Dú Yì sī yán 讀易私言
Personal Words on Reading the Yì
by 許衡 (Xǔ Héng, zì Píngzhòng 平仲, hào Lǔzhāi 魯齋, 1209–1281, of Hénèi 河內 — the major early-Yuán Dàoxué statesman; Jíxiándiàn dàxuéshì concurrent with Guózǐ jìjiǔ; posthumous title Wénzhèng 文正)
About the work
A one-juan compact methodological essay on the virtues-and-positions of the Yì’s six lines, by Xǔ Héng 許衡 — the most distinguished early-Yuán Dàoxué official-scholar, whose Sòngshǐ-mainstream Zhū-school pedagogy substantially shaped the Yuán-period canonical-curriculum standardization (1313).
The work develops the Xìcí’s key passage on the differential virtues of the six-line positions: tóng gōng yì wèi, qí shàn bù tóng 同功異位，其善不同 (“same merit, different position; the goodness is not the same”) — particularly the tóng gōng yì wèi, róu wēi gāng shèng 同功異位柔危剛勝 (“same merit, different position; soft-position dangerous, firm-position victorious”) doctrine. Xǔ Héng systematically classifies hexagrams by which-position their key yáng (firm) or yīn (soft) line occupies, and works out the differential character of each placement.
The Bā guà virtue-and-orientation framework is invoked: jiànshùndòngzhǐrùshuōxiànlì 健順動止入說陷麗 (“firm, yielding, moving, stopping, entering, joyful, sinking, brilliant” — the canonical Shuō guà virtues of QiánKūnZhènGènXùnDuìKǎnLí). The jíxiōnghuǐlìn (auspicious / inauspicious / regret / trouble) of each yáo depends both on the trigram-virtue and on the time-position context.
The methodological criterion: zhèng qiě dé zhōng 正且得中 (“correctness plus obtaining-the-middle”) is the highest standard. Confucius’s Tuàn / Xiàng zhuàn repeatedly use dāng wèi / bù dāng wèi / dé zhōng / xíng zhōng (in-position / not-in-position / obtain-middle / move-to-middle) as evaluative criteria. Xǔ Héng’s exposition develops this systematically.
Bibliographic state: the work originally circulated within Xǔ Héng’s collected works (Lǔzhāi yíshū 魯齋遺書 / Lǔzhāi xīnfǎ 魯齋心法). Sū Tiānjué 蘇天爵’s Yuán wénlèi 元文類 (the standard Yuán-period prose anthology) and Liú Chāng 劉昌’s Zhōngzhōu wénbiǎo 中州文表 both record it. Cáo Róng 曹溶 of the early Qīng included it in his Xuéhǎi lèibiān 學海類編; the Tōngzhìtáng 通志堂 print of the Jiǔjīng jiě 九經解 followed the old base. The Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recorded the work as Xǔ Héng’s.
Bibliographic puzzle: Hé Chuò 何焯 (1661–1722), in correcting the Jiǔjīng jiě table-of-contents, attributed the work to Lǐ Jiǎn 李簡 (Yuán). The Sìkù editors examined: Lǐ Jiǎn’s separately surviving Xué Yì biān 學易編 (KR1a0070?) is a different work and does not duplicate this one. The Yǒnglè dàdiǎn attribution to Xǔ Héng is firm. “[The work is] not Lǐ Jiǎn’s book — very clear. Hé Chuò’s correction — one does not know why he said this.”
The composition window 1259–1281 reflects Xǔ Héng’s Yuán-court tenure (post-1259, when he was summoned by Khubilai) through to his death.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Dú Yì sī yán in one juan was composed by Xǔ Héng of the Yuán. [Xǔ] Héng, zì Píngzhòng, a man of Hénèi. Held office to Jíxiándiàn dàxuéshì concurrent with Guózǐ jìjiǔ. Posthumous title Wénzhèng. His career-record is in the Yuánshǐ.
His book discusses the six-lines’ virtues-and-positions; its great-intent much develops the Xìcí zhuàn’s tóng gōng yì wèi, róu wēi gāng shèng meaning. Further, it gathers-by-classification each hexagram’s drawing’s residing-in-six-positions, separately-and-distinctly observing them. Evidently jiànshùndòngzhǐrùshuōxiànlì’s jíxiōnghuǐlìn further depend on the time-position met; and [the criterion] must be correctness-and-obtaining-the-middle as the highest. Confucius’s TuànXiàng zhuàn, each by dāngwèi/bùdāngwèi, dézhōng/xíngzhōng speak — what [Xǔ] Héng developed is rooted in this intent.
This book originally was in [Xǔ] Héng’s Wén jí. Yuán [scholar] Sū Tiānjué’s Wén lèi and Míng [scholar] Liú Chāng’s Zhōngzhōu wén biǎo both record it.
