Liu An

Who was Liu An?

Líu Ān was a Chinese king and advisor to his nephew, Emperor Wu of Han. He is best known for editing the Huainanzi compendium of Daoist, Confucianist, and Legalist teachings. Early texts represent Liu An in three ways: the "author-editor of a respected philosophical symposium", the "bumbling rebel who took his life to avoid arrest", and the successful Daoist adept who transformed into a xian and "rose into the air to escape prosecution for trumped-up charges of treason and flew to eternal life."