Wikipedia
Huang-Lao or Huanglao was the most influential Chinese school of thought in the early 2nd-century BCE Han dynasty, and is generally interpreted as a school of syncretism. It was not systematically explained by Sima Qian, and past scholarship believed it to be a highly mystical branch of Taoism, developing into a major religion during the early Han dynasty, distinguishing it from the philosophical Zhuangzi as a more religious strain. But recent discoveries revealed it to be an important school of political thought, having its origins in a broader political-philosophical drive looking for solutions to strengthen the feudal order as depicted in Zhou propaganda, coming to fruition in the early Han Dynasty. The more purely administrative Shen Buhai was the earliest known political philosopher to have been influenced by such ideology, though through use by Legalists becoming thought of as one of them, and the syncretism of "Legalistic" texts like that of Shen Dao and the Han Feizi are sometimes considered early examples of Huang-Lao. Highly favoured by the superstitious rulers, together they dominated the intellectual life of the Qin and early Han, and with the addition of the Zhuangzi the term Taoism was probably coined with such content in mind.
Suffice it to say, a number of chapters of the Guanzi, which places considerable importance on traditional Confucian values, express a blend of what may be considered Legalistic, Confucian, and Daoistic philosophy that has been termed "Huang-Lao". Having its base in Qi, it spread south to develop in areas belonging to Chu. Chu culture being inherited by the Han dynasty, preceding the consolidation of the realm deft Han Emperors like Jing would be steeped in a Taoistic laissez-faire, and texts lie the Huainanzi includes a naturalist arguments against Legalism in favour of rule by worthies on the basis that one needs their competence for such things as diplomacy. With the dominance of Confucian orthodoxy, historically all such material would later often simply be rubricked under terms such as Fa-Jia ("Legalism").
Excepting the Huangdi Neijing, most Huang-Lao texts have vanished, and traditional scholarship associates this philosophical school with syncretist Chinese classics, namely the legalistic Hanfeizi, the Taoistic Huainanzi, but also the more Confucian Xunzi and Guanzi. Modern scholars are reinterpreting Huang-Lao following the 1973 discovery of the legalistic Mawangdui Silk Texts, which included four manuscripts, called the Huang-Lao boshu (黄老帛书 "Huang-Lao Silk Texts"), that are controversially identified as the long-lost Huangdi Sijing ("Yellow Emperor's Four Classics").
Huang-Lao Daoist philosophy was favoured at the Western Han courts of Emperor Wen (r. 180–157 BCE) and Emperor Jing (r. 157–141 BCE), before Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BCE) established Confucianism as the state philosophy. Hans van Ess (1993:173) analyzed the Shiji and Hanshu biographies of 2nd-century BCE individuals described as "Huang-Lao" followers, and found they were either members of a Huang-Lao faction or a Ru "Confucian" and Fa "Legalist" faction. The historian Sima Qian used the term Huang-Lao "as a characterization of persons belonging to a political group which was the faction he belonged to as well." These historical members of the Huang-Lao faction had three political policies in common: "opposing the campaigns in the north" against the Xiongnu, "affiliation to rich and independent families with a power-base far from the capital" at Chang'an, and "opposing the measures to deprive the feudal kings of their power."