Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1K. Douglas of the British Museum and King’s College, London. I have alluded on pages 8, 9 of the Introduction to some inaccurate statements about native commentaries on the Yi and translations of it by foreigners, made in connexion with this contemplated version. But I did not know PREFACE. xix what the projected undertaking really was, till I read a letter from M. Terrien in the ‘Athenzum’ of the 21st January of this year. He there says that the joint translation ‘deals only with the oldest part of the book, the short lists of characters which follow each of the sixty-four headings, ‘and leaves entirely aside the explanations and commentaries attributed to Wen Wang, K4u Kung, Confucius, and others, from 1200 B. C. downwards, which are commonly embodied as an integral part of the classic ;’ adding, ‘ The proportion of the primitive text to these additions is about one-sixth of the whole.’ But if we take away these explanations and commentaries attributed to king Wan, the duke of Kau, and Confucius, we take away the whole Yi. There remain only the linear figures attributed to Fd-hsi, without any lists of characters, long or short, without a single written character of any kind whatever. The projectors have been misled somehow about the contents of the Yi; and unless they can overthrow all the traditions and beliefs about them, whether Chinese or foreign, their undertaking is more hopeless than the task laid on the children of Israel by Pharaoh, that they should make bricks without straw. I do not express myself thus in any spirit of hostility. If, by discoveries in Accadian or any other long-buried and forgotten language, M. Terrien de Lacouperie can throw new light on the written characters of China or on its speech, no one will rejoice more than myself ; but his ignorance of how the contents of the classic are made up does not give much prospect of success in his promised translation. In the preface to the third volume of these ‘Sacred Books of the East,’ containing the Sha King, Shih King, and Hsiao King, I have spoken of the Chinese terms Ti and Shang Ti, and shown how I felt it necessary to continue to render them by our word God, as I had done in all my translations of the Chinese classics since 1861. My doing so gave offence to some of the missionaries in China and others; and in June, 1880, twenty-three gentlemen addressed a letter to Professor F. Max Miiller, complaining b 2 xX PREFACE,
2My doing so gave offence to some of the missionaries in China and others; and in June, 1880, twenty-three gentlemen addressed a letter to Professor F. Max Miiller, complaining b 2 xX PREFACE, that, in such a work edited by him, he should allow me to give my own private interpretation of the name or names in question instead of translating them or transferring them. Professor Miiller published the letter which he had received, with his reply to it, in the ‘Times’ newspaper of Dec. 30, 1880. Since then the matter has rested, and I introduce it again here in this preface, because, though we do not meet with the name in the Yi so frequently as in the ShQ and Shih, I have, as before, wherever it does occur, translated it by God. Those who object to that term say that Shang Ti might be rendered by ‘Supreme Ruler’ or ‘Supreme Emperor,’ or by ‘Ruler (or Emperor) on high ;’ but when I examined the question, more than thirty years ago, with all possible interest and all the resources at my command, I came to the conclusions that Ti, on its first” employment by the Chinese fathers, was intended to ex-V press the same concept which our fathers expressed by God,’ and that such has been its highest and proper application ¥ ever since. There would be little if any difference in the meaning conveyed to readers by ‘Supreme Ruler’ and ‘God ;’ but when I render Ti by God and Shang Ti by the Supreme God, or, for the sake of brevity, simply by God, I am translating, and nof giving a private interpretation of my own. I do it not in the interests of controversy, but as the simple expression of what to me is truth; and I am glad to know that a great majority of the Protestant missionaries in China use Ti and Shang Ti as the nearest analogue for God. It would be tedious to mention the many critical editions and commentaries that I have used in preparing the translation. I have not had the help of able native scholars, which saved time and was otherwise valuable when I was working in the East on other classics. The want of this, however, has been more than compensated in some respects by my copy of the ‘Daily Lectures on the Yi,’ the full title of which is given on page xiv. The friend who purchased it for me five years ago in Canton was obliged to content himself with a second-hand copy; but I found that the PREFACE. Xxi previous owner had been a ripe scholar who freely used his pencil in pursuing his studies. It was possible, from his punctuation, interlineations, and many marginal notes, to follow the exercises of his mind, patiently pursuing his search for the meaning of the most difficult passages. I am under great obligations to him; and also to the Kau Yi Keh Kung, the great imperial edition of the present dynasty, first published in 1715. I have generally spoken of its authors as the Khang-hst editors. Their numerous discussions of the meaning, and ingenious decisions, go far to raise the interpretation of the Yi to a science. J. L.