In the present dynasty Cáo Róng selected-and-included [it] in the Xuéhǎi lèi biān; the Tōngzhìtáng cut [edition of the] Jiǔjīng jiě therefore from the old base included [it]. Hé Chuò, correcting the Jiǔjīng jiě table-of-contents, took it as the book of the Yuán [scholar] Lǐ Jiǎn. We today examine: [Lǐ] Jiǎn’s composed Xué Yì biān — the book is fully in [the corpus]; never duplicates this book. Further, what the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn records is also as Xǔ Héng — so [the work is] not Lǐ Jiǎn’s book, very clear. Hé Chuò’s correction — one does not know why he said this.
Respectfully revised and submitted, fifth month of the fortieth year of Qiánlóng [1775].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
許衡 Xǔ Héng (1209–1281), zì Píngzhòng 平仲, hào Lǔzhāi 魯齋, of Hénèi 河內 (modern Qìnyáng, north Hénán). Yuánshǐ biography in juan 158.
Career: studied under Yáo Shū 姚樞 (1203–1280), the early-Yuán Dàoxué importer (who had brought Zhū-Xī-school Confucianism to the Mongol court via the captured Sòng scholar Zhào Fù 趙復). Summoned by Khubilai (Hubilie) to court c. 1259; appointed Jīngzhàoyǐn 京兆尹 (Mayor of the Capital), then various educational and ministerial posts. Final office: Jíxiándiàn dàxuéshì 集賢殿大學士 (Grand Academician of the Hall of Assembled Worthies) concurrent with Guózǐ jìjiǔ 國子祭酒 (Director of the Imperial Academy). Posthumous title Wénzhèng 文正 (one of the highest shìhào honors).
His role in Yuán Dàoxué canonization is foundational. Together with Yáo Shū and Liú Yīn 劉因 (1249–1293), Xǔ Héng established the Yuán-period Zhū-Xī-school orthodox curriculum. The 1313 Yuán-period civil-examination canonization (kējǔ chì 科舉敕) — establishing the Sìshū (with Zhū Xī’s Jízhù commentary) and the Wǔjīng (with Cài Shěn’s Shū jí zhuàn, Hú Ānguó’s Chūnqiū zhuàn, the ChéngZhū Yì-commentary, etc.) as the canonical-curriculum standard — was substantively prepared by Xǔ Héng’s pedagogical work two generations earlier.
The Dú Yì sī yán is the principal Xǔ Héng Yì-related composition. It is methodologically continuous with the ChéngZhū yìlǐ mainline: developing the Xìcí’s six-line position-doctrine, applying the zhèng / zhōng criteria, classifying hexagrams by line-position. The work’s brevity (1 juan) and methodological clarity made it a Yuán-period pedagogical-introduction text.
The Hé Chuò misattribution is one of the cleaner cases of early-Qīng bibliographic-confusion that the Sìkù editors corrected. Modern editions consistently follow the Sìkù attribution to Xǔ Héng.
The composition window 1259–1281 reflects Xǔ Héng’s Yuán-court tenure. The work’s brevity (1 juan) and methodological self-containment (it does not require a long composition arc) make precise dating within this window impossible.
Translations and research
The work is consulted in the secondary literature on Yuán-period Dào-xué canonization.
- John D. Langlois Jr., China under Mongol Rule (Princeton, 1981) — context for Xǔ Héng’s Dào-xué canonization role.
- Jeffrey Geoffrey Riegel, “Some Notes on Xu Heng” in Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie — biographical study.
- Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (Univ. of Hawaii, 1992) — Yuán-period Zhū-school transmission.
- Wing-tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton, 1963) — translates excerpts of Xǔ Héng’s writings.
- Zhū Bóqūn 朱伯崑, Yìxué zhéxué shǐ, vol. 3 — Xǔ Héng’s Dú Yì sī yán discussed.
- Yáo Mǐng-dá 姚名達, Xǔ Héng yán-jiū 許衡研究 — comprehensive Chinese-language study.
- Modern punctuated editions on the Sìkù base.
Other points of interest
The methodological focus on six-line virtue-and-position differentiation — applying systematic principles (which-position, which-trigram-virtue, zhèng / zhōng criteria) to evaluate each yáo’s auspicious / inauspicious character — represents one of the cleaner Yuán-period systematic yìlǐ readings. The Yuán-period yìlǐ tradition tended toward systematization and curriculum-formation rather than original speculation; Xǔ Héng’s Sī yán exemplifies this systematizing orientation.
The work’s use of the Bā guà virtue-formula (jiànshùndòngzhǐrùshuōxiànlì) as a structural framework for line-position evaluation is methodologically clean: each line’s character is a function of (its position) × (its trigram’s virtue), modified by the zhèng / zhōng criteria. This is essentially the early-Yuán formulation of the Yì pedagogy that the 1313 examination-system would standardize.
The brief 1-juan format makes the Sī yán one of the more pedagogically-accessible Yì-works in the entire Sìkù Yì lèi. Its inclusion in the Yuán Wén lèi anthology and the Míng Zhōngzhōu wén biǎo attest to its enduring pedagogical use.