Wei Liaozi: Difference between revisions

The work is purportedly named after Wei Liao, 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]]'', where he is cast as an advisor to [[Qin Shi Huang]], the youthful king of the state of [[Qin (state)|Qin]]. Since the Wei Liao-tzuLiaozi 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 philosophical in tone than the received text, but differs significantly in only a few places.<ref>Sawyer (1993) pp. 229-232</ref>