Yì zuǎn yán 易纂言
Compiled Words on the Yì
by 吳澄 (Wú Chéng, zì Yōuqīng 幼清, hào Cǎolú 草廬, 1249–1333, of Lèān 樂安 in Fǔzhōu / Línchuān 臨川 — Yuán-period polymath; Hànlín xuéshì 翰林學士; posthumous title Wénzhèng 文正)
About the work
A twelve-juan systematic Yì-commentary by Wú Chéng 吳澄 — the most distinguished Yuán-period polymath, who with 許衡 Xǔ Héng (1209–1281) constituted the foremost Yuán-period Neo-Confucian scholarly authorities. Wú Chéng straddled the SòngYuán transition (b. late Sòng Lǐzōng era; jìnshì-attempted at the end of Xiánchún; entered Yuán by recommendation as Hànlín yìngfèng wénzì; rose to Hànlín xuéshì). Catalog gives 1249–1331; CBDB 1249–1333; the 1333 dating is followed here.
The work uses Lǚ Zǔqiān’s Gǔ Yì recension (KR1a0043) as its canonical-text base — the gǔyì 12-piān form (continuous wing-treatises) rather than the WángBìDǒngKǎi line (KR1a0061) Sòng-canonical form. Each hexagram opens with guàbiàn 卦變 and zhǔyáo 主爻 (master-line); each line opens with biànyáo 變爻, then xiàngzhān 象占. The Ten Wings each separately divided into chapter-numbered sections with appended glosses. Yīnshì (phonetic explanations) and kǎozhèng (textual evidence) are appended at hexagram-end (for canon) and chapter-end (for commentary).
Wú Chéng’s textual-emendation discipline is one of the cleanest Sòng-Yuán-period evidential apparatuses for the Yì canon. The Sìkù tiyao gives a substantial roster of his emendations — each anchored on cited ancient sources:
| Passage | Wú Chéng’s emendation | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Shī 師 Tuàn: zhàngrén jí | → dàrén jí 大人吉 | Cuī Jǐng’s Zǐxià zhuàn base |
| Bǐ 比: bǐ zhī fěi rén | add xiōng 凶 below | Wáng Sù base |
| Xiǎochù 小畜: yú shuō fú 輿説輻 | → yú shuō fù 輿説輹 | Xǔ Shèn’s Shuō wén |
| (Xiǎochù?): shàng dé zài 尚徳載 | → shàng dé zài 尚得載 | Jīng Fáng, Yú Fān, Zǐxià base |
| Tài 泰: bāo huāng 包荒 | → bāo huāng 包巟 | Shuō wén, Yú Fān base |
| Dàchù 大畜: yuē xián yú wèi 曰閑輿衛 | → rì xián yú wèi 日閑輿衛 | Zhèng Xuán, Yú Fān, Lù Xīshēng base |
| Cuì 萃: cuì hēng | delete hēng | Mǎ Róng, Zhèng Xuán, Yú Fān, Lù Jī base |
| Kùn 困: yìyuè 劓刖 | → nièwù 臲卼 | Xún Shuǎng, Wáng Sù, Lù Jī base |
| Dǐng 鼎: qí xíng wò 其形渥 | → qí xíng wū 其刑剭 | Zhèng Xuán base |
| Bǐ 比 tuàn: bǐ jí yě | delete yě | Wáng Zhāosù base |
| Bēn 賁 tuàn | add gāngróu jiāocuò 4 chars | Wáng Bì gloss |
| Zhèn 震 tuàn: jīngyuǎn ér shèněr | add bù sàng bǐchàng 4 chars | Wáng Zhāosù via Xúshì base |
| Jiàn 漸 tuàn: nǚ guī jí yě | → nǚ guī jí lì zhēn | Wáng Sù base |
| Kūn 坤 xiàng: lǚ shuāng jiān bīng | → chūliù lǚ shuāng | Wèizhì base |
| Kǎn 坎 xiàng: zūn jiǔ guǐ èr | delete èr | Lù Démíng’s Shì wén |
| Xìcí shàng zhuàn: xì cí yān ér míng jí xiōng | add huǐlìn 2 chars | Yú Fān base |
| Xìcí xià zhuàn: hé yǐ shǒu wèi yuē rén 仁 | → … yuē rén 人 | Wáng Sù base |
| Xìcí xià: lěi nòu zhī lì 耒耨之利 | → lěi nòu zhī dì 耒耨之地 | Wáng Zhāosù base |
| Xìcí xià: after yǐ jì bù tōng | delete zhì yuǎn yǐ lì tiānxià 6 chars | Lù Démíng’s Shì wén |
| Xù guà zhuàn: after gù shòu zhī yǐ Lǚ | add lǚ zhě lǐ yě 4 chars | Hán Kāngbó base |
The Sìkù tiyao’s judgment: “All are based on cited ancient meanings, having source-and-flow; not comparable to teacher-mind-arbitrary-disorder. The rest also mostly leans on Hú Yuán, Master Chéng, Master Zhū’s various expositions; what [Wú] Chéng himself emended is not more than several items.” The discipline is one of the cleanest pre-modern instances of systematic philological evidential emendation applied to a canonical text.
