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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1I 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 of Shin. that the old books should be consigned to the flames, an exception was made of those which treated of ‘medicine, divination, and husbandry*®.’” The Yi was held to be a book of divination, and so was preserved. In the catalogue of works in the imperial library, prepared by Lift Hin about the beginning of our era, there is an enumeration of those on the Yi and its Appendixes,— the books of thirteen different authors or schools, comprehended in 294 portions of larger or smaller dimensions®. I need not follow the history and study of the Yi into the line of the centuries since the time of Lid Hin. The imperial Khang-hsi edition of it, which appeared in 1715, contains quotations from the commentaries of 218 scholars, covering, more or less closely, the time from the second century B.C. to our seventeenth century. I may venture to say that 1 Analects, VII, xvii. 8 Legge’s Chinese Classics, I, prolegomena, pp. 6-9. > Books of the Earlier Han; History of Literature, pp. 1, 2. CH. 1. INTRODUCTION. 3
2to our seventeenth century. I may venture to say that 1 Analects, VII, xvii. 8 Legge’s Chinese Classics, I, prolegomena, pp. 6-9. > Books of the Earlier Han; History of Literature, pp. 1, 2. CH. 1. INTRODUCTION. 3 those 218 are hardly a tenth of the men who have tried to interpret the remarkable book, and solve the many problems to which it gives rise. 4. It may be assumed then that the Yi King, properly so called, existed before Confucius, and has The Yt before Confucius, come down to us as correctly as any other and when it of the ancient books of China; and it might was made. . WA also be said, as correctly as any of the old monuments of Hebrew, Sanskrit, Greek, or Latin literature. The question arises of how far before Confucius we can trace its existence. Of course an inquiry into this point will not include the portions or appendixes attributed to the sage himself. Attention will be called to them by and by, when I shall consider how far we are entitled, or whether we are at all entitled, to ascribe them to him. I do not doubt, however, that they belong to what may be called the Confucian period, and were produced some time after his death, probably between B.C. 450 and 350. By whom. soever they were written, they may be legitimately employed in illustration of what were the prevailing views in that age on various points connected with the Yi. Indeed, but for the guidance and hints derived from them as to the meaning of the text, and the relation between its statements and the linear figures, there would be great difficulty in making out any consistent interpretation of it. (i) The earliest mention of the classic is found in the The Yt men- Official Book of the Aau dynasty, where it tioned in the ig said that, among the duties of ‘the Grand of Kau. Diviner,’ ‘he had charge of the rules for the three Yi (systems of Changes), called the Lien-shan, the Kwei-jhang, and the Yi of Xau; that in each of them the regular (or primary) lineal figures were 8, which were multiplied, in each, till they amounted to 64.’ The date of the Official Book has not been exactly ascertained. The above passage can hardly be reconciled with the opinion of the majority of Chinese critics that it was the work of the duke of KAu, the consolidator and legislator of the dynasty so called ; but I think there must have been the groundwork of it at a very early date. When that was composed or compiled, there B 2 4 THE Yi KING. CH. 1.
3When that was composed or compiled, there B 2 4 THE Yi KING. CH. 1. was existing, among the archives of the kingdom, under the charge of a high officer, ‘the Yi of X4u,—what constitutes the Text of the present Yi; the Text, that is, as distinguished from the Appendixes. There were two other Yi, known as the Lien-shan and the Kwei-jhang. It would be a waste of time to try to discover the meaning of these designations. They are found in this and another passage of the Official Book; and nowhere else. Not a single trace of what they denoted remains, while we possess ‘the Yi of Kau’ complete?. (ii) In the Supplement of 30 XAid-ming to ‘the Spring The Yi men. 29d Autumn,’ there is abundant evidence that tioned in the divination by the Yi was frequent, throughout So Khwan. the states of China, before the time of Confucius. There are at least eight narratives of such a practice, between the years B.C. 672 and 564, before he ° was born; and five times during his life-time the divining stalks and the book were had recourse to on occasions with which he had nothing to do. In all these cases the text of the Yi, as we have it now, is freely quoted. The ‘Spring and Autumn’ commences in B.C. 722. If it extended back to the rise of the Kau dynasty, we should, no doubt, find 1 See the Kau Kwan (or Lt), Book XXIV, parr. 3, 4, and 27. Biot (Le Tcheou Lf, vol. ii, pp. 70, 71) translates the former two paragraphs thus :— ‘Il (Le Grand Augure) est préposé aux trois methodes pour les changements (des lignes divinatoires). La premiére est appelée Liaison des montagnes (Lien-shan) ; Ja seconde, Retour et Conservation (Kwei-jhang) ; la troisitme, Changements des Kau. Pour toutes il y a huit lignes symboliques sacrées, et soixante-quatre combinaisons de ces lignes.’ Some tell us that by Lien-shan was intended Ff-hsf, and by Kwei-shang Hwang TI; others, that the former was the Yi of the Hsia dynasty, and the latter that of Shang or Yin. A third set will have it that Lien-shan was a designation of Shin Nang, between Fii-hst and Hwang TY. I should say myself, as many Chinese critics do say, that Lien-shan was an arrangement of the lineal symbols in which the first figure was the present 52nd hexagram, K 4n ——_—— consisting of the trigram representing mountains doubled; and that Kweighang was an arrangement where the first figure was the present and hexagram, Khwin = =}, consisting of the trigram representing the earth doubled,— with reference to the disappearance and safe keeping of plants in the bosom of the earth in winter. All this, however, is only conjecture, CH. I. INTRODUCTION. 5 accounts of divination by the Yi interspersed over the long intervening period. For centuries before Confucius appeared on the stage of his country, the Yi was well known among the various feudal states, which then constituted the Middle Kingdom},
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.
