Yì bì zhuàn 易裨傳
Auxiliary Tradition on the Yì
by 林至 Lín Zhì (撰), zì Déjiǔ 德久, fl. Chúnxī-era — disciple of 朱熹 Zhū Xī; native place either Sōngjiāng 松江 (tiyao) or Zuìlǐ 檇李 (陳振孫 Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí); jìnshì in the Chúnxī era; rose to Mìshūshěng zhèngzì 秘書省正字
About the work
A two-juan critical-corrective treatise on Sòng-period Yì-exposition, by Lín Zhì, a disciple of Zhū Xī. The structure is unusual for an Yì work: rather than running commentary on guàcí and yáocí, the Bì zhuàn presents three inner chapters (nèi piān 內篇) addressing what Lín Zhì regards as the three foundational Yì-cosmological topics, plus one outer chapter (wài piān 外篇) addressing eight xiàngshù technical topics he treats as legitimately part of Yì-tradition but not central to its Way.
The three inner chapters are Fǎ xiàng 法象 (“Modeling-and-Imagery”), Jí shù 極數 (“Reaching-the-Numbers”), and Guān biàn 觀變 (“Observing-the-Transformations”). Lín Zhì’s auto-preface gives the methodological program with great clarity:
Fǎ xiàng takes its root in the Tàijí. Jí shù takes its root in the heaven-and-earth’s numbers. Guān biàn takes its root in the eighteen yarrow-stalk transformations. These three the Dà zhuàn [Xìcí] has already discussed.
He then identifies the three errors of prior Sòng Yì-numerology that the work proposes to correct:
- *On the Tàijí: the prior expositors are confused by the sì xiàng 四象 (“four images”) doctrine and have lost the guàhuà 卦畫 (hexagram-drawing) foundation.
- On the heaven-and-earth numbers: the prior expositors are confused by the Hétú / Luòshū (Túshū wén 圖書文) tradition and have lost the cānliǎng 參兩 doctrinal foundation (the Shuō guà statement that 3 is the yáng-number and 2 the yīn-number).
- On the yarrow-stalk procedure: the prior expositors are confused by the guàlèi 挂扐 (procedural-attachment-and-fingertip-counting) details and have lost the yīnyáng transformation principle.
The proposal is “to disentangle each and correct it” (gè lí ér zhèng zhī 各釐而正之), so that “the imagery-and-numerology is seen to be naturally-so, and not what private wit can attain.”
The outer chapter discusses eight xiàngshù topics: fǎnduì 反對 (opposite-and-inverted hexagrams), xiāngshēng 相生 (mutual-generation), shìyìng 世應 (generation-and-response), hùtǐ 互體 (interlocking-trigram bodies), nàjiǎ 納甲 (matching-stems), biànyáo 變爻 (transforming line), dòngyáo 動爻 (moving line — sometimes given as qín yáo 勤爻 in the source), and guàqì 卦氣 (hexagram-and-qì / seasonal scheme). Lín Zhì’s outer-chapter framing: “To say that these are not the Yì*‘s Way is impermissible; to say the* Yì is exhausted in them is wrong. The Yì*-Way’s transformation-and-penetration is inexhaustible; obtaining any one corner of it suffices to make an exposition. Because the* Dà zhuàn itself does not speak of these, I summarize the general outline as the Outer Chapter*.*”
Bibliographic state: the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì records the work as 1 juan; 馬端臨 Mǎ Duānlín’s Wénxiàn tōngkǎo records 2 juan plus one wài piān. The Sìkù base-text is the Yuán-dynasty Zhìzhèng era (1341–1370) reprint prepared by 陳泰 Chén Tài, which combines the inner and outer chapters into a unified two-juan format — Chén Tài’s combination is the source of the present 2-juan reckoning.
The hometown question — Sōngjiāng 松江 (modern Shànghǎi) per the tiyao versus Zuìlǐ 檇李 (an old name for Jiāxīng 嘉興 / Sūzhōu region) per Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí — the Sìkù editors leave unresolved.
The Sìkù tiyao’s judgment: “Although [the work] is not entirely free of an over-firm holding-down, what is discussed mostly hits the diseases of Yì*-exposition. As for the saying that ‘the* Yì*-Way’s transformation is inexhaustible; obtaining any one corner of it suffices to make a discussion’ — that is especially apt.*”
The composition window 1180–1200 reflects: Lín Zhì’s Chúnxī-era (1174–1189) jìnshì and the firm establishment of his discipleship-relation with Zhū Xī (whose “Reply to Lín Déjiǔ” 答林德久書 in Zhūzǐ wénjí is from the late 1170s onward); Lín Zhì’s Mìshūshěng zhèngzì tenure and surviving Zhū Xī correspondence place his Yì-scholarly maturity in the 1180s and 1190s. No internal dating fixes a tighter terminus.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Yì bì zhuàn in two juan was composed by Lín Zhì of the Sòng. [Lín] Zhì, zì Déjiǔ — a man of Sōngjiāng. The Shūlù jiětí gives [him as] a man of Zuìlǐ; which is correct is unclear. Jìnshì of the Chúnxī era; rose in office to Mìshūshěng zhèngzì. In Zhūzǐ’s Wén jí there is a “Reply to Lín Déjiǔ” letter — that is this man.
The book — Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì gives one juan; Wénxiàn tōngkǎo, beyond the two juan, additionally gives one wài piān. The present base-copy is the Yuán Zhìzhèng-era cutting by Chén Tài, totalling two juan — for [Chén] Tài has combined them.
[The work] is in three piān: one called Fǎ xiàng; one called Jí shù; one called Guān biàn. The auto-preface says: “Fǎ xiàng takes its root in the Tàijí; Jí shù takes its root in the heaven-and-earth’s numbers; Guān biàn takes its root in the eighteen-transformations of the hexagram-yarrow — all in accord with the Dà zhuàn’s text. Discussers of the Tàijí are confused by the sì xiàng-saying and lose the foundation of hexagram-drawing. Discussers of the heaven-and-earth numbers are confused by the Túshū text and lose the master of cānliǎng. Discussers of yarrow-stalk are confused between the guàlèi and lose the yīnyáng transformation. [Now] each is disentangled and corrected.”
The outer chapter discusses fǎnduì, xiāngshēng, shìyìng, hùtǐ, nàjiǎ, biànyáo, dòngyáo, guàqì — eight matters. The auto-preface says: “To say these are not the Yì*‘s Way is impermissible; to say the* Yì is exhausted in them is wrong.”
Now examining the book: although it is not free of having an over-firm-holding-down here and there, what is discussed mostly hits the diseases of Yì-exposition. The saying the Yì*-Way’s transformation is inexhaustible; obtaining any one end suffices to make an exposition* — this is especially apt.
Respectfully revised and submitted, tenth month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng [1781].
General Compilers: 紀昀 Jǐ Yún, 陸錫熊 Lù Xīxióng, 孫士毅 Sūn Shìyì. General Reviser: 陸費墀 Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Lín Zhì 林至 (lifedates unrecorded; fl. Chúnxī era 1174–1189 onward), zì Déjiǔ 德久. CBDB id 33342 records him without lifedates; biographical references at NánSòng guǎngé xùlù (NSGGXL) 8.9b and 9.26b, and in Zhūzǐ ménrén 朱子門人 (the disciple-roster) p. 147. He is one of the named direct disciples of Zhū Xī, with surviving correspondence in Zhūzǐ wénjí’s “Reply to Lín Déjiǔ” (Dá Lín Déjiǔ shū 答林德久書).
The native-place ambiguity (Sōngjiāng / Zuìlǐ) reflects the period’s typical regional-administrative-renaming complications: both designations could refer to the lower-Yangzi delta southeast of present-day Shànghǎi, and Lín Zhì may well have had ancestral residence in one and current residence in the other. The Sìkù editors’ choice to leave the question unresolved is responsible.
Methodologically Lín Zhì stands within the late-Southern-Sòng Zhū-Xí-line Yì-circle as a xiàngshù skeptic — but a discriminating one. He does not reject xiàngshù wholesale (the way the xīnxué readers of 楊簡 Yáng Jiǎn (KR1a0037) do); he proposes to root xiàngshù in the Xìcí’s own Tàijí / tiāndì shù / guān biàn triad, against what he sees as the speculative drift of sìxiàng / Hétú-Luòshū / guàlèi-procedural readings. The position is methodologically continuous with Zhū Xī’s own xiàngshù skepticism in the Yì xué qǐméng 易學啟蒙 and Zhōuyì běnyì — Lín Zhì is, effectively, executing the Zhū-school xiàngshù-corrective program in a freestanding treatise.
The outer chapter’s eight-topic list — fǎnduì, xiāngshēng, shìyìng, hùtǐ, nàjiǎ, biànyáo, dòngyáo, guàqì — is one of the cleaner Sòng-period taxonomies of xiàngshù technique: fǎnduì and xiāngshēng are the structural-typological sub-topics; shìyìng and hùtǐ are the position-and-substance sub-topics; nàjiǎ is the calendrical-cosmological sub-topic; biànyáo and dòngyáo are the divinatory sub-topics; guàqì is the seasonal-correlation sub-topic. The taxonomy provides a useful map of post-Hàn xiàngshù practice.
The composition window 1180–1200 reflects Lín Zhì’s Chúnxī-and-after scholarly maturity. The work was complete and circulating well before the Yuán Chén Tài 1341+ reprint.
Translations and research
No European-language translation.
- Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (Univ. of Hawaii, 1992) — Lín Zhì briefly named in the Zhū-Xí disciple network.
- Zhū Bóqūn 朱伯崑, Yìxué zhéxué shǐ, vol. 2 — Lín Zhì as Zhū-school xiàngshù corrective writer.
- Wáng Tiějūn 王鐵均, Sòngdài Yìxué shǐ — chapter on the Zhū-Xí-circle Yì writers.
- Liào Mínghuó 廖名活, articles in Zhōuyì yánjiū on the eight-topic xiàngshù taxonomy.
- Modern punctuated editions on the Sìkù base.
Other points of interest
The eight-topic outer-chapter taxonomy (fǎnduì / xiāngshēng / shìyìng / hùtǐ / nàjiǎ / biànyáo / dòngyáo / guàqì) is one of the more methodologically self-conscious Sòng-period maps of post-Hàn xiàngshù technique. Comparing it to the parallel taxonomy in 朱震 Zhū Zhèn’s Zhōuyì jí zhuàn 周易集傳 (KR1a0024) and to the Yuán-period typology in 胡一桂 Hú Yīguì’s Yì běnyì fùlù zuǎnshū gives a clean view of the Southern-Sòng-to-Yuán xiàngshù methodological consolidation.
The auto-preface’s signature phrase — “the Yì-Way’s transformation is inexhaustible; obtaining any one corner of it suffices to make an exposition” (Yì dào biàntōng bù qióng, dé qí yī duān jiē zú yǐ wèi shuō 易道變通不窮，得其一端皆足以為說) — is one of the more memorable Sòng-period methodological formulations on the Yì’s irreducible plurality of legitimate readings. The Sìkù editors’ explicit endorsement of this formula — “especially apt” — is unusual praise.