The Canon of the Yellow Emperor

Not long ago more than 30 years, in 1973, it was discovered in an ancient grave of the south of China, in Mawangdui to be precise, an important quantity of artistic objects. Between them he was emphasizing a big fragment of silk completely full of Chinese characters. The students soon discovered that on the cloth a version of Dao Dejing was written, the famous bible taoísta, as well as another work at first unknown.

Later investigations discovered that his character was corresponding with the brief description that the Annals on Literature and Art, of the History of the Dynasty Exists they realized of "Four Outstanding figures of the Yellow Emperor." This is the basic work of the philosophical school called Huang-Lao, since he was considering the Yellow Emperor (Huang Di) and father of the Taoism, Lao Zi, like his founders.

In fact, the use of these two names already gives an idea of the political character of the agreement, since being based on these ancient roots he proposes a system of government (not further at all of the ideas of Lao Zi) capably of being compared by the legal system or the confucianist, domineering in the epoch. Based on one hand on the love to the village, and in the harmony between the sovereign one and his subjects, it supports on the other hand him need for a few clearly established laws, and that of establishing severe punishments for those that do not fulfill them.

Divided in four parts: The Constant Laws it assumes that laws, decrees and legal institutions, they rest on the Dao. Sixteen Outstanding figures, the second book, it shows a series of scenes in which the Yellow Emperor the bases of the political system of the Huang-Lao, the third one, Aphorisms, mixes some philosophical aspects with his practical application, and the last one, the Extract of the Dao, it is a treatise purely mystical on the Dao.

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