Zhōuyì yào yì 周易要義
Essentials of the Zhōuyì
compiled by 魏了翁 Wèi Liǎowēng (輯) — zì Huáfū 華夫, hào Hèshān 鶴山, 1178–1237, of Línqióng 臨卭 in Sìchuān; one of the most distinguished late-Southern-Sòng Dàoxué statesmen, Cānzhī zhèngshì 參知政事 / Vice Chief Councillor, posthumous title Wénjìng 文靖.
About the work
A ten-juan extract-and-anthology of the Yì-canonical-commentary tradition (Kǒng Yǐngdá’s Táng Zhèngyì commentary apparatus and Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén), compiled by Wèi Liǎowēng 魏了翁 during his Jìngzhōu 靖州 exile (1225 onward) as the first-installment of his much larger Jiǔjīng yào yì 九經要義 (“Essentials of the Nine Classics”) project. The Sìkù base-text is the Sìbù cóngkān (SBCK) edition; the catalog meta gives WYG, but the actual surviving authoritative copy is the SBCK base.
Wèi Liǎowēng’s principle: Sòng Yì-students “can only recite the established sayings, [and] cannot seek thoroughness-and-breadth in the canonical-and-sub-commentary tradition”; he therefore extracted the materials from Kǒng Yǐngdá’s Zhōuyì zhèngyì (the standard Táng-period authoritative commentary, the zhùshū 注疏) and from Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén 經典釋文 (the standard Táng-period phonetic-and-philological gloss), arranged them by topic and substantive content, and produced a yào yì (essentials-of-meaning) compilation. The companion-installments for the other Eight Classics (Shàngshū, Yílǐ, Lǐjì, Chūnqiū, Lùnyǔ, Mèngzǐ, Xiàojīng, plus Màoshī later replaced) followed.
The methodological commitment, per Fāng Huí 方囘’s Tóngjiāng jí colophon to Wèi Liǎowēng’s Zhōuyì jí yì 周易集義 (a separate work, see below): Wèi Liǎowēng held that “[the four-fold] cíbiànxiàngzhān 辭變象占 (wording-transformation-imagery-divination) is the Yì’s grand-outline; the yáo, Tuàn, Xiàng, [yáo-]wordings, drawings, lines, positions, voids’ divisions, the hùfǎnfēifú (interlocking-reverse-flying-hidden) doctrine, the chéngchéngbǐyìng (riding-bearing-near-responding) example — without knowing these, yìlǐ will be wanting.” The Yào yì’s general intent is therefore “to seek yìlǐ by means of imagery-and-numerology, balancing between Hàn-learning and Sòng-learning” (Sìkù tiyao).
The compilation’s specific contributions:
a. Selectively pruned canonical-commentary apparatus. Drawing on the KǒngYǐngdá Zhèngyì and Lù Démíng’s Shì wén, “selectively pruned with discretion, distinct judgment, fine examination — pruning the branches-and-twigs, alone gathering the English-flowers” (Sìkù).
b. Removal of apocrypha (chènwěi 讖緯) citations. Wáng Yī 王禕 (Míng) in his Zá shuō notes: Kǒng Yǐngdá’s Nine-Classics Zhèngyì “often cites wěi*-book sayings; Ōuyáng Xiū once wanted to delete-and-remove them, but his words did not result in action. Until Hèshān Wèishì composed the Yào yì — only then was deletion-and-pruning applied and the talk silenced. [Wèi Liǎowēng] also has great clearing-merit (kuòqīng zhī gōng 廓清之功)*.”
c. Augmentation with Hàn glosses. The Imperial Topic-Poem (yù tí by Qiánlóng, prefixed to the Sìkù base) notes: for Lù Démíng’s Shì wén “[Wèi Liǎowēng] also drew in Mǎ Róng 馬融, Zhèng Kāngchéng 鄭康成 [Zhèng Xuán], Wáng Sù 王肅 — concisely getting the essentials, while also achieving substantial detail.”
Bibliographic note: the Jiǔjīng yào yì has been partially lost in transmission. Per Zhāng Xuān 張萱’s Wànlì-era Nèigé shūmù 内閣書目: Yílǐ 7 fascicles, Lǐjì 3, Zhōuyì 2, Shàngshū 1, Chūnqiū 2, Lùnyǔ 2, Mèngzǐ 2, plus a 6-juan Lèi mù 類目 (categorical-table) — a single combined edition at that time. By Sìkù-period various of these had been lost or scattered; the Sìkù records each separately according to whichever has a surviving copy, abandoning attempts to reconstitute the combined edition.
Zhū Yízūn’s Jīngyì kǎo records the Jiǔjīng yào yì under the Qúnjīng lèi (general-classics) at 263 juan but, in the Yì lèi, lists only Wèi Liǎowēng’s Zhōuyì jí yì 周易集義 (64 juan from the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì) — not the Yào yì. Zhū Yízūn evidently conflated the two works. Fāng Huí’s colophon clarifies the distinction: when Wèi Liǎowēng was demoted to Jìngzhōu, he extracted from canonical-and-sub-commentary to make the Yào yì; he then separately gathered the Yì-discussions of the great ru from the LiánLuò 濂洛 era onward (i.e. Zhōu Dūnyí, the Chéng brothers, Zhāng Zài, and the post-Chéng Dàoxué line) to make the Zhōuyì jí yì. The two are genuinely distinct works.
The composition window 1225–1237 reflects: Wèi Liǎowēng’s demotion to Jìngzhōu in Bǎoqìng 1 (1225) following the political crisis triggered by the death of Lǐzōng’s predecessor Níngzōng (the hēi yī cānzhèng 黑衣參政 affair); his death in 1237. The work was composed during this exile period.
Imperial Topic-Poem
(Prefixed to the Sìkù base-text, by the Qiánlóng Emperor; an 8-rhyme five-character composition praising Wèi Liǎowēng’s clearing-of-apocrypha service. Translated condensation: Huáfū studied under Lǐ Jìngzǐ [= Lǐ Fán 李燔 (1163–1232), a ZhūXī disciple]; his learning transmits Zǐyáng [= Zhū Xī]. Zǐyáng’s gloss on the Zhōuyì alone emphasizes divination — to keep people from straying into the far-fetched. Wèi then took as canon the Zhèngyì*, deleting the redundant, taking the good; consulting the* Shì wén*, drawing also MǎZhèngWáng — concise to get the essentials but with detail. [Zhū] Yízūn was still ignorant of this… The Three* Yì*‘s clarity of “Zhōu” derives from the Qíjīng [= Qíshān-and-Hàojīng territory]. Qián is firm and complete in four virtues; Kūn is yielding and follows… Heaven-Earth division being established, the rest of the hexagrams pushed by category, the great-points are not lost in correctness. The Ten Wings — the loyal minister! — his coming-and-going stands all the more outstanding, his upright mien planted-in-court-as-a-norm. How could it be empty words? In using the* Yì truly there is regularity. The Sìkù widely searches; [Cài] Màozhù [maybe a librarian — Màozhù 懋柱?] presents from his treasure-store; [my agents] copy and cut, returning [the work] to its place; opening the world’s letters-and-teachings will flourish. At the head of the volume I [Qiánlóng] inscribe a five-character poem, in adornment, that the world may eternally maintain.)
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Zhōuyì yào yì in ten juan was compiled by Wèi Liǎowēng of the Sòng. [Wèi] Liǎowēng, zì Huáfū, hào Hèshān, a man of Línqióng. Jìnshì of Qìngyuán 5 [1199]; rose in office to Zīzhèngdiàn dàxuéshì, Cānzhī zhèngshì, Qiānshū Shūmìyuàn shì. His career-record is in his Sòngshǐ biography.
[Wèi] Liǎowēng [held that] those who expound the canons can only recite the established sayings — they cannot seek thoroughness-and-breadth — and so he took the canonical-and-sub-commentary text of the various canons, divided according to subject-matter and category, and compiled them. He called [the result] Jiǔjīng yào yì; this [present work] is the first installment of it.
Fāng Huí’s Tóngjiāng jí has a Zhōuyì jí yì colophon recording: [Wèi] Liǎowēng once said: cíbiànxiàngzhān is the Yì’s grand-outline; the yáo-and-Tuàn-and-Xiàng-and-yáo’s wording, the drawings-and-lines-and-positions-and-voids’ distinctions, the hùfǎnfēifú doctrine, the chéngchéngbǐyìng example — without knowing these, yìlǐ will be wanting. Evidently his great intent was to seek yìlǐ by way of xiàngshù, balancing between Hàn-learning and Sòng-learning.
Hence what this compilation collects, although chiefly the canonical-and-sub-commentary and the Shì wén, is selectively pruned with discretion, the cuts judicious, the examination-of-fineness searching — what may be called pruning the branches-and-twigs, alone gathering the English-flowers.
Wáng Yī’s Zá shuō says: Kǒng Yǐngdá in composing the Nine-Classics Zhèngyì often cited wěi-school sayings; the Lord Ōuyáng once wanted to delete-and-remove them, but his words did not result in action. Until Hèshān Wèishì composed the Yào yì did the [apocrypha] then receive deletion-and-pruning and the talk silence. [Wèi Liǎowēng] greatly contributed clearing-merit.
In Míng Wànlì-era Zhāng Xuān’s edited Nèigé shūmù records: Jiǔjīng yào yì still extant: Yílǐ 7 ce, Lǐjì 3 ce, Zhōuyì 2 ce, Shàngshū 1 ce, Chūnqiū 2 ce, Lùnyǔ 2 ce, Mèngzǐ 2 ce; plus Lèi mù 6 juan; the originals were one combined edition. Today the various canons are sometimes extant, sometimes lost; cannot be recombined. Therefore where there is a surviving transmission-copy, [we] each separately record [it].
Zhū Yízūn’s Jīngyì kǎo in the Qúnjīng lèi records Jiǔjīng yào yì in 263 juan, with note “see various canons” — yet for the various canons each lists Yào yì, while in the Yì lèi he records only — based on Sòngzhì — Wèi Liǎowēng’s Zhōuyì jí yì in 64 juan, and does not record this book. As if treating the Jí yì as the Yào yì. Examining: Fāng Huí’s Zhōuyì jí yì colophon says: “Hèshān xiānshēng, demoted to Jìngzhōu, took the various canons’ canonical-and-sub-commentary, extracted-and-made the Yào yì; further took the Yì-expositions of the LiánLuò-era and onward great ru to make the Zhōuyì jí yì.” So they are decidedly two books.
Respectfully revised and submitted, second month of the forty-second year of Qiánlóng [1777].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Wèi Liǎowēng (魏了翁, 1178–1237), zì Huáfū 華夫 (also Huáfù 華父), hào Hèshān 鶴山, of Pújiāng 蒲江 in Línqióng 臨卭 (modern Pújiāng county, Sìchuān, in the Chéngdū metropolitan region). Sòngshǐ biography in juan 437.
Jìnshì of Qìngyuán 5 (1199). Career under Níngzōng / Lǐzōng included high central-government posts: Lǐbù shàngshū 禮部尚書 (Minister of Rites), Cānzhī zhèngshì 參知政事 (Vice Chief Councillor), Qiānshū Shūmìyuàn shì 僉書樞密院事 (Joint Senior Officer of the Bureau of Military Affairs), final post Zīzhèngdiàn dàxuéshì 資政殿大學士. Posthumous title Wénjìng 文靖.
His political-biographical arc was decisively shaped by the 1224 succession-crisis: the chief minister Shǐ Míyuǎn 史彌遠 had Níngzōng’s adopted heir Zhào Hóng 趙竑 deposed in favor of Lǐzōng (Zhào Yún 趙昀); Wèi Liǎowēng was among the senior officials who protested the irregularity and was demoted in 1225 (the hēi yī cānzhèng 黑衣參政 / “black-coat-attendance” affair, where Shǐ Míyuǎn allegedly arranged for the new emperor’s attendance in mourning-attire to legitimize the deposition). Wèi Liǎowēng was sent to Jìngzhōu 靖州 (modern Jìng county, Hunan); this exile period (1225 onward) was when the Yào yì and the larger Jiǔjīng yào yì project were compiled. He was eventually recalled to high office under Lǐzōng’s later years.
Methodologically Wèi Liǎowēng is one of the most balanced Hàn-and-Sòng synthesizers of the late Southern Sòng. Where the post-Zhū-Xī mainstream had been moving sharply away from the HànTáng zhùshū tradition (the Kǒng Yǐngdá Zhèngyì base) toward pure-doctrinal yìlǐ (ChéngYí + ZhūXī’s Běnyì), Wèi Liǎowēng restored the zhùshū and Shì wén tradition to substantive engagement, while retaining the Zhū-school yìlǐ anchoring through his concurrent compilation of the Zhōuyì jí yì (the Lián-Luò-and-after great ru’s Yì-expositions). The two compilations together — Yào yì + Jí yì — give the late-Sòng student of the Yì the substantive HànTáng zhùshū base and the substantive Sòng yìlǐ superstructure.
Wèi Liǎowēng’s pedagogical lineage: under Lǐ Fán 李燔 (1163–1232, zì Jìngzǐ 敬子), one of Zhū Xī’s late disciples (the second-generation Zhū-school transmission). The Qiánlóng yù tí poem makes this lineage prominent: “Huáfū studied under Master Jìngzǐ; his learning transmits Zǐyáng [= Zhū Xī].”
The composition window 1225–1237 reflects the Jìngzhōu exile period through to Wèi Liǎowēng’s death.
The Sìkù editors’ care to distinguish the Yào yì from the Zhōuyì jí yì (the latter preserved separately in Yǒnglè dàdiǎn) — and to correct Zhū Yízūn’s conflation — is one of the more careful Sìkù-period bibliographic clarifications of the post-Sòng Yì-corpus.
Translations and research
No European-language translation. Wèi Liǎowēng is principally treated in the political-biographical and philosophical-circle literature on the late Southern Sòng Dàoxué.
- Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (Univ. of Hawaii, 1992) — Wèi Liǎowēng treated as a major late-Zhū-school statesman.
- Conrad Schirokauer, articles on the late-Sòng Dàoxué circle in Chinese Government in Ming Times and elsewhere.
- Zhū Bóqūn 朱伯崑, Yìxué zhéxué shǐ, vol. 2 — Wèi Liǎowēng treated as the Hàn-and-Sòng-balancing compiler.
- Wáng Tiějūn 王鐵均, Sòngdài Yìxué shǐ — chapter on the Jiǔjīng yào yì project.
- Modern punctuated editions on the SBCK base.
Other points of interest
The Jiǔjīng yào yì project as a whole — Wèi Liǎowēng’s attempt to provide systematically pruned canonical-commentary essentials for the entire Nine-Classics curriculum — is one of the more ambitious individual scholarly projects of the entire Sòng dynasty. Comparable in scope only to a few of the Northern-Sòng and early-Southern-Sòng major individual compilations (Lǐ Héng’s Yì hǎi cuō yào KR1a0034, Lǐ Tāo’s Xù Zīzhì tōngjiàn cháng biān). The fact that the project was substantially executed during a single exile period (1225–1237) is itself a small documentary monument of late-Sòng exile-as-scholarship working conditions.
The “clearing-of-apocrypha-citations” function the work performed is a substantial contribution to the canonical-text orthodoxy of the post-Sòng tradition. Modern Confucian-canon scholarship (Pierre-Henri de Bruyn, Anne Cheng) has noted this Yào yì-mediated cleaning of the Zhèngyì tradition as an important moment in the SòngYuánMíng canonical-orthodoxy consolidation.