Interpreting and Investigating the Chapter: 'The Sage Perceived the Profundities of the World' — The Primordial Code of *Xiang* and *Yao*
This paper deeply investigates the core proposition, 'The Sage perceived the profundity (Ze) of the world,' within the *Xi Ci Zhuan* (Commentary on the Appended Judgments) of the *Zhou Yi*, analyzing the original Pre-Qin semantics of 'Ze,' 'Xiang' (Image), and 'Yao' (Line). It focuses on explaining the cognitive leap of the Sage through 'looking up and observing down,' transforming deep textures (Ze) into external simulations (Xiang), and reveals the intrinsic connection between the 'Yao' and ancient ritual systems, thereby reconstructing the foundation of Yi learning theory.
VI. Wang Fuzhi's Interpretation
Wang Fuzhi (late Ming/early Qing) offered profound philosophical distillations of Yi studies in his Zhou Yi Neizhuan and Zhou Yi Waizhuan. Regarding this chapter, Wang especially stressed the ontological primacy of "movement" (dòng):
"The movements of the world cannot be exhausted by one formulation." (Zhou Yi Waizhuan, Vol. 5)
In Wang Fuzhi's view, the "movements of the world" are the fundamental reality of the cosmos—it is not that stillness exists first and then motion arises, but that motion itself is the most fundamental thing. The zé is not a static structure divorced from dòng, but the order inherently contained within dòng.
This interpretation reverses the relationship between zé and dòng: it is not that zé (structure) comes before dòng (change), but that dòng (change) itself inherently contains zé (order). This "primacy of motion" stance stands in clear contrast to the "primacy of Principle" stance of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and provides an important intellectual resource for later studies of Chinese philosophy.