The Book of Master Yu 鬻子 中国道教典籍

The Hanshu·Yiwenzhi (Book of Han·Treatise on Literature and Arts) recorded twenty-two chapters of the Yuzi in the Daoism category; it is a work of the Huang-Lao School dating from the late Warring States Period to the Qin and Han dynasties, which draws on the core thought of Laozi and belongs to an important early branch of Taoism, apocryphally attributed to Yuxiong, an ancestor of the State of Chu. The original text has been lost.

The Book of Master Yu

The existing version of the Yuzi, consisting of fourteen chapters, was compiled during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, with annotations by Feng Xinggui of the Tang Dynasty, and was transcribed and presented to the imperial court in the fourth year of the Yonghui reign period (653). The version preserved in the Daozang (Daoist Canon) has two volumes and is included in the Taiqing (Supreme Purity) section. This book compiles the thoughts of the Huang-Lao School and the School of Names and Actualities regarding state governance and education.

In his preface, Feng Xinggui stated that the book "expounds the great Dao, compiles and sorts out historical records, clarifies the education within the realm, and discusses the right and wrong of punishment and virtue".