Liú Ān (, c. 179–122 BC) was a
Han dynasty Chinese prince and an advisor to his nephew,
Emperor Wu of Han (武帝). He is best known for editing the (139 BC)
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."