Zhōuyì zhù 周易註
Commentary on the Zhōuyì
upper- and lower-canon and Lüèlì commentary by 王弼 Wáng Bì (zì Fǔsì 輔嗣, 226–249, Wèi); commentary on the Xìcí, Shuōguà, Xùguà, and Záguà wings by 韓康伯 Hán Kāngbó (given name Bó 伯, zì Kāngbó 康伯, ca. 332–380, Eastern Jìn)
About the work
The foundational yìlǐ 義理 (“meaning-and-pattern”) reading of the Zhōuyì and the most philosophically consequential Yì commentary in the entire tradition. Two authors, two strata: 王弼 Wáng Bì’s commentary on the upper- and lower-canon hexagrams (with his programmatic theoretical essay Zhōuyì lüèlì 周易略例 KR1a0007 appended in the related ten-juàn textus); 韓康伯 Hán Kāngbó’s continuation, completing the work by commenting on the four philosophical wings (Xìcí, Shuōguà, Xùguà, Záguà) that Wáng Bì had not lived to treat. Wáng died at twenty-three in the epidemic that followed the Gāopínglíng 高平陵 coup of 249; Hán wrote his continuation roughly a century later, under the Eastern Jìn, completing the yìlǐ programme.
The catalog dating window 240–380 covers the conjoined two-author compositional span: notBefore is the rough lower bound of Wáng Bì’s mature work on the Yì, notAfter the conventional terminus for Hán Kāngbó’s death.
The single-titled, ten-juàn combined recension recorded here is itself an editorial unification later than either author. The Suíshū jīngjí zhì still listed Wáng’s Yì zhù (6 juàn) and Lüèlì (1 juàn) separately from Hán’s Xìcí zhù (3 juàn); the Jiù / Xīn Tángshū records seven juàn under Wáng’s name (Wáng + Lüèlì); the present ten-juàn title — Wáng + Hán + Lüèlì under the single name “Zhōuyì zhù” — was already attested in 王儉 Wáng Jiǎn’s Qīzhì 七志 (Liú-Sòng) per quotation in 陸德明 Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén. The juàn-head titles (Qián zhuàn dìyī 乾傳第一, Tài zhuàn dìèr 泰傳第二, etc., named after the first hexagram of each juàn) were Wáng Bì’s own innovation, modelled on the chapter-head conventions of the Máoshī gùxùn zhuàn 毛詩故訓傳; in the Jīngdiǎn shìwén the juàn boundaries are slightly differently placed, and the Kāichéng 開成 (837) stone-classics cutting agrees with Lù Démíng’s recension against the present text — a later editorial repositioning evidently ironed the boundaries to present form.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that the commentary on the upper and lower canon, together with the Lüèlì, is the work of 王弼 Wáng Bì of Wèi; the commentary on the Xìcí zhuàn, Shuōguà zhuàn, Xùguà zhuàn, and Záguà zhuàn is the work of 韓康伯 Hán Kāngbó of Jìn. The Suíshū Jīngjí zhì records the Wáng and Hán books separately: hence “Yì zhù in six juàn, Lüèlì in one juàn, Xìcí zhù in three juàn.” The Jiù Tángshū Jīngjí zhì and Xīn Tángshū Yìwén zhì both record Wáng’s commentary at seven juàn — that is the Yì zhù and the Lüèlì taken together. The present text in ten juàn adds in Hán’s book as well.
Examining 王儉 Wáng Jiǎn’s Qīzhì 七志, however, the work is already there called “Wáng Bì Yì zhù in ten juàn.” (Note: the Qīzhì itself does not survive today; this is according to the quotation in 陸德明 Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén.) So the combination of Wáng and Hán under a single title has long antiquity.
Ever since Zhèng Yuán [鄭玄 Zhèng Xuán] inherited the school of 費直 Fèi Zhí, the Yì zhuàn [the canonical Wings] began to be split apart and attached to the canonical text [each Wing’s relevant material placed under the relevant hexagram or passage]; with Wáng [Bì] there was a further redaction. Some critics maintain that Zhèng’s recension is like the present Qián hexagram, with the Kūn and following hexagrams further redivided by Wáng; but Zhèng’s Yì zhù still survived in one juàn in the Northern Sòng, and the Chóngwén zǒngmù records as surviving four pieces — Wényán, Shuōguà, Xùguà, Záguà. So in Zhèng’s recension Wényán was still its own freestanding chapter (zhuàn), and what he had split apart to attach to the canonical text was no more than the Tuàn zhuàn and Xiàng zhuàn. The present text, by attaching a Wényán to each of the Qián and Kūn hexagrams, shows that the entire canon as we have it has been re-edited by Wáng Bì — this is not the original Zhèng arrangement. The juàn-head titles “Qián zhuàn dìyī,” “Tài zhuàn dìèr,” “Shìhé zhuàn dìsān,” “Xián zhuàn dìsì,” “Guài zhuàn dìwǔ,” “Fēng zhuàn dìliù” — each named for the first hexagram of the juàn — were also Wáng Bì’s added titling, according to 王應麟 Wáng Yīnglín’s Yùhǎi; this follows the pattern of the Máoshī gùxùn zhuàn. The convention has been transmitted so long that we record it as it stands. However: the Jīngdiǎn shìwén takes “Tài zhuàn” as “Xū zhuàn” 需傳 and “Shìhé zhuàn” as “Suí zhuàn” 隨傳, differing from the present text. Cross-checking against the Kāichéng stone classics, every reading there agrees with Lù [Démíng]‘s account — clearly later hands have shifted the divisions to make page-counts even. Since this does not bear on the central meaning of the text, we do not now restore the older division.
