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A possible fusion-word in the Yi-ching divinations in the Tso-chuan and the Kuo-yü

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

The most ancient examples of divination using the Yi-ching are found in the Tso-chuan and the Kuo-yü (both texts probady date from the end of the fourth cenury B.C.E). In each divination, a hexagram is determined which, in most cases, changes into another hexagram. In a few cases the first hexagram does not change. In this brief essay, I will remark on the terminology for the change and not change of the hexagrams, and will propose an explanation for the term that designates not change.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1985

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References

1 For modern Chinese reading I follow the Wade-Giles transcription system. For archaic Chinese reconstruction I follow Bernhard, Karlgren, Grammata Serica Recensa, BMFEA, 29, 1957, 1332Google Scholar (hereafter cited as GSR).

2 The Yi-ching divinations in the Tso-chuan and the Kuo-yü are discussed in Li, Ching-ch'ih, ‘Tso Kuo chung Yi shin chih yen-chiu, in Ku-shih pien , ed. Ku, Chieh-kang(Peking: P'u-she , vol. 3, 1931; rpt. Taipei: Ming-lun Ch'u-pan she , 1970), III, 171–87Google Scholar; Helmut, Wilhelm, ‘ I-Ching oracles in the Tso-chuan and the Kuo-yü’, JAOS, 79, 4, 1959, 275–80Google Scholar; Shi-chuan, Chen, ‘How to form a hexagram and consult the I Ching’, JAOS, 92, 2, 1972, 237–49.Google Scholar

3 Tso-chuan, 36.2b, p. 617B (in Shih-san ching chu-su , Chiao-k'an chiby Juan, Yuan, collation by Lu, Hsüan-hsün, Taipei: Yee Wen, 1960Google Scholar; facsimile reprint of edition with preface by Juan Yuan dated 1816).

4 In his translation of this and the next passage, de Harlez treated P'i as the negative fou, joined the phrases together, added in some of the explanations from the commentary, and came up with a very far-fetched interpretation: ‘On a trouvé deux fois K'ien. Cela ne dit-il pas: association, égalité, couple égal, et une suite ininterrompue de princes par la triple sortie du koua?’; C., de Harlez (tr.), ‘Koue yü (Discours des Royaumes)’, JA, 9th ser., 3, 1894, 41.Google Scholar

5 Li (Ku-shih pien, 179-81) remarks on the meaning of the not change terminology, but does not further analyse it.

6 Some examples of studies on fusion-words may be found in: Peter A. Boodberg, ‘Notes on Chinese morphology and syntax’, nos. 1–4, 1934 (repr. in Selected works of Peter A. Boodberg, Alvin P.Cohen (comp.), Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979, 430–5); Kennedy, George A., ‘A study on the particle yen’, JAOS, 60, 1940, 122, 193–207Google Scholar (repr. in Selected works of George A. Kennedy, Tien-yi Li (comp.), New Haven: Far Eastern Pub., 1964, 27–78); Kennedy, George A., ‘Equation No. 5 (Chinese fusion-words)’, JAOS, 67, 1, 1947, 56–9Google Scholar; Graham, A. C., ‘A probable fusion-word:wuh = wu + jy’, BSOAS, XIV, 1, 1952, 138–48Google Scholar; P. A. Boodberg, ‘A triplex fusion in Ancient Chinese’, Gedules from a Berkeley workshop in Asiatic philology, 1954 (repr. in Selected works of Peter A. Boodberg, 213–14; E. G.Pulleyblank. ‘ Fei , wei and certain related words’, in Studia Serica Bernhard Karlgren Dedicata, S., Egerod and E., Glahn (ed.) (Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1959), 178–89Google Scholar

7 Several possibilities for the second syllable of this fusion-word have been proposed: *g'o (GSR 55a), *giwo (97a), *˚io (61e), and *zio (89b). See Selected works of Peter A. Boodberg, 431; Selected works of George A. Kennedy, 63; GSR 45p; Dobson, W. A. C. H., A dictionary of Chinese particles (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974), 450–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 I have not found any suggestions in the writings of either Chinese or foreign commentators that *pw't might be a fusion-word or that it might even have the specific sense ‘not change’, ‘not go to’.

9 Henri, Maspero, La Chine antique (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, revised edition 1965; first pub. 1927), 478–9.Google Scholar

10 Kung-yang chuan, 13th year of Lord Wen, 14.6b, p. 177B (in Shih-san ching chu-su).

11 For this fusion-word see: Selected works of Peter A. Boodberg, 430–1; Selected works of George A. Kennedy, 63–4 and 124–5 (the latter reprinted from Wennti Papers, vol. 1, 1954). Dobson (Dictionary, 274–5) and Karlgren (GSR 500a) do not recognize this fusion-word, and it is rejected by Huang Ching-hsin(Ch'in Han yi-ch'ien ku Han-yü chung-te fou-ting tz'u “fu” “pu” yen-ohiu, Yü-yen yen-chiu , 3, 1958, 123).Google Scholar

12 These are found in (1) Tso-chuan 30.25a, p. 526A; (2) Kuo-yü 10.11b Ssu-pu pei-yao edition); (3) Kuo-yü 10.10a.

13 Chen denotes the lower half of a hexagram and hui denotes the upper half. Chun is hexagram 3 and is hexagram 16.

14 Chen, 246–7.

15 C., de Harlez (tr.), Koue-yu, Discours des royaumes: Annales oratoires des états chinois du X6 au V6 siècle A.C., Partie II (Louvain: J.-B. Istas, 1895), 103.Google Scholar

16 Chen, 245.

17 Ono explains the phrase as: Tai no ke o eta ga, kono ke ga henka shinai no o hachi to itla (‘Although [I] got the hexagram T'ai, this hexagram, which does not change, is called hachi [*pwat]’). He then paraphrases the translation (incorporating his explanation): Watakushi ga hachike o okimashitara, Tai no hachi to iu ke ga demashita (‘When I arranged the eight divinationsigns [hachike], there appeared the divination-sign [ke] “hachi of T'ai”’), but he does not indicate whether hachike and ke refer to the trigrams or to the hexagrams of the Yi-ching; Ono Takashi(tr.), Kokugo(in Chūgoku koten shinsho, Tokyo: Meitoku shuppansha, 1969, 168–70. Ono does not translate the text of example 1.Google Scholar

18 De Harlez (1895), 106.

19 Tso-chuan 30.25a-b, p. 526A, Chiao-k–an chi 30.8a-b, p. 534A.

20 James, Legge (tr.), The Chinese classics, vol. 5, Ch'un Ts'ew with Tso Chuen (Taipei: Book World Co., 196–; facsimile reprint of the 1893–5 edition), 439–40Google Scholar. For Cheng Hsüan's interpretation, see Tso-chuan 30.25b, p. 526A.

21 Chen, 244. Chen also notes that the phrase ‘Ken chih *pw't’ has caused considerable difficulty for many interpreters of Tso-chuan (pp. 244–5).

22 Séraphin, Couvreur (tr.), Tch'ouen Ts'iou et Tso Tchouan: La Chronique de la Principauté de Lòu (Paris: Cathasia, 1951; first pub. 1914), II, 236Google Scholar. For Tu Yü's commentary, see Tso-chuan 30.25a, p. 526A.

23 Takeuchi, Teruo(tr.), Shunjū Sa Shi den (in Chūgoku koten bungahu taihei, Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1968), p. 233A and p., 235, n. 11.Google Scholar