Zhouyi

Zhouyi Cantongqi (The Seal of the Unity of the Three, in Accordance with the Book of
Changes), completed during the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, is the forefather of the
scriptures on the Elixir. Despite the fact that this alchemical text is well known as an example of
Chinese proto-science, it is not purely a source of the first chemical reactions, but a real allencompassing
work. The three traditions rooted in the philosophical thought of the Han Dynasty
are the core of the book: the system of the Book of Changes, Huang-Lao Taoism, and Alchemy.
These three subjects are integrated with one another into a unique presentation of a doctrine that
includes a metaphysics, a cosmology, a description of the highest realized state, and a canonical
form of practice. Cantong qi, as the first book on alchemy, has provided the alchemical tradition
with an integral philosophical description of the principles at the basis of their practices. That’s
what makes Cantong qi a monumental work, which under an allusive poetic language and thick
layers of images and symbols, hides the exposition of a philosophical and especially
cosmological doctrine that inspired a large number of commentaries and other works, and
attracted the attention not only of Taoist masters and adepts, but also philosophers, cosmologists,
poets, literati, calligraphers, philologists and bibliophiles. The introduction and summary on the
philosophical part of this particular alchemical model of Cantong qi is the main purpose of this
thesis.
Since many earlier and later commentaries of the work have been mixed, incomplete and
full of ambiguity, the understanding of this work can be rather challenging. The wide range of
interpretations offered in the commentaries and the contrasting visions about its nature and
history, together with the multiple possible meanings of several terms and verses, caused the
problem of establishing its authorship, the date of accomplishment, the meaning of its title et
cetera. Moreover, its obscure and enigmatic language was and still is calling people for deep
thought, and for this reason the scholars from all over the world are trying to understand the real
content and primary purpose of the Cantong qi. In order to help the readers better understand the
whole history behind the object of this thesis, in the first chapter the author, relying on the
achievements of previous scholars and specialists, will briefly try to introduce and summarize in
detail the situation of the book: the spreading process of its editions and its commentaries, its
structure, its authorship, the dating enigma, the meaning of the title and its deep hidden true
content. The conclusion of this chapter is that Wei Boyang, who lived at the end of Han period,
is one of the authors of Zhouyi Cantong qi and that his innovative work it is not a usual
sourcebook of alchemy, but in reality is a one and only complex alchemical treaty full of deep
philosophical discourse.
The main part of this thesis deals with the philosophical aspect of the alchemical theory
concealed in Cantong qi, described in chapters two and three. By way of a reference to the
historical and cultural background, the author will systematically explain and combine the main
compound of the Cantong qi and the development of its thought in order to prove that the real
basis for the alchemical theory is the philosophy of the Qin-Han period. In the second chapter, as
a result of careful studies, the author will excavate the main aspects of cosmogony, ontology and
cosmology and analyze the original alchemical model of universe (the so called „four trigrams
functioning as a bellows and its nozzles‖) in the book. This chapter is closed with a conclusion,
that the author of Cantong qi, being influenced by the academic atmosphere of the Han period,
had created a unique cosmological pattern, which had provided the alchemical practice with a
deeper, metaphysical root. It is a fact that Cantong qi, according to the philosophy of changes
held by the tradition of „studies of the Book of Changes‖, the theory of the Yin-Yang and five
agents, plus the gua-qi theory (a theory elucidating the correspondence between the seasonal
points and lines of the hexagrams), is trying to explain the rules of „fire times‖ in alchemy, by
referring to the natural principles of the change in the cosmos, pictured as three emblematic time
cycles: the day, the month and the year. Despite the difference in their description, these cycles
manifest the presence of the One Breath of the Dao in cosmos, so in fact all three of them are the
representation of the same basic principle of the universe. Therefore, the description and analysis
of the time cycles is the main topic of the chapter three.
According to what affirmed before, the author has got reason to believe, that the most
unique parts of the philosophical-alchemical system created by the Zhouyi Cantong qi are: the
merging of three main thoughts and beliefs during the Han dynasty (the cosmology from „Books
of Changes‖, the Huang-Lao Taoism, and the Alchemy) into one theoretical basis in order to let
the alchemical process be identical to that one that created the universe, and at the same time to
inverse the course of creation in order to achieve the final goal – the highest level of selfrealization;
to reveal, by this operation, based on the natural principles of Dao of Changes,
another, active way for a human to become a true realized being. Zhouyi Cantong qi with its
alchemical way of accordance and inversion is in fact a true, universal guidebook for all people
who want to find the real truth hidden in the theory of integrity between man and the cosmos.

