Constancy in Change a Comparison of James Legge's and Richard Wilhelm's Interpretations of the Yijing

MonumentaSerica ÏF y 53 (2005):315-336 %Jr

CONSTANCY IN CHANGE A COMPARISON OF JAMES LEGGE'S AND RICHARD WILHELM'S INTERPRETATIONS OF THE YIJING

TZE-KIHON W?^

Contents Legge's Encounterwith the Yijing 316 Separatingthe Text from its Commentarial Materials 318 Yijingas a HistoricalDocument 320 Limitsto Legge's HistoricalReading 323 A DifferentMissionary-cwm-Scholar 326 Yijingand Post-WarEurope 327 The Philosophyof Change 329 Hexagramas a Field of Action 332 The "Book of Wisdom"Approach 334 ChineseAbstract 335

Since the seventeenthcentury, the YijingJIM (or / Ching,Book of Changes)1 has been studiedin theWest to understandChina. But fora long time,due to its linkto divination,the Chineseclassic was considereda mysterioustext beyond thecomprehension of theEuropean mind. This imageof the Yijingpersisted until JamesLegge (1814-1897)and RichardWilhelm (1873-1930) published their trans- lationsof the classic. By translatingthe Yijinginto English and Germanrespec- tively,Legge and Wilhelmshowed that the Yijingwas a book of wisdomoffering profoundinsights into human life. They presentedthe classic in such a manner thatit mighthave originatedfrom China, but it spoke to everyone,Chinese and non-Chinese.2 In thisarticle, to examinethe transformation of the Yijingfrom a mysterious textto a book of wisdom,I compareJames Legge's and RichardWilhelm's trans- lations.The purposeof mycomparison is notto ascertainthe accuracy of thetwo translatorsin renderingthe Chinese classic. Rather,it is to highlighttheir ingenu-

1 For thesake of consistencyand to avoid unnecessaryconfusion, except for the original book ti- tles,I use Hanyupinyin to transliterateChinese characters. 2 For a summaryof theWestern studies of the Yijing,see IulianK. Shchutskii,Researches on the I Ching(London 1980), pp. 13-55; HellmutWilhelm, The Book of Changesin the Western Tradition:A SelectiveBibliography (Seattle 1975); RichardRutt, The Book of Changes(Zhouyi) (New York2002), pp. 60-82.

This content downloaded from 142.66.3.42 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:13:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 316 TZE-KlHON ity and creativityin interpretingthe Chinese classic for Westernreaders. To achieve thisgoal, I will discuss the two translators'similar backgrounds: their missionaryexperiences in China, theircollaboration with Chinese scholarsto translateChinese texts, and theirstruggles to bringa more accuratepicture of China to theWest. Followingthat, I will examinetheir differences, particularly theirdiffering readings of the hexagramsand the Ten Wings(shiyi +R) of the Yijing.Their similaritiesand differencesshow thatit may be simplisticto say: "Legge translatedwhat the text said, while Wilhelmtranslated what the text meant."3As translators,both Legge and Wilhelmattempted to give a coherentin- terpretationof the Yijingto addressthe issues of theirtimes. Their differences in readingthe Chinese classic had to do withthe times in whichthey lived (i.e., the VictorianEngland for Legge and theWeimar Germany for Wilhelm), rather than the absenceor presenceof interpretation.As a firststep to assess the contribu- tionsof thesetwo translators,this comparison calls attentionto theirroles in re- inventingthe Yijing for Western readers.

Legge's Encounterwith the Yijing In JamesLegge's long careeras a translatorof the Chineseclassics, the Yijing caused himthe biggest problem. In the 1882 prefaceto The Yi King,he recalled thedecades of hardlabor that he had spentin comingto gripswith this extraordi- naryChinese classic.4 He tellsus thathe completeda translationof the Yijingin 1855 whilehe was a youngmissionary in Hong Kong. But at thattime he was hesitantto publishit because he felthe had inadequateknowledge of "the scope and the methodof the book." He laid his translationaside withthe hope that some day he would finda way to comprehendthis "mysteriousclassic." Then, disasteroccurred. In 1870, his manuscriptwas soaked in the waterof the Red Sea while en routeto Europe. The manuscriptwas recoveredmiraculously and afterrestoration, it was stillpartially legible. However, when James Legge finally foundhis way back to his manuscriptin 1874, he discoveredthat his "toil of twentyyears before was of no serviceat all." He had developeda differentun- derstandingof the Yijingthat he was readyto discardhis previoustranslation and to startall overagain. Hence,James Legge's Yijingtranslation that we have todayis a re-translation. More importantly,he re-translatedthe Yijingwhile he was turninga new page of his life. Afterserving thirty some yearsas a missionaryassociated with the Lon- don MissionarySociety, he assumedin 1876 his postas theProfessor of Chinese at theUniversity of Oxford.This changeof job resultedin a changeof perspec-

3 GeraldW. Swanson,"Introduction to theEnglish Edition" in IulianK. Shchutskii,Researches on theI Ching,pp. xi-xii. 4 JamesLegge, The Yi King,volume sixteen of The Sacred Books of theEast (London 1899, re- print1963), pp. xiii-xiv.See also Helen EdithLegge, JamesLegge: Missionaryand Scholar (London 1905), pp. 27-46; Wong Man Kong, JamesLegge: A Pioneerat Crossroadsof East and West(Hong Kong 1996), pp. 114-126.

This content downloaded from 142.66.3.42 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:13:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JamesLegge's and RichardWilhelm's Interpretations of the Yijing 317 tive. Previously,as a Christianmissionary, Legge translatedthe Chinese classics to convertthe Chinese to Christianity.In his translation,he searchedfor parallels betweenProtestantism and Confucianismso that "the more [the missionaries] avoid drivingtheir carriages rudely over the Master [Kong's] grave, the more likelyare theysoon to see Jesusenthroned in His roomin thehearts of thepeo- ple."5 Now, as an Oxforddon specializingin culturalcomparison, he turnedhis attentionto theuniqueness of Chineseculture. His goal in translatingthe Chinese classics was to demonstratethe co-existenceof differentcultural systems on the faceof thisearth. Collaborating with Max Müller,he set out to provethat "there are otherworlds besides our own."6 Aftereight years of work,he completedhis new translationof the Yijing. WhenThe Yi King was publishedin 1882 as volumesixteen of Max Müller's se- ries of "The Sacred Books of the East," Legge proudlyannounced that his new translationof the Yijingwas entirelya productof his labor. AlthoughWang Tao 3ii@ (1828-1897), his Chinese assistantin translation,had preparedfor him elaboratenotes on the Yijingin the late 1860s, he tells us thathe did not have "the help of able nativescholars which saved timeand was otherwisevaluable when[he] was workingin the East on otherclassics."7 Drawing a clear distinc- tionbetween his new workdone at Oxfordand his previousworks completed as a missionary,he stressedthat the lack of help fromChinese scholars was "more thancompensated" by his own studyof Chinesetexts, such as theRijiang yijing 8 jieyi Blft^fWÄ (1683) and the Zhouyizhezhong jf^tf^ (1715). In Legge's mind,his new translationof the Yijingsymbolized the coming of age of a new scholarship.It representedthe achievementof a professionalscholar who saw China as a subjectof academicresearch rather than as a land forreligious conversion.Knowingly or unknowingly,after spending decades to translateand

