​Astronomical and Calendrical Thought in the Yizhuan (Ten Wings)

Astronomical and Calendrical Thought in the Yizhuan (Ten Wings)

LI Xuehao

(Yunnan Society for the Study of the Chinese Zhouyi, Kunming 650000, Yunnan, China)

Abstract: The Yijing (Book of Changes) and ancient astronomy-calendrics share a common origin, both arising from early people’s experience of observing the heavens to determine the seasons. As a commentarial work, the Yizhuan (Ten Wings) further develops the astronomical and calendrical thought embedded in the classic in four respects: first, a cosmology grounded in the Taiji and Eight Trigrams that integrates conceptions of time and orientation and accommodates both the Gaitian (canopy-heaven) and Huntian (spherical-heaven) theories; second, a philosophy of the relation between Heaven and humanity—“unity of Heaven and humanity” and “continuing Heaven to establish the human pole”—centered on the resonance between the virtue of Heaven and the human mind of benevolence and righteousness; third, a body of calendar-making thought based on observing celestial phenomena to fix the seasons, the twenty-four solar terms, and the “hexagram-qi” (guaqi) theory; and fourth, the mutual interpretation between numerical schemes—the numbers of Heaven and Earth, the Great Expansion (dayan) number, and the tallies of Qian and Kun—and systematic calendars such as the Santong, Qianxiang, and Dayan calendars. The study shows that such thought is not empty metaphysical speculation but a practical learning that keeps pace with the times and guides daily life and production; its portions concerning the mutual interpretation of Yi and calendar are especially worthy of in- depth study. 

Key words: Yizhuan; cosmology; relation between Heaven and humanity; numbers of the Yi and the calendar;observing the times to know change

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