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The Wenzi 文子 "Master Wen"， canonic title Tongxuan zhenjing 通玄真經 "The perfect book penetrating the mystery" is a Daoist treatise written during the Warring States period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE). There is actually nothing known about the author. His name is said to have been Xin Jian 辛銒 or Xin Bing 辛鉼, his style Jiran 計然. He is therefore also called Jiranzi 計然子 "Master reckoning what is by nature". Xin Jian hailed from Kuiqiu 葵邱 and was a disciple of Laozi 老子 and a teacher of Fan Li 范蠡. He was a contemporarian of Confucius 孔子 and gave advice either to King Ping of Zhou 周平王 (r. 770-720 BCE; this seems to be an error of Yan Shigu 顏師古), or King Ping of Chu 楚平王 (r. 528-516). It might be quite probable that Wenzi and Jiranzi were two different persons, or that there were, at least, two books with the respective titles Wenzi and Jiranzi. The Northern Wei period 北魏 (386-534) scholar Li Xian 李暹 mixed up the two.
The book Wenzi is basically a Daoist writing, yet is includes a lot of other philosophical thought to be found in Confucian, Mohist or legalist books. Many quotations from the Laozi are identical to the received version of the Daodejing 道德經, but there are also differences to be found. The explanation of the Dao, the "Way" of nature, plays an important role in the Wenzi. In some respects, the book can be seen as a kind of loose commentary to the Daodejing. The Dao is, according to Wenzi, so high that it can not be reached, and so deep that it can not be fathomed. It embraces Heaven and Earth in a shapeless unity. The origin of the Dao is obscure, yet is spreads out to everywhere without bring depleted. The unclear is clarified by quietness, meaning the return to the original state. The Dao controls and connects everything. Dark by itself, it is able to enlighten. Soft by itself, it is able to penetrate all matters. Containing the Yin, it sends out Yang to make bright stars, sun, and moon. Mountains are high because of the Dao, and the seas are deep because of the Dao. Animals can move because of it. The Dao itself is shapeless and void, it is even and changeable, pure and quiet, soft and weak, clear and refined. A man who has found out the true nature of the Dao will be able to become like the Dao itself. Pureness and quietness are ideal ways to identify oneself with the Dao, to nourish one's life, to acheive perfect virtue, motionless harmony, and an inner liberation of the disturbances of life. These methods can be applied for the own mind, the body, and a society as well as a state.
The Wenzi has been criticised as a forgery. The quality of the text was much too high, the argument goes, as that it could have been compiled during the Warring States period, at least according to the Tang period 唐 (618-907) scholar Liu Zongyuan 柳宗元. It was, nonetheless, during that time that the book Wenzi was canonized as core of the important Daoist writings.
The imperial bibliography Yiwenzhi 藝文志 in the official dynastic history Hanshu 漢書 says the book Wenzi included 9 chapters, the bibliography Jingjizhi 經籍志 in the Suishu 隋書 and the bibliography Qilüe 七略 speak of 12 chapters. Li Xian and the Tang period scholar Xu Lingfu 徐靈府 speak of a length of 12 juan "scrolls". The version included in the collectaneum Siku quanshu 四庫全書 is only 2 juan long. Inspite of all these different arrangments of the text, the content seemed not to have changed over the centuries. Modern scholars date the compilation of the Wenzi to the Former Han period 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE), a time when books of similar content, like the Huainanzi 淮南子, were compiled. In 1973, an original Wenzi text was discovered in a Han period tomb in Dingxian 定縣, Hebei. The greatest part of the text differs to the received version, yet in the chapter Daode 道德, six paragraphs are identical. This fact shows that the Wenzi was indeed a text compiled during the Warring States period but was subject to an extensive later revision, or that authors of a new text borrowed the name Wenzi to enhance the status of their book.
The received version of the Wenzi is to be found in the Daoist Canon Daozang 道藏, the Siku quanshu, the Shuofu 說郛, Mohai jinhu 墨海金壺 and Yuan-Ming shanben congshu shizhong 元明善本叢書十種.
Source: Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰 (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典, vol. 2, p. 2295. Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe.
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