 He Yan’s writings exist mainly in fragments today. The most important are (1) his commentary to the Lunyu, which was, however, a collective effort jointly submitted to the throne with several other scholars, and (2) quotations from two of his essays entitled Wuming lun (Critical Discussion on the Nameless) and Dao lun (Critical Discussion on Dao) preserved in later sources. In the former of the two essays, He Yan explicitly defines the Dao as wu. In the latter, the Dao lun, there is a fuller discussion of the meaning of nothingness: