“Using Historical Examples to Give Evidence about the Changes ” and Chengzhai’s Scholarship on the Changes ¹

There is certainly a contrast between history and the Changes in the academic activities involving “using historical examples to give evidence about the Changes ” ( yi shi zhengyi ), which also varies with the Yijing scholars’ approaches to the Changes under different lineages. Despite the fact that the historically grounded approach to the Changes reflects “a kind of outlook to Changes scholarship” based on a great number of historical examples, it actually also manifests a kind of vision of history (or principle conceived in history). The academic activities of documenting Changes principles historically ( yi shi zhengyi ) were shared by the three lineages of the “school of principles” (yili pai ). Now that the other two lineages (“abstruse learning” and Ru [Confucian] thought of heavenly principle) attributed to the school of principles are clearly stigmatized, the “historically grounded lineage” ( shishi zong ) is marked by explicating the principle of history through yi shi zhengyi . As a representative of the historically grounded lineage ( shishi zong ), Yang Wanli’s (1127–1206) scholarship on the Changes guided the application of heavenly principle to the “principle of history,” which adequately released his historical outlook of adaptability with centrality and rectitude, and thus brought forth a new paradigm for Changes scholarship and made new academic contributions.