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richard j. smith

FATHOMING THE CHANGES:

THE EVOLUTION OF SOME TECHNICAL TERMS
AND INTERPRETIVE STRATEGIES IN
YIJING EXEGESIS

Abstract

This essay maps the changing contours of Yijing 《易經》 (Classic of

Changes, aka Changes) exegesis, focusing in particular on certain
specialized terms that deal with the related problems of “knowing
fate” (zhiming 知命) and “establishing fate” (liming 立命). Among
the concepts to be discussed (listed alphabetically in pinyin translit-
eration) are hui 悔, ji 吉, jiu 咎, li 利, li 厲, lin 吝, wang 亡, heng 亨,
wujiu 旡咎, xiong 凶, yong 用, yuan 元, and zhen 貞.

I. Introduction

The Changes first emerged nearly three thousand years ago as a

divination text, comprised of sixty-four six-line symbols known as
hexagrams (gua 卦). Each hexagram was uniquely constructed, dis-
tinguished from all the others by its combination of solid (—) and/or
“broken” (– –) lines. The first two hexagrams in the conventional
order are qian and kun; the remaining sixty-two hexagrams represent
permutations of these two paradigmatic symbols.1

qian kun

At some point during the early Zhou Dynasty (c. 1045–256 bce)
each hexagram acquired a “hexagram name” (guaming 卦名), a brief
description known as a “judgment” (tuan 彖); also described as a
“hexagram statement” (guaci 卦辭) and sometimes rendered into
English as a “decision” or “tag”), and a short explanatory text for each

RICHARD J. SMITH, George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities, Professor of

History and Director of Asian and Global Outreach (Center for Education), Rice Uni-
versity. Specialties: traditional Chinese culture, modern Chinese history, comparative
history. E-mail: smithrj@rice.edu
Journal of Chinese Philosophy 40:S (2013) 146–170
© 2014 Journal of Chinese Philosophy
 FATE AND PREDICTION IN THE YIJING 147

of its six lines called a “line statement” (yaoci 爻辭). This highly
compact document became known as the “basic text” of the Changes.
The operating assumption of the Yijing, as it developed over time, was
that these hexagrams represented the basic circumstances of change
in the universe, and that by selecting a particular hexagram or hexa-
grams and correctly interpreting the various symbolic elements of
each, a person could gain insight into the patterns of cosmic change
and devise a strategy for dealing with problems or uncertainties con-
cerning the present and the future.
During the third century bce, a set of diverse commentaries known
as the “Ten Wings” (Shiyi 〈十翼〉) became attached to the Changes,
and the work received imperial sanction in 136 bce as one of the five
major “Confucian” classics. These Ten Wings articulated the Yijing’s
implicit cosmology and invested the classic with an alluring philo-
sophical flavor and an attractive literary style. The worldview of this
amplified version of the Changes emphasized correlative thinking, a
humane cosmological outlook, and a fundamental unity between
Heaven, Earth, and Man. For the next two thousand years or so, the
Yijing held pride of place in China as the “first of the Six Confucian
Classics” (Rujia Liujing zhi shou 《儒家六經之首》).
It is important to remember, however, that despite its unchallenged
scriptural status and canonical authority, the Changes allowed and
even encouraged, an enormous amount of interpretive flexibility—
more, it seems safe to say, than any other classic. By nature it was (and
it remains) an extraordinarily open-ended, versatile, and virtually
inexhaustible intellectual resource. Thus, as we shall see, there are any
number of ways to approach the work, whether as a book of divina-
tion or as a source of philosophical, spiritual, or psychological inspi-
ration; whether as a Confucian text or a Buddhist or Daoist one. The
editors of China’s most important premodern literary compilation,
the Siku Quanshu 《四庫全書》 (Complete Collection of the Four
Treasuries), remarked in the eighteenth century that interpreting the
Changes was like playing chess: no two games are alike, and there are
infinite possibilities.2 Chinese scholars have identified literally hun-
dreds of interpretive traditions focused on the Yijing in imperial times
alone. At the same time, however, primers and officially endorsed
commentaries on the Changes guided readers, especially those who
hoped to pass the state civil service examinations from the early
fourteenth century to 1905.
As indicated above, the judgment (tuan 彖) of a hexagram suggests
the overall meaning of the hexagram—in particular its powers and
possibilities. The six lines of each hexagram represent an evolving
situation in time and space, a “field of action with multiple actors or
factors,” all of which are in constant, dynamic play.3 The lines, reading
148 RICHARD J. SMITH

from the bottom to the top, represent the development of this situa-
tion and/or the major players involved. The first, second, and third
lines constitute a “lower” trigram and the fourth, fifth, and sixth lines
comprise an “upper” trigram, each having its own set of primary and
secondary symbolic attributes. Interpretation involves an understand-
ing of the relationship between the lines, line statements, and trigrams
of the chosen hexagram, and often an appreciation of the way that the
selected hexagram is related to other hexagrams. Commentaries of
every conceivable sort have historically provided guidance in negoti-
ating a path to understanding.4
Most hexagram names in the Changes seem to have been derived
from a term or concept that appears in their respective judgments
and/or individual line statements, usually the latter.5 Let us take the fu
復 hexagram—number 24 in the received version of the Yijing and
almost invariably translated as “return”—as an example. I have
chosen to emphasize this hexagram because of its central significance
in Yijing interpretation; for well over two thousand years Chinese
commentators have believed that the fu hexagram provides the
means by which one can perceive the heart-and-mind of heaven and
earth (Fu qi jian tiandi zhi xin 復其見天地之心).6
In this hexagram, the character fu 復 appears not only in the judg-
ment but also in all six of the line statements. Here is what one early
Zhou Dynasty (c. 1050–256 bce) understanding of the judgment and
the individual line statements of the fu hexagram might have been:

fu

Judgment: “Receipt (of a successful/auspicious response to a divina-

tion).7 In going out and coming in there will be no illness. A friend
will come without misfortune. He will turn around and go back on his
way. He will come and return in seven days. Favorable for having
somewhere to go.” (復：亨。 出入无疾，朋來无咎。 反復其道，
七日來復，利有攸往。)
First (bottom) line: “If the return is not from afar, there will be not
be [much] harm or trouble.8 Very auspicious.” (不遠復，无衹悔，
元吉。)
Second line: “A happy [or contented or bountiful or beneficent]
return. Auspicious.” (休復。吉。)
Third line: “Return along the water’s brink [or in sequence, repeat-
edly or frequently]. Threatening/Dangerous, but there will be no mis-
fortune.” (頻復。厲。无咎。)
 FATE AND PREDICTION IN THE YIJING 149

Fourth line: “Return alone in the middle of the road [or in mid-
journey].” (中行獨復。)
Fifth line: “Urgent return [possibly from a raid to take captives]. No
trouble.” (敦復。无悔。)
Sixth line: “Lost on the return. Inauspicious. There will be
disastrous harm. If the army is mobilized, in the end there will be a
great defeat, extending to the ruler of the state. Ominous. For ten
years it will not be possible to attack [or to rectify matters?].”
(迷復。凶。有災眚。用行師。終有大敗。以其國君凶。至于十年不
克征 [正?]。)9
As is apparent from the above example, many hexagram judg-
ments are extremely cryptic and subject to any number of interpre-
tations. A large number (probably seventy percent) refer to ancient
and now obscure divinatory formulas involving sacrifices and/or
offerings to spirits. The line statements are also rich in explicitly
divinatory material, most of which indicates positive prognostica-
tions or the relatively neutral expression “no harm/misfortune”
(wujiu 无咎), which can often be understood as something akin to
“not bad” in English. Overall, in the basic text of the Changes (i.e.,
both the judgments and line statements), the most common stand-
alone negative terms—“ominous” (xiong 凶) “calamity/disaster” (zai
災), “threatening/dangerous” (li 厲), “harm/misfortune” (jiu 咎),
“trouble” (hui 悔), and “distress” (lin 吝)10—appear a total of only
about 140 times, as compared to about 270 instances of the two most
prominent positive terms, “auspicious” (ji 吉) and “favorable” or
“advantageous” (li 利).11 If we add the nearly one hundred occur-
rences of wujiu to the positive side of the ledger, the imbalance is
even more striking. Other fairly frequent divinatory terms, such as or
“troubles go away” (huiwang 悔亡) and “putting something to use”
(yong 用) also have generally positive connotations.12 The term yuan
元, which originally carried connotations of both primacy and origin,
sometimes serves as an intensifier (“big,” “great,” or “grand”) in the
Changes.
After the rise of Confucianism and other moralistic philosophies
from about the sixth century bce onward, simple value-neutral
descriptions of events that appeared in the judgments and line state-
ments of the “original” Changes increasingly became prescriptions for
proper behavior. As part of this process, a number of obscure or
unsettling terms and phrases came to be understood in new ways.
Thus, a word like fu 孚, which originally seems to have denoted a
“capture” or a “captive” (cf. 俘) in war, increasingly acquired moral
connotations of “sincerity” or “trustworthiness.” Similarly, ji 疾, which
generally refers to “illness” (and perhaps “urgency,” on occasion) in
the early Changes, often connotes “distress,” “an error,” “a failing,” “a
150 RICHARD J. SMITH

flaw,” or “a bad outcome” in the commentaries of imperial times

(post 221 bce).
Transformations also occurred in the meaning of several high-
frequency words such as zhen 貞 and heng 亨. Zhen 貞, an extremely
prominent term in the basic text of the Changes (a total of 111
occurrences), originally meant “to determine an uncertain matter
through divination,” but over time it came to be interpreted as “con-
stancy,” “perseverance,” or “correctness and firmness.”13 Heng, which
appears nearly fifty times in the basic text, originally had to do
with a sacrificial offering connected with a divination, but over time
it came to be glossed as “prevalence,” “success,” “prosperous,” or
“penetrating.”
Dun 敦, which initially seems to have referred to a sense of
“urgency” (perhaps in a captive-taking raid), acquired the meaning of
“honesty” or “sincerity,” and words that previously denoted “trouble”
(like hui and lin) increasingly carried moral connotations of “blame,”
“remorse,” “regret,” and even “humiliation.” Similarly, a person of
noble status (junzi 君子) (lit., “son of a prince or sovereign”) became
an “exemplary person” (also translated as “superior man,” “gentle-
man,” etc.).14

