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Zhufu Yan shu 主父偃書 "Book of Zhufu Yan" was a political treatise written during the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) by Zhufu Yan 主父偃 (died 126 BCE). He hailed from Linzi 臨淄 (modern Zibo 淄博, Shandong) and was an ordinary grand master (zhong dafu 中大夫). In his memorials to the throne, he stressed the importance of curtailing the power of the imperial princes and urged the emperor to exert a Confucian government of benevolence. These suggestions were adopted by Emperor Wu 漢武帝 (r. 141-87 BCE).
As a philosopher, Zhufu Yan studied the Confucian Classics Yijing 易經 "Book of Changes" and Chunqiu 春秋 "Spring and Autumn Annals", but also the arguments of the so-called coalition advisors (zonghengjia 縱橫家) of the Warring States period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE).
His book is, therefore, in the imperial bibliography Yiwen zhi 藝文志 in the official dynastic history Hanshu 漢書, listed among the books of coalition advisors. It was originally 28 chapters long, but only 4 have survived. The most detailed of these are suggestions on how to meet the challenge of the border raids by the nomad federation of the Xiongnu 匈奴.
The surviving fragments were collected by the Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Ma Guohan 馬國翰 (1794-1857) and are to be found in Ma's series Yuhan shanfang jiyi shu 玉函山房輯佚書.