5 Helen EdithLegge, James Legge: Missionaryand Scholar,pp. 37-38. 6 NormanJ. Girardot,The VictorianTranslation of China: JamesLegge's OrientalPilgrimage (Berkeley2002), pp. 120-183. 7 JamesLegge, The Yi King, p. xx. There is no consensusas to Wang Tao' s role in James Legge's translationof theChinese classics. At one end of thespectrum, Lauren F. Pfistersees Wang Tao playingminor role in Legge's translation.See Pfister,"Wang Tao yu Li Yage dui xin rujiayouhuan yishi de huiying"ilf1^íIffi^fíÍTÍI*#0,totÈWL"l/^, in Lin Qiyan# Jgf/§:and Wang Wenjiang'Ï3CÏL (eds.), Wang Tao yu jindai shijie .ïî@|6|jfif^të:^ (Hong Kong 2000), pp. 117-147.At theother end of the spectrum,Li Qifang(Chi-fang Lee) $^^ considersWang Tao' s elaboratenotes on the Chinese classics as the foundationof Legge's translation.See Li, "Wang Tao de wenxueyu jingxue" i£t@â^A¥f&ÎIM¥, in Lin Qiyan and Wang Wenjiang(eds.), Wang Tao yu jindai shijie, pp. 190-217. In the article,Li discusses Wang Tao' s noteson the Yijing thathe foundin the New York Public Library.For a longer versionof Li's argument,see Chi-fangLee, "Wang T'ao (1828-1897): His Life, Thought, Scholarship,and LiteraryAchievement" (Ph.D. Dissertation,University of Wisconsin,1973). For a morebalanced view on Wang Tao' s contributionto Legge's translationof the Chinese classics, see Paul Cohen, BetweenTradition and Modernity:Wang T'ao and Reformin Late Ch'ingChina (Cambridge, MA 1974), pp. 59-61. 8 JamesLegge, The Yi King,p. xx.

This content downloaded from 142.66.3.42 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:13:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 318 TZE-KlHON re-translatethe Yijing,Legge personifiedthe emergence of whatNorman Girar- dotcalls "theVictorian translation of China."9

Separatingthe Text fromits CommentarialMaterials Keepingin mindof how littleChina was knownto theWest at thetime, it is not surprisingfor James Legge to have spentdecades to translatethe Yijing.First, the Chineseclassic had longbeen knownin theWest as a mysterioustext because of its relationto divination.Unlike the Shujing H$2 (Book of Documents),the Shi- jing |#|M (Book of Poetry),and the Chunqiu#f^c (The Springand AutumnAn- nals), all of whichJames Legge translatedin the 1860s and 1870s, the Yijingwas not a recordof historicalevents. Instead, it consistedof sixty-fourhexagrams (diagramsof six dividedor undividedlines) accompaniedby statementsexplain- ing whatthe hexagramsand theirlines meant.These hexagrams,we are told, were originatedfrom the legendaryChinese cultural heroes such as Fu Xi {;*c|j and Shen Nong |$H, who used themto describethe pattern of theuniverse and to give advice to politicalleaders.10 Added to thisdivinatory mystique of the Yi- jing was its language.The classic was fullof such termsas ji § (auspicious), xiong[XJ (inauspicious), jiu ^ (remorse),and wujiuáffi^r (without remorse) that indicatedits originas a manualof divination.No wonder,for centuries, fortune- tellersin Chinaused theYijing to developmethods of divination.11 Christianmissionaries who came to China before James Legge took for grantedthe divinatory nature of the Yijing.Earlier Western translators of theclassic, such as Rev. Canon McClatchie(1814-1885), were interestedin tracingthe classic to ancientMesopotamia based on itsdivinatory elements. To achievetheir missionarygoals, theyviewed the Yijingas a pagan religioustext dated back to thedispersion of thesons of Noah. By stressingthe Yijing9s link to ancientMeso- potamia,they hoped to draw China closer to the worldof the Old Testament.12 Apparently,this approach to linkthe Yijingto Mesopotamiawas stillpredominant duringJames Legge' s time. As Legge was re-translatingthe Yijingat Oxford, Terriende Lacouperiewas completinghis translationof the classic. In his The OldestBook of theChinese: The YihKing and Its Authors(1892), Lacouperiede- scribedthe Yijingas a disguisedBabylonian dictionary brought to China by the "people of Bak origin."13Like McClatchie,Lacouperie saw the divinatoryele-

9 Girardot,The VictorianTranslation of China,pp. 1-16. 10 See theXici Sii?, Part2, chapter2. For a translationof thischapter, see Legge, The I Ching, pp. 382-385. 11 For a discussionof how widespreadthe Yijinghad beenused in traditionalChina for divination, see RichardJ. Smith,Fortune-tellers and Philosophers:Divination in TraditionalChinese Soci- ety(Boulder 1991), pp. 13-130. 12 For a discussionof how themissionaries before James Legge renderedthe Yijing,see Shchut- skii,Researches on theI Ching,pp. 16-27;Rutt, The Book of Changes,pp. 60-68. 13 Iulian Shchutskiiis criticalof Lacouperie'sapproach. For his reviewof Lacouperie'stransla- tion,see Shchutskii,Researches on theI Ching,pp. 24-26.

This content downloaded from 142.66.3.42 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:13:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JamesLegge's and RichardWilhelm's Interpretations of the Yijing 319 mentsof the Yijingas proofsof its linkto Mesopotamia.This pagan mysticism surroundingthe Yijingwas so widelyaccepted in late nineteenth-centuryEurope thatit promptedLegge's daughter,Helen EdithLegge, to wonderwhy her well- educatedfather had spentso muchenergy on such a strangetext. Reflecting the Westernperception of the Yijingof thetime, she commended:"Even a glanceat the mysterioushexagrams, and theirstill more bewildering arrangement, shows how useless it is foranyone but a scholarto attemptto give an accountof the book."14 Comparedto thisprevailing image of the Yijing,James Legge's translation was unique.In thepreface to The Yi King, Legge pinpointedtwo featuresof his translationthat distinguished it fromothers. First, he employeda differenttech- niqueof translation.Instead of theword-for-word translation practiced by previous translatorssuch as P. Jean-BaptisteRegis (1663-1738), he adoptedan idiomaticapproach which allowed him to focuson translatingthe meaning of thetext ratherthan the meaningof a singleword. The goal of this idiomaticapproach was to achievewhat Legge called "the seeingof mindto mind"between the au- thorand the translator.15In practice,it gave the translatorthe poetic licenseto renderthe text intelligibly by addingwords, or even sentences,into the text. In- dicatedby parenthesis,these added wordsor sentencesfilled lacunae or missing links thatthe translatorfound in the text. These additionswere, in Legge's words,"what the mind of the [Yijing]writer supplied for itself."16 With this poetic license,he was able to downplayaspects of the Yijingthat he deemedunim- portant,and to highlightthose that he thoughtwere essential. This "mind-to-mind"translation allowed Legge to do somethingthat previous translatorscould neverhave done - separatingthe Yijingtext from its commentarialmaterials. In the receivedtext of the Yijing,three commentarial materials (i.e., theTuan |jc, theXiang Wl, the Wenyan 3Cm) wereincluded into the textual bodyof the Yijing.As partof a groupof commentarialmaterials known collec- tivelyas the Ten Wings,these three pieces of writingwere dividedup and in- sertedinto the sixty-fourhexagrams, rather than listed (as othersdid) at theend of theclassic.17 For Legge, thismixing of theoriginal text with its commentarial materialshad misledboth the Chinese commentators and theWestern translators to read the Yijingas a divinatorytext. In actuality,he argued,the original Yijing

14 Helen EdithLegge, James Legge, p. 34. 15 Legge, TheI Ching,p. xv. 16 Legge, TheI Ching,p. xvi. 17 The Ten Wingsare consideredto be commentarialmaterials elaborating on themeanings of the sixty-fourhexagrams. They consist of thefollowing pieces of writings:Tuan ffcParts 1 and 2, Xiang ft Parts 1 and 2, Xici Parts 1 and 2, Wenyan>C~H' ShuoguaIftìK Xugua Epif' Zagua fgih In the receivedtext of tne Yijingdated back to the 300s C.E., the Tuan (Part 1 and 2), theXiang (Part 1 and 2), and theWenyan are includedin the Yijingtext. Hence, theparts of the Tuan,the Xiang, and Wenyanthat dealt with "Qian" fg (Hexagram#1, the Creative) appeared under"Qian." By the same token,the partsof the Tuan and the Xiang thatconcerned with "Kun" ti$(Hexagram #2, the Yielding) appeared under "Kun."

