Not much has been discovered about Yang Zhu the person from the documents that still exist. However, the Mencius, the Xunzi, the Hanfeizi, the Lushi Chunqiu, the Huainanzi, and the Lunheng all confirm that Yang's school was one of the most influential in pre-Qin China. For Mencius, Yang and Mo Di were the most influential thinkers prior to Mencius's time, although he criticized Yang's emphasis on the individual and its anarchist consequence, as well as his selfishness and apathy to the public interest. These criticisms, however, are somewhat misleading for an understanding of the true nature of Yang's thought.

In the past, Chinese intellectuals were led to believe that "Yang Zhu chooses to exist only for his own self, and does nothing for the world, not even by drawing one hair of his" (Mencius 3B 9). Yet an unbiased...