（EVAN MORGAN. SHANGHAI. KELLY AND WALSH. 1934）
The English reading public should be grateful to Mr. Evan Morgan for the fact that he has rendered accessible to them one more of the great books of ancient China. Although Mr. Morgan only undertook to translate a part of the Huai Nan Tzu（eight of the twenty-one“essays”），he attempted to present to his readers concisely the mainideas of the Taoistic philosophy in a serises of Introductory Articles，Notes，Annotations，Epitomes，Analyses，and Diagrams. This，in itself，is something to be greatly appreciated.
To translate the Huai Nan Tzu is not an easy matter. As Mr. Morgan pointed out，“there are unusual words in the composition. The ideas are often recondite and vague，”“To increase the difficulty，there is frequent use of paradox，hyperbole，the indirect and the allusive method；there is often the subtle reference and occultive meaning.”（p.v.）So in the text，there are many passages that are susceptible of more than one interpretation. No one can blame the translator，if he took an interpretation other than one's own. In the following，therefore，I shall try to comment only on some major points.
Although there are many philosophical ideas in the Huai Nan Tzu，the book itself can not be considered as a philosophical work. Good or bad，a philosophy must be the creation of one mind. It can not be something patched up by different hands. The Huai Nan Tzu is something that is patched up. It was written by the friends of the Pirnce Huai Nan，and is of the same nature as the Lu Shih Chun Chiu which was written by the friends of Lu Pu-wei. In both books one finds not one school of thought，but many schools. In the Huai Nan Tzu，for instance，one finds not only the thought of the Taoists but also that of the Ying Yang school，which is the systematic expression of ancient mythology and superstition. The Taoist and the Ying Yang schools represented two extremes of ancient thought：the former condemned superstition and mythology，while the latter systematized them. Yet one finds both schools in the Huai Nan Tzu. Both Lu Pu-wei and the Prince Huai Nan were patrons of philosophy，but not philosophers themselves. We cannot，therefore，consider the Prince Huai Nan as the successor of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu，and the Huai Nan Tzu as of the same rank as the Tao Te King and the Chuang Tzu，as Mr. Morgan seems to hold，or at least the impression which the reader gets from his book.
There are altogether twenty-one chapters，or essays，as Mr. Morgan called them，in the Huai Nan Tzu. One cannot blame Mr. Morgan for the fact that he only translated eight out of the twenty-one，but one may fairly ask：Why just these eight？With what standard in his mind did he make the selection？We cannot suppose that he just took these eight essays at random. Maybe he took only those essays that are congenial to the Taoistic teaching. This is what one expects from him after reading his Introduction to the book. But if that is the case，why did he include the “Dissertation on Generalship”（Dissertation VII in the translation）？This essay is devoted to the discussion on tactics and consider war as something necessary，which attitude is alien to Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu.
Mr. Morgan gave a new translation of the word Tao，viz，Cosmic Spirit. “It seems，”he said，“to cover all the ideas found in the original.”（p.vii.）One may ask how that can be. The word Tao，for instance，means the Way，the Truth. Can the term Cosmic Spirit cover these ideas？What is worse is that the term Cosmic Spirit suggests ideas that are not found in the word Tao. Spirit is the opposite of matter，but in Chinese philosophy，the distinction between mind and matter was not clearly made，at least not emphasized. Dr. Ferguson has made this point very clear in his Foreword.（pp.ii-iii.）
The diagrams illustrating the Confucian，the Taoist，and Buddhist ideas of the Cosmos constitute the weakest part of the book. One may wonder why Mr. Morgan attached these diagrams to his book，which apparently have little to do with the Huai Nan Tze. It is no exaggeration to say that with these diagrams，the scholarly value of the book is seriously affected. Taking the diagram illustrating the “The Confucian Idea of the Cosmos”for instance，one may wonder on what authority the diagram is made. The most important ideas in the Confucianist cosmology，such as that of Tai Chi太极，Ying and Yang，have no place in the diagram. The five cardinal human virtues are replaced by other two，Chung 忠 and Hsiao 孝. The word Chung is not translated as loyalty to the king，but as “kingship”. How can every man have the guality of Kingship？Then three schools are mentioned in regard to the theory of human nature，Hsun Tzu，the “bad nature school”，Confucius，the “good nature school”，and Kao Tzu，the “neutal nature school”. One may ask：Did Confucius himself say that human nature is good，or can we say that the “ideal of Kao Tzu” is Confucian？Besides，the three schools do not exhaust the different theories concerning human nature. In the history of Chinese philosophy，there were many other schools.
No translation can be perfect. By its very nature，it is an imitation；and no imitation can be as good as the original. On the whole we must appreciate the labor of Mr. Morgan in translating this difficult book；and those who do not read Chinese but are interested in Chinese philosophy，will find the translation useful.
冯友兰 Fung Yu-lan
National Tsing Hua University.
Reprinted from The Chinese Social and Political Science Review，19-3，October，1935