This content downloaded from 142.66.3.42 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:13:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 320 TzE-KiHon textwas muchshorter, consisting of the sixty-fourhexagrams, their hexagram statements,and theirline statements.As a whole,the shortened Yijing was a historicaldocument written in thetenth century B.C.E. by two outstandingleaders of the WesternZhou Period,King Wen and the Duke of Zhou. In writingthe originalYijing, Legge asserted,the two WesternZhou leadersoutlined their vi- sionsof a strongfeudal state and theirplans forbuilding a new social and political system.18 It shouldbe pointedout thatLegge was notthe first one to separatethe Yijing textfrom its commentarialmaterials. He mightvery well be, as Girardotde- scribes,"the first Western scholar to producean intelligiblerendition of thecom- pletework [of the Yijing],clearly disentangling the ancient core Text ... and the later,symbolically interpretative Appendixes."19 Nevertheless, what he did was similarto Li Guangdi's$)£% (1642-1718) Zhouyizhezhong JÜHJ/f 41. In this 1715 Yijingcommentary sponsored by the Kangxi Emperor(r. 1662-1722), Li Guangdipresented the Yijingin such a mannerthat it beganwith the original Yi- jing (i.e., the sixty-fourhexagrams, their hexagram statements and theirline statements),and followedby theTen Wings.To justifywhat he did, Li reminded his readersthat in ancienttimes the originalYijing was separatedfrom the Ten Wings,and it was onlyuntil the Western Han Period(221 B.C.E. - 8 C.E.) that thecommentator Fei Zhi |f[lC mixedthem together. According to Li, latercom- mentatorssuch as Wang Bi HiãÉg(226-249) and Cheng Yi gg| (1033-1107) followedin Fei Zhi's footstepsand createda traditionof mixingthe original Yi- jing withits commentarial materials. To help readersbetter understand the original Yijing,Li foundit necessaryto producea textthat clearly distinguished the originalYijing from its commentarialmaterials.20 Considering the fact that Legge had consultedthe Zhouyi zhezhong in translatingthe Yijingand thathe citedthe Zhouyizhezhong several timesto supporthis separationof the Yijingfrom its commentarialmaterials,21 it is apparentthat he drewinspiration from Li Guangdi in his attemptto recoverthe original Yijing.

Yijingas a HistoricalDocument In separatingthe originalYijing from its commentarialmaterials and consigning thecommentarial materials to the "Appendixes,"Legge admittedthat he cut the Yijing's linkwith the legendary cultural figure Fu Xi. Many referencesto Fu Xi beingan authorof theclassic were now excludedfrom the original Yijing. Con- sequently,it would demotethe Yijingfrom being the oldestclassic in China to beingthe third oldest text following the Shujing and theShijing. Legge conceded

18 Legge, The Yi King,pp. 1-6. 19 Girardot,The VictorianTranslation of China,p. 366. 20 Li Guangdi,Zhouyi zhezhong (Beijing 2002), "Fanli" jl$lj, p. 1. 21 Legge, The Yi King,pp. xiii-xiv,xxi. For a discussionof thepopularity of theZhouyi zhezong amongthe nineteenth-century missionaries, see Shchutskii,Researches on theI Ching,p. 28.

This content downloaded from 142.66.3.42 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:13:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JamesLegge 's and RichardWilhelm 's Interpretationsof the Yijing 321 thatthis demotion would be significantbecause Westernscholars of his timeval- ued the Yijingbecause of its reputationof beingthe oldesttext in China. How- ever,he believedthat the demotion was well compensatedby recoveringthe his- toricalsignificance of the Yijing.22 To see how Legge transformedthe Yijingfrom a divinatorytext into a historical document,let us turnto his translationof thefirst ten hexagrams. For many Chinese commentators,the firstten hexagrams- "Qian" ^¿ (The Creative), "Kun" ftp(The Reception),"Tun" ï£ (Difficultyat the Beginning),"Meng" H (YouthfulFolly), "Xu" W (Waiting),"Song" |£ (Conflict),"Shi" gfP(The Army), "Bi" tb (HoldingTogether), "Xiaoxu" /Jvjlf(Taming Power of the Small), and "Lü" JÜ (Treading")- representedthe evolution of theuniverse after the mixing of theyin and yang naturalforces. The storywent like this: the mixingof yin ("Kun") and yang ("Qian") createda universewith the multitudeof beingsin need of guidance("Tun" and "Meng"), and aftera periodof difficulttime in whichconflicts occurred ("Xu," "Song," "Shi," and "Bi"), order was estab- lishedin theuniverse as well as in humansociety ("Xiaoxu" and "Lü").23 For Legge, however,while the ten hexagramsmight very well be a story about the evolutionof the universe,they were originallyhistorical records of King Wen and the Duke of Zhou to constructa new socio-politicalorder in an- cientChina. The hexagramswere writtenat a timewhen the Shangdynasty (c. 1600 - 1050 B.C.E.) had fallen,and a new politicalorder was yetto emergeto replaceit. Take "Tun" (YouthfulFolly, hexagram #3) as an example.In Legge's remarkson the hexagram,he called attentionto the criticalhistorical juncture whenKing Wen was on his way to topplethe Shang. The charactercalled ["Tun"] is pictorial,and was intendedto showus how a plant struggleswith difficulty out of theearth, rising gradually above the surface.This difficulty,marking the firststages in the growthof a plant,is used to symbolise thestruggles that mark the rise of a stateout of a conditionof disorder,consequent on a greatrevolution. ... King [Wen]and his son wrote,as theydid in everyhexa- gram,with reference to a particularstate of affairswhich had in mind. ... [Wen] saw the social and politicalworld around him in greatdisorder, had to be reme- died. But he had faithin himselfand thedestinies of his House. Let therebe pru- dence and caution,with unswerving adherence to the right;let thegovernment of thedifferent states be entrustedto good and able men:- thenall wouldbe well.24 As a hexagramfollowing the mixing of "Qian" and "Kun," Legge read "Tun" as representingthe disorder in China priorto the rise of the Zhou. At thiscritical juncturein history,King Wen wrote"Tun" to expresshis aspirationfor leading the country.He firstsummoned the people of his feudalstate to take the chal- lengeof restoringorder to thecountry. And then,he called uponpeople of other feudalstates to followhis lead to builda new social and politicalsystem.

22 Legge, The Yi King,pp. 6-7. 23 See Xugualines 1-11. For a translation,see Legge, The Yi King,pp. 433-434. 24 Legge, The Yi King,p. 63.

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In similarfashion, Legge historicized"Meng" (YouthfulFolly, hexagram #4) and "Xu" (Waiting,hexagram #5). First, similar to whathe did to "Tun," he ex- plainedthe literal meaning of "Meng." He toldus: "As ["Tun"] showsus plants strugglingfrom beneath the surface, ["Meng"] suggeststo us thesmall and unde- velopedappearance which they then present; and henceit came to be thesymbol of youthfulinexperience and ignorance."25As a symbolof "youthfulinexperience and ignorance,"Legge took"Meng" to meanKing Wen's call fora new political orderin China. The disorderafter the collapse of theShang had caused so much damageto China thatsomething had to be done to restoreorder to thecountry. "The object of the hexagram,"he wrote, "is to show how such a condition shouldbe dealtwith by theparent and ruler,whose authority and dutyare representedby the second and sixth [lines in this hexagram],the two undivided lines."26Consequently, King Wen's determinationto restoreorder in "Meng" led to his actionin "Xu." Again, similarto previoushexagrams, Legge saw botha literaland a historicalmeaning in "Xu." Literally"Xu" meantwaiting. Legge spokeof thepossibility of confrontationwhen two armies were engaged in battle, and thus"it takesthe wiser plan of waitingtill success is sure." For him,this literal meaningof "Xu" referredto a specifichistorical event in King Wen's life, namely,his waitingto crossthe Yellow Riverto attackthe Shang imperial court. To make his point,he concentratedon the hexagramstatement in "Xu" which said: "It will be advantageousto cross the greatstream." For him, "the great stream"meant the Yellow River"which the lords of [Zhou] mustcross in a revo- lutionarymovement against the dynasty of Yin [Shang]and itstyrant."27 Naturallyfor Legge, "Song" (Conflict,hexagram #6) and "Shi" (Army,hexagram#7) meant military action after a periodof risingtension between the Shang imperialcourt and the Zhou feudalhouse. For him, the two hexagramswere King Wen's descriptionof his militaryexpeditions against the Shang whenthe Shang imperialcourt refused to give up its power. Withfive divided lines and one undividedline in the secondplace, hexagram"Shi" was particularlyimpor- tantto Legge. First,it depicteda situationin whicha general(the undivided line) leadingcolumns of soldiersin battle."It is easy to see," Legge toldus, "how the undividedline in thesecond place shouldbe interpretedof thegeneral, who is re- 28 spondedto by thedivided line in thefifth and royalplace." AlthoughKing Wen wrotethe hexagram thousands of yearsago, Legge suggestedhis readersto asso- ciate it withEngland where "every man was regimentedsomewhere."29 Despite thefact they were separatedby thousandsof years,Legge saw a resemblanceof the WesternZhou systemin VictorianEngland. Second, the hexagramdid not talkabout war alone, it also discussedhow to maintainorder and preservemoral

