Inquiry into the Primary Model: Hermeneutical Formation of the Yizhuan

Chung-ying Cheng
University of Hawaii at Manoa

From a philosophical hermeneutical point of view, we can raise the question : Is Yijing as a text of gua-symbols and divinatory judgments simply a divination book? My thesis that there is already a pre-understanding of onto-cosmology in the formation of the gua-symbolism so that it can be put to divination use can be clearly restated as an onto--hermeneutical proposition that a cosmological map which is presupposed for interpreta-tion of divination would naturally give rise to an explicit, philosophical understanding of the pre-understood cosmology. Hence we can explain the rise of Yizhuan as a natural reading or interpretation of the Yijing text. We can further explain how subjectivity of the moral reason interacts with objectivity of a natural reason to give rise to the discourse of moral metaphysics of classical Confucianism in Confucius, Zhong Yong and Mencius.

In this article I shall also discuss the hermeneutical ambiguity between the xiangshu (form-number) and yili (meaning-principle) in the formation of Yizhuan so that the roots of the Xiangshu School in Han and Wang Bi's critique in Wei can be both traced to the texts of Yizhuan. I shall give examples of the contrast of the Han Yi in Jingfang and Wang Bi’ s Zhouyi Zhu and argue for this important point.

From this discussion we shall conclude on how Chinese Hermeneutics was founded and how Chinese Hermeneutics has its special set of questions in distinction from the hermeneutical tradition of the West, whether Classical and Modern. I shall also briefly explain the rise of textual criticism and its implications in the Qing in terms of the disputes between Song Xue and Han Xue.