Key Concepts of Fate and Prediction in the Yijing - Chao Center for ...

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26gangsheng ). Xu examines in particular all of the lines occupying the sixthposition of each hexagram, categorizing them in terms of qualities such as health (jian), compliance (shun ), movement (dong ), stopping (zhi ), entering (ru ),speaking (shuo ), pitfalls (xian ), and beauty (li ). He also shows, through ananalysis of the judgments, the “Big Image Commentary,” and the “Small ImageCommentary,” how variables such as fortune and misfortune (jixiong ) and remorseand regret (huilin ) depend on the timing (shi ) of a situation as described by thelines.Overall, as I have tried to argue in Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World(2008), despite avowed allegiances to one or another philosophical school, or loyalty to aparticular teacher, or later attributions, most Chinese scholars of the Changes tended tobe eclectic, especially in late imperial times. Thus, the boundaries between the School ofPrinciple and the School of the Mind, like those between the School of Meanings andPrinciples and the School of Images and Numbers, proved to be quite permeable inpractice. Wei Liaoweng (; 1178–1237), for example, adopted the strategy of“using images and numbers to seek meanings and principles” (yi xiangshu qiu yili ). Xiang Anshi ( d. 1208) tried to supplement Cheng Yi’s single-mindedemphasis on meanings and principles with an analysis of images and numbers, placingspecial emphasis on the images of advance and retreat (jintui ). Li Xinchuan (; 1167–1244), following in the footsteps of his father, attempting a particularly broadsynthesis of the work of Wang Bi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Yi, Guo Yong (; 1091–1187),and Zhu Xi. Long Renfu (; fl. ca. 1320), for his part, based his Zhouyi jizhuan(Collected Commentaries on the Zhou Changes ) primarily on the opinions ofCheng Yi and Zhu Xi, but he broke new ground by giving radically different meanings tocertain hexagrams—reducing the complex symbolism of Kun (hexagram 2) to “settled”or “at peace” (an ); of Zhun (3), to “solid” (gu ); of Bi (8), to “join in” or “enter” (ru); and of Zhen (51), to “kill” (sha )—meanings that all differ significantly from theones normally attached to these hexagrams by virtue of their names and judgmentsGreat Yijing systems builders, notably Lai Zhide (; 1525-1604), drew from manydifferent sources of intellectual inspiration, including not only Jing Fang in the Han andShao Yong and Zhu Xi in the Song, but also certain Buddhist thinkers. Scholars such asLin Zhaoen (; 1517-1598) and Jiao Hong (; c. 1540-1620) displayed a similareclecticism. Scientifically-minded individuals such as Fang Yizhi (; 1611-1671)and Jiang Yong (; 1681-1762), for their part, incorporated Western mathematicaland astronomical ideas, as well as a profound understanding of the Changes, into theircreative and multifaceted scholarship.Even devoutly Buddhist scholars like Ouyi Zhixu (; 1599-1655) drew freelyfrom Confucian and other writings to make their case. The preface to Zhixu’s A Chan[Zen] Interpretation of the Zhou Changes (Zhouyi chanzhen ) indicates that hispurpose in explicating the Yijing is “to introduce Chan Buddhism into Confucianism in
27order to entice Confucians to know Chan.” Not surprisingly, his work contained a gooddeal of paradox; thus he described it as being about change (yi ), nonchange(feiyi ), and neither change nor non-change (lit. “not non-change;” feifei yi ).The Daoist cleric Liu Yiming (;1724-1831), for his part, sought to reconcileConfucianism and Daoism by arguing that Daoist ideas of mental and alchemicalrefinement were perfectly compatible with Confucian notions of moral self-cultivation.Indeed, according to Liu’s book, Elucidating the Truth of the Zhou Changes (Zhouyichanzhen ), the Way of the Confucian sages was the same as the Way of theDaoist immortals.The Qing dynasty (16444-1912) witnessed the rise to prominence of a new kind ofscholarship known as Evidential Studies (kaozheng xue ), which sought to rid theConfucian classics, including the Yijing, of course, of Buddhist and Daoist accretions,which scholars of this intellectual persuasion blamed on the rise of Song Neo-Confucianism. Using sophisticated philological techniques to expose interpolations andother distortions in both “original” texts and later commentaries, pioneers in EvidentialStudies such as Gu Yanwu (; 1613-1682), Huang Zongxi (; 1610-1695)and Wang Fuzhi (; 1619-1692), as well as later exponents of these interpretivetechniques, including Mao Qiling (; 1623-1716), Hu Wei (; 1633-1714) andHui Dong (; 1697-1758), generally looked to Han dynasty materials for inspirationrather than to Song dynasty sources, on the grounds that they were closer to the time ofConfucius and essentially free from corrosive Buddhist and Religious Daoist influences.Predictably, most of these scholars castigated Zhu Xi for attaching the Yellow RiverChart and the Luo River Writing to his “orthodox” writings on the Changes, thuslegitimating highly dubious documents.Huang Zongxi, for example, fiercely assailed Shao Yong’s Supreme Principles that Rulethe World and most other works by individuals identified as exponents of “images andnumbers,” including Jing Fang, Jiao Yanshou, and Chen Tuan. In his highly influentialbook, Yixue xiangshu lun (Discussion of Images and Numbers in ChangesScholarship) Huang disparages the received versions of the Yellow River Chart and theLuo River Writing, which, he claims, lack “historical authenticity,” and is at particularpains to distinguish between “correct” and “incorrect” images. In Huang’s view, the onlyauthentic images were: (1) those of the eight trigrams , (2) those of the six lines, (3) those resembling things (), (4) those showing the positions of thelines (), (5) those indicating hexagram opposition (), (6) thoseindicating directions (), and (7) those indicating overlapping trigrams (). These seven “exhaust all of the images,” he maintained. Later scholars, however,created what Huang called false images, including those connected with the najia ()system, “moving lines” (dongyao ), “hexagram changes” (guabian ), and the socalledFormer Heaven configurations (xiantian ). These four, he claimed, “obscuredthe original seven.”
Page 2 and 3: 2repository of what has happened.
Page 4 and 5: 4GenJudgment: If one cleaves the ba
Page 6 and 7: 6divinations recorded in the Change
Page 8 and 9: 8immortality; Confucians, for their
Page 10 and 11: 10these commentaries are quite hete
Page 12 and 13: 12instance, the Great Commentary st
Page 14 and 15: 14GenJudgment: Restraint [or Stilli
Page 16 and 17: 16The so-called New Text (jinwen )
Page 18 and 19: 18these, Opening Up the Regularitie
Page 20 and 21: 20Thus, in virtually all of his com
Page 22 and 23: 22came to be attributed to a Daoist
Page 24 and 25: 24of things, predict the future, an
Page 28 and 29: 28Let us now look at an example of
Page 30 and 31: 30contemporary Chinese scholars, as
Page 32: 32offers us additional interpretati

Key Concepts of Fate and Prediction in the Yijing - Chao Center for ...

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