On Lai Zhide's Studies Of I-Ching

Lai Zhi-de, noted I-Ching scholar of Ming Dynasty, was recorded in the biographies of Studies on Ming Dynasty Confucianism (Ming Ru Xue An) and History of Ming Dynasty (Ming Shi) as well. Owing to inseparability of his times in research to Lai Zhi-de's I-Ching idea, we should learn about his times when he studied the classic work of I-Ching in combination with the then times in order to completely and accurately grasp his I-Ching, disclose the characteristics of his I-Ching studies and touch the pulse of his mind, furthermore, trace back the process of his studies. At present, the achievement in research to his study fall into two aspects: one is the approach of his I-Ching studies ,i.e. illuminating how he explained adopting images of Gua by means of cuo, zong, bianyao and zhongyao and evaluating his gain and lose such as Xu Qin-ting and the other the study of his I-Ching philosophy such as Chen Zhu-yi, Zhu Bo-kun, Chen De-shu and Yang Zi-ping. In contrast, there is not an article which makes a comprehensive exploration into his I-Ching studies, let alone involving pragmatic value of his theory. Hence the purpose of this essay. The essay will conduct a comprehensive research to Lai's I-Ching with effort to make new explanations based on previous research material and be beneficial to the society. Besides, this essay takes a favorable attitude to revealing the contributions made by Lai's I-Ching in the wide range in developing Chinese I-Ching and correcting errors and restoring I-Ching to normal. This essay is composed of six parts: (1)Introduction, (2)Chapter One,(3)Chapter Two,(4)Chapter Three,(5)Conclusion.The introduction of the essay mainly discusses his era and academic situation which he was confronted with and the problems of the era to solve. Lai Zhi-de was born when Ming Dynasty had been coming down full of riots. Eunuchs controlled the power and the government was corrupted. The border was loose unprotected and often harassed and invaded by Mongolian aristocrats and Nuezhen nationality people. The landlords' class exploited peasantry cruelly, which made class conflicts sharper day by day. the feudal privileged did land deal, levied high taxes and land encirclement deprived many peasants of heavy lossof fields , which caused them to be tenants who suffered from the exploration of high proportion of land rent. Politically, the regime of Ming Dynasty tended to be extremely corrupted and the emperor looked down upon the gods and neglected supreme laws. The power fell into the hands of the eunuchs and ministers who did not perform their duties. Instead, they pursued robbery and bribery. Class clashes were particularly sharp. And peasantry uprisings were in ups and downs. Economically, in the late period of Ming Dynasty, capitalistic relationship started to sprout in the southeast China. And newly developed citizens gradually formed a new force. New productive relationship altered the social structure of the feudal regime, subsequently, shaking the foundation of the feudal ruling. In natural sciences, Ming Dynasty was a remarkable period. With economic development, Ming Dynasty witnessed many new achievements in scientific technology. Up to the latter half of Ming Dynasty, capitalistic sprouting and pragmatic ideology booming contributed to the revival of natural sciences from silence. The late period of Ming Dynasty was a times of restoring and summarizing of Classic Chinese sciences; meanwhile, a times of widespreading modern Western sciences, which Western missionaries brought into China the advanced culture and technology from the West.Ideologically, Neo-Confucianism, which had dominated the mind of feudal soci- ety, had already not adapted to the social development, with its corruption fully exposed. Indeed, Neo-Confucianism was a milestone in the history of I-Ching studies. It stressed illumination of principles and doctrines in Confucian classics. Although it failed to contribute to king's power enforcement, it created a complete set of waysof pursuing sages' ideals which geared to heavenly laws. However, when Neo-Confucianism developed into the late period of Ming Dynasty, the academic theory of being ideal sages academic theory tended to be empty while the social function as king's power enforcement already died out, either. The social chaos and changes in the mid-late period of Ming Dynasty further deepened the crises of Neo-Confucianism.Academically, Neo-Confucianism changed in its essence in the late Ming Dynasty. As a special form in the development of