II. The Hermeneutical Role of the “Ten Wings”

The most important development in the early history of the Changes

was the addition of a set of commentaries known collectively as the
Ten Wings. These commentaries are quite heterogeneous in content.
The first and second wings, together known as the “Commentary on
the Judgments” (Tuanzhuan 〈彖傳〉) and the third and fourth,
collectively titled the “Commentary on the Images” (Xiangzhuan
〈象傳〉) probably date from the sixth or fifth century bce. They are
almost certainly the oldest systematic treatises on the basic text of the
Changes. The Commentary on the Judgments explains each judgment
by referring to its phrases, its hexagram symbolism, and/or the loca-
tion of its yin and yang lines. The Commentary on the Images consists
of two subsections: a “Big Image Commentary,” which discusses the
images associated with the two primary trigrams of each hexagram
(lines 1–3 and lines 4–6, respectively), and a “Small Image Commen-
tary,” which refers to the symbolism of the individual lines. The two
parts of the “Great Commentary” (Dazhuan 《大傳》) also known as
the “Commentary on the Appended Statements” (Xici Zhuan
《繫辭傳》) are generally described as the fifth and sixth wings. Using
somewhat different rhetorical devices in each of its two sections,
this commentary offers a sophisticated, although sometimes rather
 FATE AND PREDICTION IN THE YIJING 151

disjointed, discussion of both the metaphysics and the morality of the

Changes, often citing Confucius for authority.15
The rest of the Ten Wings lack the divided structure of the first six.
The “Commentary on the Words of the Text” (Wenyan Zhuan
《文言傳》) addresses only the first two hexagrams of the basic text,
and some scholars believe that it represents fragments of a much
longer but no longer extant work. The “Explaining the Trigrams”
(Shuogua Zhuan 《說卦傳》) commentary attaches meanings to each
of the eight trigrams that go well beyond the basic significations that
they possessed in the early and middle Zhou period. The wing titled
“Providing the Sequence of the Hexagrams” (Xugua Zhuan
《序卦傳》) aims at justifying the received order of the hexagrams,
and the last, the “Hexagrams in Irregular Order” (Zagua Zhuan
《雜卦傳》) offers definitions of hexagrams that it often casts in
terms of contrasting pairs. Different editions of the Changes organize
this material in significantly different ways.
From the Han period to the present, the Great Commentary has
received far more exegetical attention than any other single wing. Its
primary purpose was to explain how the hexagrams, trigrams, and
lines of the Yijing duplicated the fundamental processes and relation-
ships occurring in nature, enabling those who consulted the document
with sincerity and reverence to discern patterns of change in the
universe and act appropriately, according to circumstance.16 By using
the Changes responsibly, humans could not only “know fate” (zhiming
知命) but they could also “establish fate” (liming 立命).17
The process of consulting the Yijing involved careful contempla-
tion of the “images” (xiang 象) associated with, and reflected in, the
lines, trigrams, and hexagrams of the basic text. Initially, it seems, there
were only “hexagram images” (guaxiang 卦象) “trigram images” (also
guaxiang 卦象), and “line images” (yaoxiang 爻象)—pure signs unme-
diated by language. But later on, hexagram names, judgments, and line
statements appeared in written form to help explain these abstract
significations. Thus, words came to be used by subsequent “sages” to
identify “images of things” (natural phenomena, such as heaven and
earth, mountains, rivers, thunder, wind, fire, etc.), “images of affairs”
(social and political phenomena, including institutions, war, famine,
marriage, divorce, etc.), and “images of ideas” (thoughts, mental pic-
tures, states of mind, emotions, and any other sensory or extrasensory
experiences).18
Images were closely connected with numbers (shu 數) as a means
by which to understand patterns of cosmic change. Indeed, the Great
Commentary tells us that in conjunction with hexagrams, numbers
indicate “how change and transformation are brought about and how
gods and spirits are activated” (ci suoyi cheng bianhua er xing guishen
152 RICHARD J. SMITH

ye 此所以成變化而行鬼神也).19 Vague but provocative passages such

as these would later engender an enormous amount of scholarship
designed to identify and explain the complex relationship between
“images and numbers” (xiangshu 象數), but the primary focus of the
Ten Wings is on interpreting the images.
According to the Great Commentary, good fortune (ji 吉) and
misfortune (xiong 凶) involve images of success (de 得) or failure (shi
失). Regret (hui 悔) and remorse (lin 吝) involve images of sorrow
(you 憂) and worry (yu 虞). Change (bian 變) and transformation
(hua 化) involve images of advance (jin 進) and withdrawal (tui 退).20
The text goes on to say:
The judgments address the images [in this case, the concept of the
entire hexagram], and the line texts address the states of change. The
terms “good fortune” and “misfortune” address the failure or success
involved. The terms “regret” and “remorse” address the small faults
involved.The expression “no blame” [wujiu 无咎] indicates success at
repairing transgressions. . . . The distinction between a tendency
either to the petty or to the great is an inherent feature of the
hexagrams. The differentiation of good fortune and misfortune
depends on the phrases [i.e., the line statements].21

The Great Commentary also informs us that “once an exemplary

person finds himself in a situation, he observes its image and ponders
the phrases involved, and, once he takes action, he observes the
change (of the lines) and ponders the prognostications involved”
(Junzi ju ze guan qi xiang, er wan qi ci; dong ze guan qi bian, er wan qi
zhan 君子居則觀其象，而玩其辭﹔動則觀其變，而玩其占).22 The
goal of the exemplary person, as Wang Fuzhi 王夫之 once observed,
was not to determine good fortune and misfortune, per se, but rather
to know “what to be concerned about, what to hold in awe, and what
course of action to choose.”23
And how does the exemplary person go about making such
choices? The Great Commentary provides a number of specific guide-
lines. In the first place, it indicates that a full understanding of the
judgment (tuan) of a hexagram will reveal more than half of the
message. The rest is a matter of fathoming the meaning of the line
statements. We learn that “The first lines [of a hexagram] are difficult
to understand, but the top lines are easy, because they are the roots
and branches, respectively [i.e., the origins and endings]. . . . The
second lines [of a hexagram] usually concern honor (yu 譽), while the
fourth lines usually concern fear (ju 懼). . . . The third lines usually
concern misfortune (xiong 凶), while the fifth lines usually concern
achievement (gong 功).”24 We also learn that the three odd-numbered
(yang) trigrams—zhen, kan, and gen—each of which has one “sover-
eign” and two “subjects” (i.e., one solid line and two unbroken lines),
 FATE AND PREDICTION IN THE YIJING 153

show the way of the exemplary person, while the three even-
numbered (yin) trigrams—sun, li, and dui—each of which has two
“sovereigns” and one “subject” (i.e., two solid lines and one unbroken
line), illustrate the way of the inferior person.25
Furthermore, the Great Commentary suggests ways to interpret
hexagrams that are not necessarily evident in their judgments, lines, or
trigram relationships. Thus, for example, we read that
Sun [“Compliance,” number 57] demonstrates how one can weigh
things while yet remaining in obscurity. Lü [“Treading,” number 10]
provides the means to make one’s actions harmonious. Qian
[“Modesty,” number 15] provides the means by which decorum exer-
cises its control. Fu [“Return,” number 24] provides the means to
know oneself. Heng [“Perseverance,” number 32] provides the means
to keep one’s virtue whole and intact. Sun [“Diminution, number 41]
provides the means to keep harm at a distance. Yi [“Increase,”
number 42] provides the means to promote benefits. Kun [“Impasse,”
number 47] provides the means to keep resentments few. Jing [“The
Well,” number 48] provides the means to distinguish what righteous-
ness [義] really is. Sun [“Compliance,” number 57] provides the
means to take special circumstances into account.26

