to transmit their commentarial traditions of the Classic of Changes: Shi Chou 施讎 (fl. 51 B.C.), Liangqiu He 梁丘 賀 (fl. 59–48 B.C.) and Meng Xi 孟喜 (fl. 73–49 B.C.). They largely monopolized the transmission lines of the Changes in the imperial court ( , page 62). Liangqiu He in particular was more than a mere marginal consultant; he was also the Chamberlain for the Palace Revenues (shaofu 少府) from 59 to 48 B.C., one of the Nine Chamberlains, an important imperial position which was immediately after the Three Ducal Ministers in rank.56
51 Peterson, “Making Connections,” 85.
52 Ibid., 91.
53 Cf. Ikeda Shūzō, “Ryū Kō no gakumon to shisō,” 141.
54 As Sivin mentions, “[t]he Han scholars of the Changes were finding in this archaic book the regularities that
govern experience of the external world and everything else.” See the appendix “Evolution of the Chinese Cosmological Synthesis” in The way and the word, 266-9, esp. 268.
55 Erudite as a position can be traced back at least to the Qin dynasty. People who took this job were responsible
for answering emperors’ inquiries especially about rituals and historical records. In the Western Han dynasty, Erudites were under the leadership of Chamberlain for Ceremonies (Taichang 太常), though the latter was not in charge of recruiting the former. Beginning in Emperor Wu’s time, some of the Erudite positions were specifically for transmitters of one of the Five Classics. Later on, classicists took the majority of these positions. See Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), 389; An Zuozhang and Xiong Tieji, Qin Han guanzhi shi gao, 93-6; Qian Mu, Qin Han shi 秦漢史 (A History of Qin and Han) (Beijing: Sanlian, 2005), 78-9.
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Chart 1: The Transmission Line of the Changes
Although the three masters’ works are lost, surviving fragments from Meng Xi’s work can still give us a rough impression of their scholarship.57 In a manner similar to Wei Xiang, Meng Xi uses Kan, Zhen, Li and Dui as the four major trigrams that explain the change of seasons. Like Wei Xiang and others, Meng Xi also matches them with the timely fluctuation of yin and yangqi.58
of officials among the Nine Chamberlains (jiu qing 九卿). See Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, 414-5. Also, An Zuozhang and Xiong Tieji, Qin Han guanzhi shi gao, 179-81.
We can infer that based on
57 See a fragment very similar to Wei Xiang’s parallelism between trigrams and seasonal changes: “Kan is from
due north, since [the trigram of] it is that yin surrounds yang. The minor yang moves underneath. It rises but does not reach its destination. [This situation] reaches to its climax in the second month. The frozen qi disappears, and the movement of Kan ends then. Vernal equinox comes from Zhen. Zhen starts to take over the essence of the myriad of things, and becomes dominant inside [of the trigram]. Therefore, all of the yin change and follow it. It reaches to its climax at due south. It changes from luxuriant to exhausted. The achievement of Zhen ends there. Li is from due south, since [the trigram of] it is that yang surrounds yin. The minor yin is born under Earth. It accumulates, but is not yet apparent. In the eighth month, the essence of pattern and brightness decline. The movement of Li ends there. In mid-autumn, yin forms at Dui. Dui starts to follow the end of the myriad things, and becomes dominant inside All the yang go down to follow hold it. It reaches to its climax at due north, and the benefits from are Heaven exhausted. The achievement of Dui ends there.” Preserved in Ouyang Xiu歐陽修, Song Qi ,宋祁,“Li zhi shang” 曆志上 (First part of the chapter about calendars), Xin Tangshu新唐書 (A new history of Tang) (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1975), 27a: 599. Also see Ma Guohan 馬國翰 ed., Yuhan Shanfang jiyi shu 玉函山房 輯佚書 (The Jade Sack Mountain House’s collections of lost books) (Yangzhou: Guangling, 2005), 78.
58 Hui Dong 惠棟 made one of the earliest and most comprehensive studies on Meng Jing’s understanding of
the Changes. See his Yi Hanxue 易漢學 (Han learning on the Changes) in Hui Dong, Zheng Wangeng 鄭萬耕
ed., Zhouyi shu 周易述 (Explanations of the Classic of Changes of Zhou) (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2007), 515-54. In the Western Han dynasty especially around Emperor Xuan’s time, some scholars used the theory of qi to account for the dynamics of the correspondence. This is the so-called “trigram-qi” (gua qi 卦氣) theory. In this theory, as Liang Weixian 梁韋弦 mentions, the correspondence in the “Shuo gua” serves as the basis for this theory. See
63
Meng Xi’s reading, the Classic of Changes appears to be a guide for understanding the cosmological process as well. The trigrams of the text, the ebb and flow of yin and yang and the change of seasons correspond with each other. Therefore, for many of Wei Xiang’s contemporaries, commanding the first one then implies mastery of the other two.
