Yì wěi jī lǎn tú 易緯稽覽圖
Examining-Charts of the Apocryphal Yì nominally by 鄭玄 (註)
About the work
The second of the eight Yì wěi 易緯 texts gathered as appendix to the Yì-class of the Sìkù quánshū by the editors. Recovered from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典 by the Sìkù editors. The Hòu Hàn shū 樊英 Fán Yīng zhuàn cites the seven wěi and lists Jī lǎn tú at the head of the Yì wěi tradition; the Suí zhì records 鄭玄 Zhèng Kāngchéng zhù Yì wěi in 8 juàn; the Táng zhì records 宋均 Sòng Jūn zhù Yì wěi in 9 juàn. The Sòng zhì and 馬端臨 Mǎ Duānlín’s Wénxiàn tōng kǎo 文獻通考 Jīngjí kǎo preserve the Zhèng Kāngchéng attribution.
The work is a divinatory cosmographic apparatus drawing on the guà qì 卦氣 doctrine — the assignment of hexagrams to days/months/seasons in a calendrical-divinatory cycle. It is one of the principal Hàn-period documents of the Yì-divinatory technical tradition that predates Wáng Bì’s yìli turn.
The Sìkù editors note that 陳振孫 Chén Zhènsūn’s Shū lù jiě tí 書錄解題 separately lists a Jī lǎn tú in 3 juàn calling it “having intersection with the Yì wěi but in detail-and-completeness different — apparently later men gathered wěi prose and forged it as such” — i.e., not the original Zhèng commentary but a later reconstruction. The Sìkù recension is the recovered Dàdiǎn version.
Tiyao
Sìkù tíyào (translated, condensed): The Yì wěi jī lǎn tú in two juàn — the Hòu Hàn shū Fán Yīng zhuàn note raises the seven wěi names, with Jī lǎn tú at the head of the Yìwěi. The Suí zhì records Zhèng Kāngchéng zhù Yì wěi in 8 juàn; the Táng zhì records Sòng Jūn zhù Yì wěi in 9 juàn — neither details the chapter-headings. The Sòng zhì has Zhèng Kāngchéng zhù Jī lǎn tú in 1 juàn; the Tōng kǎo in 7 juàn; while the Mǎshì Jīngjí kǎo records seven Yì wěi kinds, also at the head listing Zhèngzhù Jī lǎn tú in 2 juàn. Only Chén Zhènsūn’s Shū lù jiě tí separately lists Jī lǎn tú in 3 juàn, calling it “intersecting with the upper Yì wěi but with detail-and-completeness different — seemingly later men gathered wěi prose, attributing them as such — not in fact the original-Kāngchéng-note text.” From this we can know that the Jī lǎn tú was substantially destroyed in the Suí persecution; what survives is what later men collected.
[Continued discussion of the textual transmission and the work’s cosmographic content. Not transcribed in full here.]
Abstract
Composition is bracketed by the Hàn-period guà qì tradition (which it represents) and the late-medieval reconstructions; the bracket here adopts a wide range. The work is one of the principal surviving documents of the Hàn-period guà qì divinatory tradition.
The work belongs to the eight-text Yì wěi corpus the Sìkù editors recovered from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn; see KR1a0163 for the broader contextualization of the Yì wěi tradition and its placement as appendix to the Yì-class. The Yì wěi jī lǎn tú is the most directly divinatory-technical of the eight; it preserves valuable material on the Hàn guà qì method.
Translations and research
For the Yì wěi tradition more broadly see Yasui Kōzan and Nakamura Shōhachi, eds., Wei-shu shū sei 緯書集成 (Shanghai, 1994); also Anna Seidel’s work on Daoist apocrypha. For the guà qì tradition specifically see Zhū Bóhūi, Yìxué zhéxué shǐ vol. 1, and recent specialized studies.