Cheng Yi’s Ambiguous Influence on the Wilhelm/Baynes I Ching

Abstract Richard Wilhelm’s 1924 German commentary on the Book of Changes ( I Ching or Yijing ), translated into English by Cary Baynes in 1950, claims that it is simply a summary of what has already been said by Chinese philosophers of the past. In fact, Wilhelm’s own thematic interests often take him far afield from this tradition, and these interests shape both his commentary and his translation of the Chinese text. Wilhelm’s primary Chinese source is the Song-dynasty philosopher Cheng Yi, presented as part of the eighteenth-century compilation known as the Zhouyi zhezhong . Cheng Yi provides Wilhelm with the subject of the Book of Changes : the relationships of superior and inferior people, and the laws by which their fortunes rise and fall. But Wilhelm is less interested in Cheng Yi’s account of the inherently oppositional relationship between these people, or Cheng Yi’s treatment of yin and yang as morally neutral forces, each capable of bringing good or bad fortune when improperly situated. If we examine Wilhelm’s explicit references to Cheng Yi’s commentary, we can see his own interests developing: in the self-sufficient, spiritual nature of yang , and in the redemptive care that yang shows for yin . At the same time, by presenting Cheng Yi’s interpretations unaltered side-by-side with his own, Wilhelm makes Cheng Yi’s perspective an essential part of the collage that constitutes his work.