25 Legge, The Yi King,p. 66. 26 Legge, The Yi King,p. 66. 27 Legge, The Yi King,p. 68. Z8 Legge, The Yi King,p. 72. 29 Legge, The Yi King,p. 22.

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integrityin war. In the top line of the hexagram,Legge foundthat King Wen ponderedabout how to rewardhis officersand soldiersfairly. Legge toldus that whileKing Wen was eager to rewardhis officersgenerously to show his appre- ciationof theirbravery, he was worriedabout rewardingthe wrongpersons. Thus,King Wen came to theconclusion that he neededto matchthe rewards with themoral characters of therecipients. "Small men,of ordinaryor less thanordi- narycharacter, may be rewardedwith riches and certainhonours," Legge ex- plained,"but land and thewelfare of its populationshould not be giveninto the handsof any who are not equal to the responsibilityof such a trust."30In this way, Legge foundthat King Wen laid the foundationof his futuregovernment whichemphasized trust and moraldeeds. Withthe success of militaryexpeditions came thebirth of theZhou Dynasty. For Legge, hexagrams"Bi" (HoldingTogether, #8), "Xiaoxu" (TamingPower of theSmall, #9),and "Lü" (Treading,#10) were therecords of King Wen and his son, the Duke of Zhou, in establishinga new government.Part of the new Zhou systemwas a unityof differences- allowingdifferent feudal states to exist so long as theysubmitted to therule of theZhou king.For Legge, thisstructure of Zhou feudalismwas expressedclearly in "Bi." Withfive divided lines and one undividedline in the fifthplace, "Bi" symbolized"the harmonyof union" in whichthe subjects were ready to submitto one sovereignauthority.31 Thus, by renderingthe hexagramsas recordsof the rise of the Zhou feudal house,Legge gave the Yijinga new image. It was no longera manualof divina- tionbut a collectionof shorthistorical essays whichLegge describedas "enig- maticallyand symbolicallyexpressed, on importantthemes, mostly of a moral, social, and politicalcharacter."32 Interpreting the Yijingin thisway, he cleared theveneer of mysticismthat had associatedit fora long time.Rather than con- tinuingto look forits linkto theworld of theOld Testament,he called uponhis readers"to girdup theirloins for the mastery of thebook insteadof talkingabout it as mysteriousand all but inexplicable."33In highlightingthe historicalsignifi- cance of the Yijing,he invitedhis readersto understandthe history of China on itsown terms.

Limitsto Legge's HistoricalReading DespiteLegge's successin turningthe first ten hexagrams into historical records of therise of the Zhou, therewere limitsto his historicalreading of the Yijing. First,as he workedhis way throughthe classic, he foundincreasing difficulty in relatingthe hexagramsto the WesternZhou history.Unlike the firstten hexagrams,other hexagrams do notreadily lend themselvesto history.For instance,

30 Legge, The YiKing,p. 25. 31 Legge, The Yi King,pp. 75-76. 32 Legge, The Yi King,p. 10. 33 Legge, The Yi King,pp. 25-26.

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"Tai" # (Peace, #11),"Pi" g (Obstruction,#12), "Tongren" [S] A (Fellowship #13)and "Dayou" AW (GreatHoldings, #14) suggest abstract ideas ratherthan historicalevents. For thesehexagrams, Legge was hardpressed to findhistorical relevancein them.In his remarks,he limitedhimself to explainingthe literal meaningsof thesehexagrams, without discussing how theymight have been re- latedto thehistory of theearly Zhou.34 To remedythe situation,Legge sometimesturned the hexagramsinto King Wen's advice to rulers,something similar to whatNiccolo Machiavellihad done in //Principe (The Prince). Take, for instance,"Jing" # (Well, #48) and "Ding" JfH(The Cauldron,#50). Realizingthat the two hexagramshad littleto do withthe Western Zhou history,Legge focusedhis remarkson theirsymbol- ism. He told his readersthat "Jing" and "Ding" were the only two hexagrams "namedfrom things in ordinaryuse withmen," and yetthey were "bothdescrip- tiveof thegovernment's work of nourishing."35For Legge, "Jing"stood for the functionof a well in supplyinghumans with water. It symbolizeda good governmentwhich nourishedits people by improvingthe agriculturalproduction throughredistributing land.36 In the same vein, "Ding" representeda cooking utensilfor food preparation.It symbolizeda good governmentwhich cultivated itspeople's moralcharacter through education.37 In cases like "Jing"and "Ding," whena historicalreading did notwork, Legge shiftedto an ethical-philosophical reading. Worsestill, Legge foundeven moreproblems in historicizingthe Yijingwhen he came to the Ten Wings.As the "Appendixes,"the Ten Wingsappeared after Legge's translationof the sixty-fourhexagrams. But even as the "Appendixes," the Ten Wingswere at odds withthe way thatLegge read thehexagrams. First, some of theTen Wingsare clearlyahistorical. For instance,the Xugua Jfih (Se- quence of the Hexagrams)and the Zagua ífÈIÈh(Miscellaneous Notes on the Hexagrams)are about the orderof the hexagramsand theirpossible relations. Thereis no way one can read historyinto it, let alone thehistory of theWestern Zhou. Of thesetwo "Appendixes,"Legge offeredonly a word-for-wordtransla- tion - somethingthat he scornedand triedvery hard to avoid.38Second, other partsof the Ten Wingsare fullof cosmologicaldiscussion. It is particularlytrue of theXici 8fSí (The AppendedStatements) and the Shuogualíèíh (Explaining the Meaningof the Hexagrams)where there are numerouspassages explaining thecreation and thefunctioning of theuniverse. As a formerChristian missionary,Legge was particularlysensitive to thesecosmological discussions. In them,

34 Legge, The Yi King,pp. 81-90. 35 Legge, The Yi King,p. 171. 36 Legge, The Yi King,pp. 166-167.In his comments,Legge discussedthe Zhou's well-fieldsys- tem. 37 Legge, The Yi King,pp. 171-173. 38 Legge, The Yi King,pp. 433-444.

