A Study Of Lv Zuqian’s Thought On Yi

Lv Zuqian was a famous Confucian scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty.Lv Zuqian’s academic thought encompassed sutra,the Four Books,neo-confucianism,idealism,history,literature,documentary evidence,pedagogy,and economy.The current research on Lv Zuqian is divided into four main areas.Firstly,the work on the books he compiled and authored,such as the edition identification and the collection of anonymous texts.Secondly,we analyze the origin of his academic thought,the real connotation of the "transmission of the literature of the Central Plains",his family and family studies.Thirdly,we analyze his political activities,his teaching activities,the disciples he cultivated,his interactions with various scholars of the Southern Song Dynasty,his academic interactions,and his position in the Southern Song dynasty.Fourthly,we analyze his academic thought,and explore his academic purpose and academic system.Summarizing research results,it can be considered that the "transmission of the literature of the Central Plains" not only referred to books,textual materials,oral discourse from the Central Plains,but also referred to the transmission of the entire academic thought and cultural spirit of the Northern Song Dynasty,including Guan school and Luo school,and the orthodox Confucianism.Lv Zuqian,Zhang Shi and Zhu Xi were called "southeast three sages".Lv Zuqian,Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan shared the three divisions of academy.Lv was one of the leaders of neo-confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty.Zhu Xi and Lv Zuqian were different in their views of history,practice and literature,mainly due to their different opinions in "Tao" and the present existence of "Tao".On the level of philosophical thought,Lv Zuqian rounded up the subordination of the heavenly principle and the supremacy of the human heart,abolished the boundary between heaven and man,and unified the two aspects of principle and heart with "Tao" as the essence.Gu Zhouyi,Guyi Yinxun,and Zhouyi Xici Jingyi were the achievements of Lv Zuqian in compiling and examining the Yi literature of his predecessors,among which Gu Zhouyi was an important achievement of the Song Dynasty’s movement to restore the ancient Yi.Donglai Yishuo,the first two volumes of the Collection of Lize’s Discourses,was the lecture notes of Lv Zuqian’s lectures on the Zhou Yi for his students at the Lize study hall,reflecting his own thoughts on Yi.The ancient Yi,which was separated from The Commentaries,was a further dismantling of the old scripture system of the Han and Tang dynasties which was characterized by chapter and verse exegesis.The significance of Lv Zuqian’s compilation of Gu Zhouyi was that it not only facilitated the formation of a new scripture system characterized by suspicion and reformation of the ancient,but also facilitated the discovery of the ancient meanings of the Book of Changes and the revival of the Yi of forms and numbers.Lv Zuqian pointed out the"Yi" before painting and the "Yi" of the Three Sages,and considered divination as one of the original meanings of the Book of Changes.He emphasized that the Book of Changes was the book of the sages washing their hearts and withdrawing.Therefore the function of divination as a means of "keeping the people in line with good fortune" could only be realized on the premise of manifesting the way of heaven.Lv Zuqian did not abandon the Yi of forms and numbers,and his understanding and innovation in this area were mostly based on the academy of Han Confucianism and Cheng I.He believed that the sage used the forms to speak of scholar’s matter,and was meant to make scholars infer other things from one angle.He thought that the gain of viewing forms not only lies in the form,but also in the viewer.Viewing forms is actually the unity of the subject and object.Meanwhile,viewing forms is not only seeing what it obvious,but also seeing what is indistinct.Lv Zuqian especially emphasized "time" and the moral cultivation of the gentleman through knowing time.He believed that the "middle" of Yi,was actually the "middle" of the succession of Yao,Shun and Yu and that to keep the middle and be upright is the source of all righteousness."Changing the form along with the step",which was proposed by Lv Zuqian,meant that the image and meaning of one line in a trigram change along with the examination perspective.This was aimed to make a flexible understanding of the lines rather than a rigid understanding,so as to reveal the rich meanings of the lines,and to reveal Tao’s characteristic of changing with the time.Lv Zuqian mainly relied on the Book of Changes to construct his view of the Way of Heaven.He interpreted the Book of Changes with rationalism as well as idealism,and made the way of the unity of heaven and man,reason and heart as the essence of Yi,which was consistent with the sage’s thought of "the Way of Heaven and heart are in harmony".Lv Zuqian took "Qian" as the heavenly principle.The essence of the way is as immovable as it is,while the development and use of the way is new and incessant.The essence and the use are not separate.Tao not only generates all things,but also implements itself in all things.So Tao is everywhere and at all times.Lv Zuqian believed that human heart was inherently enlightened and had the highest heavenly principle.If human heart is allured and loses its righteousness,the inner principle will be weak and difficult to accumulate and even disappear.So the work of cultivation lies in correcting the heart,nourishing the good end of conscience and abandoning selfish and evil thoughts.Lv Zuqian’s view of Tao was not only focused on the metaphysical level,but also on the practical level.As for him,the profound connection between Yi and the real world was mainly reflected in the aspects of personal cultivation.With regard to the relationship between heaven and man,Lv Zuqian emphasized the fear of heaven and obedience to heaven and believed that sages were born to manage chaos.He thought that there was nothing in the world,but only to rule oneself and others,and to nurture virtue and revitalize the people.He affirmed the harmony between heaven and man,believing that man was endowed with heavenly principles,and that heaven was complementary to man;further emphasizing the oneness of heaven and man.He believed that human nature was of the same origin and that one must know one’s own nobility and nurture good ends to be united with heaven.In general,Lv Zuqian’s thought of Yi catered to the hermeneutical turn of the I Ching from divination,textual,and symbolic interpretation to philosophical interpretation,that was to say,the interpretation of Tao.On the one hand,Lu Zuqian’s thought of Yi constituted an important source of his view of Tao;on the other hand,the interpretation of Tao was the completion and destination of his interpretation of I Ching.Lv Zuqian’s view of Tao was based on the unity of principle and heart.It unified the inner heavenly destiny and the outer heavenly principle to form the theory of the unity of Heaven and man,which stressed that"there was no interval between human nature and Heaven".It integrated the transcendence and the reality of Tao,and incorporated the reality and history into the unity of Tao.It incorporated people’s inheritance of Tao and deviation from Tao into the domain of Tao.It expressed the desire to construct perfection and return to Tao.The interpretation of the I Ching by Lv Zuqian was developed under this view of the Way of Heaven,and due to the programmatic role of the view,all aspects of his thought of I Ching became an organic whole.Lv Zuqian’s methodology of studying I Ching can be extended to the six sutras,and the universal methodology of sutra can be applied to I Ching.He advocated that "the sutra did not annotate me,but I annotated the sutra".He believed that scholars should have a deep understanding of the six sutras,and grasp the purpose of the six sutras;that the methods of interpreting the sutras included rational method,metaphorical method and mental understanding,etc.He proposed that scholars should study one sutra firstly and then study the others.He advised to grasp the outline firstly and set up the lofty.Lv Zuqian proposed the way of "mutual commentary on the six sutras",so that the six sutras could be integrated.This approach reflected the consistency of his academic purpose and the systematic nature of his academic content.