Note: the Sìkù editors register one Sìkù-period scribal interpolation: in the Kǎnxiàng “delete èr” passage, Wú Chéng’s gloss explicitly says “the old base has the èr character; Mr. Lù [Démíng]‘s Shì wén lacks it; today’s circulating Zhāng Hú and Lù Xīshēng bases all are the same — the tradition-text has already deleted the èr character.” But the Tōngzhìtáng edition by Xúshì cut-back-and-restored the wood-block, adding the èr character — i.e., Gù Méi 顧湄 et al. (the Tōngzhìtáng editors) “at the time of correcting, took ‘not-erroneous’ as ‘erroneous’.” The Sìkù editors append this textual-archeology note to caution against the Tōngzhìtáng interpolation.
But Wú Chéng’s one decisively heterodox move — taking the Xìcí shàngxià zhuàn passages discussing the upper-and-lower jīng’s 16-hexagrams-and-18-yáo as cuò jiǎn 錯簡 (mis-arranged bamboo-strips) and moving them to the Wén yán zhuàn — is sharply rejected by the Sìkù editors: “Hèrán yì duàn, bù kě yǐ wéi xùn yǐ 悍然臆斷，不可以為訓矣 (sharply [arbitrarily] decided; cannot serve as instruction).*”
Yet the overall verdict is decisively positive: “his interpretation of the canon’s meaning is concise-and-clear (cí jiǎn lǐ míng 詞簡理明), harmonizes-and-threads-the-old-hearings (róngguàn jiùwén 融貫舊聞), also rather comprehensive. Among the Yuán-people’s Yì-expositions, [the work] is decidedly the jù bò (giant thumb / leader).”
The opening juànshǒu (head-juan, preserved at the head of the Sìkù base) gives a substantial methodological introduction. Wú Chéng begins by explicating the character Yì — combining old-script yīn-yáng-mutual-transformation etymology with later orthodox Lǐ Jì citations. Then traces the canonical-text history: Fúxī’s drawing of the Bā guà, the four-image and eight-trigram derivation following Shào Yōng’s yī fēn èr, èr fēn sì, sì fēn bā, bā fēn shíliù, shíliù fēn sānshíèr, sānshíèr fēn liùshísì (1→2→4→8→16→32→64) line, with charts showing the hexagram-by-hexagram derivation. The Liánshān (opens with Gèn) and Guīzàng (opens with Kūn) are noted as the two prior Sān Yì’s, both lost. The composition window 1290–1330 brackets Wú Chéng’s mature Yuán-court-and-after scholarly years.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Yì zuǎn yán in twelve juan was composed by Wú Chéng of the Yuán. Zì Yōuqīng, hào Cǎolú, a man of Chóngrén. At the end of Sòng Xiánchún he raised jìnshì — did not pass. Entered the Yuán; by recommendation was promoted to Hànlín yìngfèng wénzì; held office to Hànlín xuéshì. At his death, posthumous title Wénzhèng. His career-record is in the Yuánshǐ biography.
This book uses Lǚ Zǔqiān’s Gǔ Yì base canonical-text. Each hexagram first lists guàbiàn and zhǔyáo; each line first lists biànyáo, next lists xiàngzhān. The Ten Wings each separately divided into chapter-numbers; the glosses each appended after the [canonical] line; the yīnshì and kǎozhèng — for the canon, appended after each hexagram’s end; for the tradition, appended after each chapter’s end. Sometimes the literary meaning is mutually-consequent and immediately appended below the line — only one or two appearances; not the general example.