Philosophy, if it endeavors to have significance in the contemporary intellectual arena at all, must be able to confront the nagging issues of society while being able to go back to its foundational ontology. This study thus aims to confront the issue of the fragmentation of consciousness rampant in the 21st century, which leads to considerable conflicts both political and ethical.
In order to do this, this study looks at the Zhouyi, also known as the Changes of Zhou or Book of Changes for reasons that it presented reality as a coherent whole, and through its 64 hexagrams, which supposedly emulated the transformations of Heaven and Earth, conveyed the idea that there is an underlying pattern to the workings of the universe. The primacy of change conveyed here was what led the Chinese mind, guided by the Zhouyi, to envision the cosmos in general and man in particular as an undivided totality. In particular, however, this study aims to reveal the notion of wu 無 as that which makes change possible, articulated by the commentaries made by Wangbi otherwise known as Zhouyi zhu, and looks at it as an innovative work that can provide an apt ontological framework for an inclusive ethical worldview, precisely due to the continuity of the cosmos it advocates.
This study will therefore argue that the Zhouyizhu presents man as a microcosm of the universe which follows its own patterns and who must emulate the virtues of Heaven and Earth in order to achieve self-realization; and, that this discovery will inevitably lead us to understand the kind of humanist worldview it advocates, through an exploration of the relationship between the natural world and humanity wherein there is mutual respect, as well as the absence of domination, among man and nature. It will argue, moreover that this aspiration for harmony and equilibrium of forces should be the case both in the natural and human realm – that is, that extinguishing the individual self can be moral cultivation in as much as the sage must embody wu 無 in order to be united with the virtues of Heaven and Earth which, at the core, is also grounded in wu 無.

The previous paper discussed the first stage in the traditional development of the Zhouyi, the invention of the xiang 象 “symbols” known as trigrams and hexagrams, and this paper will look at the second stage, the appending of ci 辭 “statements” to the hexagrams and lines.

THE divination PROCEDURES for forming a hexagram and consulting the I Ching were
prescribed by Chu Hsi (1130-1200) in Shih I. a part of his I Hsueh Ch'i Meng. Since Chu Hsi's commentaries on the Chinese Classics became the standard texts, Chinese scholars have followed his prescription obediently. The English translation of I Ching by James Legge was based upon Chu Hsi's I Hsueh Ch'i Meng and Chou I Pen I. The German translation by Richard Wilhelm was based upon the Chou I Che Chung, a collection of the Sung commentaries on the I Ching by Ch'ing scholars. Therefore, only the Sung version of the divination procedures is available in the West. Scholars like C. G. Jung, Hellmut Wilhelm' and Wayne McEvilly followed his version to form hexagrams and to consult the I Ching.
It was Jung who first introduced the concept of "synchronicity" in opposition to "causality" as the key to understanding the Chinese psychological
     
phenomenology as revealed in the I Ching. McEvilly further suggested that "Not only is it [the I Ching] remarkable because of its antiquity, however, but also because of its persistent appeal to the deeper levels of the psyche, its impressive vitality, and its implications for the future expansion of our ideas concerning the nature of human experience." In recent years more articles and books have been written dealing with different aspects of this most treasured Chinese Classic. However, as in the cases of many other Classics there are still many unanswered problems about its text, its history, and its usefulness. This paper is intended to deal with two basic and yet related problems: how a hexagram is acquired and how the I Ching is consulted. These problems have been discussed among Chinese scholars ever since the T'ang period (618-905). During the nineteen twenties  at the monthly meetings of the I Hsüeh Yen Chiu Hui in Nanking several of my friends shed some new light on them. Many original ideas in this article should be attributed to Kao Heng, who contributed a great deal to our discussions.  (underlines are mine)

