Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China (Richard Lectures)

Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World is the first full-length study in any Western language of the development of the Yijing in China from earliest times to the present. Drawing on the most recent scholarship in both Asian and Western languages, Richard J. Smith offers a fresh perspective on virtually every aspect of Yijing theory and practice for some three thousand years. Smith introduces the reader to the major works, debates, and schools of interpretation surrounding this ancient text, and he shows not only how the Book of Changes was used in China as a book of divination but also how it served as a source of philosophical, psychological, literary, and artistic inspiration. Among its major contributions, this study reveals with many vivid examples the richness, diversity, vitality, and complexity of traditional Chinese thought. In the process, it deconstructs a number of time-honored interpretive binaries that have adversely affected our understanding of the Yijing--most notably the sharp distinction between the "school of images and numbers" (xiangshu) and the "school of meanings and principles" (yili). The book also demonstrates that, contrary to prevailing opinion among Western scholars, the rise of "evidential research" (kaozheng xue) in late imperial China did not necessarily mean the decline of Chinese cosmology. Smith's study reveals a far more nuanced intellectual outlook on the part of even the most dedicated kaozheng scholars, as well as the remarkable persistence of Chinese "correlative" thinking to this very day. Finally, by exploring the fascinating modern history of the Yijing, Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World attests to the tenacity, flexibility, and continuing relevance of this most remarkable Chinese classic. Contents......Page 7 Preface......Page 11 Illustrations......Page 9 Acknowledgements......Page 15 A Note on Transliterations and Translations......Page 17 Introduction......Page 23 1. The Birth of the Changes......Page 29 2. From Divinatory Text to “Confucian” Classic......Page 53 3. Han Dynasty Approaches to the Yijing......Page 79 4. The Six Dynasties through the Tang......Page 111 5. The Song Dynasty......Page 134 6. The Yuan and Ming Dynasties......Page 162 7. The Qing Dynasty......Page 193 8. The Changes in Modern China......Page 217 9. The Yijing as a Source of Cultural Pride and Inspiration......Page 240 Concluding Remarks: The Changes in Comparative Perspective......Page 263 Appendix A. A Note on Sources......Page 273 Appendix B. Some Examples of Changes Scholarship from the People’s University Database (CD-ROM)......Page 275 Appendix C. Individuals Associated with the Changes prior to the Twentieth Century......Page 278 Notes......Page 285 Bibliography of Asian-Language Works......Page 357 Bibliography of Western-Language Works......Page 376 Index......Page 401 Presents a full-length study of the development of the Yijing in China from earliest times onwards. This work offers a fresh perspective on various aspects of Yijing theory and practice for some three thousand years. It introduces the reader to the major works, debates, and schools of interpretation surrounding this ancient text. This is a study of the development of the Yijing in China from the earliest times to the present. Drawing on recent scholarship in both Western and Asian languages, the author offers a fresh perspective on almost every aspect of Yijing theory and practice Richard J. Smith. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [335]-377) And Index.