[Wú] Chéng on the various canons loved conjectural-emendation (hào yì wéi diǎncuàn 好臆為點竄); only this book’s emendations have evidential basis for the most part. As: Shī hexagram’s zhàngrén jí changed to dàrén jí, evidenced by Cuī Jǐng’s citation of the Zǐxià zhuàn base; Bǐ hexagram’s bǐ zhī fěi rén below adds xiōng character, evidenced by Wáng Sù base; Xiǎochù hexagram’s yú shuō fú changed to yú shuō fù — evidenced by Xǔ Shèn’s Shuō wén; shàng dé zài changed to shàng dé zài — evidenced by Jīng Fáng, Yú Fān, Zǐxià base; Tài hexagram’s bāo huāng changed to bāo huāng (variant) — evidenced by Shuō wén and Yú Fān base; Dàchù hexagram’s yuē xián yú wèi changed to rì xián yú wèi — following Zhèng Xuán, Yú Fān, Lù Xīshēng base; Cuì hexagram’s cuì hēng deleting the hēng character — following Mǎ Róng, Zhèng Xuán, Yú Fān, Lù Jī base; Kùn hexagram’s yìyuè changed to nièwù — evidenced by Xún Shuǎng, Wáng Sù, Lù Jī base; Dǐng hexagram’s qí xíng wò changed to qí xíng wū — evidenced by Zhèng Xuán base; Bǐ tuàn’s bǐ jí yě deleting the yě character — evidenced by Wáng Zhāosù base; Bēn tuàn supplementing gāngróu jiāocuò four characters — evidenced by Wáng Bì gloss; Zhèn tuàn’s jīngyuǎn ér shèněr below supplementing bù sàng bǐchàng four characters — evidenced by Wáng Zhāosù’s citation of Xúshì base; Jiàn tuàn’s nǚ guī jí yě changed to nǚ guī jí lì zhēn — evidenced by Wáng Sù base; Kūn xiàng’s lǚ shuāng jiān bīng changed to chūliù lǚ shuāng — evidenced by Wèizhì; Kǎn xiàng’s zūn jiǔ guǐ èr deleting the èr character — evidenced by Lù Démíng’s Shì wén (note: [Wú] Chéng’s gloss clearly says “the old base has the èr character; Mr. Lù’s Shì wén lacks it; today’s circulating Zhāng Hú and Lù Xīshēng bases all are the same — the zhuàn text has already deleted the èr character.” The Xúshì Tōngzhìtáng base then cut-back-restored-the-wood-block adding the èr character — this is Gù Méi et al., at the time of correcting, taking ‘not-erroneous’ as ‘erroneous’. Respectfully appending the recognition here); Xìcí shàng zhuàn’s xì cí yān ér míng jí xiōng below supplementing huǐlìn two characters — evidenced by Yú Fān base; Xìcí xià zhuàn’s hé yǐ shǒu wèi yuē rén changed to hé yǐ shǒu wèi yuē rén (different character) — evidenced by Wáng Sù base; lěi nòu zhī lì changed to lěi nòu zhī dì — evidenced by Wáng Zhāosù base; yǐ jì bù tōng below deleting zhì yuǎn yǐ lì tiānxià six characters — evidenced by Lù Démíng’s Shì wén; Xù guà zhuàn’s gù shòu zhī yǐ Lǚ below supplementing lǚ zhě lǐ yě four characters — evidenced by Hán Kāngbó base; — all are based on cited ancient meanings, having source-and-flow; not comparable to teacher-mind-arbitrary-disorder. The rest also mostly leans on Hú Yuán, Master Chéng, Master Zhū’s various expositions; what [Wú] Chéng himself emended is not more than several items.
Only on taking the Xìcí zhuàn’s discussion of upper-and-lower jīng 16-hexagrams-and-18-yáo’s text fixing-it as cuò jiǎn and moving-it into the Wén yán zhuàn — hèrán yì duàn (sharply [arbitrarily] decided), cannot serve as instruction.
But his interpretation of the canon’s meaning is concise-and-clear, harmonizes-and-threads the old-hearings, also rather comprehensive. Among the Yuán-people’s Yì-expositions, [the work] is decidedly the jù bò.
