University of Virginia Library

PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR

The present work is the first translation of the complete
writings of Han Fei TzŬ into a Western language. It is
based on the best Chinese text and commentaries, Wang
Hsien-shen's The Complete Works of Han Fei TzŬ with
Collected Commentaries[1] (1896), Kao Hêng's Supplementary
Commentaries on Han Fei TzŬ's Works[2] (1933),
and Yung Chao-tsu's Textual Criticisms of Han Fei TzŬ's
Works[3] (1936), with two most recent explicative editions of
the text with Japanese translations and notes, one by Tokan
Hirazawa[4] (1931) and another by the Waseda University
Press[5] (1932-3), as reference.

Wang Hsien-shen completed his monumental work in
1895. Its block-printed copies did not come off the press in
Changsha, the great scholar's native city, till over one year
later. Though the text is not punctuated like all the texts of
other Chinese classics, I have found no misprint. Nowadays
it is apparently out of print, while rare copies may be still
procurable in big libraries and old book stores. The reprint
of Wang's work by the Commercial Press, Shanghai, with
movable types, contains not more than a dozen of misprints
in the whole book. Yet it is regrettable that the marks of
punctuation, which they added with a view to increasing the

intelligibility of the text, abound with misleading errors.
Kao Hêng's work, which appeared in Nos. 3 and 4 in
Vol. II of the Wuhan University Quarterly Journal of Liberal
Arts,[6] reveals his scholarly thoroughness and constitutes
an original contribution to the existing knowledge of Han
Fei TzŬ's text. Yung Chao-tsu's work, in the main, represents
a systematic synthesis of the textual criticisms of Han Fei
TzŬ's works by his predecessors and himself. The two
Japanese editions and translations are not free from a number
of errors and misprints, but the exegetical remarks and
the explanatory notes added by the translators are
exceedingly valuable. By collating these works carefully,
I have hoped that the textual basis of my English rendering
can be a co-ordination of the best and newest scholarly
efforts on the Chinese original. However, my translation
probably involves incorrect or inaccurate points, wherefore
any suggestion for emendations or elucidations made
by the reader will be most welcome.

As it is necessary in the translation to acquaint the reader
with the author's life and times as well as the history of the
text in the original, I have prefixed to the author's Works
The Biography of Han Fei TzŬ, by SsŬ-ma Ch`ien, Wang
Hsien-ch`ien's Preface to "The Complete Works of Han
Fei TzŬ with Collected Commentaries", and Wang Hsien-shen's
own Foreword to "The Complete Works of Han Fei TzŬ with
Collected Commentaries", which altogether can make a
general introduction, brief but clear. My methodological
introduction is meant to clarify the main problems, principles,
and methods of translation.

On the completion of this work, I should acknowledge
my thanks to Dr. M. S. Bates and Mr. Li Siao-yen for the
criticisms and suggestions they have given me on all available
occasions, and to the Libraries of the University of Nanking,
the Institute of Chinese Cultural Studies, and the University
of Hong Kong for the facilities they have afforded me,
as well as to Dr. Neville Whymant, formerly of the
London School of Oriental Studies, for helpful comments,
and Mr. Arthur Probsthain for his congenial interest in
promoting the present work and enabling its publication
to materialize. I am also indebted to my wife who has
carefully gone over the whole translation and inspired
my perseverance in many painstaking efforts which the
author since centuries ago has imposed upon anybody
attempting to translate his writings into any alien tongue.