Easy Chapter Sentence Guide

Author: Chen Juyuan
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Publishing Date: 2002-12-01
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As an important part of Confucian classics, the study of the I Ching is a form of annotation and interpretation in ancient China, which can be called hermeneutics (or exegesis) in modern Western terminology. It is termed hermeneutics because the study of the I Ching primarily uses methods such as transmission, explanation, annotation, clarification of doubts, 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 was aware of or unaware of. This annotation not only focuses on the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences in the I Ching, i.e., transforming the language and meaning of the I Ching through etymology, but also, on this basis, creatively reinterprets the I Ching text based on the interpreter's knowledge and experience, expanding and elevating its meaning to better understand the author's thoughts.
The I Ching, compiled during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, was originally a divination book. During the Spring and Autumn period, Confucius and the Confucian school regarded it as an object of interpretation when teaching and organizing the I Ching. They used Confucian language and thought to systematically explain the compilation of the I Ching (including the process and time of compilation, the author), its main concepts, symbolic system, ideological content, hexagram and line texts, divination methods, and approaches to studying the I Ching. Under the premise of maintaining the nature of the object unchanged, they greatly promoted the convergence of the I Ching and Confucian thought, allowing its interpretation to objectively far exceed the original meaning of the I Ching and set the precedent for hermeneutics of the I Ching.
From the Western Han Dynasty onwards, to meet the social, political, and cultural needs of the time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty exclusively honored Confucianism, and the I Ching, thanks to the organization and interpretation by Confucius and the Confucian school, rose to the top of the Five Classics. The advocacy of rulers and the pursuit of utility led to the prosperity of hermeneutics of the I Ching. During the Western Han Dynasty, Confucian hermeneutics of the I Ching, as Confucianism replaced Huang-Lao, took up the banner of promoting Confucian thought, using the I Chuan as the highest authority, and employed the prevailing Yin-Yang and Five Elements theory and astronomy and calendar to explore the profound meanings of the I Ching, reconstructing a hermeneutic system of the I Ching that was biased toward the heavens and served as a tool for divination.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Confucian hermeneutics of the I Ching dismissed the interpretive methods of the Confucian school that compared and paralleled the I Ching, absolutely revered the words of the sages and authorities of the I Ching, and strictly adhered to the principle that annotations should not contradict the original text. They focused solely on the tools of symbolism and etymology, attempting to restore the original intentions of the authors of the I Ching's canonical and interpretive texts, highlighting the hermeneutic thoughts of the sages, and establishing a seemingly standardized interpretive system.
If the hermeneutists of the Han Dynasty were, subjectively, primarily tasked with restoring and highlighting the original thoughts of the I Ching, then the scholars of the Song Dynasty were responsible for reforming and reinterpreting the Confucian hermeneutic system of the I Ching. The Song Dynasty hermeneutists, under the banner of opposing Buddhism and Taoism and reviving Confucianism, used the interpretation of the canonical and interpretive texts of the I Ching to reveal the way of the sages through their own wisdom and insight, establishing a richer and deeper hermeneutic system that integrated Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
What distinguishes the I Ching from other ancient classics is that it not only has obscure and esoteric language used for divination but also a highly rigorous and highly abstract symbolic system related to this text. This is the key to why the I Ching became the eternal source and mother body for later interpreters to understand and interpret without end. As scholars of the Qing Dynasty said: "It comprehends all things, and whatever meaning is taken, it is connected. Numbers are what people promote, symbols are what people take, and principles are what people explain, so it changes and transforms endlessly" (General Catalogue of the Four Treasuries). This determines that the development of hermeneutics of the I Ching is a process in which hermeneutists follow certain rules and continuously interpret the original classics of the I Ching.
Due to differences in the attitude of hermeneutists toward the thick classics of the I Ching, the purposes of interpretation, and the rules and methods used, hermeneutics of the I Ching is divided into symbolism and principle. The compilers of the General Catalogue of the Four Treasuries classified ancient hermeneutics of the I Ching into "two schools and six sects." The "two schools" refer to the schools of symbolism and principle, and the "six sects" refer to the sects of divination and omens, creation and transformation within symbolism, and Lao-Zhuang, Confucian principle, and historical events within principle. Whether it is hermeneutics of symbolism, hermeneutics of principle, or the "six sects" derived from the two schools, they are all the results of hermeneutists interpreting and reinterpreting the original classics of the I Ching. The I Ching perfects and expands itself through this unique form of interpretation, interpretation, and re-interpretation, creating more opportunities or conditions for collision, penetration, and integration with other Chinese cultures, and exerting influence on society at the time.
In other words, without the continuous process of interpretation, re-interpretation, and re-understanding of the I Ching text by hermeneutists based on their own specific hermeneutic contexts, hermeneutics of the I Ching would not have integrated the old and forged the new, changed its form with the times, and constructed a vibrant and dynamic ideological system. It would not have met the needs of different eras and played such a significant role in ancient Chinese philosophy, religion, ethics, psychology, science and technology, and all aspects of society. Therefore, when we study the history of the development of hermeneutics of the I Ching, hermeneutics of Confucian classics, hermeneutics of ancient philosophy, or even the entire traditional culture today, we cannot neglect the I Ching as the living source and the organization and study of the hermeneutic texts of different eras that it inspired.
Specifically, the organization and study of hermeneutic texts of the I Ching depend on the needs of the development of hermeneutics of the I Ching, philosophy, and the entire culture today.