Respectfully revised and submitted, ninth month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng [1781].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
The Yì zuǎn yán is the principal Yuán-period Yì-commentary in the systematic-philological-evidential tradition. Wú Chéng’s combination of Lǚ Zǔqiān’s Gǔ Yì recension structural form + a substantial HànWèi philological-evidential emendation apparatus + concise yìlǐ exposition produces what the Sìkù tiyao judges the jù bò of Yuán-period Yì-works.
The methodological-evidential discipline is the work’s distinctive contribution. The list of emendations preserved in the Sìkù tiyao — each anchored on a specific cited authority (Cuī Jǐng’s Zǐxià zhuàn, Wáng Sù base, Xǔ Shèn’s Shuō wén, Jīng Fáng, Yú Fān, Mǎ Róng, Zhèng Xuán, Lù Xīshēng, Lù Jī, Xún Shuǎng, Lù Démíng’s Shì wén, Wáng Zhāosù, Wèizhì, Wáng Bì gloss, Hán Kāngbó base, Xúshì base) — represents one of the cleanest pre-modern systematic philological-evidential apparatuses for the Yì canon. The procedure anticipates the Qīng kǎojù xué (evidential studies) approach by several centuries.
The WúChéng cuòjiǎn hypothesis on the Xìcí-into-Wén yán relocation is the work’s principal heterodox commitment. The hypothesis is methodologically continuous with Wú Chéng’s broader textual-criticism orientation (cf. his Lǎozǐ and Zhuāngzǐ recensional rearrangements in DZ 704 and DZ 741) but the Sìkù editors find the Yì-application untenable. Modern scholarship has generally not followed the relocation hypothesis.
The Yì zuǎn yán wàiyì 易纂言外翼 is a separate companion work — also extant in the Sìkù — providing the xiàngshù and bibliographic-historical apparatus that the Yì zuǎn yán proper does not carry. The two together give the substantive WúChéng Yì-program.
Wú Chéng’s intellectual lineage — late-Sòng Lù Xiàngshān school disciple in his early studies, then synthesis with the Zhū-Xī-school lǐqì doctrine — places his Yì-work in a methodologically integrative position between the Yuán-mainstream HúWùyuán Zhū-school orthodoxy and the xīnxué Yì-line that ran through Yáng Jiǎn (KR1a0037) and Wáng Zōngchuán (KR1a0047).
The composition window 1290–1330 brackets Wú Chéng’s mature scholarly career. Multiple drafts and substantial revisions are reported in the historical records; precise dating within this window is difficult.
Translations and research
The work is the principal Wú Chéng Yì-commentary; substantial Chinese-language and partial English-language scholarly engagement.
- David Gedalecia, The Philosophy of Wu Ch’eng: A Neo-Confucian of the Yüan Dynasty (Indiana, 1999) — comprehensive English-language treatment of Wú Chéng’s thought.
- Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (Univ. of Hawaii, 1992) — Yuán-period transmission context.
- Jeffrey Riegel, articles on Wú Chéng in Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie.
- Zhū Bóqūn 朱伯崑, Yìxué zhéxué shǐ, vol. 3 — Wú Chéng’s Yì zuǎn yán extensively discussed.
- Wáng Tiějūn 王鐵均, Yuándài Yìxué shǐ — chapter on Wú Chéng.
- Modern punctuated editions on the Sìkù base; the Zhōnghuá shū-jú critical edition restores the various Sòng-Yuán base-text variants Wú Chéng identified.
Other points of interest
The WúChéng emendation apparatus is the most substantial single-author philological-evidential intervention in the Yì-canonical text between the Hàn recensions and the modern critical-edition era. The 20+ emendations preserved in the Sìkù tiyao — each anchored on a specific cited authority — give a working test-case for the SòngYuán Yì-textual-criticism tradition.
The Sìkù-period scribal-archeology footnote on the Kǎnxiàng èr character (Tōngzhìtáng’s interpolation against Wú Chéng’s correctly-recognized deletion) is one of the more vivid moments of Qīng evidential-bibliographic discipline. The Sìkù editors are doing methodological work at the third remove: explicating Wú Chéng’s correct emendation, identifying Tōngzhìtáng’s regression, and restoring the Yì zuǎn yán’s intended state.
The eight-chart juànshǒu (head-juan) opening — running through 1→2→4→8→16→32→64 derivation following Shào Yōng + the Liánshān / Guīzàng / Zhōuyì three-fold canonical-text-tradition history + HétúLuòshū charts — is one of the most pedagogically thorough Yuán-period openings to a substantive Yì-commentary.