The emphasis on the Changes in Emperor Xuan’s time was also noticeable in the work of others besides these experts on the Changes. Besides the highest official in the court, Wei Xiang, who was a master of the Changes, Liu Xiang 劉向 (77–6 B.C.), a prominent scholar since Emperor Yuan’s reign, was also trained in the Changes during Emperor Xuan’s reign.59
Chart 1
Zhang Yu 張禹 (?–5 B.C.), who occupied the position of Grand Chancellor (25–20 B.C.) in Emperor Cheng’s 成 reign (r. 33–7 B.C.), received the teaching of the Changes from Shi Chou ( , page 62).
An example reveals the unique position of the Changes, and at least some scholars’ view on the classics in general. Meng Xi’s father Meng Qing 孟卿 was a transmitter of the Rites and Annals. However, instead of teaching his son what he was good at, Meng Qing sent his son to Tian Wangsun for the Changes. His reason was that the Rites was overwhelmingly voluminous, and the material in the Annals was
his Han Yi guaqi xue yanjiu 漢易卦氣學研究 (A study of the trigram-qi theory in the Han [learning of] Changes) (Jinan: Qilu, 2007), 1-4, 11. In this theory, the link between the trigrams or hexagrams and the Twenty-four Solar Periods (ershisi jie qi二十四節氣) are highlighted. See Michael Nylan, and Nathan Sivin, “The First
Neo-Confucianism: An Introduction to Yang Hsiung’s ‘Canon of Supreme Mystery’ (T’ai hsüan ching, ca. 4 B.C.).” In Nathan Sivin, Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections (Brookfield, Vt.: Variorum, 1995), 29-30. For a concise survey of the gua qi theory and technical details of the gua qi divination, see Bent Nielsen, A Companion to Yi jing Numerology and Cosmology: Chinese Studies of Images and Numbers from Han (202BCE-220 CE) to Song (960-1279 CE) (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), 74, 75-82. For a detailed study of Han scholars of the Changes and their various gua qi theories, see Richard J. Smith, Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China
(Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008), 57-88. In editing their works, Liu Xiang stated that the gist of their works were similar. See Han shu, 88: 3601. Moreover, Meng Xi’s disciple’s disciple, Jing Fang 京房 (77-37 B.C.) also shared many premises with Meng Xi. See Liang Weixian, Han Yi guaqi xue yanjiu, 27-36. For Jing Fang’s thought on the Changes, see Takeda Tokimasa 武田時昌, “Kei Bou no saiisetsu shisō” 京房の災異思想 (Jing Fang’s thought on omens), in Nakamura Shōhachi中村璋八 ed., Igaku kenkyū ronsō: Yasui Kōzan Hakushi tsuitō 緯學研究論叢:安居香山博士追悼. Tōkyō: Hirakawa Shuppansha, 1993, 80-83, and Chen Kanli 陳侃理, “Jing Fang de Yi yinyang zaiyi lun” 京房的《易》陰陽災異論 (Jing Fang’s theory of the Changes of yin-yang and omens),
Lishi yanjiu 2011. 6: 70-85. Chen Kanli does not agree with Takeda Tokimasa’s view, which is based on Hihara Toshikuni’s 日原利國 earlier argument that Western Han literati’s theory of omens went through a change from “admonition” to “divination.” See Chen, 85. For Hihara Toshikuni’s original argument, see Hihara Toshikuni
日原利国, Kandai Shisō no kenkyū 漢代思想の研究 (Studies on thought in the Han dynasty) (Tōkyō: Kenbun
Shuppan, 1986), 70.
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varied and haphazardly combined.60 It is unclear whether Meng Qing sensed the political preference, but his choice does reflect his and some of his contemporaries’ complaint about the Rites and Annals. Meng Qing did not need to gather all the knowledge of the Five Classics to make a complete teaching as later generations did. For him, his son only needed to master one classic, and definitely not the one that contains too much “trivial” information.61
As we can see from the example of Meng Qing and his son, the transmission of ideas and thought is never a process of “copying and pasting.” People are agents in this process reflecting and reacting to their reality. They receive knowledge from the community they are in, and find ways to fit into their community. A certain
community, especially an intellectual one, at any given time not only receives
knowledge and beliefs from previous generations, but also has contemporary concerns. Other communities might share knowledge, beliefs and concerns with them, form an alliance with, dispute with them or simply ignore them.
To survive and expand their social life, members of a community need to be involved in the shared concerns of their group. If a member wants to succeed, however, this is not enough. In an intellectual community in particular, one needs to tell others that his idea is “plausible.” What criteria establish “plausibility?” Among others, one’s idea should solve intellectual problems that are shared within his community with tools that are familiar to members of that community, but that are also innovative in some way.
