Gǔ Zhōuyì 古周易
The Ancient Zhōuyì
edited by 呂祖謙 Lǚ Zǔqiān (編), zì Bógōng 伯恭, hào Dōnglái 東萊, 1137–1181, of Wùzhōu 婺州 / Jīnhuá 金華 — one of the Dōngnán sān xiānshēng 東南三先生 with 朱熹 Zhū Xī and 張栻 Zhāng Shì
About the work
The gǔyì (ancient-Yì) recension that became the textual base for Zhū Xī’s Zhōuyì běnyì — and thereby, for the dominant YuánMíngQīng Yì-canonical-text. Lǚ Zǔqiān’s recension restores the Yì to its original twelve-piān structure: Shàng jīng 上經 + Xià jīng 下經 (the canonical text in two piān), then Tuàn shàng zhuàn + Tuàn xià zhuàn + Xiàng shàng zhuàn + Xiàng xià zhuàn + Xìcí shàng zhuàn + Xìcí xià zhuàn + Wén yán zhuàn + Shuō guà zhuàn + Xù guà zhuàn + Zá guà zhuàn (the Ten Wings, each as a separate piān — ten piān). The result: the canonical 12-piān division as known to Hàn-period bibliography.
The Sìkù Yìwénzhì records the work as 1 juan; Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí records it as 12 juan. The two figures are equivalent: each piān counted as one juan (12 juan) versus the whole work as one (1 juan). The catalog meta and the Sìkù base both follow the 1-juan reckoning.
The Sìkù tiyao sets out the historical context with care. The original Yì was a 12-piān text. From Fèi Zhí 費直 (Western Hàn) onward, through Zhèng Xuán (Eastern Hàn), and culminating in Wáng Bì (Wèi), the wing-treatises were progressively broken up and dispersed under the guàcí and yáocí of each hexagram (giving the form: hexagram-statement followed by Confucius’s Tuàn-passage on it; line-statement followed by Confucius’s Xiàng-passage on it; etc.). Kǒng Yǐngdá’s Táng-period Zhèngyì used Wáng Bì’s recension as its base-text and circulated as the standard Táng-period authoritative version, fully eclipsing the gǔyì (ancient-Yì) form. The gǔyì therefore “ceased to exist” in transmission.
The Sòng gǔyì reconstruction effort came in waves through the eleventh and twelfth centuries:
- 呂大防 Lǚ Dàfáng (1027–1097) — Zhōuyì gǔjīng 周易古經 in 2 juan, the earliest Sòng reconstruction (c. 1080s).
- 晁說之 Cháo Yuèzhī (1059–1129) — Lù gǔ Zhōuyì 錄古周易 in 8 juan.
- 薛季宣 Xuē Jìxuān (1134–1173) — Gǔwén Zhōuyì 古文周易 in 12 juan.
- 程迴 Chéng Huí — Gǔ Zhōuyì kǎo 古周易考 in 1 juan.
- 李燾 Lǐ Tāo (1115–1184) — Zhōuyì gǔjīng 周易古經 in 8 piān.
- 吳仁傑 Wú Rénjié — Gǔ Zhōuyì 古周易 in 12 juan (KR1a0042 is its companion Yì tú shuō).
- Lǚ Zǔqiān — this Gǔ Zhōuyì.
The Sìkù editors’ assessment: “Zǔqiān’s book and [Wú] Rénjié’s book came out latest of all, and Zǔqiān’s is more evidentially grounded than Rénjié’s.” Zhū Xī wrote a colophon (bá 跋) for Lǚ Zǔqiān’s recension; when Zhū Xī later composed his Zhōuyì běnyì, he used Lǚ Zǔqiān’s recension as the base-text. The decisive consequence: Zhū Xī’s Běnyì preserves and propagates Lǚ Zǔqiān’s recension, which therefore becomes — through Zhū Xī’s canonical authority in the YuánMíngQīng — the operative text-form of the Zhōuyì for the post-Sòng tradition.
The relationship to Lǚ Dàfáng’s earlier 2-juan reconstruction is treated diplomatically. The two recensions are substantially the same in result, but Lǚ Zǔqiān does not credit Lǚ Dàfáng (no kinship or pedagogical line, despite the shared surname). 尤袤 Yóu Mào, in correspondence with Wú Rénjié, raised the question of whether Lǚ Zǔqiān had silently lifted Lǚ Dàfáng. The Sìkù editors defend Lǚ Zǔqiān: “Zǔqiān is not one to steal and base himself on others’ books”; 稅與權 Shuì Yúquán, in the preface to his collation of the Lǚ Dàfáng Zhōuyì gǔjīng, said Lǚ Zǔqiān “had simply not seen Lǚ Dàfáng’s text” — and the editors find this “probably the truth.”