The commentary to the Lüèlì is by 邢璹 Xíng Shù of the Táng. Of Shù’s native place no record survives; his title at signature was sìmén zhùjiào 四門助教 (“Aide of the Four-Gates School”). According to the Tángshū Wáng Hóng zhuàn 王鉷傳, [Xíng] is named as Hónglú shǎoqīng 鴻臚少卿 (“Junior Director of State Visitors”); his son 邢縡 Xíng Zǎi was put to death for plotted rebellion. Hence Xíng Shù ended his career as Junior Director of State Visitors. The Tàipíng guǎngjì 太平廣記 records that he was sent on a mission to Silla and on the way killed more than a hundred merchants and seized their valuable goods, which he then presented to the throne — the man himself is therefore beneath consideration. His commentary, however, has come down attached to Wáng’s text, and so circulates to this day. 陳振孫 Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí 書錄解題 records a Sìchuān edition of the Lüèlì that has only Xíng’s commentary on the opening Shì lüè lì 釋略例 (“Explaining ‘Lüèlì’”) two characters of the title, with the rest of the wording the same as the present text; the wording of the rest, however, is unlike the present. So in the Sòng there was yet another edition; today only the present text survives, and the so-called Sìchuān edition has long been lost.
Wáng’s reading of the Yì descends from Fèi Zhí — Fèi’s Yì is no longer extant, but 荀爽 Xún Shuǎng’s Yì, which belongs to the Fèi school, still has substantial fragments preserved in 李鼎祚 Lǐ Dǐngzuò’s book; in the main, [Xún] examines the upper-and-lower position of the yáo and discriminates the firm-and-soft virtue of the guà — already approaching Wáng’s commentarial method. But Wáng abandons xiàngshù 象數 entirely, an extreme of the same tendency. In a balanced view, in clarifying the meaning-pattern (yìlǐ) and in keeping the Yì from being absorbed into divinatory technique, Wáng and Hán render deep service. In adoring emptiness and non-being and so causing the Yì finally to enter the [philosophical] sphere of the Lǎo-Zhuāng, Wáng and Hán cannot be without fault. The flaws and the merits do not cancel each other out: this is the fixed verdict. The various Confucians’ partisan favouritism and partisan hostility are alike sectarian positions, not to be relied on.
(Tiyao rendered from the Kyoto Zinbun digital text 0000502; the Sìkù tiyao is not present in the SBCK-base Kanripo source file.)
Abstract
王弼 Wáng Bì (226–249) of Shānyáng 山陽 (modern Jiāozuò, Hénán) wrote his Zhōuyì zhù in his late teens or early twenties, before his death at twenty-three in the epidemic that followed the 249 Gāopínglíng coup. He simultaneously produced the Lǎozǐ Dàodé jīng zhù and Lǎozǐ zhǐlüè (= KR5c0073 / DZ 690) and the short hermeneutical-theoretical essay Zhōuyì lüèlì 周易略例 (KR1a0007). His commentary set the Yì on a wholly new foundation: against the xiàngshù 象數 (“image-and-number”) apparatus of the Hàn schools (孟喜 Mèng Xǐ, 京房 Jīng Fáng, 鄭玄 Zhèng Xuán, 虞翻 Yú Fān, 陸績 Lù Jì), Wáng Bì organised the reading around the yìlǐ 義理 — the philosophical-ethical meaning — of each hexagram, with the Lüèlì providing the methodological doctrine: míng xiàng 明象 (“clarifying the image”), dé yì wàng yán 得意忘言 (“grasping the meaning, forgetting the words”), and the doctrine that each hexagram has a “ruler-line” (zhǔ yáo 主爻) that organises the rest. Wáng’s reading is the foundational document of Xuánxué 玄學 metaphysics, and reads the Yì through wú 無 (“non-being”) as ontological ground.