Sometimes the Great Commentary organizes hexagrams according

to themes, such as the following cluster pertaining to virtue (de 德): Lü
(“Treading,” number 10) “is the foundation of virtue.” Qian
(“Modesty,” number 15) “is how virtue provides a handle on things.”
Fu (“Return,” number 24) “is the root of virtue.” Heng (“Persever-
ance,” number 32) “provides virtue with steadfastness.” Sun (“Dimi-
nution, number 41) “is how virtue is cultivated.” Yi (“Increase,”
number 42) “is how virtue proliferates.” Kun (“Impasse,” number 47)
“is the criterion for distinguishing virtue.” Jing (“The Well,” number
48) “is the ground from which virtue springs.” Sun (“Compliance,”
number 57) is the controller of virtue.27
Essential to the process of consulting the Yijing was an acute
attunement to the seminal first stirrings of change, which afforded the
opportunity for acting appropriately at the most propitious and effi-
cacious time. The technical term in the Yijing for this moment is
“incipience” (ji 機) (often described metaphorically as a door hinge,
trigger, or pivot)—that “subtle beginning of action” (dong zhi wei
動之微), the point at which “the precognition (xianjian 先見) of good
fortune can occur.”28 In the words of the Sage: “To know incipience, is
this not [a matter of] spirituality?” (Zhiji qi shen hu 知機其神乎).29
In short, by virtue of their spiritual capabilities and comprehensive
symbolism, the sixty-four hexagrams of the Yijing provided the means
by which to understand all phenomena, including the forces of nature,
the interaction of things, and the circumstances of change. Like yin
and yang, the five agents (wuxing 五行), the eight trigrams and other
154 RICHARD J. SMITH

cosmic variables, they were always in the process of transformation,

but at any given time they also revealed qualities and capacities.30
Let us now look again at the fu hexagram to see an example of one
way in which the Ten Wings influenced Changes exegesis and divina-
tion. Below is a rendering of the basic text based on a Han Dynasty
understanding, together with various commentaries drawn from the
Ten Wings.31

fu

Judgment: Fu brings about success.32 His going and coming are done
without flaws, so when a friend arrives, he is without blame. The
Way on which he goes out and returns is such that he returns after
seven days. It would be beneficial if one should set out to do some-
thing here. (Fu: Heng. Chu ru wuji, peng lai wujiu. Fan fu qi dao, qi ri
lai fu, li you you wang 復：亨。 出入无疾，朋來无咎。 反復其道，
七日來復，利有攸往。)
Commentary on the Judgment:“Return brings about success,” for the
hard and strong [i.e., the yang 陽 principle] has returned. It takes
action and makes its moves in compliance [with the proper order of
things;, and this is how “his going and coming are done without
flaws.” So “when a friend arrives, he is without blame.” “The Way on
which he goes out and returns is such that he returns after seven
days,” for this is the course of Heaven. “It would be beneficial if one
should set out to do something here,” for the hard and strong grows.
In Return we can see the very heart-and-mind of Heaven and Earth.
(復亨。剛反。動而以順行。是以出入无疾。朋來无咎。反復其道。
七日來復。天行也。利有攸往。剛長也。復其見天地之心乎。)
Commentary on the [“Big”] Images: Thunder in the Earth: this con-
stitutes the image of Return. In the same way the former kings closed
the border passes on the occasion of the winter solstice, and neither
did merchants or travelers move nor did sovereigns go out to in-
spect their domains. (雷在地中。復。先王以至日閉關。商旅不行。
后不省方。)
Great Commentary: Return is the root of virtue (復。德之本也).
[. . .] Return demonstrates how distinctions among things should be
made while they are still small (復。小而辨於物). [. . .] Return pro-
vides the means to know oneself (復。以自知).
Providing the Sequence of the Hexagrams: Just as things cannot
remain exhausted forever, so with Bo [hexagram 23, often translated
“Peeling” or “Splitting Apart”]; when there is a reaching all the way
to the top [as the first five yin lines extend upward in the Bo hexa-
gram], there is then a return from the top to the bottom [as the single
yang line does]. Thus, Bo is followed by Fu. With such a return
there is freedom from errancy. (物不可以終盡。剝窮上反下。
故受之以復。 復則不妄矣。)
 FATE AND PREDICTION IN THE YIJING 155

Hexagrams in Irregular Order: Return signifies a coming back

(復反也。)
[Commentaries on the “Small” Images:]
First (bottom) line: When one returns before going [too] far,
there will be no regret here. Fundamental [or Great] good fortune.
(不遠復，无衹悔。元吉。)
Commentary on the Images: “Return before going [too] far” pro-
vides the means by which to cultivate oneself. (不遠之復。
以修身也。)

Second line: Delightful return. Good fortune. (休復。吉。)

Commentary on the Images: The “good fortune” associated with
“delightful return” occurs because of [the second yin line’s] subordi-
nation to humaneness/benevolence. (休復之吉。以下仁也。)

Third line: Urgent return. Danger, but no blame. (頻復。厲，

无咎。)
Commentary on the Images: As for the danger connected with
“urgency,” the meaning is that “there will be no blame.”
(頻復之厲。義无咎也。)

Fourth line: It is by traveling a middle course that this one alone

returns. (中行獨復。)
Commentary on the Images: “It is by traveling a middle course that
this one alone returns” [indicating that] the proper Way [Dao] has
been followed. (中行獨復，以從道也。)

Fifth line: A return with simple honesty. No regret. (敦復。无悔。)

Commentary on the Images: “A return with simple honesty and
[therefore] no regret” [shows that] the Mean has been the standard
for self-examination. (敦復无悔，中以自考也。)

Sixth line: Confused return. Misfortune. Utter disaster would ensue

if troops were set in motion, for in the end there would be a great
defeat. For the sovereign of the state it would mean misfortune. Even
as long as a decade would not suffice for a successful recovery.
(迷復。凶。有災眚。用行師。終有大敗。以其國君凶。至于十年不
克征。)
Commentary on the Images: The “misfortune” associated with a
“confused return” [indicates] activity contrary to the way of the
sovereign. (迷復之凶。反君道也。)

These glosses from the Ten Wings, although certainly useful in

guiding readers to a better understanding of the Changes, did not
resolve all ambiguities or eliminate all controversies regarding the
possible meanings of fu’s judgment and line statements. For example,
156 RICHARD J. SMITH

there were still wildly divergent views on the passage that refers to
“returning after seven days” (qiri laifu 七日來復). Some commenta-
tors took it to mean the “return” of an actual person in that specific
period of time; others considered it as a metaphorical “return” to a
permanent state of refinement; still others, by a logic too complicated
to discuss here,33 maintained that the number “seven” referred either
to the lines of two related hexagrams, fu and kun (number 2), or to the
relationship between the lines of the fu and gou (number 44) hexa-
grams. Some considered “seven” to be the number of line transfor-
mations needed to change the qian hexagram (number 1) into its
opposite, Kun (number 2). Other commentators viewed the number
“seven” in terms of cyclical patterns of cosmic change, and some
considered seven days to be the actual period during which whatever
was predicted in a specific divination involving the fu hexagram would
“come back.”34
This much, however, seems clear: the Ten Wings marked a decisive
interpretive shift, which transformed the fu hexagram from a rela-
tively simple description of travels and/or military operations to a set
of admonitions designed specifically to encourage self-examination,
self-knowledge, self-cultivation, honesty, benevolent behavior, and a
path of moderation in all things. The progression of line statements
provided concrete guidance along this morally grounded path.
In short, the Ten Wings of the Yijing vastly enhanced its symbolic
repertoire. Although the content of the classic became “fixed” in 136
bce, for the next two thousand years scholars and diviners enjoyed an
enormous amount of latitude in interpreting the work. In the mean-
time, the Great Commentary became the locus classicus for virtually
all Chinese discussions of time, space, and metaphysics, investing the
Yijing with extraordinary philosophical authority. In addition, as I
have discussed at length elsewhere, this amplified and state-
sanctioned version of the Changes became a repository of concrete
symbols and general explanations that proved serviceable in such
diverse realms of knowledge as art, literature, music, mathematics,
science, and medicine.35