1I 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 of Shin. that the old books should be consigned to the flames, an exception was made of those which treated of ‘medicine, divination, and husbandry*®.’” The Yi was held to be a book of divination, and so was preserved. In the catalogue of works in the imperial library, prepared by Lift Hin about the beginning of our era, there is an enumeration of those on the Yi and its Appendixes,— the books of thirteen different authors or schools, comprehended in 294 portions of larger or smaller dimensions®. I need not follow the history and study of the Yi into the line of the centuries since the time of Lid Hin. The imperial Khang-hsi edition of it, which appeared in 1715, contains quotations from the commentaries of 218 scholars, covering, more or less closely, the time from the second century B.C. to our seventeenth century. I may venture to say that 1 Analects, VII, xvii. 8 Legge’s Chinese Classics, I, prolegomena, pp. 6-9. > Books of the Earlier Han; History of Literature, pp. 1, 2. CH. 1. INTRODUCTION. 3
2to our seventeenth century. I may venture to say that 1 Analects, VII, xvii. 8 Legge’s Chinese Classics, I, prolegomena, pp. 6-9. > Books of the Earlier Han; History of Literature, pp. 1, 2. CH. 1. INTRODUCTION. 3 those 218 are hardly a tenth of the men who have tried to interpret the remarkable book, and solve the many problems to which it gives rise. 4. It may be assumed then that the Yi King, properly so called, existed before Confucius, and has The Yt before Confucius, come down to us as correctly as any other and when it of the ancient books of China; and it might was made. . WA also be said, as correctly as any of the old monuments of Hebrew, Sanskrit, Greek, or Latin literature. The question arises of how far before Confucius we can trace its existence. Of course an inquiry into this point will not include the portions or appendixes attributed to the sage himself. Attention will be called to them by and by, when I shall consider how far we are entitled, or whether we are at all entitled, to ascribe them to him. I do not doubt, however, that they belong to what may be called the Confucian period, and were produced some time after his death, probably between B.C. 450 and 350. By whom. soever they were written, they may be legitimately employed in illustration of what were the prevailing views in that age on various points connected with the Yi. Indeed, but for the guidance and hints derived from them as to the meaning of the text, and the relation between its statements and the linear figures, there would be great difficulty in making out any consistent interpretation of it. (i) The earliest mention of the classic is found in the The Yt men- Official Book of the Aau dynasty, where it tioned in the ig said that, among the duties of ‘the Grand of Kau. Diviner,’ ‘he had charge of the rules for the three Yi (systems of Changes), called the Lien-shan, the Kwei-jhang, and the Yi of Xau; that in each of them the regular (or primary) lineal figures were 8, which were multiplied, in each, till they amounted to 64.’ The date of the Official Book has not been exactly ascertained. The above passage can hardly be reconciled with the opinion of the majority of Chinese critics that it was the work of the duke of KAu, the consolidator and legislator of the dynasty so called ; but I think there must have been the groundwork of it at a very early date. When that was composed or compiled, there B 2 4 THE Yi KING. CH. 1.
3When that was composed or compiled, there B 2 4 THE Yi KING. CH. 1. was existing, among the archives of the kingdom, under the charge of a high officer, ‘the Yi of X4u,—what constitutes the Text of the present Yi; the Text, that is, as distinguished from the Appendixes. There were two other Yi, known as the Lien-shan and the Kwei-jhang. It would be a waste of time to try to discover the meaning of these designations. They are found in this and another passage of the Official Book; and nowhere else. Not a single trace of what they denoted remains, while we possess ‘the Yi of Kau’ complete?. (ii) In the Supplement of 30 XAid-ming to ‘the Spring The Yi men. 29d Autumn,’ there is abundant evidence that tioned in the divination by the Yi was frequent, throughout So Khwan. the states of China, before the time of Confucius. There are at least eight narratives of such a practice, between the years B.C. 672 and 564, before he ° was born; and five times during his life-time the divining stalks and the book were had recourse to on occasions with which he had nothing to do. In all these cases the text of the Yi, as we have it now, is freely quoted. The ‘Spring and Autumn’ commences in B.C. 722. If it extended back to the rise of the Kau dynasty, we should, no doubt, find 1 See the Kau Kwan (or Lt), Book XXIV, parr. 3, 4, and 27. Biot (Le Tcheou Lf, vol. ii, pp. 70, 71) translates the former two paragraphs thus :— ‘Il (Le Grand Augure) est préposé aux trois methodes pour les changements (des lignes divinatoires). La premiére est appelée Liaison des montagnes (Lien-shan) ; Ja seconde, Retour et Conservation (Kwei-jhang) ; la troisitme, Changements des Kau. Pour toutes il y a huit lignes symboliques sacrées, et soixante-quatre combinaisons de ces lignes.’ Some tell us that by Lien-shan was intended Ff-hsf, and by Kwei-shang Hwang TI; others, that the former was the Yi of the Hsia dynasty, and the latter that of Shang or Yin. A third set will have it that Lien-shan was a designation of Shin Nang, between Fii-hst and Hwang TY. I should say myself, as many Chinese critics do say, that Lien-shan was an arrangement of the lineal symbols in which the first figure was the present 52nd hexagram, K 4n ——_—— consisting of the trigram representing mountains doubled; and that Kweighang was an arrangement where the first figure was the present and hexagram, Khwin = =}, consisting of the trigram representing the earth doubled,— with reference to the disappearance and safe keeping of plants in the bosom of the earth in winter. All this, however, is only conjecture, CH. I. INTRODUCTION. 5 accounts of divination by the Yi interspersed over the long intervening period. For centuries before Confucius appeared on the stage of his country, the Yi was well known among the various feudal states, which then constituted the Middle Kingdom},
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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