Yìxiàng túshuō wàipiān 易象圖說外篇
Outer Volume of the Discourse on Symbols and Charts of the Book of Changes
by 張理 (撰)
About the work
The outer volume of the paired late-Yuán Yìjīng 易經 chart-and-discourse compilation by Zhāng Lǐ 張理 (zì Zhòngchún 仲純, fl. 1314–1364) of Qīngjiāng 清江, in three juan, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0162 / CT 162 = TC 162), 洞真部 靈圖類. The work forms a set with [[KR5a0162|DZ 161 Yìxiàng túshuō nèipiān]] (the inner volume); the outer volume completes the xiàngshù 象數 program. Juan 1 contains six charts illustrating the numerical symbolism of the Yì: the work’s opening “Yì is the Way” passage (易者道也) leads into an exposition of the cosmogonic origin of the trigrams (tàijí shēng liǎngyí, liǎngyí shēng sìxiàng, sìxiàng shēng bāguà 太極生兩儀，兩儀生四象，四象生八卦) keyed to the Hétú 河圖 and the human body. Juan 2 turns to the internal structure of the hexagrams in eight charts (with a famous diagram of Man positioned between Heaven and Earth opening the juan). Juan 3 discusses the astrological-and-calendrical and the geopolitical readings of the hexagrams. The whole functions as an extended Yì-cosmography, set within the broader Daoist framework of the Yìjīng as an instrument of xìngmìng 性命 cultivation.
Prefaces
The text opens directly with Zhāng Lǐ’s authorial discourse and is preceded by no separate preface in this volume; in the nèipiān set however a 1364 preface by Zhāng himself, dated Zhìzhèng jiǎchén sānyuè shàngsì rì 至正甲辰三月上巳日 (“the third day of the third month of the jiǎchén year of Zhìzhèng,” i.e. 1364), serves as the introduction to the entire work. In it, Zhāng affirms that “the Yì is the Way” of the three powers (Heaven, Earth, Man), explaining that the sages, fearing that posterity would not awaken to the Way, set forth its principles to humanity. He charts the cosmogonic generation: xiàng 象 begets xiàng, the four images become the eight trigrams, and from the human body’s correspondence to the trigrams (the round head as Qián 乾, the soft belly as Kūn 坤, hands above as Zhèn 震, feet below as Xùn 巽, etc.) the universal homology of cosmos and self is realised. He cites Mèngzǐ 孟子 — “the ten thousand things are all complete in me; turn to oneself in sincerity” — and concludes that the sage’s Yì charts the path of jìng 敬 (“reverence”) for self-cultivation.
Abstract
Marc Kalinowski, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:749 (§3.A.2, Divination and Numerology), dates the outer volume to 1364, on the basis of the second preface (2b–5a in the nèipiān) signed by Zhāng Lǐ in that year — written “for the achievement of the second part of the Yìxiàng túshuō, namely the outer volume.” The 1364 preface does not itself name the work prefaced, but its contents essentially introduce the topics of the outer volume; this preface was composed seven years after Huáng Zhènchéng’s 1357 preface to the inner volume. Kalinowski summarises the structure: juan 1 with six charts on numerical symbolism; juan 2 with eight charts on hexagram-internal structure (including the Man positioned between Heaven and Earth diagram, fig. 8 in TC); and juan 3 on astrological-calendrical and geopolitical interpretation. The Yìxiàng túshuō has an entry in Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要 108.23a–24a. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 1364 / notAfter 1364.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Marc Kalinowski, “Yixiang tushuo waipian,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.2, 749. On Yuán xiàngshù exegesis see Tze-ki Hon, The Yijing and Chinese Politics (Albany: SUNY Press, 2005); Bent Nielsen, A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0163
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.2, 749.