A companion Yīn xùn 音訓 (“Phonetic Glosses”) in 2 juan is recorded in 陳振孫 Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí. This was compiled by Lǚ Zǔqiān’s disciple 王莘叟 Wáng Shēnsǒu from oral instruction, not by Lǚ Zǔqiān himself. Chén Zhènsūn further records that Zhū Xī had a print cut at Línzhāng 臨漳 (Zhāngzhōu) and at Kuàijī 會稽, supplemented with 程頤 Chéng Yí’s zhèngzì 正字 (orthographic) corrections and with Cháo Yuèzhī’s shuō 說 (commentary). The present Sìkù base-text lacks all this supplementary material — “perhaps the copyists lost it” (tiyao).
The composition window 1170–1181 reflects: Lǚ Zǔqiān’s productive scholarly decade in the Qiándào / Chúnxī eras (his Wùzhōu Lìzhái 麗澤 academy phase); his death in Chúnxī 8 (1181) sets the firm terminus. Zhū Xī’s colophon and the Běnyì’s reliance on Lǚ Zǔqiān’s recension confirm the work was complete and circulating in the late 1170s.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Gǔ Zhōuyì in one juan was edited by Lǚ Zǔqiān of the Sòng. The Gǔ Yì’s Upper-and-Lower jīng and the Ten Wings were originally twelve piān. From Fèi Zhí, Zhèng Yuán [Zhèng Xuán; Yuán 元 here is the Sòng tabu-form for Xuán] down to Wáng Bì, [the wings] were progressively re-attached and rearranged. Kǒng Yǐngdá, on the basis of [Wáng] Bì’s recension, made his Zhèngyì, which circulated through the Táng era; the gǔyì thereupon ceased to exist.
The Sòng — Lǚ Dàfáng began by examining and verifying the old wording, composing Zhōuyì gǔjīng in two juan; Cháo Yuèzhī composed Lù gǔ Zhōuyì in eight juan; Xuē Jìxuān composed Gǔwén Zhōuyì in twelve juan; Chéng Huí composed Gǔ Zhōuyì kǎo in one juan; Lǐ Tāo composed Zhōuyì gǔjīng in eight piān; Wú Rénjié composed Gǔ Zhōuyì in twelve juan. The general thrust of these works mutually overlaps. [Lǚ] Zǔqiān’s book and [Wú Rénjié]‘s book came out latest, and Zǔqiān’s is more evidentially grounded than Rénjié’s.
[Lǚ Zǔqiān’s recension] divides into Shàngjīng, Xiàjīng, Tuàn shàng zhuàn, Tuàn xià zhuàn, Xiàng shàng zhuàn, Xiàng xià zhuàn, Xìcí shàng zhuàn, Xìcí xià zhuàn, Wén yán zhuàn, Shuō guà zhuàn, Xù guà zhuàn, Zá guà zhuàn — twelve piān. The Sòngzhì lists it as one juan; the Shūlù jiětí as twelve juan, evidently taking each piān as one juan. They are in fact the same.
Master Zhū composed a colophon for it; afterwards, when he composed the [Běn]-yì, he used this base-text. [Lǚ Zǔqiān]‘s book and [Lǚ] Dàfáng’s book agree, and yet he does not say he based it on [Lǚ] Dàfáng. Yóu Mào, in correspondence with Wú Rénjié, once discussed this. But Zǔqiān is not one to steal and base himself on another’s book; Shuì Yúquán’s preface to the collation of the Zhōuyì gǔjīng says: “By chance he had not yet seen Dàfáng’s text” — and that is probably the truth.
The Shūlù jiětí further records an Yīn xùn in two juan: this is the work of Zǔqiān’s disciple Wáng Shēnsǒu, taken down from oral instruction. It also says Master Zhū once had a print of this book cut at Línzhāng and Kuàijī, supplemented with Master Chéng’s zhèngzì and Master Cháo’s shuō. The present base-copy has none of these — perhaps the copyists let them go?
Respectfully revised and submitted, fifth month of the forty-first year of Qiánlóng [1776].
General Compilers: 紀昀 Jǐ Yún, 陸錫熊 Lù Xīxióng, 孫士毅 Sūn Shìyì. General Reviser: 陸費墀 Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Lǚ Zǔqiān (呂祖謙, 1137–1181), zì Bógōng 伯恭, hào Dōnglái 東萊, of Wùzhōu 婺州 / Jīnhuá 金華 (modern Jīnhuá, Zhèjiāng) — one of the principal Southern-Sòng Dàoxué masters and the only one of the Dōngnán sān xiānshēng (Three Masters of the Southeast: 朱熹 Zhū Xī, 張栻 Zhāng Shì, Lǚ Zǔqiān) to die before the Qìngyuán dǎngjìn of 1196 took hold. Catalog 1137–1181 is corroborated by CBDB id 7055.
