| Huan Tan | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 桓譚 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 桓谭 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Master Huan | |||||||||
| Chinese | 桓子 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Junshan (courtesy name) | |||||||||
| Chinese | 君山 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Huan Tan (c. 43 BC – AD 28)[1] was a Chinese philosopher, poet, and politician of theWestern Han and its short-lived interregnum between AD 9 and 23, known as theXin dynasty.
Huan worked as an official under the administrations ofEmperor Ai of Han (r. 27–1 BC),Wang Mang (r. AD 9–23), theGengshi Emperor (r. 23–25), andEmperor Guangwu of Han (r. 25–57), respectively.[1] Huan was a close associate of the court astronomer and mathematicianLiu Xin, as well as the author and poetYang Xiong.
In addition to his many rhapsodies, essays, and memorials, Huan's major work was theXinlun (新论) orNew Discussions, which was admired by Emperor Guangwu despite Huan Tan's besmirched reputation for having closely associated himself with the regime of the usurper Wang Mang.[1] HisXinlun is also the earliest text to describe thetrip hammer device powered byhydraulics (i.e., awaterwheel), which was used to pound and decorticate grain.[2]
Huan's mode of philosophical thought belonged to anOld Text realist tradition. He drew explicitly onLegalism in his writings on government, saying that in certain historical epochs harsher punishments are needed.[3] He was supported by other contemporaries such as thenaturalist andmechanistic philosopherWang Chong (27–c. 100), the latter whoCrespigny states was probably heavily influenced by Huan Tan.[1]
Huan Tan is reported byYu Yingshi (b. 1930) to uphold self-contradictory views onimmortality. On one hand, he is quoted to say that "the way of immortals" is a fabrication of the lovers for the strange; on the other, however, he was reported to admit the practice as genuine and efficient. Possible explanation lies in the fact that theXinlun was a later compilation which might have confused his own statements with the quotations of his opponents.[4]