Confucian classics studies, Neo-Confucianism had set up a systematic theory of becoming sages in which morality served as its doctrines. Zhu Xi made morality and commandments to be heavenly laws whereas Wang Shou-ren made heavenly laws to enter one's mind, so he made the morality, the heavenly laws as outer part of humans, to be internalized self-discipline, i.e. morality-consciousness. "Clear mind sees one's xing(nature) ", "To conscientiousness" had become the theme in Xin-xing philosophy. When Xin-xing philosophy came to end, it developed in the other way round characterized by emphasizing conscience and horizon, ignoring practice and experience. In other words, the philosophy inevitably fell into no-value, insignificant science with no practical use. Politically, Neo-Confucianism paid no attention to application to the society. And it itself included both sides of nei sheng and wai wang, and nei sheng extended into wai wang. But too much one-sided stressing nei sheng and even going to impracticality led to failure of wai wang, so it lost its value of application to the society. In addition, Complete Works of Five Confucian Classics , Complete Works of Four Confucian Classics , Complete Works of Practising Morality compiled by the Ming Dynasty Confucian scholars issued the script across the country, declaring these works would be the criteria for the official promotion examinations, which severely confined the creativity in the academic circle. The officials chosen by this way were not armed with the talent of coping with practical affairs, nor with managing the country. The reign was dark and feeble so much so that the ruling power was in the hands of other officials and eunuchs, therefore throwing the Ming Dynasty on the brink of crises. Under such circumstances, some patriotic officials and scholars attempted to rescue the Ming Dynasty from crises and discussed the weaknesses of Neo-Confucianism .Then they corrected and criticized the theory. They stressed the application of the theory and so atmosphere of returning to the original classics, pursuit of the application of knowledge dominated the whole ideological field.Besides, influence of the local culture played an important part. In history Bashu area produced many noted I-Ching schlars like Yang Xiong in Western Han Dynasty, who wrote Tai Xuan(tai xuan) ,Li Ding-zuo in Tang Dynasty, who wrote Collected Notes to I-Ching (yi jing ji jie) ,Shu Shi in Song Dynasty, who wrote History of I-Ching by Shu S h i (Shu Shi yi zhuan),Zhang Xing-cheng, who wrote On Changes (bian tong),Zhang Jun,who wrote Zi Yan s History of I-Ching (Zi Yan yi zhuan),and so on. In Lai Zhi-de's times, the Ming government ,on the one hand, actively performed the monarchical cultural guideline ,and regulated I-Ching by Zhu Xi to "official doctrine" for a promotion ladder. On the other hand, Bashu area had a long history of I-Ching studies which traced back to Yan Jun-ping, Yang Xiong's master, from whom the influence of I- Ching studies was self-evident, just as Cheng Yu, Neo-Confucianist in North Song Dynasty, said, "I-Ching studies is in Ba Shu area." Ba Shu culture is an integrated part of Chinese culture with the following characteristics: long and brilliant history of adaptation and merge, harmony and pursuit for enjoyment, passing on civilization and rich in traditional legacy and multi-functional.Influenced by such circumstances of I-Ching studies, Lai's I-Ching studies was characteristic of Ba Shu area culture. His mind was broad and profound in collaboration with image-number, principles and Confucian thought. In illuminating I-Ching, he explained the I-Ching guas in the flexible, multiple and open ways ,unrestricted to form, with extensive and profound knowledge, meanwhile considering historical ,human and political elements, tracing back to the originals. He passed on the traditional Chinese civilization, inherited and developed Cheng-Zhu's Neo-Confucianism. His I-Ching theory reflected a combination of system, science and human nature. At the same time, he displayed his mind liberation and broke the constraints of Zhu Xi's doctrine. He boldly fulfilled his idea and bravely questioned authority.Therefore,Lai Zhi-de's I-Ching was a product of the times with his own remarkable features. His I-Ching thought was at the turn of old era into a new one.So his thought owed to his special life experience. As we know, any thought or surge of thoughts are all products of times. So was Lai's .His thought was just a reflection of the his times. His I-Ching mind involved both the inheriting