Introduction to the "Zhōu Yì Zhèng Yì"

Author: Liu Yujian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-02-22
Features: Easy to Learn
As an important part of Confucian classics, the study of the I Ching is a form of annotation in ancient China, which in modern Western terms is called hermeneutics (or exegesis). It is called hermeneutics because the study of the I Ching primarily uses forms such as annotations, interpretations, explanations, clarifications, and textual research to understand and interpret the text of the I Ching, exploring the thoughts or principles that the author of the I Ching consciously or unconsciously intended. This annotation not only focuses on the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences in the I Ching, i.e., through etymology to transform the language and meaning of the I Ching, simply copying or paraphrasing the original meaning of the I Ching and reproducing the author's life world, but also, on this basis, creates a new meaning for the I Ching text based on the interpreter's knowledge and experience, expanding and elevating its meaning to achieve a better understanding of the author's thoughts.
The I Ching, written during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, was originally a divination book. Confucius and the Confucianists during the Spring and Autumn period regarded it as an object of interpretation when teaching and organizing the I Ching. They first used Confucian language and thought to systematically explain the composition of the I Ching (including the process and time of its composition and the author), its main concepts, symbolic system, ideological content, hexagram and line texts, divination methods, and the methods of studying the I Ching. Under the premise of keeping the nature of the object unchanged, they greatly promoted the convergence of the I Ching and Confucian thought, and its interpretation objectively went far beyond the original meaning of the I Ching, pioneering the hermeneutics of the study of the I Ching.