The Wei Liaozi (t=尉繚子) is a text on military strategy, one of the Seven Military Classics of ancient China.
History and authorship
The work is purportedly named after Wei Liao,
["Zi" (子; "Tzu" in Wade-Giles transliteration) was used as a suffix for the family name of a respectable man in ancient Chinese culture. It is a rough equivalent to "Sir" and is commonly translated into English as "Master".] who is said to have either been a student of
Lord Shang or an important advisor during the
Qin dynasty. However, there is little evidence to support either view. The only textual reference to Wei Liao outside of the
Wei Liaozi is in the
Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), where he is cast as an advisor to Qin Shi Huang, the youthful king of the state of Qin. Since the Wei Liaozi contains almost no actual strategy, it is thought that Wei Liao was a theoretician. Questions of authorship are further clouded by the fact that two different works of the same name appear to have been known during the
Han dynasty. The work assumed its present form around the end of the fourth century BC. A new version of the
Wei Liaozi was discovered in 1972 at a Han dynasty tomb in
Linyi. It is more
philosophy in tone than the received text, but differs significantly in only a few places.
[Sawyer (1993) pp. 229–232]
Content
The
Wei Liaozi frequently advocates both a civil and military approach to affairs. According to the text, agriculture and people are the two greatest resources of the state, and both should be nurtured and provided for. Although the
Wei Liaozi does not specifically mention
Confucianism, the text advocates a government based on humanistic values, in line with that school of thought. The ruler should be the paragon of virtue in the state. However, heterodoxy and other values not conducive to the state should be punished using draconian measures.
[Sawyer (1993) pp. 232–238]