ancient Chinese classic I-Ching's ,criticizing and correcting the Neo-Confucianism. Meanwhile, he absorbed new thought and wiped out errors and summed up the ancient traditional human science on all sides. So surely his mind of I-Ching enriched Chinese I-Ching and promoted the development of Chinese ancient classic philosophy.So, the first part of the essay focuses on describing his mind development in his I-Ching studies. All his life was spent in the circumstances where Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism was declared to be officially acknowledged academics, in other words, on the one hand, Neo-Confucianism ruled the nation in the Ming Dynasty spiritually, on the other hand,the government actively performed the monarchical cultural policy and advocated strongly "three programs and five common senses" Intellectuals mind were confined to the cage of "Confucian doctrine" .The official promotion examinations were oriented to Cheng- Zhu Neo-Confucianism, the only criteria. Undoubtedly Lai's mind was deeply influenced by Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. His thought was symbol of a product of the times. Just in such circumstances full of social upheavals and dramatic social ideological change, did his I-Ching studies came into being and develop.The second part of the essay makes a thorough exploration into Lai's I-Ching itself and analyses his theoretic set-up system. It is pointed that his theory may be roughly divided into two parts, i.e. tai chi figure and I-Ching gua. Because his I-Ching theory was based on his Tai chi, mainly built on his Tai chi as the introduction and base, our exploration of his cosmology illustrated his cosmic idea and then makes an analysis on his gua theory studies in the aspects of yao xiang, image-number, hexagrams and so on and detect the features of his I-Ching studies.From the above examples and analysis, it is clearly found that Lai Zhi-de took the image as the base for explaining I-Ching gua ,advancing cuo-zong theory in explaining the logic of gua image and Shao Yong's Fuxi's and Wenwang's figure formats; besides, he explained sixty-four gua images and gua yao ci with cuo-zong theory, bian yao, and zhong yao,etc. In this way he combined three sages' I-Ching into one body and made the gua of same body and gua qing stand out together. So he inherited and developed ancient Chinese I-Ching. His learning style grew into a unique system with many original ideas. And so his theory was called "unique learning ".His I-Ching studies clearly show scholars the evolutionary process of I-Ching Gua, the differences among three sages or four sages. His interpretation of Gua was based on the grounds. Lai Zhi-de made a thorough examination and correction in the I-Ching studies from Han to Song Dynasties and he pointed out the errors in Han Confucian scholars' interpretation of Yi-ology Gua, esp. Yu Fan's interpretation of Huti, deserting semi-hugua, gua bian theory, etc, which were confusing and misleading; meanwhile, however, he did not completely throw away the results of the previous Confucian studies. That is ,he borrowed in mid-yao, in-and-out gua,cuo-zong (i.e.pangtong), zheng wei, disposition of yao and so on. He conducted the studies and provided interpretations on the gua yao ci in the regular and logic way. He pointed out a way for I-Ching beginners and made I-Ching far from being boring and obscure. Instead, it was realistic and it was an epitome of a descriptive and dynamic world. And I-Ching gua was no longer a plane world in the way of simple narration by word. On the contrary, it was a dimensional and multifaceted world, just as Lai said, "We can not talk about I-Ching if we discard images." In a word, this part mainly focuses the characteristics in Lai's I-Ching studies from the angle of I-Ching gua images. Instead of only limiting to the studies of image-number Yi-ology, he paid much attention to the combination of principles with image-number. It went with the Great Treatise which said, "The sages set forth the diagrams, inspected the emblems contained in them, and appended their explanations;--in this way the good fortune and bad (indicated by them) were made clear. "Explanations and emblems are both existent in the I-Ching .Lai took a fair and just attitude to the great book. While inheriting the achievements from the previous scholars' studies in the critical way, he applied the principle I-Ching in the Song Dynasty in a proper way to his own research. He was not blindly obedient to the authority. He pointed out the problems existent