3I have generally spoken of its authors as the Khang-hst editors. Their numerous discussions of the meaning, and ingenious decisions, go far to raise the interpretation of the Yi to a science. J. L. Oxrorp, 16th March, 1882. Digitized by Google THE Yi KING OR BOOK OF CHANGES. THE Yi KING OR BOOK OF CHANGES. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. THE Yf KING FROM THE TWELFTH CENTURY B.C. TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 1. Confucius is reported to have said on one occasion, ‘If + some years were added to my life, I would give fifty to the Th study of the Yi, and might then escape falling ere was & Yiinthetime into great errors!) The utterance is re- of Confucius. ferred by the best critics to the closing period of Confucius’ life, when he had returned from his long and painful wanderings among the States, and was settled again in his native Lt. By this time he was nearly seventy, and it seems strange, if he spoke seriously, that he should have thought it possible for his life to be prolonged other fifty years. So far as that specification is concerned, a corruption of the text is generally admitted. My reason for adducing the passage has simply been to prove from it the existence of a Yi King in the time of Confucius. In the history of him by Sze-m4 KAien it is stated that, in the closing years of his life, he became fond of the Yi, and wrote various appendixes to it, that he read his copy of it so much that the leathern thongs (by which the tablets containing it were bound together) were thrice worn out, and that he said, ‘Give me several years (more), and I should be master of the Yi*’ The ancient books on which Confucius had delighted ' Confucian Analects, VII, xvi. ? The Historical Records; Life of Confucius, p. 12. [16] B S 2 THE yf KING. CH. 1. to discourse with his disciples were those of History, Poetry, and Rites and Ceremonies!; but ere he passed away from among them, his attention was much occupied also by the Yt as a monument of antiquity, which in the prime of his days he had too much neglected. 2. Kien says that Confucius wrote various appendixes to the Yi, specifying all but two of the treatises, which go The Vtis now DY the name of ‘the Ten Appendixes, and made up of are, with hardly a dissentient voice, attributed the Text which to the sage. They are published along with and the Ap- the older Text, which is based on still older - Pendixes 25 lineal figures, and are received by most Chinese readers, as well as by foreign Chinese scholars, as an integral portion of the Yi King. The two portions should, however, be carefully distinguished. I will speak of them as the Text and the Appendixes. 3. The Yi happily escaped the fires of 3hin, which proved so disastrous to most of the ancient literature of China in The Yies. BrC: 2£3- In the memorial which the premier capedthefires Lit Sze addressed to his sovereign, advising
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1K. Douglas of the British Museum and King’s College, London. I have alluded on pages 8, 9 of the Introduction to some inaccurate statements about native commentaries on the Yi and translations of it by foreigners, made in connexion with this contemplated version. But I did not know PREFACE. xix what the projected undertaking really was, till I read a letter from M. Terrien in the ‘Athenzum’ of the 21st January of this year. He there says that the joint translation ‘deals only with the oldest part of the book, the short lists of characters which follow each of the sixty-four headings, ‘and leaves entirely aside the explanations and commentaries attributed to Wen Wang, K4u Kung, Confucius, and others, from 1200 B. C. downwards, which are commonly embodied as an integral part of the classic ;’ adding, ‘ The proportion of the primitive text to these additions is about one-sixth of the whole.’ But if we take away these explanations and commentaries attributed to king Wan, the duke of Kau, and Confucius, we take away the whole Yi. There remain only the linear figures attributed to Fd-hsi, without any lists of characters, long or short, without a single written character of any kind whatever. The projectors have been misled somehow about the contents of the Yi; and unless they can overthrow all the traditions and beliefs about them, whether Chinese or foreign, their undertaking is more hopeless than the task laid on the children of Israel by Pharaoh, that they should make bricks without straw. I do not express myself thus in any spirit of hostility. If, by discoveries in Accadian or any other long-buried and forgotten language, M. Terrien de Lacouperie can throw new light on the written characters of China or on its speech, no one will rejoice more than myself ; but his ignorance of how the contents of the classic are made up does not give much prospect of success in his promised translation. In the preface to the third volume of these ‘Sacred Books of the East,’ containing the Sha King, Shih King, and Hsiao King, I have spoken of the Chinese terms Ti and Shang Ti, and shown how I felt it necessary to continue to render them by our word God, as I had done in all my translations of the Chinese classics since 1861. My doing so gave offence to some of the missionaries in China and others; and in June, 1880, twenty-three gentlemen addressed a letter to Professor F. Max Miiller, complaining b 2 xX PREFACE,
