Summarized from:
Fabrizio Pregadio, The Taoist Tradition: An Introduction to Teachings, Schools, and Practices
Golden Elixir Press
Huang-Lao dao (Way of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi) is the name under which one part of the Taoist tradition was known in the early Han period (2nd century BCE). The precise contours of this "Way" are unclear, but it may be equivalent to the early meaning of the term Daojia ("lineage(s) of the Dao") as defined by Sima Tan (fl. ca. 135 BCE) in the Shiji (Records of the Historian; see inset below).
Laozi and the Yellow Emperor
The Huang-Lao adepts saw Laozi as the master who set forth the Taoist principles of government in the Daode jing, and Huangdi (the mythical Yellow Emperor) as the ruler who applied them for the first time in human history. Huangdi continued to play the role of the perfect "Taoist" ruler in later times: having received teachings in various disciplines — medicine, alchemy, sexual practices, dietetics, etc. — from different gods, goddesses, and immortals, he would become the patron of some of them. In later times, Laozi and Huangdi were even associated with one another as a single deity under the name Huanglao jun, lit., Yellow Old Lord.
Main Features
The Taoists enable the essence and spirit of the human being to be concentrated and unified. In movement they join with the Formless, in quiescence they provide adequately for the ten thousand things. . . . In establishing customs and promulgating policies, they do nothing unsuitable. Their tenets are concise and easy to grasp; their policies are few but their achievements are many. . . . They have methods that are not methods: they take adapting to the seasons (or: the times) as their practice. They have limits that are no limits: they adapt to things by harmonizing with them.
In addition to the central notion of government by "non-doing" (wuwei), the Huang-Lao dao appears to have promoted not only other teachings of the Daode jing, such as the requirement of self-cultivation by the ruler, but also — displaying the first hints of the integration of Daode jing teachings and cosmological thought — the regulation of political and social life according to cosmic cycles, such as those of the seasons. The Huang-Lao ideology enjoyed some success at court during the early decades of the Han dynasty, but quietly disappeared after Confucianism was adopted as official state doctrine by Emperor Wu of the Han (r. 140-87 BCE). Nevertheless, its political views continued to form one of the bases of the Taoist teaching.
The Huainan zi
The Taoist Tradition: An Introduction to Teachings, Schools, and Practices
A concise but comprehensive introduction to Taoist thought and religion
In the past few decades, scholars have described some excavated manuscripts as Huang-Lao sources, but no firm conclusion has been reached on this point. The same is true of the Huainan zi (The Master of Huainan), a major work completed in 139 BCE under the patronage of Liu An (180-122 BCE), the ruler of the southern kingdom of Huainan (in present-day Anhui province). The Huainan zi contains sections devoted to thought, government, self-cultivation, ethics, mythology, hagiography, astronomy, topography, music, military affairs, and other traditional sciences. Its intents of synthesis are also shown by more than 800 quotations drawn from other texts, including about one hundred from the Daode jing and over 250 from the Zhuangzi.
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