《周易校勘記舉正》一卷，日本江戶時代後期儒學者、考證學者海保漁村撰於嘉永三年（1850），根據所藏舊鈔單疏本，參校他本，以補正阮元《周易注疏校勘記》。《舉正》固然校出阮氏《校勘記》的不少問題，但由於所據底本及所用參校本所限，校勘結論亦頗有可商榷之處。我們以宋刻單疏本、八行本、十行本及閩本、毛本等眾本重校，同時參考前人校勘成果，揭示異同，評騭正誤，並由此探求其所據舊鈔單疏本所從出之祖本。

Kaiho Gyoson 海保漁村, a Japanese Confucian scholar and philologist in late Edo period, composed Emendation of Collating Notes on Zhouyi 周易校勘記舉正 in the third year of the Kaei 嘉永 Era (1850). He used the Single-Commentary Edition of Zhouyi Zhengyi he collected to verify Collating Noteson Zhouyi composed by Ruan Yuan, a textual research scholar in late Qing Dynasty. Although Kaiho made some new findings in Emendation of Collating Notes on Zhouyi, he also made mistakes due to limitations of the master copy he relied on and reference books he selected. This article examines Kaiho’s collation through comparing it with the Single-Commentary Edition, Eight-Line Edition (inscribed in Song Dynasty), Ten-Line Edition (inscribed in Yuan Dynasty), Fujian Edition, and Mao Edition (inscribed in the Ming Dynasty) of Zhouyi Zhengyi, while taking previous research results into consideration. This article attempts to gain a correct view of Kaiho’s collation as well as explore the origin of the Single-Commentary Edition he used.

This paper will attempt to show what correspondences may exist between the sequence of the received order of the hexagrams and the sequences of the two arrangements of hexagrams developed in the previous paper on the xiang 象 "symbols" of the Yijing.

The present work is a translation of Part 2, Section 10, of the book "Tratado I Ching -- El Canon de las Mutaciones -- "El Séptimo Tiempo"" by Ricardo Andreé, privately published in Santiago, Chile, in 2004 (no ISBN but Mr. Andreé's books can be purchased at http://www.iching.cl/). This section is named "Tiempos" (Times) and deals with the proper timing of Yijing answers.

The French Jesuit Joachim Bouvet studied the Xiantiantu, a diagram of Shao Yong that organizes the hexagrams according to the "Fuxi order." While exchanging letters with Leibniz, Bouvet discovered an analogy between his binary arithmetic and the Xiantiantu. It indicates that the Xiantiantu could be considered binary, and it has implications in the history of binary arithmetic. Consequently, it would be essential to analyze a persistent idea that Leibniz developed binary arithmetic while being influenced by the Xiantiantu, which is opposed to the usual historical chronology. This article investigates whether Leibniz developed his calculation independently or under the influence of Shao Yong's diagram by introducing an original argument in the discussion. It will be shown that the Xiantiantu did not influence Leibniz because if this was the case, it would have totally changed his view on Chinese writing and, consequently, his research on Universal characteristics.

The present work is a translation of Part 1, Sections 15 to 31, of the book "Tratado I Ching -- El Canon de las Mutaciones -- "El Séptimo Tiempo"" by Ricardo Andreé, privately published in Santiago, Chile, in 2004 (no ISBN but Mr. Andreé's books can be purchased at http://www.iching.cl/).
These Sections are a supposed to work as background explanation for some of the concepts exposed in “Times”: Part 2, Section 10 of the same book, also available in translation.

