Yì wěi tōng guà yàn 易緯通卦驗

The Apocryphal Yì on Penetrating-Hexagrams and Verifying nominally by 鄭玄 (註)

About the work

The fifth of the eight Yì wěi 易緯 texts gathered as appendix to the -class of the Sìkù quánshū; see KR1a0163 for the broader contextualization. Two juàn. The work systematizes the guàqì 卦氣 calendrical-divinatory cycle that assigns hexagrams to days/months/seasons (also developed in KR1a0164 Jī lǎn tú) and elaborates a yàn 驗 (verification) procedure for confirming or correcting the divinatory predictions against observed phenomena.

Tiyao

See KR1a0163 for the joint contextualization of the eight Yì wěi texts.

Abstract

The Tōng guà yàn together with the Jī lǎn tú (KR1a0164) constitutes the principal Yì wěi documentation of the Hàn-period guàqì divinatory tradition. Where the Jī lǎn tú lays out the calendrical-cosmographic apparatus, the Tōng guà yàn details the verification-procedure by which the apparatus is to be tested against actual phenomena.

Translations and research

See KR1a0163 for the broader Yì wěi bibliography. For the guà-qì tradition specifically see Zhū Bóhūi, Yìxué zhéxué shǐ vol. 1, and recent specialized studies.