in the Yi-ology studies with bravery and proposed his own original idea. And the part also makes exposition and analysis on the image, number, law and qi in I-Ching.The third part focuses on the research to Lai's I-Ching philosophical idea in his I-Ching studies. We discuss the problem in three aspects: (1)Retrospect to the history of issue about the relations between image-number and meaning; (2)Lai's illumination of the relations between image-number and meaning. It was one of the features in his I-Ching studies that Lai illuminated the law in the I-Ching from the point of the natural I-Ching, sages' I-Ching and the classic I-Ching. And from another point of view, ancient Chinese cultural features were displayed in his I-Ching studies with natural materialism and humanism, from nature to humanism were reflected the combination and unity of heaven and man. Another point to mention, the classic I-Ching was reflection of ancient Chinese thoughts about the relation between nature and man. However ,Lai protruded sages' role played in bridging and narrating the relation between heaven and man. Just because of the sages' perfect comprehension of the universal laws ,a great classic I-Ching was created. I-Ching was a "arithmatic" philosophy which reflected natural laws in the form of diagrams. Man can learn and apply it, but instead of accumulation of knowledge, sages transcended ordinary people's mind, and pondering the universal things.The fourth part focuses on Lai's ideology and its characteristic by means of his several poems and his interpretation of Great Tretease, his world outlook and Neo-Confucianism idea in his I-Ching classic is presented.We develop the argumentfrom three aspect s:1.keeping a hermit life with a pursuit of sages' ideal;2.Lai's I-Ching mind theory;3.Lai's idea of I-Ching for men of honor.We trace Lai's pursuit of sage's ideal and his world outlook from his behavior and poems, which reflected hid feelings of the world; furthermore, reflecting deep impact of the environment and era on him.Base on the investigation into Lai's I-Ching studies in the previous chapters, we come to summarize his academic style and historical evaluation. Through the summing-up ,we can have a command of his I-Ching thoery features as the whole. Collected Notes to Yijing (Zhou Yi Ji Zhu)was Lai Zhi-de's representative work that tells us that he was a dedicated I-Ching scholar ,concentrated on I-Ching studies. His classic book Collected Notes to I-Ching was appraised highly and regarded as a legacy of I-Ching studies since Dynasties of Yuan and Ming, just as Hang Xin-zhai, modern I-Ching scholar, once praised his book and said,With regard to Yi studies in Yuan and Ming dynasties, there were not any inventions.Scholars mostly followed the footprints of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. Among them were Xiong Yu-ke, Hu Yi-gui, Xiong Liang-fu, Wang Shen-zhi, Dong Zhen-qing in Yuan Dynasty, and Huang Dao-zhou, Qiao Zhong-he in Ming Dynasty outstanding. Despite of the fact, they still followed some school, not forming their own style. Although books of 17 Xiang Zheng, San Yi Dong Ji by Huang Dao-zhou, illustrated principles of I-Ching through emblems, calendar, number, they were so complicated and obscure beyond comprehension that they were not widely spread. Only Lai Zhi-de, born in Mid-Sichuan, became famous for his book of Collected Notes to I-Ching (Zhou Yi Ji Zhu).He spent twenty-nine years completing the book which spread in the south of China for three hundred years and still on. Although his cuo-zong theories were very acceptable to readers, and his methods of employing emblems simple and clear and made difficult text into an easy-to-understood one. So he set up I-Ching theory of his own style. His book became a good guide and textbook for the I-Ching learning beginners.From Mr. Hang's evaluation, we see that Lia Zhi-de occupied an significant and unique position in the field of I-Ching studies in times of Dynasties Ming and Qing. The value reflected in his I-Ching studies symbolized his profound and broad knowledge ,morals and wisdom of life.At the same time, his ideas laid a foundation for opening the door of knowledge application to practice in Ming and Qing dynasties.The materials and references are all taken from the book of Collected Notes to Yijing(Zhou Yi Ji Zhu) by Lai Zhi-de, published by Shang Hai Publishing House. Owing to a large number of extracts , the noting method are adopted in the way of the pages of the essay and other materials extracted in the form of under-page noting.