In the case of the Changes, we can clearly see this happening. Xiahou Sheng, Wei Xiang and Bing Ji all shared an anxiety over understanding Heaven’s will, especially as it pertained to politics. In certain transmission traditions, people understood the Book of Changes as a text that dealt with the relationship between
60 Han shu, 88: 3599. Meng Qing was not alone in this case. Sima Tan also considers that the classics have too
much information to be mastered. See Sima Qian司馬遷, “Tai shi gong zi xu” 太史公自序 (The preface by the Grand Historian), Shiji, 3290.
61 Among the classics, the Changes has the reputation of including myriad situations in its text, and thus being
superior to the other classics. See “Yao” as in Ikeda Tomoshisa, “Bo shu ‘Yao’ shi wen,” 45 and Liu Bin, Bo shu “Yao” pian jiao shi, 160-70.
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Heaven and humans, and “the heart of Heaven and Earth.”62 They might modify these traditions with other contemporary, well-accepted theories, such as the
cosmology of qi. In theories like Wei Xiang’s theory, the Changes is combined with an understanding of the cosmology of qi in order to divine Heaven’s will.63
In the following sections, we will see that Han literati’s concern over how to understand Heaven’s will became one of the major topics among Wei Xiang’s generation. Later generations, shifting from expediently using the Changes to adopting the whole package of the ancient legacy in classics, still built their arguments on Heaven’s will. Their restoration of an ancient ideal, the Great Peace, was always a Heaven-approved enterprise.
Wang Ji & Moral Governance
In Emperor Xuan’s court, scholarly readings of the Changes would not have
62 See, e.g. “Yu cong yi” 語叢一 (First part of the gathering of sayings), an excavated passage of Warring States
period from Guodian 郭店, Hubei province, China: “《易》所以會天道人道也 (The Changes is that by which the way of Heaven is merged with that of humans).” See Liu Zhao 劉釗, Guodian Chu jian jiao shi 郭店楚簡校釋
(Collations and interpretations of Guodian bamboo manuscripts) (Fujian: Fujian renmin, 2003), 191. Also see the Mawangdui manuscript, “Yao” 要 (The gist [of the Changes]): “故明君不時不宿，不日不月，不卜不筮，而知 吉與凶。順於天地之心，此謂《易》道。(Therefore, a wise lord does not [rely] on time, celestial lodges, the sun, the moon, divination with oracles or milfoil, but he knows auspiciousness and inauspiciousness. [That is because] he follows the heart of Heaven and Earth. This is the way of the Changes).” Zhang Zhenglang 張政烺 Li Ling 李 零 ed., Zhang Zhenglang lun Yi conggao 張政烺論《易》叢稿 (Zhang Zhenglang’s manuscripts on the Changes) (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2011), 243.
63 For information about divination, especially the jianchu 建除 system, popular from the late Warring States
period to the Western Han dynasty, see Michael Loewe, “The Almanacs (jih-shu) from Shui-hu-ti: a Preliminary Survey,” in his Divination, Mythology and Monarchy in Han China. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 214-35 and Kudō Motoo 工藤元男, Suikochi Shinkan yori mita Shindai no kokka to shakai 睡虎地秦簡よりみた 秦代の國家と社會 (The state and society of Qin as seen in Shuihudi bamboo manuscripts) (Tōkyō: Sōbunsha,
1998), 131-40. This type of divination also relies on the seasonal change of a year. Nevertheless, the jianchu
system is more interested in what days inauspicious for doing particular things. The result of an action has more to do with the auspiciousness of the timing than the action of the person himself. For example, in this system, killing a man does not necessarily disrupt the cosmological order, but it can still lead to inauspicious results on certain days and moments. It is unclear from the manuscripts if there is a specified agent causing change at all. In Wei Xiang’s theory, the changes of Heaven and Earth depend on yin and yang. Since there is a correspondence between the seasonal changes and the fluctuation of yin and yang, people can use certain arithmetic, in this case, the trigrams, to calculate the auspiciousness of certain behaviors by observing the timing of seasonal changes. Cf. Mu-chou Poo, “How to Steer through Life: Negotiating Fate in the Daybook,” in Christopher Lupke ed., The Magnitude of Ming: Command, Allotment, and Fate in Chinese Culture (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i press, 2005), 116. Also, although Wei Xiang’s theory bears some resemblance to the earlier methods in the Shuihudi divination texts, the important difference lies in the use of qi and yin-yang theory to determine the
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gained popularity if they had emphasized moral cultivation.64 Wang Ji 王吉 (?–48 B.C.), for example, a Grandee Remonstrant (jian dafu 諫大夫) in Emperor Xuan’s time, had an alternative blueprint with a different emphasis from Wei Xiang and Bing Ji’s. He did not think the current legal and administrative systems were the
“foundation of the Great Peace (taiping zhi ji太平之基).”65 In Wang Ji’s view, the emperor needed to carefully select his subjects. Nevertheless, their job was not to fix possible cosmological irregularities caused by human society as Wei Xiang might argue. Instead, Wang Ji believed that they were responsible for dealing with virtue. The emperor needed them to correct him, and spread virtue all over the empire. In ruling the state, the emperor should act according to virtue, because the populace is watching. 66
In his proposal, Wang Ji did not mention anything about the populace’s
dissatisfaction leading to deviant qi as Dong Zhongshu did. However, this expansion of virtue from the near to the distant does resemble the political theory in Dong Zhongshu’s work and “Daxue.”
