Yì wěi biàn zhōng bèi 易緯辨終備
The Apocryphal Yì on Discriminating-the-End and Preparedness nominally by 鄭玄 (註)
About the work
The third of the eight Yì wěi 易緯 texts gathered as appendix to the Yì-class of the Sìkù quánshū; see KR1a0163 for the broader contextualization of the Yì wěi tradition. Recovered from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn. The work treats the biàn zhōng bèi — discriminating-the-end and preparedness — as a divinatory-cosmographic apparatus complementary to the Jī lǎn tú (KR1a0164). One juàn.
Tiyao
See KR1a0163 for the joint contextualization of the eight Yì wěi texts. The Sìkù tíyào for the Biàn zhōng bèi is brief and chiefly notes its place within the recovered Yǒnglè dàdiǎn Yìwěi corpus.
Abstract
The work is among the more compact members of the eight-text Yì wěi corpus. As with the rest of the corpus, the substantive content concerns Hàn-period divinatory-cosmographic apparatus drawn on the Yìjīng; the attribution to Zhèng Xuán’s commentary is conventional rather than secure.
Translations and research
See KR1a0163 for the broader Yì wěi bibliography.