The Military Thought Of "Huai Nan Zi"

"Huai nan zi" reflects warfare ideology and the methods Of using soldiers in the earlier Han dynasty, when the economy, politics, culture were in great and historic changes. Since affected by the popular theory that all the people should act according to the astronomical phenomena, "Huai nan zi" put forward the view that the death penalty should be decided in the second month of autumn. "Huai nan zi" not only absorbed the view of "lv shi chun qiu" that the war is a reflection of human nature, but also inherited the view of "wu zi" and "han fei zi" that the war happened because of the social environment. "Huai nai zi" keep the same view with "lv shi chun qiu",both of which advocated that the war should support the justice. Liu An pointed out that people must be vigilant to too more wars. On the problem of how to inspire the morale of soldiers to improve the combat capacity, "huai nan zi" emphasized that the victory of war was decided by the political strategy because of the ideology of Confucians. On the strategy of war, "huai nan zi" regarded "dao" is the most important factor, and thought that do nothing is the best way to everything. It is the reflection in the wars that the war should stand in the justice side. In some things, "bing lve xun" of "Huai nan zi" are the summarization and expansion of military academy in pre-qin dynasty, and a reflection of Confucians.