III. Some Other Ways to Fathom the CHANGES:

A Brief Overview

Approaches to the Yijing—whether scholarly or divinatory—have

naturally hinged on factors such philosophical or religious affiliations,
intellectual fashions, politics, social status, gender, personal taste,
family ties, and other variables of time, place, and circumstance. As
Chinese society evolved, new ways of thinking about the classic arose,
 FATE AND PREDICTION IN THE YIJING 157

inexorably expanding the scope of interpretive possibilities to include

virtually every emerging realm of knowledge. Thus, over the course of
more than two millennia, thousands of commentaries were written on
the Changes, each amplifying the text and each reflecting a distinctive
technical, philological, religious, philosophical, literary, social, or
political point of view. Not surprisingly, then, the document came to
be identified by a number of Chinese scholars as a “mirror of history”
as well as a “mirror of men’s minds.”36
Over time, two major approaches to the Changes developed. One,
associated with the so-called “new text” (jinwen 今文) scholars of the
early Han period, sought in particular to identify correspondences
between the various features of the natural world (both physical and
metaphysical) and the hexagrams, trigrams, and individual lines of the
Changes. These correspondences often involved numerical correla-
tions, since—as with the Pythagoreans in ancient Greece—numbers
provided cosmologically inclined individuals with a systematic expla-
nation of the universe and its movements.37
This sort of scholarship marked the beginning of what would
become known as the School of Images and Numbers (xiangshu
xuepai 象數學派), in contrast to what became known as the School of
Meanings and Principles (yili xuepai 義理學派). The former school
emphasized mathematical calculations and correlations of the sort
described above; the latter was more closely associated with “old text”
(guwen 古文) sources, and its exponents paid primary attention to
what they saw as the “moral” content of the judgments, line state-
ments, and commentaries to the Changes.38
This contrast is too sharp, however, for just as some of the individu-
als who have traditionally been associated with the School of Mean-
ings and Principles took into account various numerical, calendrical,
and other correlative relationships between lines, trigrams, and hexa-
grams, so individuals identified with the School of Images and
Numbers might read the text of the Yijing in decidedly moralistic
ways. Moreover, we find in late imperial times (from the Song
Dynasty onward), a great many scholars who sought to reconcile the
xiangshu and yili approaches, dissatisfied with this highly arbitrary
hermeneutical dichotomy. As I have argued elsewhere, the sharp dis-
tinctions commonly drawn between the School of Meanings and Prin-
ciples and the School of Images and Numbers, as between the learning
of the mind-heart (xinxue 心學) and the learning of principle (lixue
理學) or between Han learning (Hanxue 漢學) and Song learning
(Songxue 宋學), often blur on closer examination.39
Nonetheless, one can find genuine differences in the exegetical ap-
proaches of Han period Yijing scholars such as Jing Fang 京房 (77–
37 bce), Xun Shuang 荀爽 (128–190 ce), and Yu Fan 虞翻 (164–233 ce),
158 RICHARD J. SMITH

and subsequent scholars such as Wang Bi (王弼) (226–249), Han

Kangbo 韓康伯 (c. 332–385?), Cheng Yi 程頤 (1033–1107), and Zhu Xi
(朱熹) (1130–1200).40 The Qing Dynasty editors of the Siku Quanshu,
betraying their own scholarly biases, had this to say about the evolution
of Changes scholarship from the Han period onward:
When the Han Confucians discussed images and numbers, they were
not far from the ways of the ancients. But then Jing Fang and Jiao
Yanshou [焦延壽; c. 70–10 bce] made a change to the practice of
prognostication based on omens. . . . Wang Bi eliminated the theory
of images and numbers from Yijing interpretation and replaced it
with ideas from the Laozi and the Zhuangzi [the beginning of the yili,
or meanings and principles, approach to the Yijing]. Later, Hu Yuan
[胡瑗] [993–1059] and Cheng Yi altered Wang Bi’s approach and
began using the Changes to explicate Confucian principles. . . . These
two schools [images and numbers and meanings and principles], with
their six lineages, have long been involved in incessant disputes with
each other.41
Of the many and varied interpretive techniques employed by Han
scholars such as Jing, Jiao, Xun, and Yu, a few deserve at least brief
mention. One is the notion of “nuclear trigrams” (hugua 互卦) (also
known as “interlocking” or “overlapping” trigrams”).42 This approach
is based on the idea that every hexagram has, in addition to its two
primary trigrams (lines 1, 2, and 3 and lines 4, 5, and 6, respectively), two
overlapping trigrams, comprised of lines 2, 3, and 4 and lines 3, 4, and 5,
respectively. These nuclear trigrams, in combination, yield another
related hexagram. In the case of fu, the primary trigrams are zhen
(“thunder”) below and kun (“earth”) above. This trigram symbolism
indicates, at the most rudimentary level,43 the idea of energy arising but
still contained within the confines of earth. But the nuclear trigrams of
fu are both kun, yielding the related hexagram kun (number 2).
Significantly, when we compare the two hexagrams we discover, among
other things, that the idea of finding friends in the course of one’s
travels occurs in the judgments of both. This was the sort of textual
connection that Han exegetes loved to explore and exploit.

fu kun

Another enduring interpretive approach was the idea that the six
lines of a hexagram can represent different levels of social or bureau-
cratic status as well as the developmental stages of a situation. Viewed
hierarchically rather than developmentally, and by family analogy,
line 5 might represent the husband and line 2 the wife. The line
 FATE AND PREDICTION IN THE YIJING 159

statements would then pertain to these relationships, and once again

the hermeneutical possibilities were virtually endless.
A third enduring interpretive approach, also dating from Han
times, centered on the idea of “lost images” (yixiang 逸象). This term
refers to “trigram qualities” (guade 卦德) that go well beyond the
already ample symbolism provided by the Explaining the Trigrams
commentary of the Ten Wings. Over time, these “lost images” came to
number in the hundreds. For instance, a nineteenth-century work by
Cao Weilin 曹為霖 titled Yixue Shijing 《易學史鏡》 (Historical
Mirror of Changes Studies) identifies sixty-six different qualities asso-
ciated with the qian trigram alone—including types of people (the
king, the sage, the exemplary person, the military man, the traveler,
etc.), values (reverence, faithfulness, knowledge, virtue, love, etc.), and
general attributes or activities (goodness, greatness, blessings, abun-
dance, benefits, purity, order, height, maturity, awesomeness, severity,
anger, beginning, etc.).44
A fourth exegetical legacy from the Han period was the idea of
“laterally linked hexagrams” (pangtong gua 旁通卦). This notion had
to do with the way a new hexagram could be produced from an
original one by changing each line of the first from yin to yang or yang
to yin. In the case of fu (number 24), the laterally linked hexagram is
gou 姤 (number 44), generally understood in imperial times as an
“encounter.”45 This might refer to a simple meeting of individuals to a
cosmic connection, in which “heaven and earth encounter each other”
(tiandi xiangyu 天地相遇), and “firmness meets what is central and
correct” (gang yu zhongzheng 剛遇中正).46 A well-known modern
commentator on the Yijing, Wei Da 韋達, maintains that “In nine
cases out of ten, the meaning of one line is confirmed and elucidated
by the significance of its transformation.”47 A similar associational
logic connected the fu hexagram with its inversely structured (fandui
反對) predecessor, bo 剝 (“peeling,” or “splitting apart,” signifying
“decay” [bo lan ye 剝爛也] [number 23]), the judgment of which—“It
would not be beneficial if one should set out to do something here”
(buli you xiaowang 不利有攸往)—provides advice exactly opposite to
that given in the last sentence of fu’s judgment.48

gou bo

Taken together, these and other interpretive techniques made it

possible for Han and later scholars to invest a given hexagram or
combination of hexagrams with virtually any meaning.49 This latitude
outraged a great many post-Han scholars, beginning with Wang Bi in
160 RICHARD J. SMITH

the immediate post-Han period and continuing in some scholarly

circles to this day. Wang was the progenitor of what became known as
“abstruse learning” (xuanxue 玄學), a creative amalgamation of
Confucian and Daoist thought. Wang rejected almost entirely the
complex and often confusing numerical, astrological, and calendrical
calculations that had been attached to the work by Jing Fang and his
successors.50
Wang’s famous essay, “General Remarks on the Zhou Changes”
(Zhouyi Lueli 《周易略例》) reveals his basic attitude toward the
classic.51 Under most circumstances, Wang chose to emphasize the
temporal and developmental significance of the individual lines
within the framework of a single hexagram. In his words: “Moments
of time entail either obstruction or facility, thus the application [of a
given hexagram] is either a matter of action or of withdrawal.” Once
the critical incipient moment (ji 機) has been determined, “one should
either act or remain passive, responding to the type of application
involved.”52 Wang’s commentary on the fu hexagram indicates a clear
preference in this case for quiescence, which he considers to be “the
original substance [ben 本] of Heaven and Earth.” Observing that the
judgment of fu refers to how the hard and strong (gang 剛)—i.e.,
the yang force, personified as “a friend”—flourishes and how there is
“no flaw” (wuji 無疾) in this, Wang goes on to say that the natural
movement of fu is toward quiescence and disengagement from affairs
(wushi 無事), and that this tendency truly manifests “the heart-and-
mind of heaven and earth” (tiandi zhi xin 天地之心).53
Song Neo-Confucians such as Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi found this sort
of disengagement entirely too Daoist for their tastes, although there
was, of course, a long-standing Confucian tradition of leadership based
on moral example and non-action (wuwei 無為). In their view, and in
the opinion of most orthodox Neo-Confucians in late imperial times,
the message of the fu hexagram was one that urged a temporary halt
to activist government, “a time to rest in order to nourish the yang
principle so that it can grow into the basis for purposeful activity at
appropriate times later.”54 Thus, we find that Cheng’s commentary on
the fu hexagram assails Wang Bi for his emphasis on quiescence,
arguing that “the sprouts of action are, in fact, the heart-and-mind of
heaven and earth” (dong zhi duan nai tiadi zhi xin 動之端乃天地之心).
Zhu, for his part, endorsed Cheng’s remarks entirely, adding that,
with respect to human beings, the manifestation of “return” was that
“activity [occurs] at the peak of quiescence and goodness [appears] at
the peak of evil” (jingji er dong, eji er shan 靜極而動， 惡極而善).55
Zhang Boxing’s 張伯行 (1652–1725) commentary on a passage con-
cerning the fu hexagram in the famous Neo-Confucian compendium
of the Song period, Jinsi Lu 《近思錄》 (Reflections on Things at
 FATE AND PREDICTION IN THE YIJING 161

