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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
An important point in the study of the Yi king is the recognition of its existence before Wen wang's time. The elements of main difference between the Yi king of the early dynasties and that of Wen wang was in the order of the Kwa. The same names were current, and probably the admonitory remarks were, many of them, the same also. These remarks are all anonymous, and we are at liberty to guess who wrote them. The appendices are anonymous also, and they may have mainly been written by men before the time of Confucius. The three sages, Wen wang, Cheu kung, and Confucius, were all editors, and Fu hi the original author.
page 360 note 1 If we adopt the assumption of Chinese native chronology, which makes the year B.C. 104, when the winter solstice occurred on the day Kia Tsï, the 17th year in the 44th cycle, and regard the first cycle as commencing in the 8th year of Hwang ti, we obtain B.C. 2757 as the eighth year of Hwang ti. To this add Shen nung 140, Fu hi 115 years.
page 363 note 1 King fang again is said by critics to have derived his views from Meng hi, also of the Han dynasty. But King fang is the more prominent figure. The imperial calendar, published annually, is profoundly influenced by his opinions.
page 365 note 1 Certainly there must be an allusion to some fatal engagement, some actual event not on record. By the care of we know not what old diviner the admonition is preserved.
page 365 note 2 A stage is 30 li or about five miles, as in the sun's path a stage is 30 degrees.
page 366 note 1 Here we meet with enigmatical language. The birds are real persons. The slain carried with the army in its retreat (an unlucky thing to do) embraces also other unlucky actions.
page 366 note 2 The sense is well connected throughout these admonitions and prophecies, if we only make allowance for the mode of composition. The remarks were gradually collected in the official divining book, and finally issued from the hands of Wen Wang and his son in this form. The Siang appendix supports the interpretation I have given.
page 369 note 1 As the diviner studies the kwa which he has obtained as the result of his eighteen manifestations, he instructs the person who consults him in the meaning of each of the six lines. In this case the main idea, humility, recurs in each line except the fifth. In determining the significance of the third line, an undivided one, he quite possibly took into consideration that it made k'am, water, if joined with the line above and below it; and chen, thunder, if joined to the two lines above it, as native commentators explain things. He looked on the unbroken lines as a sign of strength, and then the combination of strength with humility brought before his consciousness the conception of an actor of noble qualities, who must in the end be successful.
page 369 note 2 There is nothing very abrupt or improbable in the native interpretation of this kwa. There is a concatenation in the admonitions on the separate lines. The building of the admonitions on the essential primary meaning of the trigrams and hexagram is obvious. There appears to be no call to accept the hypothesis of a vocabulary. This hypothesis is disproved by the obvious concatenation of the sense in the several lines. Legge's translation seems to be sustained, and so also is the supposition that Wen wang found in the old Yi king the main purport of the trigrams and hexagram almost complete.
page 372 note 1 A Chinese friend, to whom I referred some points in the interpretation of the six admonitions or prophecies in this kwa, recommended me in the first line to keep in view both meanings of the word li, sandal, viz. as a verb to tread on, and as a noun sandal. With this I agree, for divination is enigmatical and often ambiguous. The ambiguity consists in taking one or more words in two senses. Diviners love ambiguity, because whichever sense is verified by the event, the correctness of the divination is confirmed, and every diviner is naturally interested in the success of his own divination.
page 380 note 1 The Tai hiuen king proceeds in its 81 sections from the winter solstice through the year to the winter solstice again. The Yang principle is at its climax June 21st. It expands in spring, and contracts in autumn. The elements metal, wood, water, fire, earth, are influences in perpetual circulation, each dominating for a short time in succession. Fu hi preferred 8 and 64 as the favourite numbers of his philosophy. Yang hiung preferred 9 and 81, in this following Wen wang.