An Investigation of the Composition of the Book of Changes by Matching the Relevant Ancient Literatures with the Archaeological Data

by Deng Honghai

Key words: preconditions for writing, particular indictor, divination rhyme, deifying, essentials in terms of image

Abstract

According to the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), the Book of Changes was written by King Wen and the Duke of Zhou and had been originally treated as a classic for studying and coping changes by using the philosophy of yin-yang and wuxing (five dimensions). Through matching the Book of Changes and King Wen's and the Duke of Zhou's other works with the relevant newly excavated data, evidences for supporting the Shiji's records are found as follows: (1) Only they needed and were able to incorporate comprehensive brainpower and data enough to summarize the knowledge of primitive people into the book ; (2) The sentence “ 月 幾 望 (the moon is almost full)" indicates that this book is one of important works by them; (3) The book Divination Rhyme (《繇 書》) noted by 《 逸 周 書 》 (Yizhoushu) as the representative of King Wen's divinity and the quotation from him was the first edition of this book; (4) The title of this book "Zhouyi" (「周 易」) was interpreted by King Wen's guidance such as "preserving the Zhou domination by pacifying the people", "pacifying the people by coping changes of the physical and social world"; (5) The objective of this book was to guide their descendants in coping changes for preserving the Zhou domination; (6) The text of this book extracts the essentials of their works in terms of image; (7) They re-defined the divination terms and used them to distinguish between right and wrong or gain and loss by means of this book.