Hand), puts the matter succinctly: “The way of the exemplary person
is the same as the way of yang; neither can be destroyed.”56
The views of Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi toward the Yijing became
official state orthodoxy in China from 1313 to 1905, just as those of
Wang Bi had been for much of the Tang and Song dynasties. Zhu’s
views were particularly influential, even among scholars who differed
from him philosophically.57 For instance, the rituals he devised for
divination, as with his instructions for examining the results, appeared
in countless works on the Changes, not only in China but also
throughout East Asia.58 Nonetheless, as in the past, a great deal of
latitude remained in Yijing interpretation.59
In the first place, even within the so-called Cheng-Zhu School
(Cheng Zhu xuepai 程朱學派) of Neo-Confucianism there were a
great many differences, large and small. As one of many examples, the
Yuan Dynasty scholar, Xu Heng 許衡 (1209–1281), a prominent advo-
cate of Zhu Xi’s thought, approached Yijing interpretation in a far
different way than Master Zhu. His Du Yi Siyan 《讀易私言》
(Private Words on Reading the Changes) focuses primarily on the
interpretive qualities or capacities (de 德) of the six hexagram lines,
the last in particular, categorizing them in terms of general qualities
such as health (jian 健), compliance (shun 順), movement (dong 動),
stopping (zhi 止), entering (ru 入), speaking (shuo 說), pitfalls (xian
陷), and beauty (li 麗).60
Second, despite avowed allegiances to one or another philosophical
school, or loyalty to a particular teacher, or later categorizations, most
Chinese scholars of the Changes tended to be eclectic, especially in late
imperial times. Wei Liaoweng 魏了翁 (1178–1237), for example,
adopted the strategy of “using images and numbers to seek meanings
and principles” (Yi xiangshu qiu yili 以象數求義理). Similarly, Xiang
Anshi 項安世 (d. 1208) tried to supplement Cheng Yi’s single-minded
emphasis on meanings and principles with an analysis of images and
numbers, placing special emphasis on the images of advance and
retreat (jintui 進退). Li Xinchuan 李心傳 (1167–1244), for his part,
attempted a broad synthesis of the work of Wang Bi, Zhang Zai 張載
(1020–1077), Cheng Yi, Guo Yong 郭雍 (1091–1187), and Zhu Xi, and
although Long Renfu 龍仁夫 (fl. ca. 1320), based his Zhouyi Jizhuan
《周易集傳》 (Collected Commentaries on the Zhou Changes) pri-
marily on the opinions of Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, he broke new ground
by giving radically different meanings to certain hexagrams—
reducing, for instance, the complex symbolism of kun (hexagram
number 2) to “settled” or “at peace” (an 安); of zhun (3), to “solid” (gu
固); of bi (8), to “join in” or “enter” (ru 入); and of zhen (51), to “kill”
(sha 殺)—meanings that all differ significantly from the ones normally
attached to these hexagrams by virtue of their names and judgments.61
162 RICHARD J. SMITH

Great Yijing systems builders, notably Lai Zhide 來知德 (1525–

1604) in the Ming, drew from many different sources of intellectual
inspiration, including not only Jing Fang in the Han and Shao Yong
邵雍 (1011–1077) and Zhu Xi in the Song, but also certain Buddhist
thinkers. Scholars such as Lin Zhaoen 林兆恩 (1517–1598) and Jiao
Hong 焦竑 (c. 1540–1620) displayed a similar eclecticism. Scientifically
minded individuals such as Fang Yizhi 方以智 (1611–1671) and Jiang
Yong 江永 (1681–1762), for their part, incorporated Western math-
ematical and astronomical ideas, as well as a profound understanding
of the Changes, into their creative and multifaceted scholarship.62
Even devoutly Buddhist scholars like Ouyi Zhixu 藕益智旭 (1599–
1655) drew freely from Confucian and other writings to make their
case. To be sure, Zhixu’s influential Zhouyi Chanjie 《周易禪解》 (A
Chan [Zen] Interpretation of the Zhou Changes) contains a good deal
of Buddhist-style paradox; for instance, he described his book as being
about change (yi 易), non-change (feiyi 非易), and neither change nor
non-change (lit. “not non-change;” feifei yi 非非易).63 But the preface
to his book also indicates a clear and eminently pragmatic goal: “to
introduce Chan Buddhism into Confucianism in order to entice
Confucians to know Chan” (yi Chan ru Ru wu you Ru yi zhi Chan
以禪入儒務誘儒以知禪).64
In this accommodating spirit Zhixu draws direct comparisons
between the two philosophies. For example, in glossing the judgment
of the fu hexagram he writes: “In the affairs of the [mundane] world,
in the aftermath of decline [represented by the Bo hexagram,
number 23], there must be an enlightened ruler to bring about a
restoration and this is [the Confucian concept of] Return. In Bud-
dhism, after weakening and disintegration, there must be a holy sage
who will appear in response to reenergize/regenerate things and this
is [the Buddhist concept of] Return” (Yue shi dao, ze shuai bo zhi hou,
bi you mingzhu zhongxing er wei fu. Yue Fo hua, ze lun ti zhi hou. Bi
you shengxian ying xian. Chongzhen zuo zhi er wei fu. 約世道，
則衰剝之後，必有明主中興而為復。約佛化。 則淪替之後。必有聖
賢應現。重振作之而為復。).65
But Zhixu’s remaining remarks on the fu hexagram—including the
Commentary on the Judgment, the Commentaries on the Images, and
all of its line statements—employ a Buddhist vocabulary and stead-
fastly encourage explicitly Buddhist goals: the cultivation of a contem-
plative heart-mind (guanxin 觀心), correct concentration (zhengding
正定), and eventually, discovery of the Buddha nature (i.e., Enlighten-
ment), the essence of which, Zhixu asserts, is called the heart-mind of
heaven and earth (Foxing mingwei tiandi zhi xin 佛性名為天地之心).66
The Daoist cleric Liu Yiming 劉一明 (1724–1831), for his part,
sought to reconcile Confucianism and Daoism by arguing that Daoist
 FATE AND PREDICTION IN THE YIJING 163

ideas of mental and alchemical refinement were perfectly compatible

with Confucian notions of moral self-cultivation. Indeed, according to
the preface of Liu’s Zhouyi Chanzhen 《周易闡真》 (Elucidating the
Truth of the Zhou Changes), the Way of Daoist alchemy was the same
as the Way of the Changes, and the Way of the (Confucian) holy sages
was the same as the Way of the (Daoist) immortals (Dandao ji yidao
ye, shengdao ji xiandao ye 丹道即易道也，聖道即仙道也).67 Not sur-
prisingly, then, Liu’s remarks on the fu hexagram intersperse ortho-
dox Confucian notions (for example, Mencius’s idea that at birth
human beings are “perfectly good and devoid of evil” [zhi shan wu e
至善無惡]), with Daoist alchemical concepts (for instance, the idea
that with the receipt of what Liu calls the potential of life (shengji
生機)—that is the vital and productive interaction of yin and yang)—
“the furnace of creation and transformation, can, in the space of a
moment, change calamities into blessings and transform punishments
into rewards” (shou ru zaohualu zhong, piankejian, zaibian fei fu,
xinghua wei de 收入造化爐中，片刻之間，災變為福，刑化為德).68
Liu’s final remark on the fu hexagram is particularly telling. He
writes:
Except for the sixth line, which refers to “a confused return,” the
remaining five lines indicate the way of return, whether the activities
are undertaken calmly, smoothly, or reluctantly. In all cases, the
crucial accomplishment is a return to the original [moral] self.
(六爻除上爻迷復，其餘五爻，皆有復道，或安而行，或利而行，或
勉强而行。總以復于元初本來面目為機功。)69
The Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) witnessed the rise to prominence of
a new kind of scholarship known as “evidential studies” (kaozheng
xue 考證學), which sought to rid the Confucian classics, including the
Yijing, of course, of Buddhist and Daoist accretions, which scholars of
this intellectual persuasion blamed on the rise of Song Neo-
Confucianism. Using sophisticated philological techniques to expose
interpolations and other distortions in both “original” texts and later
commentaries, pioneers in “evidential studies” such as Gu Yanwu
顧炎武 (1613–1682), Huang Zongxi 黃宗羲 (1610–1695), and Wang
Fuzhi, as well as later exponents of these interpretive techniques,
including Mao Qiling 毛奇齡（1623–1716), Hu Wei 胡渭 (1633–1714),
and Hui Dong 惠棟 (1697–1758), generally looked to Han Dynasty
materials for inspiration rather than to Song Dynasty sources, on the
grounds that they were closer to the time of Confucius and essentially
free from corrosive Buddhist and Religious Daoist influences.70
But despite vigorous attacks from such scholars, Song Neo-
Confucianism in general, and the Cheng-Zhu School in particular,
remained vital and relevant for much of the Qing period. One reason
for its continued vitality, as On-cho Ng has persuasively argued, is that
164 RICHARD J. SMITH

scholars such as Li Guangdi 李光地 (1642–1718) proved to be creative

interpreters of Neo-Confucianism, capable of diverging from the
Cheng-Zhu tradition while at the same time ardently defending it.71
Ng’s analysis of Li’s Zhouyi Tonglun《周易通論》 (General Discus-
sion of the Zhou Changes), which includes a substantial section on
Li’s exegesis of the fu hexagram, confirms that Guangdi was not
simply “a custodian of old views,” but an “innovative interpreter with
his [own] distinctive hermeneutic voice.”72

