声，不投饵亦踊跃而出，则是庚氏之鱼可名“策策”，辛氏之鱼可名“堂堂”，食之化也。]

The Huashu, unlike most other Daoist classics, is not available in English translation, with the unpublished exceptions of a MA thesis and a PhD dissertation.

• The Kinship of the Three

• The Book of Transformation, Taoist Culture & Information Centre
• (in Chinese) 化书, Huashu in simplified characters, The Online School of Peking University
• (in Chinese) 化書, Daozang CT 1044 edition
• (in Chinese) 譚子化書, Daozang CT 1478 edition