Classicism and Literati Political Activism: Studies of Northern Song Yijing Commentaries, 960-1127

A Synopsis

This book is a study of the Yijing in history. It examines three commentaries of Northern Song China (960-1127): the Zhouyi kouyi of Hu Yuan (993-1059), the Hengqu yishuo of Zhang Zai (1020-1077), and the Yichuan yizhuan of Cheng Yi (1033-1086). By comparing these three commentaries and relating them to their times, I demonstrate the three-way interactions between the Yijing, its commentarial tradition, and the historical time of its commentators.

This book consists of six chapters. In chapter one, I discuss the historical context of Northern Song China and the significance of the three Yijing commentaries. In particular, I explain how the three commentaries illustrate the three stages of the Northern Song re-construction of civil governance¾the destruction of the military governance in the early Northern Song, the flourishing of the civil governance in the mid Northern Song, and the doubts about the relevance of civil governance in the late Northern Song. In chapter two, I examine the Yijing text that the Northern Song educated elite read—the Zhouyi zhengyi of Kong Yingda (574-648). Compiled in the seventh century, the Zhouyi zhengyi was the official Yijing commentary of the Northern Song and as such, it was examined in the mingjing (understanding the classic) part of the civil service examinations. Despite their ambivalence with the legacy of the Tang, the three Northern Song commentators learnt to understand the spirit and letter of the Yijing through the Zhouyi zhengyi. In many respects, their initial exposure to the Yijing via the Zhouyi zhengyi shaped their later attempts at writing a new commentary to the classic. Hence, to understand how the three commentators re-invented the Yijing, it is necessary to know what the Zhouyi zhengyi looked like.

In Chapters Three through Five, I examine the three Yijing commentaries to review the three stages of the Northern Song re-construction of civil governance. Accordingly, Chapter Three is devoted to Hu Yuan’s Zhouyi kouyi, Chapter Four to Zhang Zai’s Hengqu yishuo, and Chapter Five to Cheng Yi’s Yichuan yizhuan. The story that unfolds in these three chapters describes what the Northern Song educated elite had gone through in rebuilding the civil governance. It focuses our attention on their difficulty in parting ways with the past, their blissful feelings in envisioning a perfect human order, and their frustration in finding that their good intentions produced bad results. These three Yijing commentaries, each different in its own right, offer us a glimpse of the hopes and the fears of the Northern Song educated elite in founding a new socio-political order.

In Chapter Six, I assess the three Yijing commentaries in light of the current scholarship on the Northern Song. Despite their differences, it is my opinion that the three Yijing commentators were part of the socio-intellectual change of eleventh-century China, and they contributed significantly to the re-establishment of civil governance. To different degrees, they were instrumental in fostering the political idealism of Northern Song literati, which was expressed in full force in the two drastic reforms of mid- and late-Northern Song: the 1043-44 reform of Fan Zhongyan, and the 1068-85 reform of Wang Anshi. In hindsight, the three Yijing commentators may have been idealistic in believing that they could build a perfect human order; nevertheless, their courage to envision a new socio-political system is admirable.