IV. Concluding Remarks

As I have tried to show, the Yijing hermeneutical and divinatory

traditions allowed, and even encouraged, an extraordinarily wide
range of interpretive techniques as well as the expression of many
different philosophical viewpoints. And, over the centuries, even fun-
damental terms in the basic text underwent substantial changes in
meaning. At the same time, however, commentaries shaped the con-
tours of interpretation—especially if they were endorsed by the
Chinese state. Wang Bi’s interpretations were considered “orthodox”
for much of the Tang and Song dynasties, and the interpretations of
Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi became official orthodoxy during much of the
Yuan, Ming, and Qing periods. Thus, although a work like Li
Guangdi’s imperially sponsored Zhouyi Zhezhong 《周易折中》
(Balanced Compendium on the Zhou Changes) (1715) included a
broad range of scholarly commentaries on the Yijing—eighteen from
the Han Dynasty, five from the Six Dynasties period, one from the Sui,
eleven from the Tang, ninety-eight from the Song, two from the Jin,
twenty-two from the Yuan, and sixty-one from the Ming—it still
emphasized the state’s Cheng-Zhu orthodoxy.73
Another device for encouraging a certain degree of interpretive
uniformity in the Changes studies was the “primer”—that is, a work
designed explicitly for more-or-less “beginning” students. The most
interesting works of this sort that I have examined in the course of my
research on the Changes are housed in the Chinese collection of the
Vatican Archives. Some of them have extensive annotations in French
and/or Latin, presumably penned by Jesuit missionaries. One such
“primer” is a six juan 卷 work by the famous late-Ming loyalist Huang
Chunyao 黃淳耀 (1605–1645), aka Huang Yunsheng 黃蘊生. The
Vatican edition of this book is dated 1700, and it is titled Yijing Yijian
Nengjie 《易經一見能解》, or Understanding the Yijing at a Glance—
hereafter, Understanding the Changes.74
Lynne Struve has written a long and illuminating article titled
“Self-Struggles of a Martyr: Memories, Dreams, and Obsessions in the
 FATE AND PREDICTION IN THE YIJING 165

Extant Diary of Huang Chunyao,” which shows us how Huang drew

upon Understanding the Changes, and other sources of inspiration.75
But for our purposes here, Understanding the Changes is valuable
primarily for its explanations of technical terms, which illustrate once
again the interpretive latitude that existed even in “orthodox”
approaches to the Yijing exegesis. For instance, if we look one last
time at the fu hexagram (number 24), we see that in the judgment the
expression wujiu 旡咎, usually understood in the imperial times as “no
blame” or “no regret,” is glossed “no injury” (Wu yanhan ye 旡殃害也)
by Huang, and in fu’s third line statement, he explains the same term
(wujiu) as a phrase of “encouragement” (quan zhi zhi ci 勸之之辭).
When we encounter wujiu in the line statements of other hexa-
grams, Understanding the Changes offers us additional interpretative
possibilities for the same expression. For example, in the first line
statement of the gen hexagram (number 52), which begins, “Restraint
takes place with the toes; no blame/regret” (Gen qi zhi wujiu 艮其
趾旡咎), the gloss for wujiu reads: “this [counsels against the blame/
regret that comes from] reckless action” (wudong 旡動); and in the
fourth line statement of the same hexagram, which reads “Restraint
takes place with the torso; no blame/regret (Gen qi shen wujiu
艮其身旡咎), the gloss tells us that “This [counsels against the blame/
regret that comes from being] bound by material things” (wulei 物累).
In short, Understanding the Changes provides the reader with a
comprehensive, comforting, and completely orthodox appreciation of
the Yijing. At the same time, it indicates the extraordinary complexity
of even the most conventional approach to the document. One
wonders whether a neophyte reader, especially someone like the
Jesuit missionary Joachim Bouvet, had any inkling of intellectual
quicksand that was in store down the road.76

RICE UNIVERSITY
Houston, Texas

Endnotes

Acknowledgment of Intellectual Credits and Rights: This article is a revised version of a

conference paper originally written for the International Consortium for Research on the
Humanities, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany, June 29–July 3, 2011.
The conference title was “Ming and Fatum—Key Concepts of Fate and Prediction in
Comparative Perspective.” I am grateful to the members of Consortium, Professor Michael
Lackner in particular, for scholarly support of this paper and for permission to include it in
this fortieth-anniversary issue of the Journal of Chinese Philosophy. I have also borrowed
several paragraphs from my two books on the Yijing: Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering
the World: The Yijing (I Ching or Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China (Char-
lottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008) and The I Ching: A Biography (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2012). For a relatively up-to-date bibliography on the Changes
scholarship in Chinese and Western languages, see Richard J. Smith, “Select Bibliography
166 RICHARD J. SMITH

of Works on the Yijing since 1985,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 36, no. 4 (2009): 152–63,
Edward Shaughnessy, Unearthing the Changes: Recently Discovered Manuscripts of the Yi
Jing (I Ching) and Related Texts (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014), and the
forthcoming book by Geoffrey Redmond and Tze-Ki Hon titled Teaching the I Ching
(Book of Changes (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
1. The following few paragraphs have been adapted from Richard J. Smith, I Ching: A
Biography, 4–6. For additional Western-language discussions of the structure and
function(s) of the “basic text” as traditionally understood, see Smith, Fathoming the
Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic of Changes) and Its
Evolution in China, 7–24, 37–48, and 58–62, Dennis Schilling, Yijing: Das Buch der
Wandlungen (Frankfurt: Verlag, 2009), esp. 207 ff., and Richard J. Smith, Mapping
China and Managing the World: Culture, Cartography and Cosmology in Late Imperial
Times (Milton Park: Routledge Press, 2012), 15–21 and 167–70. Scott Davis, The
Classic of Changes in Cultural Context: A Textual Archaeology of the Yi jing (Amherst:
Cambria Press, 2012) offers a sophisticated and thought-provoking “anthropological
analysis” of the “structural core” and “systematic relationships” of the Changes. See
also Richard S. Cook, Classical Chinese Combinatorics: Derivation of the Book of
Changes Hexagram Sequence (Berkeley: Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and
Thesaurus Project, 2006).
2. Ji Yun 紀昀, et al. (eds.), Qinding Siku Quanshu 《欽定四庫全書》 (Imperial Edition
of the Complete Collection of the Four Treasuries) (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji
Chubanshe, 1987; hereafter, SKQS), Zongmu Tiyao 《總目提要》, 4: 25a.
3. Tze-ki Hon, The Yijing and Chinese Politics: Classical Commentary and Literati Activ-
ism in the Northern Song Period, 960–1127 (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 2005), 3.
4. For a convenient bilingual overview of the commentarial process, see Zhang
Shanwen, The Zhou Book of Change (Changsha: Hunan Renmin Chubanshe, 2008;
translated by Fu Huisheng), 37–46 (Chinese) and 81–96 (English). For an extended
English-language discussion of the Yijing commentarial traditions, see Smith, Fath-
oming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic of Changes)
and Its Evolution in China.
5. Gao Heng 高亨, Zhouyi Gujing Jinzhu 《周易古經今注》 (An Up-to-Date Commen-
tary on the Basic Text of the Zhou Changes) (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1984; second
edition, 1990 reprint), 18–45.
6. Hong Ye 洪業, et al. (eds.), Zhouyi Yinde 周易引得 (A Concordance to the Zhou
Changes) (Taibei: Chengwen, 1966), 16. This punctuated version of the Changes
provides footnotes that indicate textual variants for the fu hexagram and others. See
also n. 8 below. For variants in the fu hexagram based on the Mawangdui 馬王堆
version of the Changes, see Edward L. Shaughnessy, I Ching: The Classic of Changes
(New York: Ballantine Books, 1996), 114–5 and 306–7, n. 1–6.
7. Li Jingchi 李鏡池, Zhouyi Tanyuan 《周易探源》 (An Investigation into the Origins
of the Zhou Changes) (Beijing: 1978; 1991 reprint), 30, suggests that when heng 亨
occurs by itself it means lucky or auspicious, although it often serves in the Changes
as a loan word for xiang 享, to make a sacrificial offering or a “treat” in expectation of
a favorable result (for example, in a divination). For useful summaries of Chinese
scholarship on questions of terminology, see Richard A. Kunst, “The Original ‘Yijing’:
A Text, Phonetic Transcription, Translation, and Indexes, with Sample Glosses” (PhD
diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1985; available from UMI Dissertation
Services/ProQuest), esp. 181–90 and Edward L. Shaughnessy, “The Composition of
the ‘Zhouyi’ ” (PhD diss., Stanford University, 1983; available from UMI Dissertation
Services/ProQuest), esp. 123–31. I owe a tremendous debt to these two outstanding
scholars, whose respective dissertations, lamentably, have never appeared in print.
This article may be considered a grateful homage to both pioneering studies.
8. The character qi 衹 here is emblematic of the great range of possible meanings that a
single word in the basic text might have. As Hong Ye et al., Zhouyi Yinde, 16 and
Richard Kunst’s unpublished but online accessible notes on the fu hexagram indicate,
there are several variant characters for qi: 祗, 禔, 提, etc. A number of Chinese and
 FATE AND PREDICTION IN THE YIJING 167

