Yì xiàng dà yì cún jiě 易象大意存解
The Surviving Glosses on the Great Meanings of the Yì-Symbols by 任陳晉
About the work
A compact Qiánlóng-period Yìjīng methodological-essay collection in one juàn by 任陳晉 Rèn Chénjìn, Qiánlóng jǐwèi (1739) jìnshì and Education Director of Huīzhōu. The work does not reproduce the canonical text but distills the various commentators’ doctrines to elucidate the great meanings of the Yì symbols. It opens with seven fánlì points (Dú Yì yào yán 讀易要言) on the principle of taking symbol as primary; then discusses Tài jí 太極, the five phases, and the HéLuò / xiāntiān charts (briefly, citing only the principles that admit of penetration); then discussions of Tuàn, line, and symbol (with hùtǐ 互體 method preserved on Záguà zhuàn evidence); then per-hexagram brief discussions of all sixty-four hexagrams; closing with brief discussions of the Xìcí, Xùguà, Shuōguà, and Záguà.
The Sìkù editors describe the work approvingly as “still removing the branch-tangles” (刋除枝蔓). The cited methodological positions: “those who later spoke of symbol-and-number flowed into the technical-arts category; their technique is most refined and its principle also has no obscurity, yet [being] biased to one corner it seems on the contrary to slip into the form-below tools” — a substantive critique of the technical-numerology tradition combined with acceptance of the canonical chart-symbol’s substantive content.
Tiyao
Sìkù tíyào (translated, condensed): The Yì xiàng dà yì cún jiě in one juàn was composed by Rèn Chénjìn of our [Qīng] dynasty. Chénjìn, zì Sìwǔ, hào Hòushān, also Yǐzhāi, was a man of Xīnghuà; Qiánlóng jǐwèi jìnshì; office to Education Director of Huīzhōu.
This compilation does not lay out the canonical text but only weighs-and-balances the various houses’ doctrines to elucidate the great meaning of the Yì-symbols, hence the name. Examining the Zuǒ zhuàn: 韓起 Hán Qǐ on visiting Lǔ saw the Yì xiàng and Chūnqiū — so the Yì’s principal-on-symbol has clear text in antiquity. Chénjìn taking symbol as principal is in fact the old method from the Three Dynasties down. The head of the volume marks seven fánlì points, mostly extending the import of revering symbol.
Within the book, first discussion of Tài jí and the five phases, jointly speaking of HéLuò and prior-heaven and the various charts. Yet his bringing-out is clear-and-concise; only marking-and-raising principles that allow penetration; all the fragmentary push-extending laying-out-of-counting-manuals and drawing-of-yì-game-manuals — he removes them entirely. His fánlì says: “those who later speak of symbol-and-number flowed into the technical-arts category; their technique is most refined and its principle has no obscurity, yet biased on one corner it seems on the contrary to slip into form-below-tools” — this can be called a substantive judgment.
Next discussion of Tuàn, of line, of symbol — does not abolish the hùtǐ doctrine; apparently taking the Záguà zhuàn as basis. Next discussion of the sixty-four hexagrams, each summarizing its great import, also generally close to human-affairs language-establishment. Ending with the Xìcí, Xùguà, Shuōguà, Záguà — its prose is quite brief; apparently the book-composing intent is in the sixty-four hexagrams; the rest are jointly mutually-illuminating.
Among recent Yì-exposition houses, he can still be called one who removes branch-tangles.
Respectfully collated, the fourth month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng (1781). Editor-in-chief: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief proofreader: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Composition is bracketed by Rèn’s 1739 jìnshì and the Sìkù’s 1781 publication; the bracket here adopts a conservative range. The work is undated internally.
The work is a moderate Qiánlóng-period Yì commentary methodologically distinctive for its compact essay-form (one juàn covering all the major topics) and for its careful methodological position: principle of taking symbol as primary, with selective acceptance of the chart-tradition for what admits of canonical-textual penetration, and rejection of pure technical-numerology speculation. The position is recognizably a Qiánlóng-court compromise between the imperial-orthodox 李光地 Lǐ Guāngdì line and the Hàn-school Wú pài tradition.
The Sìkù editors’ praise — “removing the branch-tangles” — places the work alongside other Qiánlóng-period moderate readings (晏斯盛 Yàn Sīshèng’s KR1a0147–KR1a0149 trio; 王又樸 Wáng Yòupǔ’s KR1a0151) as a useful curricular text. The compact format makes it methodologically efficient — a useful pedagogical document for Qing-period Yì-students.
Translations and research
No substantial monograph in Western languages located.
Other points of interest
The work is one of the most compact substantive Qing Yì-commentaries: a single juàn covers methodological program, symbol theory, all sixty-four hexagrams, and the major Wings — an unusually efficient editorial format. The Sìkù editors’ approving reception reflects the Qiánlóng-court appetite for moderate, well-condensed Yì-readings.