This content downloaded from 142.66.3.42 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:13:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JamesLegge's and RichardWilhelm's Interpretations of the Yijing 325 he sensedthat the Chinese did notaccept the idea thatthe universe was createdby an omnipotentcreator. For thisreason, he criticizedthe authorof the Xici for committing"the errorof puttingthe last first.""Neither creation nor cosmogony," he complained,"was beforethe mind of theauthor whose work I am ana- lysing."39Similarly, he had mixedfeelings about the author of the Shuogua. On the one hand, he foundthat in some occasions the authorof the Shuogua had risen"to a heightof thoughtreached nowhere else in thesetreatises." He called readers'attention to paragraphseight to tenof the Shuogua,where he foundan explicitdiscussion of the existenceof God comparableto Paul's RomanLetters and Thomson'sHymn on the Seasons.40On the otherhand, to Legge's dismay, theauthor of theShuogua only did halfof hisjob. In manyparts of theShuogua, he foundthe author engaged in "sillyand trivial"discussions with no referenceto theomnipotent God.41 Legge's unkindcomments on theXici and the Shuoguareveal his limitations as a missionary-cwm-scholar.Being a transitionalfigure in the "Victoriantransla- tionof China," he was in parta missionarywho looked for parallelsbetween Christianityand Confucianism,and in parta professionalacademician who stud- ied China as a memberof thecommunity of nations.Certainly, by all accounts, Legge was quitesuccessful in makingthe transitionfrom a missionaryto a professionalacademician. He was a lot moreopen-minded than his fellowmissionar- ies in findingvalues in Chinesethoughts. Rather than considering the Chinese classics as worthlessin spreadingthe Gospel like manyother missionaries did, Legge saw the importanceof understandingthe Chinesemind before converting themto Christianity.As a result,as NormanGirardot has pointedout, Legge was moreeffective as "a transformerof Westernersto a visionof a classical China" thanas "a converterof Chineseto theChristian gospel."42 Nevertheless, even after he became an Oxforddon, Legge stillcould not help but read the Chinese classicsthrough the lens of a Christianmissionary. As he removedthe veneer of mysticismfrom the Yijinghexagrams by turningthem into historical documents, he introducedthe Christian question of theexistence of God intothe Appendixes. Still shapedby his Christianview, he was unableto acceptthe Confucian vision of theuniverse as a "spontaneouslyself-generating life process" that did not re- quirethe préexistence of theCreator.43 In thefinal analysis, being a "hyphenated missionary-scholar,"44Legge remainsa transitionalfigure. In offeringa new readingof the Yijinghexagrams, he was instrumentalin thechange from the mis-

39 Legge, The Yi King,pp. 53-54. 40 Legge, The Yi King,pp. 48-52. 41 Legge, The Yi King,pp. 25-26. 42 Girardot,The VictorianTranslation of China,pp. 13-14. 43 For a discussionof theChinese cosmology, see FredericW. Mote, IntellectualFoundations of China (New York 1989), pp. 9-25; Tu Wei-ming,Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation(Albany 1985), pp. 35-50. 44 The termis NormanGirardot's. See The VictorianTranslation of China,p. 15.

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sionaryencounter with China to theprofessional sinological studies of China. But limitedby his earlierexperiences, his readingof the Ten Wingsstill carried the legacyof the missionaries'search for parallels between Christianity and Confu- cianism.

A DifferentMissionary-cw/w-Scholar Forty-twoyears afterthe appearanceof JamesLegge' s The Yi King, in 1924 RichardWilhelm published his Yijingtranslation, / Ging: Das Buch der Wand- lungen.In manyrespects, the two translatorshad a lot in common.Like Legge, Wilhelmspent his early life as a missionaryin China. He came to Qingdao, Shandong,in 1899, shortlyafter the citybecame a Germancolony. Associated withthe Allgemeiner Protestantischer Missionsverein, he lived therefor twenty- two years. During thattime, he masteredthe Chinese language,became ac- quaintedwith many Chinese friends, and translateda numberof Confucianand Daoist texts.45Reminiscent of Legge's relationwith Wang Tao, Wilhelmcollabo- ratedwith a Chinesescholar, Lao Naixuan ^Zi/lï (1843-1921), in translating theChinese texts. A formerhigh-level Qing official,Lao came to Qingdaoafter the 1911 Revolutionalong withother Qing loyalists.During much of the 1910s, he workedwith Wilhelmon translatingthe Yijing.46Also similarto Legge, Wilhelmeventually dropped his missionarywork and became a professional scholar.After serving briefly as thefirst attaché to theGerman Embassy in Bei- jing in theearly 1920s, he wentback to Germanyin 1924 to assumethe sinological chair at the Universityof Frankfurt.As a professionalscholar, he devoted himselfto promotingthe studyof China in Germany.He establishedthe China Instituteat theUniversity of Frankfort,published the journal Sinica, and traveled widelywithin Germany to lectureon theYijing.41 Despitehis similaritieswith Legge, Wilhelmwas a differentmissionary-o/m- scholar.First was thedifference in time.When Legge was a missionaryin Hong Kong, theVictorian England was on her way to rule theworld. The powerand theglory of Pax Britannicaconvinced Legge thatthe Europeans were on a mission to civilizethe world. In contrast,Wilhelm witnessed the Europeanpowers engagedin devastatingwars. Even in Qingdao,far away fromthe major spheres of actionof the FirstWorld War, Wilhelmsaw the Europeantechnological ad-

45 Wilhelmgave a livelyrecord of his life in Qingdao in The Soul of China translatedby John HolroydReece (London 1928). For his acquaintancewith Chinese friends and his translationof the Chinesetexts, see pp. 166-202. See also Salome Wilhelm,Richard Wilhelm: Der geistige Mittlerzwischen China undEuropa (Düsseldorf- Köln 1956), pp. 204-217; Paul Pelliot,"Ri- chardWilhelm," Toung Pao 27 (1930), pp. 237-239. 46 For Lao Naixuan'sbiography, see his Ren'an laorenziding nianpu R^^ÀãsT^iS (Taibei 1966). 47 Some of Wilhelm'slectures appear in his Lectureson the I Ching: Constancyand Change, translatedfrom the German by IreneEber (Princeton1979). For a discussionof Wilhelm'sin- tellectuallife in Germany,see IreneEber's introductionto Lectureson theI Ching.

This content downloaded from 142.66.3.42 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:13:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JamesLegge's and RichardWilhelm's Interpretations of the Yijing 327 vancementsbeing used to destroycivilization.48 This differencein experienceled thetwo translatorsto look at theworld differently. Seeing VictorianEngland as thesymbol of modernity,Legge was confidentthat the West had somethingto offerto theEast, such as its Christiantheology and rationalthinking. On thecon- trary,struck by themassive destruction of theWestern powers, Wilhelm thought thatthe Chinesewisdom was "the cure and salvationof modernEurope."49 In- steadof focusingon materialgrowth and technologicalprogress as in theWest, he foundthe Chinese had developed over centuries"a spiritof innocence" emergedfrom "the deepest depths of being,there where the springsof lifewell up."50As theultimate "other" of theWest, he believedthe Chinese offered an al- ternativevision of lifethat all Europeansshould consider. Because he believedthat the Chinesewisdom was a cure of modernEurope, Wilhelmvalued his collaborationwith Lao Naixuan. Contraryto Legge who treatedWang Tao purelyas an assistantwhose mainjob was to collectinforma- tion,Wilhelm saw Lao as his teacher.He felt"indebted" to Lao foropening his mindto "thewonders of theBook of Changes."51To pay his respectsto Lao, he introducedhim to his readersas follows:"His familywas closelyrelated to the descendentsof Confucius.He owneda bundleof theholy milfoil poles fromthe tombof Confucius,and he stillknew of the art whichhad also become almost unknownin China of workingout an oracle by theiraid."52 For Wilhelm,Lao was notmerely an Yijingscholar; he was an embodimentof theliving tradition of Confucianism.To preservethis living tradition, Wilhelm adopted the methodof "doubletranslation" in renderingthe Yijinginto German. First, he translatedthe textinto German after listening to Lao's explanation.Then, he checkedthe accu- racyof his Germantranslation by re-translatingit into Chinese. He asked Lao to reviewhis re-translationand only afterLao approvedit, did he go back to his Germantranslation to improveits style.53Throughout this laboriousprocess of translatingthe Yijingback and forthin Germanand Chinese,Lao was involvedin everystep and his view greatlyshaped the translation.

