How the I Ching Became a Classic: How Song Scholars Read the Changes, and the Routes the I Ching Took to Vietnam and the West

When and why was the I Ching canonized?

According to Tze-Ki Hon in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry "Chinese Philosophy of Change (Yijing)" (major revision 18/09/2023), by 135 BCE the core text and seven commentary wings (collectively called the Ten Wings, 十翼 shiyi) had been combined into a single unified text, and that is what we now call the I Ching. Before that point, the I Ching was a multi-layered text: a layer of symbols (the eight trigrams, the sixty-four hexagrams), a layer of hexagram and line statements, and a layer of philosophical commentary. Hon calls this unified text a "composite text" made up of symbols, divination records, historical records, folklore and philosophical argument.

According to Richard J. Smith in The I Ching: A Biography (2012), it was the canonization of 135 BCE that opened the way for Chinese intellectuals to read the I Ching as a philosophical text, and this reading made it a living text throughout the imperial era. He stresses that the I Ching is not a book with a single author but a series of layers stacked upon one another, each era reading it in its own way.

A distinction must be drawn: the chain of Fu Xi drawing the trigrams, King Wen writing the hexagram statements, the Duke of Zhou writing the line statements, and Confucius writing the Ten Wings is a tradition attributing authorship, not a proven historical event. This is level C in the site's classification. Details on dating and the textual layers are presented in the article Who Wrote the I Ching; that article discusses dating, while this one discusses reception.

Along what lines did Song scholars read the Changes?

According to Kidder Smith Jr. and colleagues in Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching (1990), Song scholars did not read the I Ching as a single unified block. From the same text, Su Shi, Cheng Yi, Shao Yong and Zhu Xi drew different things, serving different purposes.

Hon distinguishes three main approaches in the history of commentary: the cosmological, the rational humanistic, and the divinatory. These three are not mutually exclusive; many commentators used all three at once while leaning toward one in particular.

Shao Yong and the image-number approach

Shao Yong (1011-1077) read the I Ching along image-number lines. He constructed the Prior Heaven (先天) diagram, arranging the 64 hexagrams in an order different from the traditional one, in order to model the rhythm of the cosmos.

For Shao Yong, the 64 hexagrams were not merely a divination tool but a map of the cosmos, and humans could read the rhythm of the cosmos through numbers and symbols. His Prior Heaven diagram later became one of the most familiar diagrams of the I Ching, appearing in many popular books and on many reference sites today.

Cheng Yi and the meaning-principle approach

Cheng Yi (1033-1107) read the I Ching along meaning-principle (義理) lines. He was less concerned with numbers and diagrams, focusing instead on the moral and political meaning of each hexagram and line. For Cheng Yi, the I Ching was a book teaching the conduct of the noble person in each specific situation.

Hon notes that Cheng Yi wrote the Yichuan Yizhuan (伊川易傳) as a work of political science, aiming to redefine civilized governance for the Northern Song. Cheng Yi's reading deeply influenced later Confucians, especially in Vietnam and Korea.

Zhu Xi and the balance between divination and ethics

Zhu Xi (1130-1200) read the I Ching in a way that tried to hold both lines: he was concerned with divination as a ritual practice and also read the Changes as a moral book. In the Zhouyi Benyi (周易本義), Zhu Xi presents the core text first, then his own commentary, keeping the two layers distinct.

According to Joseph A. Adler in "Chu Hsi and Divination" in Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching (1990), Zhu Xi regarded divination as an inseparable part of the I Ching, not a superstitious residue to be discarded. For Zhu Xi, divination was an occasion for the querent to examine themselves, not to beg an external power to intervene.

Table: readers of the Changes and their readings

Hon further notes that Jing Fang (77-37 BCE) created the Eight Palace Hexagrams (八宮卦), in which each palace hexagram heads a group of seven hexagrams, expressing the increase and decrease of the two forces yin and yang. This diagram later became part of the image-number tradition that Song scholars such as Shao Yong inherited.

By what route did the I Ching reach Vietnam?

According to Richard J. Smith in The I Ching: A Biography (2012), the I Ching spread to Vietnam, Japan and Korea mainly through Confucian learning and the civil examinations. Candidates in these three countries studied the I Ching as one of the Five Classics, and local Confucians wrote their own commentaries.

The existing body of research on the I Ching in Vietnam is still thin. Authors such as Lê Quý Đôn (1726-1784) and Ngô Thì Nhậm (1746-1803) discussed the Changes in their works, but there is not yet much in-depth research in Vietnamese or English on how they read the Changes. This is a gap in the available material.

Smith holds that in Vietnam the I Ching was read mainly through a Confucian lens and through the commentaries of Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, rather than through the image-number tradition as in China. This may be because the main route of transmission was the civil examinations and Confucian learning.

By what route did the I Ching reach the West?

According to Richard J. Smith in The I Ching: A Biography (2012), Jesuit missionaries were the first to introduce the I Ching to the West in the 17th century. They brought translations and hexagram diagrams back to Europe, and the I Ching was read as an ancient philosophical text.

By the 19th and early 20th centuries, Western scholars began translating the I Ching directly from Chinese. Richard Wilhelm's translation into German (1924), then translated into English by Cary F. Baynes (1950), was the most influential translation in the West.

Smith notes that the I Ching reached Western readers through many layers of translation and through many different readings: some read it as a philosophical book, some as a divination book, some as a literary text. No single reading is regarded as standard.

Why can the I Ching be read in so many ways?

Hon explains that it is precisely the multi-layered nature of the I Ching that makes it hard to frame within a single reading. If one focuses on the 64 hexagrams, the I Ching resembles a divination book; if one focuses on the Ten Wings, it resembles a philosophical treatise on cosmic process.

For Hon, Chinese commentators of the imperial era developed three different approaches to face change: the cosmological, the rational humanistic, and the divinatory. Each approach answers a different question, and no approach negates another.

Hon also notes that for the authors of the I Ching, divination is philosophical because its purpose is to create an occasion for the querent to examine themselves. During the ritual of divination, the querent has a quiet moment to look back at the past, consider the present and plan the next step.

What this article does not say

This article does not discuss who reads the I Ching "correctly." No single standard reading is recognized as unique by modern scholarship. Different readings serve different purposes: cosmology, ethics, politics, divination, literature.

This article also does not recount the chain of Fu Xi, King Wen, the Duke of Zhou and Confucius as historical events. That is a tradition attributing authorship, level C in the site's classification. Details on dating and the textual layers are presented in the article Who Wrote the I Ching.

This article also offers no advice on health, medicine or investment. The I Ching is a historical and philosophical text, not a tool for predicting finances or health.