Huang-Lao

Huang-Lao or Huanglao (simplified Chinese: 黄老; traditional Chinese: 黃老; pinyin: Huáng-Lǎo; Wade–Giles: Huang-Lao; literally: "Yellow [Emperor] Old [Master]") was the most influential Chinese school of thought in the early 2nd-century BCE Han dynasty, and is generally interpreted as a school of syncretism. The more purely administrative Shen Buhai was the earliest known political philosopher to have been influenced by Huang-Lao, though through his administrative innovations becoming known as a Legalist. Like Shen Buhai, the mainstay of its activity originated in the multifarious Jixia Academy and is usually associated with a Realpolitikal Taoism like that of the Huainanzi, but also sometimes Confucian syncretism. A number of chapters of the Guanzi, which places considerable importance on traditional Confucian values, express a blend of what may be considered Legalistic, Confucian, and Daoistic philosophy that has been termed "Huang-Lao". With the dominance of Confucian orthodoxy, historically all such material would often simply be rubricked under terms such as Fa-Jia ("Legalism").