Yijingand Post-War Europe To some, Wilhelmwas a bit extremein honoringthe Chinesewisdom. For instance,George and AnninaDanton, the two translatorsof Wilhelm'sConfucius and Confucianism,advised their English-speaking readers of the 1930s to be cau-

48 Wilhelmremained in Qingdaothroughout World War I, includingthe siege of thecity by the Japanese.For his remembranceof his wartimeexperience, see The Soul of China,pp. 166-220. See also SalomeWilhelm, Richard Wilhelm, pp. 218-256. 49 Wilhelm,The Soul of China,p. 363. 50 Wilhelm,The Soul of China,p. 363. 51 Wilhelm,The I Ching,translated by CaryF. Baynes(Princeton 1950), p. xlv. 52 Wilhelm,The Soul of China,p. 181. 53 Wilhelm,The I Ching,p. xlv.

This content downloaded from 142.66.3.42 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:13:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 328 TzE-KiHon tiousabout Wilhelm's extremism. They told them that Wilhelm's view was "to an extentrare even amongthe radically minded, in theright of theChinese to intel- lectual,political, aesthetic, and social self-determination."54To others, however, Wilhelm'sview was a primeexample of "an all-embracinghumanness." In his memorialaddress at Wilhelm'sfuneral, Carl G. Jungcommended him for his "greatnessof heart"which allowed him to "open himselfwithout reservation to a profoundlyforeign spirit."55 To furthermake his point,Jung said: "Reachingbe- yondall Christianressentiment, beyond all Europeanpresumptions, his compre- hendingdevotion is in itselfwitness of a rarelygreat spirit."56 An extremistor not,Wilhelm had in mindthe devastation of post-World War I Europewhen he paid tributeto theChinese wisdom. For instance,in the 1923 prefaceto his Yijingtranslation, Wilhelm used theoccasion to urgehis readersto look beyondthe dark present.He remindedthem that he completedhis Yijing translationin thehorror of the FirstWorld War. Partof his translation,he told them,was done in themidst of ruthlesskilling and indiscriminatedestruction dur- ingthe Japanese siege of Qingdao.As a classic aboutthe constancy in changeand findinghope amidstadversity, the Yijinggave him courageto live throughthe darkestmoments of his life.57After returning to Europe in the early 1920s, he foundhis experiencein Qingdaohad taughthim a greatdeal aboutthe relevancy of the Yijingto thewar-torn Europe. "In Germany,"he said, "I seemedto be as farremoved as possiblefrom ancient Chinese wisdom, although in Europe also manya wordof counselfrom the mysteriousbook has here and therefallen on fertilesoil."58 By "a wordof counsel,"Wilhelm meant the main theme of the Yijing:the op- timismabout life and therefusal to give up. At a timewhen things appeared to be hopelessin the war-tornEurope, he believedthe Europeansand particularlythe Germanshad much to learn fromthis Chinese classic. In his lectureentitled "Constancyin Change" deliveredin the 1920s, Wilhelmmade clear how the Europeanscould benefit from the Yijing.To set thetone for his lecture,he began witha referenceto post-warEurope. "Humankindhas experiencedmuch," he said, "and I mightsay thatmy life,as well as lifegenerally, appears to be suf- fusedwith difficulty."59 Having painted a gloomypicture of the present,he remindedhis audiencethat hardship in life shouldnot deterthem from taking ac- tionsto build a betterfuture. Summarizing the Yijingin simpleterms, he said: "Life is an inexhaustiblespring; it does notdecrease and does notincrease, and is

54 RichardWilhelm, Confucius and Confucianism,translated into English by George H. Danton and AnninaPeriam Danton (New York 1931), p. iii. 55 Carl G. Jung,"In Memoryof RichardWilhelm," in RichardWilhelm, The Secret of the Golden Flower:A ChineseBook ofLife (New York 1962), p. 138. 56 Carl G. Jung,"In Memoryof RichardWilhelm," p. 138. Jl Wilhelm,The I Ching,pp. xlv-xlvi. ^ wnnelm,me l Ching,pp. xivi. 59 Wilhelm, Lectures on the I Ching, p. 83.

This content downloaded from 142.66.3.42 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:13:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JamesLegge 's and RichardWilhelm 's Interpretationsof the Yijing 329 at everybody'sdisposal."60 He urgedhis audienceto adoptthis Chinese view of life and to make sacrificein re-buildingthe war-tornEurope. "No matterhow painful,"he said, "we mustprepare to move forwardinto the new time,together withold remnantsthat tradition has given us - unsentimentally,bravely, and hopefully."61Because of his promotionof Chineseculture as a cureto post-World War I Europe,Wilhelm is knownto some as a "sinisizedGerman translator."62

The Philosophyof Change Understandingthe Yijingfrom the perspectiveof post-World War I Europe, Wilhelmrendered the Chinese classic quitedifferent from Legge. In theintroduc- tionto his Yijingtranslation, he acknowledgedthat the Chinese classic was origi- nallya "book of oracles"and had been widelyused in Chinaas a manualof divination.Also, he gave creditto KingWen and theDuke of Zhou forchanging the natureof the Yijingby addingremarks to thehexagrams and thehexagram lines. However,unlike Legge, he consideredConfucius more important than King Wen and the Duke of Zhou in transformingthe Yijingfrom a book of oracles intoa book of wisdom."The Book of Changesas editedand annotatedby Confucius," he proclaimed,"is theversion that has come downto our time."63 This differencebetween Legge and Wilhelmis revealingwhen considering the factthat both translators based theirtranslations on Li Guangdi'sZhouyi zhezong. As mentionedearlier, in this 1715 commentarythe originalYijing text (i.e., the sixty-fourhexagrams and theirlines) was separatedfrom the Ten Wings.Follow- ing in Li's footsteps,in theirtranslations Legge and Wilhelmseparated the text fromits commentarialmaterials. But the two translatorshad differentviews on therelative importance of thesetwo parts of the Yijing.For Legge, theseparation of thetext from the commentarial materials gave himthe reasonto focushis at- tentionon thesixty-four hexagrams as historicaldocuments of theearly Zhou. In contrast,for Wilhelm, the separation of thetext from commentarial materials allowed himto concentrateon the Ten Wingsas therepository of Confucius'pro- foundreflections on life. In otherwords, what used to be the "Appendixes"in Legge's translationtook the centerstage in Wilhelm's discussionof Confucian moralphilosophy. Accordingto Wilhelm,there are threemain ideas in the Ten Wingsthat make the Yijinga worldclassic.64 First is the idea of change. For him, the Yijingis concernedwith the interactionof two naturalforces, the yin [H (the receptive)

60 Wilhelm, Lectures on the I Ching, p. 93. 61 Wilhelm, Lectures on the I Ching, p. 1 12. 62 See MichaelLackner, "Richard Wilhelm, a 'sinicized'German translator," in De l'un au multi- ple: Traductionsdu chinoisvers les langueseuropéenes, éd. by Viviane Alletonand Michael Lackner(Paris 1999), pp. 85-98. 63 Wilhelm,The 1 Ching,p. liv. 64 Wilhelm,The 1 Ching,pp. liv-lvii.

