Yì tú shuō 易圖說
Diagrammatic Discussion of the Yì
by 吳仁傑 Wú Rénjié (撰), zì Dòunán 斗南, born 1137 per the catalog meta, of Kūnshān 崑山 in Sūzhōu
About the work
A three-juan diagrammatic-and-discursive treatment of the Yì, by Wú Rénjié 吳仁傑 — one of three companion gǔyì (ancient-Yì) works recorded in his name in the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì: Gǔ Zhōuyì 古周易 in twelve juan, Yì tú shuō in three juan, and Jí gǔ Yì 集古易 in one juan. The Gǔ Zhōuyì is rare in surviving transmission-copies (the Sìkù editors located only Yǒnglè dàdiǎn citations of its complete text); the present Yì tú shuō is the diagrammatic component of Wú Rénjié’s gǔyì reconstruction project.
Methodologically Wú Rénjié takes a series of strikingly heterodox positions on the canonical structure of the Zhōuyì:
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The 64 zhèngguà 正卦 (proper hexagrams) are Fú Xī’s. The opening juan accordingly displays the eight pure hexagrams (Qián, Kūn, Zhèn, Xùn, Kǎn, Lí, Gèn, Duì) each varying through eight transformation-derivatives, generating 64 hexagrams as Fú Xī’s contribution.
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The “external six lines” (wài liù yáo 外六爻) and the 64 fùguà 覆卦 (inverted hexagrams) are King Wén’s. Hence the second-juan “one-hexagram-varying-into-64” chart, and the divination scheme: when all six lines transform, divine by the duìguà 對卦 (opposite hexagram, formed by reversing all yáo’s polarity); when none transform, divine by the fùguà 覆卦 (inverted hexagram, formed by reading the hexagram from top to bottom).
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Xù guà 序卦 (the canonical “Sequence of Hexagrams” wing) is Fú Xī’s; Zá guà 雜卦 (“Miscellaneous Hexagrams”) is King Wén’s. (This reverses the standard attribution to Confucius.)
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The present “yáocí” (line-statements) are properly the Xìcí zhuàn 繫辭傳; the present Xìcí zhuàn is properly the Shuō guà zhuàn 說卦傳. (This is a wholesale relabeling of the standard text-divisions.)
These positions are deeply at odds with the Wáng Bì → Chéng Yí → Zhū Xī mainline. The Sìkù editors, however, find Wú Rénjié’s argument grounded in evidence rather than mere speculation. He cites two pieces of textual support:
a. The Shǐjì 史記 quotes the famous phrase tóng guī shū tú 同歸殊途 (“the destination converges, the paths divide”) — a phrase that occurs in what is now the Xìcí zhuàn — but the Shǐjì refers to the source as Dà zhuàn 大傳 (Great Commentary), not Xìcí zhuàn. From this Wú Rénjié infers the Xìcí zhuàn designation post-dates Sīmǎ Qiān, and that the underlying text-units may not have been organized as we now have them.
b. The Suíshū jīngjízhì records the Shuō guà zhuàn as having been three piān (chapters), of which only one survives. This would account for material now classified as Xìcí zhuàn having actually originated as part of a longer Shuō guà.
The Sìkù editors’ verdict: “His sayings are sometimes specifically new-and-strange, very much at odds with the earlier ru. Yet he supports them with the Shǐjì’s ‘tóng guī shū tú’ phrase being cited as from the Dà zhuàn and not by the name Xìcí zhuàn; with the Suízhì’s ‘Shuō guà — three piān, now only one piān remaining,’ [taken] as later men’s having garbled the chapter-titles. What he says also at times has evidential basis. Recording and preserving it, to make available a single school’s view among the gǔyì (ancient-Yì) reconstructionists, is acceptable.”
The composition window 1180–1210 reflects Wú Rénjié’s mature scholarly career (catalog gives birth 1137; CBDB id 35109 has neither birth nor death year recorded). The Gǔ Zhōuyì / Yì tú shuō / Jí gǔ Yì triad is the product of late-life systematic reconstruction work; Wú Rénjié’s identifiable Sòng career-events are mid-Qián-dào through early Jiādìng (i.e. roughly 1170s–early 1200s).
The Yì tú shuō is one of three principal Sòng-period gǔyì (ancient-Yì) reconstructions, alongside 呂祖謙 Lǚ Zǔqiān’s Gǔ Zhōuyì 古周易 (KR1a0043) and 蔡元定 Cài Yuándìng’s parallel work. The three differ on the original chapter-and-section structure but agree on the principle: the received text-divisions (with Tuàn, Xiàng, Wén yán, etc. broken up and dispersed under the guàcí and yáocí of each hexagram, in the manner of the Wáng Bì recension) post-date the original Hàn-and-before structure, which had the wing-treatises as continuous independent texts. Wú Rénjié pushes this principle further than Lǚ Zǔqiān or Cài Yuándìng by also relabeling the Xìcí / Shuō guà boundary itself.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Yì tú shuō in three juan was composed by Wú Rénjié of the Sòng. [Wú] Rénjié, zì Dòunán, a man of Kūnshān. The Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì records [him] as having a Gǔ Zhōuyì in twelve juan, an Yì tú shuō in three juan, and a Jí gǔ Yì in one juan. The Gǔ Zhōuyì is rarely transmitted in the world; only the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn still has the full text. This book is the diagrammatic-discussion thereof.