Western authorities have, with various justifications, translated qi as “big,” “great,”

“much,” or “many”; a negative particle (“no”); “illness” (reading it as 疾); “calamity”
(reading it as 災); “peaceful” (reading it as 禔); and even “earth spirit” (reading it as
祗). Ultimately, Kunst opts for “harm,” as do I.
9. Kunst,“The Original ‘Yijing’:A Text, Phonetic Transcription,Translation, and Indexes,
with Sample Glosses,” 286–7; cf. Shaughnessy,“The Composition of the ‘Zhouyi,’” 136.
10. These terms are listed in approximate order of severity; in the traditional Chinese
ranking of “disaster” words, xiong is clearly the most inauspicious. See Gao Heng 高亨
Zhouyi Gujing Tongshuo 《周易古經通說》 (An Exposition of the Basic Text of the
Zhou Changes) (Hong Kong: Zhonghua Shuju, 1963; 1983 reprint), 107, where he
defines xiong as “an enormous calamity” (juda zhi huoyang 巨大之禍殃). For a
detailed analysis of the positive and negative connotations of these and other terms in
the early Changes, see ibid., 87–111; Li Jingchi, Zhouyi Tanyuan, 20–130 and 416–20;
Kunst,“The Original ‘Yijing’:A Text, Phonetic Transcription,Translation, and Indexes,
with Sample Glosses,” 159–215 and 369–438, and Shaughnessy, “The Composition of
the ‘Zhouyi,’” 152–8. Cf. Gao Heng’s Zhouyi Gujing Jinzhu 《周易古經今注》 (An
Up-to-Date Commentary on the Basic Text of the Zhou Changes) (Beijing: Zhonghua
Shuju, 1984; 2nd ed., 1990 reprint), esp. 73 ff., 110 ff., 154 ff., 181 ff., and 229–231.
11. As indicated above (n. 8), heng 亨 may be considered a positive term (indicating a
successful undertaking). But as Kunst notes, of the fifty or so occurrences of heng (or
xiang) in basic text of the Changes, all but seven appear in hexagram judgments (as
opposed to line statements). See Kunst, “The Original ‘Yijing’: A Text, Phonetic
Transcription, Translation, and Indexes, with Sample Glosses,’” 181–90, esp. 182. For
an early instance in which heng appears as a stand-alone term for “success,” see the
discussion by Kidder A. Smith in “Zhouyi Divination from Accounts in the
Zuozhuan,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 49, no. 2 (1989): 424–63, esp. 436.
12. Li Jingchi, Zhouyi Tanyuan, 107–8 suggests that huiwang is a negative expression,
connoting “troubles” (hui) and “loss” (wang), but this is a minority opinion among
Yijing specialists.
13. Kunst,“The Original ‘Yijing’:A Text, Phonetic Transcription,Translation, and Indexes,
with Sample Glosses,” 200–11 provides a particularly illuminating discussion of this
semantic transformation, and the importance of the word zhen to an understanding of
early classical Chinese texts in general.
14. This discussion is based primarily on the materials in Li Daoping 李道平, Zhouyi Jijie
Zuanshu 《周易集解纂疏》 (A Compilation of Subcommentaries on the Collected
Explanations of the Zhou Changes) (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1994); edited by Pan
Yuting 潘雨廷, and Li Guangdi 李光地 (ed.), Zhouyi Zhezhong 《周易折中》 (A
Balanced [edition of the] Zhou Changes) (Chengdu: Ba Shu Shushe, 2006) (arranged
and with a foreword by Liu Dajun 劉大鈞). For Western-language translations reflect-
ing these semantic changes, see Richard John Lynn, The Classic of Changes: A New
Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1994) and Richard Wilhelm, The I Ching, or Book of Changes (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1967) (translated from the German by Cary F. Baynes).
See also the discussions in the text and notes of Kunst, “The Original ‘Yijing’: A Text,
Phonetic Transcription, Translation, and Indexes, with Sample Glosses,” 150–215 and
369–438 passim.
15. This description of the Ten Wings is based on Smith, I Ching: A Biography, 58–60.
16. Hong Ye et al. (eds.), Zhouyi Yinde, 40. This translation is based primarily on Lynn,
Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 51; cf.
Wilhelm, I Ching or Book of Changes, 294.
17. For a fuller discussion of the Great Commentary, see Smith, Fathoming the Cosmos
and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution
in China, esp. 26–27 and 36–44.
18. See Ming Dong Gu, “Elucidation of Images in the Book of Changes: Ancient Insights
into Modern Language Philosophy and Hermeneutics,” Journal of Chinese Philoso-
phy 31, no. 4 (2004): 469–88; also Smith, Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the
World: The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China, 38–41,
86–88, 92–98, 103–6, 121–5, 131–6 and Smith, I Ching: A Biography, esp. 61–64.
168 RICHARD J. SMITH

19. Hong Ye et al. (eds.), Zhouyi Yinde, 42. This translation is based primarily on Lynn,
Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 60; cf.
Wilhelm, I Ching, 310.
20. In the remainder of this essay I will try to be as consistent as possible in rendering
evaluative terms of this sort, even though they were often interpreted in significantly
different ways by different commentators. Of all the English-language translations of
the Yijing as it was understood in imperial times, Lynn’s Classic of Changes: A New
Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi does the best job of indicating
these differences in the notes.
21. Hong Ye et al. (eds.), Zhouyi Yinde, 40. This translation is based primarily on Lynn,
Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 50; cf.
Wilhelm, I Ching, 290–1. Almost all of the 100 occurrences of the term jiu in the basic
text of the Yijing are negated, as in the above example. In 93 instances it appears as
wujiu, indicating that “there will be no misfortune.”
22. Hong Ye et al. (eds.), Zhouyi Yinde, 40. This translation is based primarily on Lynn,
Classic of Changes, 50; cf. Wilhelm, I Ching, or Book of Changes, 289–90.
23. See the discussion of Wang’s approach to the Changes in Smith, Fathoming the
Cosmos, 175–6.
24. Hong Ye et al. (eds.), Zhouyi Yinde, 48. This translation is based primarily on Lynn,
The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi,
90–92; cf. Wilhelm, I Ching, 349–51.
25. Hong Ye et al. (eds.), Zhouyi Yinde, 46. Cf. Lynn, The Classic of Changes: A New
Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 80 and Wilhelm, I Ching or Book
of Changes, 337.
26. Hong Ye et al. (eds.), Zhouyi Yinde, 48. This translation is based primarily on Lynn,
The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi,
89; cf. Wilhelm, I Ching, 347–8.
27. Hong Ye et al. (eds.), Zhouyi Yinde, 48. This translation is based primarily on Lynn,
The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi,
87–88; cf. Wilhelm, I Ching or Book of Changes, 345.
28. Hong Ye et al. (eds.), Zhouyi Yinde, 47. This translation is based primarily on Lynn,
The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi,
84; cf. Wilhelm, I Ching or Book of Changes, 342.
29. Ibid.
30. See the discussion in Smith, I Ching: A Biography, 64–65.
31. Hong Ye et al. (eds.), Zhouyi Yinde, 16. The following translation is based primarily
on Lynn, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted
by Wang B, 285–92 as well as the commentaries in Li Guangdi (ed.), Zhouyi
Zhezhong, 134–8, 357–9 and 454–6. Cf. Wilhelm, I Ching or Book of Changes, 97–100
and 504–9.
32. Again, heng 亨 presents interpretive difficulties (see notes 7 and 11 above), but I shall
subsequently translate it as success, for which there was a fairly broad consensus in
imperial China.
33. See the explanation in Kidder Smith et al., Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 246–52, esp. n. 13 and n. 26.
34. See the commentaries in Li Guangdi (ed.), Zhouyi Zhezhong, 134–8, 357–9, and
454–6. For some specific examples in English-language works, see Lynn, The Classic of
Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang B, 290–2 and Smith
et al., Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990),
240–54, passim.
35. See Smith, Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or
Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China, esp. 218–40 and Smith, I Ching: A
Biography, 211–22.
36. A nineteenth-century Chinese commentary on the Yijing states, for example: “The
Changes is the mirror of men’s minds” (Yizhe renxin zhi jing ye 易者人心之鏡也). See
He Yufu 何毓福, Yi Jing 《易鏡》 (Mirror of Changes), n.p. 1884; Ni Tseh Collection,
University of California, Irvine), 1: 1. See also note 54 below.
37. See Smith, I Ching: A Biography, 78–104, passim.
 FATE AND PREDICTION IN THE YIJING 169

