The Huainanzi is acorporate work which was compiled at the court ofthe king of Huainan, being first presented to theimperial throne in 139 B.C., and possibly receivingcertain additions between then and 122 B.C. Forvarious reasons, however, the book did not meet withthe same type of acclaim that had accompanied othertexts. By the eleventh century at least, thecomments of Xu Shen (c. 55–149)and Gao You (c. 168–212) had been fusedtogether into a single set of notes. The bookattracted the critical attention of Su Song(1020–1101),and then that of some of the most notable scholarsof the Qing period, such as Wang Niansun(1744–1832), Huang Peilie (1763–1825)and Gu Guangqi (1776–1835). In the early days of western sinologythe work evaded the attention of scholars such asLegge and Couvreur who necessarily followed the leadof their Chinese masters and fastened on what theyregarded as the basic texts of traditional learning,i.e. mainly the classical texts and the Confucianteachers, and the Daode jing. It isonly in the latter part of the twentieth centurythat western scholars have felt ready to examine,appraise and translate parts of theHuainanzi, and the results may beseen in the writings of Eva Kraft (1957–58),Benjamin Wallacker (1962), Roger Ames (1983),Charles Le Blanc (1985), Hal Roth (1992), ClaudeLarre (1993) and now John Major. Further research inthe future will be immeasurably improved and broughtto new standards thanks to the publication of theconcordance to the text by D. C. Lau (1992).