The Yijing and Chinese Politics: Classical Commentary and Literati Activism in the Northern Song Period, 960-1127 (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Yijing and Chinese Politics: Classical Commentary and Literati Activism in the Northern Song Period, 960-1127 Bent Nielsen (bio) Tze-ki Hon . The Yijing and Chinese Politics: Classical Commentary and Literati Activism in the Northern Song Period, 960-1127. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. xi, 217 pp. Hardcover $55.00, ISBN 0-7914-6311-7. The preliminary material includes a "Chronology of Northern Song Emperors" (p. xiii), followed by an "Introduction" (pp. 1-14). Two introductory chapters-"The Northern Song Historical Context" (chapter 1, pp. 15-27) and "The Northern Song Yijing Text" (chapter 2, pp. 28-48)-prepare the ground for Tze-ki Hon's skilful and luminous examination of classical Yijing exegesis and political discourse during the Northern Song: "Mission of Civil Bureaucrats: The Yijing of Hu Yuan, Li Gou, and Ouyang Xiu" (chapter 3, pp. 49-76); "Inner Roots of Ordering the World: The Yijing of Zhang Zai, Sima Guang, and Shao Yong" (chapter 4, pp.77-109); and "Coming to Terms with Factional Politics: The Yijing of Cheng Yi [End Page 129] and Su Shi" (chapter 5, pp. 110-140). The "Conclusion" (pp. 141-150) wraps everything up with a discussion of "Text, Tradition, and Time" and "[A] Historical Understanding of Northern Song Yijing Commentaries." Finally, there are two appendixes with the Chinese names (and English translations) and images of the eight trigrams and the sixty-four hexagrams (pp. 151-155), notes (pp. 157-190), a glossary of Chinese terms and names (pp. 191-195), a bibliography divided into primary (pp. 197-199) and secondary sources (pp. 200-211), and an index (pp. 213-217). This is a very significant contribution to the studies of the role of the Yijing (I ching or Book of Changes) in Chinese politics. As the title indicates, Tze-ki Hon concentrates on the period of the Northern Song (960-1127), a period that witnessed major changes in the organization of the state and the bureaucracy. The core of the book is chapters 3 through 5, which correspond to Hon's division of the Northern Song into three periods of roughly sixty years each: 960-1022, 1023-1085, and 1086-1127. Each period is represented by a major commentary to the Yijing: Hu Yuan's (993-1059) Zhouyi kouyi (Oral exposition of the Changes of the Zhou [dynasty]), Zhang Zai's (1020-1077) Hengqu Yishuo (Account of the Changes by [the gentleman from] Hengqu), and Cheng Yi's (1033-1107) Yichuan Yizhuan (Commentary on the Changes by [the gentleman from] Yichuan), respectively. Hon compares these three commentaries to each other, to the very influential commentary by Wang Bi (226-249) and the orthodox edition of the Tang dynasty (618-907) compiled by Kong Yingda (574-648), and to a number of other Northern Song commentaries, primarily by Li Gou (1009-1059), Ouyang Xiu (1007-1070), Sima Guang (1019-1086), Shao Yong (1011-1077), and Su Shi (1037-1101). No wonder this book was a decade in the making! By implementing a synchronic rather than a diachronic comparison, Hon hopes "to demonstrate how the Yijing commentaries can be an important source of information on the momentous political and social changes of eleventh-century China" (p. 1). The major challenges for the newly established Song dynasty were setting up a civil administration to curb the influence of the large landowner families and the military on the one hand and dealing with the ever increasing military expenditure and annual tributes to the semi-nomadic peoples on the western and northern frontiers on the other. Whether "writing an Yijing commentary to come to terms with major setbacks in . . . life" (p. 135), using "the Yijing to address the pressing political problems" (ibid.), or responding "to the core questions of the Yijing by reflecting on the sociopolitical changes" (p. 145), it is evident that the Yijing does lend itself rather easily to multiple and vastly differing interpretations. Reading Hon's knowledgeable presentation of the Northern Song exegetes, it quickly emerges that the main concern of these scholars is to find support for their own ideas in the Yijing. This is true to such an extent that some commentators are "at risk...