韓康伯 Hán Kāngbó (given name Bó 伯, zì Kāngbó; ca. 332–380) of Yǐngchuān 潁川 (modern Hénán) was an Eastern Jìn court official, holding the offices of Director of the Imperial Secretariat (Zhōngshū lìng 中書令) and Grand Master of Ceremonial (Tàicháng 太常); he died in office in his forties. The Jìnshū (juan 75) gives his biography. He completed Wáng’s commentary by writing his own commentaries on the four wings — Xìcí, Shuōguà, Xùguà, and Záguà — that Wáng had not lived to comment on. Hán’s commentary continues Wáng’s Xuánxué reading and is the locus of the philosophical reading of Xìcí-cosmology in the medieval canon. The Lüèlì was further annotated in the early Táng by 邢璹 Xíng Shù.
The combined ten-juàn textus (Wáng’s commentary on hexagrams + Hán’s commentary on wings + Lüèlì with Xíng Shù’s commentary) is the form in which the Yì canonically circulated from the early Táng through the Sòng — and through 孔穎達 Kǒng Yǐngdá’s Zhōuyì zhèngyì 周易正義 (KR1a0007) it became the imperial standard, displacing Zhèng Xuán’s commentary. Together with Kǒng’s zhèngyì, it is the base text of the Shísān jīng zhùshū 十三經注疏 Yì.
The Sìkù tiyao delivers the canonical mature judgment on Wáng-Hán: their philosophical service to the Yì is to have rescued it from divinatory reduction; their philosophical liability is to have absorbed it into Lǎo-Zhuāng metaphysics. The “fixed verdict” (dìngpíng 定評) of the editors is significant: this is one of the few places in the entire tiyao corpus where the editors explicitly close down a long-running interpretive debate.
Translations and research
Translations:
- Richard John Lynn, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi (Columbia Univ. Press, 1994) — the standard English translation of the present text; renders Wáng Bì’s commentary in full and Hán Kāngbó’s commentary on the wings as an integrated reading. Includes the Lüèlì in full. The reference English-language access point.
- Paul Lin, A Translation of Wang Pi’s Commentary on the Lao Tzu (Univ. of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, 1977) — strictly speaking on the Lǎozǐ, but indispensable companion for Wáng’s hermeneutical voice.
- Rudolf G. Wagner, The Craft of a Chinese Commentator: Wang Bi on the Laozi (SUNY, 2000) and A Chinese Reading of the Daodejing: Wang Bi’s Commentary on the Laozi with Critical Text and Translation (SUNY, 2003) — companion Lǎozǐ studies; the methodological treatment of Wáng Bì’s commentary practice in The Craft is directly applicable to the Yì zhù.
- Konstantin Müller (ed.), Wang Bi’s Commentary on the I Ching (German selections, in Sinologica Coloniensia and elsewhere).
Major scholarship:
- Tāng Yòngtóng 湯用彤, Wèi-Jìn Xuánxué lùn’gǎo 魏晉玄學論稿 (1957; rev. eds.) — foundational Sinophone study of the Xuánxué milieu.
- Wáng Xiǎoyì 王曉毅, Wáng Bì pínglǐ 王弼評傳 (Nánjīng dàxué chūbǎnshè, 1996) — standard biography.
- Lóu Yǔliè 樓宇烈 (ed.), Wáng Bì jí jiàoshì 王弼集校釋 (Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1980; rev. 1999) — the standard critical edition of the entire Wáng Bì corpus, including the Yì zhù and Lüèlì; the indispensable scholarly base text.
- Tu Wei-ming, “Profound Learning, Personal Knowledge, and Poetic Vision,” in his Way, Learning, and Politics (SUNY, 1993) — short philosophical essay on Wáng Bì’s hermeneutic.
- Alan K. L. Chan, Two Visions of the Way: A Study of the Wang Pi and the Ho-shang Kung Commentaries on the Lao-tzu (SUNY, 1991) — the Lǎozǐ commentary’s other half (Héshàng Gōng) but methodologically central.
- Lín Lìzhēn 林麗真, Wáng Bì jí qí Yìxué 王弼及其易學 (Táiwān shāngwù, 1977) — the standard Sinophone monograph on the Yì zhù specifically.
Other points of interest
The juàn-head naming convention — Qián zhuàn dìyī, Tài zhuàn dìèr, etc. — that the tiyao attributes to Wáng Bì himself is the earliest documented case of formally splitting the Yì into named-juàn blocks rather than treating the canon as a continuous run; the same scheme was inherited by Kǒng Yǐngdá’s Zhèngyì and through it by every subsequent received recension.
The Sìkù editors’ moral aside on Xíng Shù — that he murdered a hundred-some Sillan merchants on a diplomatic mission and presented their goods to 玄宗 Xuánzōng’s court — is rare in the tiyao corpus; the editors register it solely to explain why Xíng’s textually-useful commentary survives despite his disreputable career.
The interlinear punctuation slip in the tiyao writes “Wáng Hóng zhuàn” 王鉷傳 — a Tángshū biography that does mention Xíng’s son Zǎi 縡 and the rebellion plot. 王鉷 Wáng Hóng (d. 752) was the powerful Tángyuán 唐元 official whose own execution dragged Xíng Zǎi down with him.