This content downloaded from 142.66.3.42 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:13:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 330 TzE-KiHon and theyang Wo (the creative). As theyin turns into the yang and theyang trans- formsinto the yin, they give rise to themyriad things and triggerchanges in this universe.Contrary to theChristian idea of God's creationof theuniverse, this interactionof theyin and theyang leads theChinese to believethat "the world of beingarises out of theirchange and interplay."It also allows themto see change as continuous,cyclical, and purposeful.Second is the idea of representation. Wilhelmconsiders the sixty-fourhexagrams as "images" ratherthan historical records.As symbols,they do not have specificreferences but representingthe "unfoldingof conditionsin statunascendi" They directour attentionfrom our immediatesurroundings to theprocess of changein thisuniverse, so thatwe can see "the seeds of thingsto come." Thirdis the idea of humanagency. Through the symbolismof the hexagramsand its oracle language,the Yijingdescribes a worldfull of hope and opportunity.Even in a seeminglybleak situation,the Yi- jing offerssuggestions to turnthings around. For Wilhelm,this optimism about lifeis thegreatest contribution of the Yijing,because it encouragesthe readers to " takecharge of theirlife and to become"independent of thetyranny of events. In highlightingthese three ideas in theTen Wings,Wilhelm shows that he was morea scholarthan a missionary.Despite serving as a missionaryin Qingdaofor more thantwo decades, he was readyto distancehimself from such Christian tenetsas the préexistenceof the Creatorand the salvationthrough grace. Of course,he neverclaimed that he translatedthe Yijingto counterChristianity. But " his abilityto "reachbeyond all Christianressentiment using Carl Jung'sterms, gave himinsights into the Chinese cosmology that were not available to missionaries. A case in pointis his understandingof theyin and theyang. UnlikeLegge who was ill at ease whenhe came upon thediscussion of theyin and theyang in theXici (AppendixIII in The Yi King),65Wilhelm not onlyunderstood their im- portancebut also explainedtheir meaning clearly to his readers.Part of thecom- plexityin understandingthe yin and theyang is their"unity of opposite."That is, on theone hand,the yin and theyang are completeopposite - yieldingversus ag- gressive,shadow versus light, soft versus firm, feminine versus masculine and so on. On theother hand, they work in tandemlike twopartners in a dance. To ex- plainthis unique relationship of theyin and theyang, Wilhelm wrote: In the last analysis,[the Creativeand theReceptive] cannot be called a dualism. The two principlesare unitedby a relationbased on homogeneity;they do not combatbut complement each other.The differencein level createsa potential,as it were,by virtueof whichmovement and livingexpression of energybecomes pos- sible.66

65 In commentingon theXici, Legge confinedhis commentson "the phenomenaof externalna- ture"and avoideddiscussing the Chinese cosmology. At times,Legge foundhis approachina- dequateto renderthe Xici intelligiblyand complainedabout it being"an amusementof thefol- ly." See The Yi King,pp. 349-352. 66 Wilhelm,The I Ching,pp. 281-282.

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This "bipolarcomplementarity" of the yin and the yang, as AndrewH. Plaks calls it,67was one of the laws of changethat Wilhelm wanted his readersto re- memberwhen reading the Yijing.Strange as it was to a Westernmind, this law explainswhy the world could be self-generativeand self-renewing.More importantly,it drewattention to thevitality of lifeand thepossibility of change.To un- derscorethis point, Wilhelm discussed the meaningof life and death. To him, birthwas "thecoming forth into the world of thevisible" and deathwas "there- turninto the regions of the invisible."68They were manifestationsof the interactionof theyin and theyang, such that "[n]either of thesesignifies an absolutebe- ginningnor an absoluteending, any more thando the changesof the seasons withinthe year."69 In the same vein, Wilhelmused theyin and theyang to explainthe Chinese cosmogony.In theXici I, chapter11, thereis a passagedescribing the generation of theuniverse. It describesa processof creationwhich includes the Great Primal Beginning(Taiji yfc®, the two primaryforces (liangyi i#fü), the fourimages (sixiangHÜ), and theeight trigrams (bagua Ai h)-This processis said to trig- gerthe creation of themyriad things in theuniverse.70 For Legge, beingpreoccu- pied withGod's creationof the universe,this Xici passage did not make sense. First,he wonderedwhat "the Great Primal Beginning" meant and how it was re- latedto God. Second, he did notknow "how was the firststep taken in the for- mationof thetwo elementarylines."71 Worse still,since the twelfth-century, this Xici passage was associatedwith the Diagram of the Great PrimalBeginning (Taiji tuXWB) of Zhou Dunyi JH^fiB(1017-1073), in whichan emptycircle was used to representthe Great Primal Beginning.72 Legge had no idea how the universecould be createdfrom emptiness. "I failmyself to understand,"he said, "how therecan be generatedfrom a circlethe undivided and thebroken line."73 Turningto Wilhelm,the Xici passage was about the creationof the universe based on the interactionof theyin and theyang. Whereasthe circle symbolized theworking in tandemof theyin and theyang, the straight and brokenlines representedthe opposite nature of thetwo forces.Reminding his readersabout this "bipolarcomplementarity" of the yin and theyang, he commented: TheGreat Primal Beginning, taiji, plays an importantrole in laterChinese natural philosophy.Originally ji is theridgepole - a simpleline symbolizing the positing of oneness(- ). Thispositing of onenessimplies also a positingof duality,an

67 AndrewH. Plaks,Archetype and Allegoryin theDream of theRed Chamber(Princeton 1976), pp. 43-53. 68 Wilhelm,The I Ching,p. 294. 69 Wilhelm,The I Ching,p. 294. 70 For a translationof theXici chapter,see Wilhelm,The I Ching,pp. 318-319. 71 Legge, The Yi King,p. 375. 72 A copy of theDiagram of theGreat Primal Beginning can be foundin Fung Yu-lan,A History of ChinesePhilosophy, vol. 2, translatedby Derk Bodde (Princeton1953), p. 436. 73 Legge, The Yi King,p. 375.

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aboveand a below.The conditioning element is furtherdesignated as an undivided line,while the conditioned element is representedby meansof a dividedline (-). Theseare the two polar primary forces later designated as yang,the bright principle,and yin, the dark.74 For Wilhelm,the "bipolarcomplementarity" of the yin and the yang explains how theuniverse creates and sustainsitself. It describeshow thingschange in ac- cordancewith different combination of theyin force and theyang force. The op- timismabout life is, to Wilhelm,the greatestcontribution of the Yijingto the world.

Hexagramas a Field of Action Readingthe Yijingfrom an ethical-philosophicalperspective, Wilhelm interpreted the sixty-fourhexagrams differently. Unlike Legge who consideredthe hexagramsas historicaldocuments detailing the story of theestablishment of theZhou Dynasty,Wilhelm saw themas philosophicaltreatises on how to perfectone's life.For Legge, as historicaldocuments, the sixty-four hexagrams had to be read in theorder they were presented in theYijing. In contrast,for Wilhelm, the sixty- fourhexagrams could be read in anyorder so longas thereaders used themto re- flecton life. This differenceaffected the ways in whichthe two translatorspre- sentedthe sixty-four hexagrams. In The Yi King,Legge putemphasis on therela- tionshipof one hexagramwith another hexagram. For instance,"Tun" (Difficulty at the Beginning,#3) and "Meng" (YouthftilFolly, #4) had to follow "Qian" (The Creative,#1) and "Kun" (The Yielding,#2) because theywere recordsof King Wen's attemptto challengethe Shang imperialcourt. In / Ging, Wilhelm treatedeach hexagramas an independententity embodying the principlesof changein the Yijing.Doing thisdid notimply that Wilhelm encouraged his readers to skipreading some of thehexagrams. Rather, he wantedhis readersto im- merse in hexagramsthat happened to attracttheir attention, and drew lessons fromthem. Being "one of the mostimportant books in the world's literature," Wilhelmbelieved that the Yijingoffered a wide varietyof resourcesto people of differentcultures and backgrounds.75 Take, forinstance, Wilhelm' s interpretationof the firstfour hexagrams. Re- gardingthe first hexagram "Qian" (The Creative),besides equating it to theyang naturalforce, he discussesthe hexagram as a symbolof time.He focuseson the fourattributes of "Qian": sublime,success, furthering,and perseverance.76To him,these four attributes indicate the importance of patienceand holdingfast to one's principle.He says: "Here it is shownthat the way to successlies in appre- hendingand givingactuality to the way of the universe[tao], which,as a law runningthrough end and beginning,brings about all phenomenain time. Thus