2My doing so gave offence to some of the missionaries in China and others; and in June, 1880, twenty-three gentlemen addressed a letter to Professor F. Max Miiller, complaining b 2 xX PREFACE, that, in such a work edited by him, he should allow me to give my own private interpretation of the name or names in question instead of translating them or transferring them. Professor Miiller published the letter which he had received, with his reply to it, in the ‘Times’ newspaper of Dec. 30, 1880. Since then the matter has rested, and I introduce it again here in this preface, because, though we do not meet with the name in the Yi so frequently as in the ShQ and Shih, I have, as before, wherever it does occur, translated it by God. Those who object to that term say that Shang Ti might be rendered by ‘Supreme Ruler’ or ‘Supreme Emperor,’ or by ‘Ruler (or Emperor) on high ;’ but when I examined the question, more than thirty years ago, with all possible interest and all the resources at my command, I came to the conclusions that Ti, on its first” employment by the Chinese fathers, was intended to ex-V press the same concept which our fathers expressed by God,’ and that such has been its highest and proper application ¥ ever since. There would be little if any difference in the meaning conveyed to readers by ‘Supreme Ruler’ and ‘God ;’ but when I render Ti by God and Shang Ti by the Supreme God, or, for the sake of brevity, simply by God, I am translating, and nof giving a private interpretation of my own. I do it not in the interests of controversy, but as the simple expression of what to me is truth; and I am glad to know that a great majority of the Protestant missionaries in China use Ti and Shang Ti as the nearest analogue for God. It would be tedious to mention the many critical editions and commentaries that I have used in preparing the translation. I have not had the help of able native scholars, which saved time and was otherwise valuable when I was working in the East on other classics. The want of this, however, has been more than compensated in some respects by my copy of the ‘Daily Lectures on the Yi,’ the full title of which is given on page xiv. The friend who purchased it for me five years ago in Canton was obliged to content himself with a second-hand copy; but I found that the PREFACE. Xxi previous owner had been a ripe scholar who freely used his pencil in pursuing his studies. It was possible, from his punctuation, interlineations, and many marginal notes, to follow the exercises of his mind, patiently pursuing his search for the meaning of the most difficult passages. I am under great obligations to him; and also to the Kau Yi Keh Kung, the great imperial edition of the present dynasty, first published in 1715. I have generally spoken of its authors as the Khang-hst editors. Their numerous discussions of the meaning, and ingenious decisions, go far to raise the interpretation of the Yi to a science. J. L.
3I have generally spoken of its authors as the Khang-hst editors. Their numerous discussions of the meaning, and ingenious decisions, go far to raise the interpretation of the Yi to a science. J. L. Oxrorp, 16th March, 1882. Digitized by Google THE Yi KING OR BOOK OF CHANGES. THE Yi KING OR BOOK OF CHANGES. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. THE Yf KING FROM THE TWELFTH CENTURY B.C. TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 1. Confucius is reported to have said on one occasion, ‘If + some years were added to my life, I would give fifty to the Th study of the Yi, and might then escape falling ere was & Yiinthetime into great errors!) The utterance is re- of Confucius. ferred by the best critics to the closing period of Confucius’ life, when he had returned from his long and painful wanderings among the States, and was settled again in his native Lt. By this time he was nearly seventy, and it seems strange, if he spoke seriously, that he should have thought it possible for his life to be prolonged other fifty years. So far as that specification is concerned, a corruption of the text is generally admitted. My reason for adducing the passage has simply been to prove from it the existence of a Yi King in the time of Confucius. In the history of him by Sze-m4 KAien it is stated that, in the closing years of his life, he became fond of the Yi, and wrote various appendixes to it, that he read his copy of it so much that the leathern thongs (by which the tablets containing it were bound together) were thrice worn out, and that he said, ‘Give me several years (more), and I should be master of the Yi*’ The ancient books on which Confucius had delighted ' Confucian Analects, VII, xvi. ? The Historical Records; Life of Confucius, p. 12. [16] B S 2 THE yf KING. CH. 1. to discourse with his disciples were those of History, Poetry, and Rites and Ceremonies!; but ere he passed away from among them, his attention was much occupied also by the Yt as a monument of antiquity, which in the prime of his days he had too much neglected. 2. Kien says that Confucius wrote various appendixes to the Yi, specifying all but two of the treatises, which go The Vtis now DY the name of ‘the Ten Appendixes, and made up of are, with hardly a dissentient voice, attributed the Text which to the sage. They are published along with and the Ap- the older Text, which is based on still older - Pendixes 25 lineal figures, and are received by most Chinese readers, as well as by foreign Chinese scholars, as an integral portion of the Yi King. The two portions should, however, be carefully distinguished. I will speak of them as the Text and the Appendixes. 3. The Yi happily escaped the fires of 3hin, which proved so disastrous to most of the ancient literature of China in The Yies. BrC: 2£3- In the memorial which the premier capedthefires Lit Sze addressed to his sovereign, advising
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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