His doctrine holds: the sixty-four zhèngguà are Fú Xī’s making — therefore [the work] opens with the eight pure hexagrams’ “each varying into eight hexagrams” charts. He further holds: the external six lines and the sixty-four fùguà are King Wén’s making — therefore there is the chart of “one hexagram varying into sixty-four hexagrams,” and the chart of “when six lines all transform, divine by the duìguà; when none transform, divine by the fùguà.” He further holds: Xù guà is Fú Xī’s; Zá guà is King Wén’s. The present line-statements should be the Xìcí zhuàn; the present Xìcí zhuàn should be the Shuō guà zhuàn.
Among the various schools of gǔYì, his sayings are specifically new-and-strange, very much at odds with the earlier ru. Yet, supporting [his case] with the Shǐjì’s citing of the tóng guī shū tú two-line passage as from Dà zhuàn — not naming it Xìcí zhuàn — and with the Suízhì’s saying Shuō guà three piān, now only one piān, [taken as] later men having garbled the chapter-titles: what he says also at times has evidential basis. Recording and preserving it, to make available a single school’s view among the gǔyì reconstructionists, is acceptable.
Respectfully revised and submitted, fifth month of the fortieth year of Qiánlóng [1775].
General Compilers: 紀昀 Jǐ Yún, 陸錫熊 Lù Xīxióng, 孫士毅 Sūn Shìyì. General Reviser: 陸費墀 Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Wú Rénjié (吳仁傑, b. 1137 per the catalog meta; death year unrecorded), zì Dòunán 斗南, of Kūnshān 崑山 in Sūzhōu (modern Kūnshān, Jiāngsū). CBDB id 35109 lists him as Sòng-period without lifedates; the principal documentary references are Kūnshān xiànzhì 6.6b, 10.35a–35b, and Sòng shīyí 29.5b–6a. His career under Xiàozōng / Guāngzōng / Níngzōng included regional posts; principal scholarly orientation was gǔyì (ancient-Yì) textual reconstruction.
The Yì tú shuō is best read together with the Gǔ Zhōuyì (12 juan, recovered from Yǒnglè dàdiǎn) and the Jí gǔ Yì (1 juan, lost). Wú Rénjié’s gǔyì program is the most aggressive of the Southern-Sòng Yì-text-reconstructionists: where Lǚ Zǔqiān’s Gǔ Zhōuyì (KR1a0043) restores the wing-treatise structure but leaves the Xìcí/Shuō guà labeling intact, Wú Rénjié reorganizes the labeling itself.
Methodologically Wú Rénjié anticipates by several centuries the Qīng-period kǎojù xué 考據學 (“evidential studies”) approach to Yì-text reconstruction. His specific citations — Shǐjì’s referring to the Xìcí material as Dà zhuàn; Suízhì’s recording the Shuō guà as having been three piān — are the kind of textual-evidence reasoning that becomes standard in 惠棟 Huì Dòng and 焦循 Jiāo Xún’s Qīng-period Yì-studies.
His authorial method is also distinctive: the Yì tú shuō is built around diagrammatic presentation, with discursive exposition subordinated to chart-reading. The opening juan is essentially a series of biànguà 變卦 (transformation-hexagram) charts; the divination-procedural charts in the middle are practical bǔshì 卜筮 instruction; the closing material reasons textually-philologically about the wing-treatise authorship.
The composition window 1180–1210 is a conservative bracket reflecting Wú Rénjié’s mature scholarly career; no internal dating fixes a tighter terminus.
The Sìkù editors’ decision to preserve and record the work despite their disagreement with its conclusions is a significant editorial position: Wú Rénjié is recorded as a single school’s view, not endorsed but not condemned — the same balanced policy applied (with different valences) to Yáng Jiǎn (KR1a0037, recorded as a negative exemplar).
Translations and research
No European-language translation.
- Wáng Tiějūn 王鐵均, Sòngdài Yìxué shǐ — chapter on Wú Rénjié as the Sòng gǔ-yì radical.
- Liào Mínghuó 廖名活, articles in Zhōuyì yánjiū on Sòng gǔ-yì reconstruction.
- Zhū Bóqūn 朱伯崑, Yìxué zhéxué shǐ, vol. 2 — Wú Rénjié briefly treated.
- Modern punctuated editions on the Sìkù base; no critical edition.
Other points of interest
The Xù guà attribution to Fú Xī and Zá guà attribution to King Wén — reversing the standard four-sage canonical-authorship scheme (Fú Xī draws the eight; King Wén composes the guàcí and recombines into 64; the Duke of Zhōu composes the yáocí; Confucius composes the Ten Wings) — is one of the most striking single doctrinal positions in Sòng Yì-studies. It would have decisive implications for Yì-canonical authority if accepted: the Xù guà and Zá guà would become jīng (canonical text) rather than zhuàn (commentarial wing).
The Xìcí/Shuō guà relabeling proposal is even more radical, but Wú Rénjié’s evidence — the Shǐjì’s Dà zhuàn designation; the Suízhì’s three-piān Shuō guà — is genuinely historical-philological and worth taking seriously. Modern scholarship on the Yì wings (Karlgren, Wilhelm, Shaughnessy) has not generally accepted Wú Rénjié’s specific reconstruction but has confirmed the underlying observation that the wing-treatise organization in the received text is post-Hàn rather than original.