His scholarly project was distinctive within the Dàoxué mainstream for its integration of jīngshǐzhīxué 經史之學 (Classics-and-history scholarship) with Dàoxué doctrine. He held the Lùyán màocáiyìlèi 陸言茂才異類 examination of Lóngxìng 1 (1163), and chairs at the Wùzhōu Lìzhái academy 麗澤書院 — the academy he founded with his brother 呂祖儉 Lǚ Zǔjiǎn and which became the principal venue of the famous Yúhú zhīhuì 鵝湖之會 (Goose-Lake Convocation) of 1175 between Zhū Xī’s and 陸九淵 Lù Jiǔyuān’s circles.
His Yì-scholarship is concentrated in this single work — the Gǔ Zhōuyì recension. He did not compose a substantive line-by-line commentary; the recension was his contribution. But the contribution is foundational: Zhū Xī’s Zhōuyì běnyì, which becomes the canonical post-Sòng Yì-text, depends on Lǚ Zǔqiān’s recension as its base-text. The gǔyì (ancient-Yì) form for the rest of the canonical tradition is, effectively, Lǚ Zǔqiān’s reconstructed form mediated by Zhū Xī.
The methodological commitment is the standard Sòng gǔyì one: the original 12-piān structure of the Yì canon, with the wing-treatises as continuous and independent texts (not broken up and re-distributed under hexagram-by-hexagram exposition). Where Wú Rénjié (KR1a0042) attempted further radical relabelings (assigning Xù guà to Fú Xī and the like), Lǚ Zǔqiān stayed within the conservative reconstruction program: only the structural division is restored, not the canonical-authorship attributions.
The relationship of Lǚ Zǔqiān’s recension to Lǚ Dàfáng’s earlier work is the major point of scholarly delicacy. Modern philological work (Schulz, Smith) tends to confirm the Sìkù editors’ defense: the two recensions agree because they reach the same evidentially-justified conclusion, not because of dependence. Lǚ Dàfáng’s text was sufficiently rare in the late twelfth century that Lǚ Zǔqiān’s not having seen it is plausible.
The companion Yīn xùn 音訓 by Wáng Shēnsǒu and Zhū Xī’s Línzhāng / Kuàijī supplemented prints reveal a fuller original transmission than the bare-bones Sìkù base preserves. Modern editions (Zhōnghuá shūjú; the Húběi rénmín Lǚ Dōnglái wénjí) restore the missing Yīn xùn and ChéngCháo supplements from independent surviving copies.
Translations and research
No European-language translation. The Gǔ Zhōuyì is principally treated in the secondary literature as the precursor-and-base of Zhū Xī’s Běnyì.
- Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (Univ. of Hawaii, 1992) — Lǚ Zǔqiān is treated extensively as the Dōngnán third master.
- Conrad Schirokauer, “Chu Hsi’s Political Career” in Confucian Personalities (Stanford, 1962) — context for the Lǚ-Zhū intellectual partnership.
- Linda A. Walton, Academies and Society in Southern Sung China (Univ. of Hawaii, 1999) — Wùzhōu Lìzhái academy.
- Zhū Bóqūn 朱伯崑, Yìxué zhéxué shǐ, vol. 2 — the Sòng gǔyì reconstruction movement and Lǚ Zǔqiān’s place in it.
- Liào Mínghuó 廖名活, articles in Zhōuyì yánjiū on Lǚ Zǔqiān’s Gǔ Zhōuyì and its relation to Lǚ Dàfáng’s prior work.
- Modern punctuated editions on the Sìkù base; Lǚ Dōnglái quánjí 呂東萊全集 (Zhèjiāng gǔjí, 2008) reissues with restored Yīn xùn supplement.
Other points of interest
The Lǚ Zǔqiān ↔ Zhū Xī partnership produced the most decisive single editorial intervention in the post-Hàn Yì-canonical tradition: Zhū Xī’s Běnyì on Lǚ Zǔqiān’s gǔyì recension becomes, after the Yuán’s cèjǔ 策舉 (examination-system) canonization in 1313, the operative Yì-text for the entire Yuán-Míng-Qīng tradition. Modern Chinese-language Yì texts (the standard Zhōnghuá shūjú edition, the Shànghǎi gǔjí, etc.) all preserve the Lǚ-Zhū gǔyì recension structure.
The Gǔ Zhōuyì is also the textual context for Lǚ Zǔqiān’s broader jīngshǐzhīxué program. He compiled the Dōnglái Bóyì 東萊博議 (essays on the Zuǒ zhuàn) and the Hèshān shīhuà 鶴山詩話, demonstrating that careful philological reconstruction is the precondition for canonical-doctrine work. The Yì-recension is one component in this larger project — gǔjīng (ancient canon) work in the service of Dàoxué doctrine.