Wang Ji then provided the rationales and standards for selecting officials. He pointed out that the government of the whole empire should be based on the principles of the ancient rites and the Annals. Only these could eliminate duplicity and litigation, and eventually led the populace to a place of humanity and longevity,
perceivable as the state of the Great Peace. Alluding to Heaven’s heart (tian xin 天心), he suggested that following the principles is in accord with Heaven’s will.67 Like Xiahou Sheng, Wang Ji touched the issue of what Heaven wanted, but he did not participate in Bing Ji and Wei Xiang’s type of cosmology. Instead Wang Ji fell into line with Dong Zhongshu by emphasizing moral cultivation.
64 As seen in Emperor Xuan’s own rejection of moral cultivation: “The Han has its own institution. It originally
combined the hegemonic way with kingly way. How come we should solely use moral cultivation and the Zhou government? ” See Han shu,9: 277.
65 Han shu,72: 3062-3. 66 Ibid., 3063.
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The Great Peace as an Increasing Need for Governance
Wang Ji mentioned a phrase that was fundamental in Han politics: the “Great Peace” (taiping 太平). The term deserves a close exploration for us to understand its political connotations in the Han dynasty.68 Now we take as step back from Wang Ji’s time to the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty. One of the earliest examples is from Lu Jia’s New Speeches (Xin yu 新語):
聖人因變而立功，由異而致太平，堯 、舜承蚩尤之失，而思欽明之道，君 子見惡於外，則知變於內矣。69
Sages establish their accomplishments based on changes. They transform
bizarreness into the Great Peace. Yao and Shun adopted Chiyou’s errors, and they thought about the way of respect and brightness. When gentlemen see the
evilness outside, they then know the changes inside.
Lu Jia is describing how sages transform the currently bad government into a good one. Judging from the context, the word “bizarreness” (yi 異) indicates bizarre omens caused by bad governance. Sages are the ones who can fix the chaos, and help the realm revert to an orderly state. Accordingly, the Great Peace indicates a state free from natural disasters and bizarre phenomena.70
During Emperor Wu’s time, Gongsun Hong brought the Great Peace up in the
68 Two concise introductions to the term “Great Peace” in the Daoist context are available: Marx Kaltenmark,
“The Ideology of the T’ai-p’ing ching,” in Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel eds., Facets of Taoism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 21-4; Barbara Hendrischke, The Scripture on Great Peace: The Taiping jing and the Beginnings of Daoism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 4-13. A concept similar to the Great Peace is the “Great Unity” (datong 大同). See Itano Chōhachi 板野長八, “Raikino daidō” 禮記の大同 (The Great Unity in the Records of Rites), Hokkaido Daigaku bungakubun kiyō 5 (1956): 85-115. One major difference between these two concepts of ideal society is that in datong the social relationships are impartial. For example, the text says that in the society of the Great Unity, people do not just show affection to their own son, but others’ son. See “Liyun” 禮運 (The movement of rites), Liji zhengyi, j. 21, Ruan Yuan ed., Shisan jing zhushu, 1414. The same cannot be said for the Great Peace.
69 Lu Jia, “Si wu” 思務 (Considering the important), Wang Liqi ed., Xinyu jiaozhu, 168.
70 In a conversation between Dong Zhongshu and his disciple Bao Chang 鲍敞 entitled “Yu bao dui” 雨雹對
(The conversation about rain and hail), “Dong Zhongshu” mentions that in the era of the Great Peace, there is no bizarreness, since yin and yang function regularly. This passage is preserved in Qian Xizuo 錢熙祚ed., Guwen yuan 古文苑 (The garden of ancient texts) (Taipei: Taibei shangwu, 1968), 268-9. Michael Loewe questions the authenticity of this passage. See Loewe, Dong Zhongshu, 167-8. No matter to what extent this passage is related to Dong Zhongshu himself, it does reflect an understanding of qi and the Great Peace that is in line with Lu Jia. See Goldin, “Xunzi and Early Han Philosophy,” 155-6. Cf. Sarah Queen, From Chronicle to Canon: The
Hermeneutics of the Spring and Autumn, According to Tung Chung-shu (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 62-3.