Based on the previous studies, this paper is a comparative review of the editions of Lai Zhide’s Zhouyi Jizhu, Zhang Weiren’s (Zhang) and Gao Wengying’s (Gao), to clearly present the differences between the two branches, while revealing the origin of the diagrams that are only contained in Gao’s 
  According to the writer’s review, the difference between Zhang’s branch and Gao’s branch is appeared in three main aspects, other than their differences in printing. The first difference is whether or not there exists a volume of sixteen. Zhang’s consists of sixteen volumes in total, however, Gao’s only has fifteen. The sixteenth volume of Zhang’s has two episodes, Kaoding Jicishangxiachuan (考定繋辭上下傳) and Buding Shuoguachuan (補定說卦傳), which Gao’s does not. The second difference is how the characters and phrases differ from each other. Through the comparison of Volume one (Zhouyi Jizhu), we could confirm that several of the paragraphs are omitted. The third difference is number of diagrams and descriptions. Gao’s has Juanmo (卷末), but has no volume sixteen.  There are over a hundred diagrams and descriptions at the Futu (附圖) of Juanmo, as well as 19 of them in the Juanshou (卷首) under the name of Buyi (補遺); however, there is none in Zhang’s.
  Main question is, Gao’s diagrams and descriptions, 19 of Buyi and well over a hundred of them of Futu, are how related to Lai Zhide. According to the writer’s review, Buyi’s diagrams and descriptions originated from Rilu (日錄) written by Lai Zhide, but the diagrams and descriptions in Futu are mostly excerpts from the of Hu Juren (胡居仁)’s Yixiangchao (易像抄) and Zhang Huang (章潢)’s Tushubian (圖書編), while some of them were works of Qu Jiusi (瞿九思) or Gao himself.

Keywords: Lai Zhide, Zhouyi Jizhu, Zhang Weiren (張惟任), Gao Wengying (高奣映), Yixiangchao (易像抄), Tushubian (圖書編), Qu Jiusi (瞿九思)

This paper is intended to reveal that the history of studies of Guaxu(卦序: the orderly sequence of 64 hexagrams in current version of I Ching) is acting as an important pillar of his theory of Cuozong by reviewing Lai Zhide(Lai)’s Shangxiajingpianyi(上下經篇義).
In order to do that, this study first reviewed the history of the study of Guaxu, which tried to identify the 64 hexagrams’s allocation and distinction between the top and bottom lines, then redefined them in two branches. According to the review, one is a study of Guaxu that expands its viewpoint based on the theory of ‘Shangjingtiandao, Xiajingrendao’(上經天道, 下經人道) from Xuguazhuan, the other is a study based on the theory of ‘Ererxiangou, Feifujibian’(二二相耦, 非覆卽變) from Zhouyizhengyi. Based on such comprehension, this study reviewed Lai’s Shangxiajingpianyi. According to this, Lai’s work made clear that of Wenwang’s main principles of Xugua(序卦), which based on the history of Guaxu, was Cuo(錯) and Zong(綜). This confirmed that the history of Guaxu study is working as another important pillar in his theory of Cuozong.

keywords: Lai Zhide, Shangxiajingpianyi, theory of Cuozong, principles of Xugua, the study of Guaxu

How can phonetic patterns assist the 周易 zhōuyì reader, in organizing and connecting the raw material such an “open interpretive space with a principle of multiplicity”  seems to offer ?

In between the framework of contemporary phonological researches this project aims:

a) to collect phonological datas both linked to received and unearthed ZhouYi texts/characters;
b) to display them in an ordered/manageable suit;
c) to use this suit, explorying the ZhouYi text by rhyme, prosody and meter connections;
d) [Land Ho!] to devolop narratives on previous basis together with a playful goal: to translate for the querent, not for the reader.

Follow on www.processive.wordpress.com

At the bottom link you can find excerpts from this great 1715 manuscript:

李光地. 御纂周易折中 :二十二卷, 卷首. [北京] : 武英殿, 清康熙54年 [1715]

Excerpts are focused on the so-called ‘received text’ of Yi Jing / Zhou Yi.

For the ease of the work, I’ve divided hexagrams’ text in 8 by 8 chapters.

Each hexagram picture is linked to the referred page in the great Harvard Library manuscript database.

Have a good read.