74 Wilhelm,The I Ching,pp. 318-319. 75 Wilhelm,The I Ching,p. xlvii. 76 Wilhelm,The I Ching,p. 4.

This content downloaded from 142.66.3.42 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:13:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JamesLegge's and RichardWilhelm's Interpretations of the Yijing 333 each step attainedforthwith becomes a preparationfor the next. Time is no longera hindrancebut themeans of makingactual what is potential."77Turning "Qian" intoa discussionof takingthe time to fulfillone's goal, Wilhelmmakes thehexagram appeal to a wide audience,who mayseek advice fortheir lives ratherthan the knowledge of China. In a similarfashion, he interprets"Kun" (The Receptive,#2) as a philosophical treatiseon devotion.Again, he discussesthe four attributes of thehexagram: sublime,success, furthering,and the perseveranceof a mare. Focusingon the maindifference between the attributesof "Qian" and thoseof "Kun," he com- mentsat lengthon the "perseveranceof a mare." First,he remindshis readers thata marecombines "the strength and swiftnessof thehorse with the gentleness and devotionof thecow."78 Then, he relatesthe symbolism of a mareto personal ethics: Appliedto humanaffairs, therefore, what the hexagram indicates is actionin con- formitywith the situation. The personin questionis notin an independentposi- tion,but is actingas an assistant.This means that he mustachieve something. It is nothis taskto tryto lead - thatwould only make him lose theway - butto let himselfbe led. If he knowsto meetfate with an attitudeof acceptance, he is sure tofind the right guidance.79 Thus, by turning"Kun" intoa discussionof passive activism,he transformsthe hexagraminto a guidefor life. Wilhelmdoes the same for "Tun" (Difficultyat the Beginning,#3) and "Meng" (YouthfulFolly, #4). In "Tun," he findsadvice forsomeone in a diffi- cultsituation. Speaking like a friendwho is offeringhelpful suggestions, he tells his readers:"If a personencounters a hindranceat thebeginning of an enterprise, he mustnot tryto forceadvance but mustpause and take thought.However, nothingshould put him off his course; he mustpreserve and constantlykeep the goal in sight."Not onlydoes Wilhelmoffer suggestions as to how to handleone- self duringa difficulttime, he also gives practicaladvice for turningthings around."It is importantto seek out the rightassistants," he says, "but he can findthem only if he avoidsarrogance and associateswith his fellowsin a spiritof humility."80As for "Meng," Wilhelmsees it as a discussionof teacher-student partnershipin education.Looking at thehexagram as anothermanifestation of the "bipolarcomplementarity" of the yin and theyang, he emphasizesthe importance of themeeting of themind between teachers and studentsin bringingabout a suc- cessfuleducation. On theone hand,the student "must be consciousof his lack of experience."He mustrealize that he was indeed"the young folly." On theother 81 hand,the teacher must "wait to be soughtout insteadof offeringhimself." For

77 Wilhelm,The I Ching,p. 5. 78 Wilhelm,The I Chinga . 11. 79 Wilhelm,The I Ching,p. 12. 80 Wilhelm,The I Ching,p. 17. 81 Wilhelm,The I Ching, p. 21 .

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Wilhelm,time is theessence in education.He warnsthat a teacheris irresponsi- ble if he offersassistance prematurely, or failsto take disciplinaryaction when necessary.Further broadening the appeal of thishexagram, Wilhelm reminds his readersthat what is said in "Meng" can be appliedto governmentas well. As in good education,good governmentinvolves the meeting of themind between the leadersand the people.82Thus, throughphilosophizing "Tun" and "Meng," he achieveswhat he setsout to do- transformingthe Yijinginto a book of wisdomto provokethought and to enrichpeople's life.

The "Book of Wisdom" Approach Of course,there are strengthsand weaknessesin Wilhelm'sethical-philosophical approachto the Yijing.On the positiveside, he succeededin turningthe Yijing intoa worldclassic. In his translation,he presentedan imagethat the Yijingmay have originatedfrom China, but it is a book thatspeaks to everyone.For the blessed,it issues warningabout the transienceof success and the dangerof hu- bris. For the downtrodden,it offersencouragement to make the best out of a givensituation and to workfor a betterfuture. For therest, it providesresources to anticipate,as RichardGotshalk puts it, the "movementinto the unknown and theuncertain."83 Precisely because Wilhelm's Yijing transcends historical and cul- turalboundaries, it has been so popularin theWest, especially after the publica- tionof itsEnglish translation in 1950. However,to his critics,Wilhelm's "book of wisdomapproach" may bring moreharm than good. He is seen as givinga simplisticview of the Yijingby por- trayingit as the "trans-temporaland trans-culturalrepository of unchangingwis- dom."84At a timewhen academicians are focusingtheir attention on recovering diverse, pluralistic,and marginalvoices in the past, Wilhelm's ethical-phil- osophicalapproach to the Yijinglooks out-dated,resembling a reductionist'sat- temptto simplifythe past. Thus, the calls for changeabound. Some scholars, suchas RichardJohn Lynn, want to undowhat Wilhelm has done by provingthat

82 Wilhelm,The I Ching,p. 24. 83 In Divination,Order and theZhouyi (Lanham, ML 1999), RichardGotshalk offers a translation of the Yijingas a divinationtext of the Zhou Dynasty.In the "Introduction"of thebook Got- shalkdiscusses how the Yijingprovides the "knowledgeof thefuture," allowing one to have a sense of orderin confrontingwith uncertainty of life. In a poetic manner,he describesthe "knowledgeof thefuture" of the Yijingas follows(p. 37): "Life - personaland collective- is inherentlyan affairof change.In itstemporality it involvesmovement into the unknown and the uncertain.Given our natureswe developa capacityto anticipatewhat that movement is bring- ing,and becausesomething is at stakefor us in our participationin thatmovement, we desireto anticipatewell whatis comingand aided by thatto shareeffectively in securingwhat is at stake as we encounterand interactwith what we do." 84 RichardJohn Lynn's review of KidderSmith et al., SungDynasty Uses of theI Ching(Prince- ton 1990), in JournalofSung-Yuan Studies 27 (1997), pp. 152-153.In his review,Richard John Lynncontrasts the approach of readingthe Yijingin SungDynasty Uses of theI Chingwith that of Wilhelm.

This content downloaded from 142.66.3.42 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:13:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JamesLegge's and RichardWilhelm's Interpretations of the Yijing 335 the Yijing"exists in so manyversions as thereare commentarieson it."85Others, suchas KidderSmith, promote "the study of Yijingin history"that no longerfo- cuses on theYijing itself but on how it has been interpretedor appropriatedin dif- ferenttimes.86 Whilethis discussion of a changein approachis valuableand refreshing,one shouldnot underestimate Wilhelm's contribution in makingthe Yijingaccessible to theWestern audience. A reductionistor not,there is no doubtthat he broadens theappeal of the Yijingby renderingit intoa book of wisdomtranscending cul- turaland historicalboundaries. In so doing, he makes the Yijingattractive not onlyto a smallcircle of Sinologistsin ivorytowers but to a largeraudience who seeks inspirationson life. More importantly,in evaluatingWilhelm's contribution,we need to take intoconsideration his time. In the 1920s, the eminentSi- nologistLionel Giles observedthat even in the "universalhistories," it was commonthat "China is eitherneglected altogether or dismissedin a chapteror two,the treatment accorded to herbeing necessary superficial and generallyinac- curate."87It was in thiscontext of neglectand ignoranceof anythingabout the East, thatWilhelm's Yijing translation was so valuable.In his writings,Wilhelm nevercame forwardto addresshis contemporaries'Eurocentricism. But by renderingthe Yijingas a book of wisdom,he provedthat there was somethingthe East could offerto theWest, and thatthe West might benefit from learning from theEast. Today, givenour discussionof globalismand muticulturalism,we may be suspiciousof Wilhelm'srigid East- West dichotomy. Nevertheless, at his time, theEast- West dichotomy was an effectiveway to challengeEurocentricism. And in showingthat the Chinese had developeda sophisticatedconcept of change,he remindedhis contemporariesthat Europe was by no means the centerof the world. u&kzm%n: itwm&mmmwfà «f^s» mm

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85 RichardJohn Lynn's review, p. 152. 86 For a discussionof the "studyof the Yijingin history,"see KidderSmith's "Preface" to Sung DynastyUses ofthe I Ching(Princeton 1990), p. vii. 8 Lionel Giles s introductionto RichardWilhelm, A ShortHistory of ChineseCivilization, translatedby JoanJoshua (New York 1929), p. 9.

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