38. Smith, Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic
of Changes) and Its Evolution in China, esp. 125 ff.
39. Ibid., esp. xiii, 59–60, 83, 94, 125, 127, 147, 150, 167–8, 173, 188, 266 n. 11.
40. For an English-language summary of these differences, see Smith, I Ching: A Biogra-
phy, 79–107.
41. SKQS, Jingbu Yilei 《經部易類》, 1: 2b–3a; see also Gao Heng, Zhouyi Gujing Jinzhu,
287.
42. See Smith, Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or
Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China, and I Ching: A Biography, passim. The
best English-language reference book on Yijing technical terminology is Bent
Nielsen’s A Companion to Yi jing Numerology and Cosmology: Chinese Studies of
Images and Numbers from Han (202 BCE–220 CE) to Song (960–1279 CE) (London:
Routledge Curzon, 2003). This work is organized alphabetically by pinyin translitera-
tions of names, terms, and titles.
43. We should remember that in the conventional symbolism of the “Explaining the
Trigrams” commentary, zhen [Quake] “is thunder, is the dragon, is black and yellow, is
overspreading, is the great highway, is the Eldest Son, is decisiveness and impetuosity,
a green, lush bamboo, and the reed plants. In respect to horses, it is those that excel at
neighing, those that have white rear legs, those that work the legs [run fast], and those
that have white foreheads. In respect to cultivated plants, it is the kind that grows back
[i.e., pod-sprouting plants, legumes, etc.]. At the end point of its development, it is
soundness and sturdiness [i.e., it turns into the qian trigram] and is luxuriant and fresh
growth. Kun, among other things, “kun is Earth, is mother, is cloth, is a cooking pot, is
frugality, is impartiality, is a cow with a calf, is a great cart, is the markings on things, is
the multitude of things themselves, and is the handle of things. In respect to soils, it is the
kind that is black.” See Lynn, The Classic of Changes:A New Translation of the I Ching
as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 119–22; cf. Wilhelm, I Ching or Book of Changes, 275–6.
44. Appendix to Cao Weilin 曹為霖, Yixue Shijing 《易學史鏡》 (Historical Mirror of
Changes Studies) (Taibei: Xinwenfeng Chubanshe, 1980). Reprint of 1873 edition.
45. Alternative versions of this hexagram name include gou 搆, to cross or join (as in battle)
and gou 遘, to meet or encounter. It has also been understood as “locking,” “pairing,”
“coupling,”“copulating,”“welcoming,”“subjugating,” etc.The equivalent hexagram in
the Mawangdui version of the Changes is gou 狗, dog. The line statements of this
particular hexagram present especially difficult exegetical problems. See the discussion
in Smith, Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World:The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic
of Changes) and Its Evolution in China, 13–14 and 20–21; also Lynn, The Classic of
Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 415–6.
46. Hong Ye et al. (eds.), Zhouyi Yinde, 15–16.This translation is based primarily on Lynn,
The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi,
280–5; cf. Wilhelm, I Ching or Book of Changes, 93–96 and 500–4.
47. Tat Wei, An Exposition of the I-Ching or Book of Changes (Hong Kong: Dai Nippon
Printing Company, 1977), 198–9.
48. Hong Ye et al. (eds.), Zhouyi Yinde, 27. This translation is based primarily on Lynn,
The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi,
410–1; cf. Wilhelm, I Ching or Book of Changes, 170–3 and 608–13.
49. See the almost unimaginably complex example adduced by Edward L. Shaughnessy
in “Commentary, Philosophy, and Translation: Reading Wang Bi’s Commentary to the
Yi jing in a New Way,” Early China 22 (1997): 221–45.
50. See Lynn, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by
Wang Bi, 1–46, esp. 25–39.
51. Ibid.
52. Ibid., 29.
53. Lynn, The Classic of Changes:A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang
Bi, 285–6. Cf. the translation in Kidder Smith et al., Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching,
240–2. See also Tze-ki Hon, “Human Agency and Change: A Reading of Wang Bi’s
Yijing Commentary,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 30, no. 2 (2003): 223–42.
54. See Lynn, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by
Wang Bi, 291, n. 5.
170 RICHARD J. SMITH

55. See Li Guangdi (ed.), Zhouyi Zhezhong, 358. Cf. Kidder Smith et al., Sung Dynasty
Uses of the I Ching, 247.
56. Quoted in Wing-tsit Chan (ed.), Reflection on Things at Hand: The Neo-Confucian
Anthology Compiled by Chu His and Lü Tsu-ch’ien (New York and London: Colum-
bia University Press, 1967), 11.
57. See Smith, Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or
Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China, 133 ff.; also On-cho Ng, “Religious
Hermeneutics: Text and Truth in Neo-Confucian Readings of the Yijing,” Journal of
Chinese Philosophy 34, no. 1 (2007): 5–24.
58. See Smith, I Ching: A Biography, 102–4 and 131 ff. For an illustrated discussion of
Zhu’s “milfoil etiquette” and his general interpretive guidelines, see ibid., 110–3. For
details, consult Joseph Adler’s bilingual text, Introduction to the Study of the Classic of
Change (I-hsüeh ch’i-meng) (New York: Global Scholarly Publications, 2002), 48–53.
59. See Smith, I Ching: A Biography, 112–4.
60. Smith, Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic
of Changes) and Its Evolution in China, 142–3.
61. Ibid., 136.
62. Ibid., 160 ff. See also Smith, I Ching: A Biography, 104–5.
63. Ouyi Zhixu, Zhouyi Sishu Chanjie 《周易四書禪解》 (A Chan Interpretation of the
Zhou Changes and the Four Books), eds. Shi Wei 施維 and Zhou Jianxiong 周建雄
(Beijing: Tuanjie Chubanshe, 1996), 3. See also Yuet Keung Lo, “Change beyond
Syncretism: Ouyi Zhixu’s Buddhist Hermeneutics of the Yijing,” Journal of Chinese
Philosophy 35, no. 2 (2008): 273–95, esp. 281–2, and Douglass White, “Interpretations
of the Central Concept of the I-Ching during the Han, Sung, and Ming Dynasties”
(PhD diss., Harvard University, 1976; available from UMI Dissertation Services/
ProQuest), 201–5.
64. Ouyi Zhixu, Zhouyi Sishu Chanjie, 4.
65. Ibid., 83. Cf. Cleary, The Buddhist I Ching (Boston: Shambala, 1987), 107.
66. Ibid., 83–5. Cf. Cleary, The Buddhist I Ching, 108–10.
67. See Liu Yiming 劉一明, Zhouyi Chanzhen 《周易闡真》, Xu 序. Available at http://
www.daoism.cc/dandao/fdjd/znz/zycz.htm, accessed February 17, 2013. Cf. Thomas
Cleary, The Taoist I Ching (Boston: Shambala, 1986), 1.
68. Liu Yiming, Liushisi Gua. Cf. Thomas Cleary, The Taoist I Ching (Boston: Shambala,
1986), 108–12.
69. Liu Yiming, Liushisi Gua, 1.
70. See the discussion in Smith, Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World:The Yijing
(I Ching, or Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China, 173–7.
71. See On-Cho Ng, Cheng-Zhu Confucianism in the Early Qing: Li Guangdi (1642–1718)
and Qing Learning (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001), esp. 4–8 and
195–201.
72. Ibid., esp. 148. Li’s exegesis of the fu hexagram, which emphasizes self-control, equi-
librium and the central idea of eliminating selfish desires, is discussed in ibid., 152–3.
73. Li Guangdi (ed.), Zhouyi Zhezhong, 25–31 provides a breakdown by dynastic periods.
74. This woodblock edition, produced by Chen Changqing 陳長卿, has the alternative
title Zengbu Yijing Jiangyi Yijian Nengjie 《增補易經講意一見能解》. Other versions
of this work include titles such as Shiquge Xinjuan Zhouyi Youxue Nengjie
石渠閤新鐫周易幼學能解, Xinjuan Zengbu Zhouyi Beizhi Yijian Nengjie
新鎸增補周易備旨一見能解, Zhouyi Beizhi Nengjie 周易備旨能觧, Yijing Beizhi
Nengjie 易經備旨能解, Zhouyi Beizhi Yijian Nengjie 周易備旨一見能解, Yijing Buzhu
Fukao Beizhi 易經補注坿考備旨 and Yijing Beizhi 易經備旨.
75. Lynne Struve, “Self-Struggles of a Martyr: Memories, Dreams, and Obsessions in the
Extant Diary of Huang Chunyao,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 69, no. 2 (2009):
343–94. The edition of Huang’s book used in Struve’s article is titled Yijing Buzhu
Fukao Beizhi 《易經補注坿考備旨》, suppl. and ed. Yan Erkuan 嚴而寬, Shou Ping
壽平, and Jiang Xiangeng 蔣先庚 (Shancheng tang, 1901).
76. On Bouvet’s engagement with the Changes, see Smith, Mapping China and Managing
the World: Culture, Cartography and Cosmology in Late Imperial Times, 173–84.