Between Efficacy and Image: A Radical Inquiry into the Roots of the Yi Dao's Manifest and Subtle
This article offers an in-depth analysis of the core proposition of 'yao effecting and xiang imaging' in the Xici zhuan (Great Commentary) of the Zhouyi, examining the dynamic and static distinction between 'effecting' and 'imaging,' tracing the referent of 'this,' and elucidating how yao and xiang constitute the epistemological framework through which the Way of the Yi reveals the subtle and the manifest.
Introduction: An Underestimated General Outline of Yi Studies
In the Xici zhuan (Great Commentary, Part II) of the Zhouyi (Book of Changes), there is a passage long regarded as the pivotal statement for understanding the entire architecture of the Zhouyi:
"The yao is that which effects this. The xiang is that which images this. When yao and xiang move within, fortune and misfortune appear without. Achievement and enterprise are seen through change; the sentiments of the sage are seen through the judgments."
(Yao ye zhe, xiao ci zhe ye. Xiang ye zhe, xiang ci zhe ye; yao xiang dong hu nei, ji xiong jian hu wai, gong ye jian hu bian, sheng ren zhi qing jian hu ci.)
These thirty-odd characters advance layer by layer — from yao to xiang, from "within" to "without," from "change" to "judgments" — compressing virtually the entire operational mechanism of the Zhouyi into one supremely condensed proposition: how images are apprehended, how hexagrams are formed, how fortune and misfortune are determined, and how the sage's intent is discerned. Yet it is deeply thought-provoking that commentators across the ages have generally confined their reading of this passage to surface-level glossing, failing to unfold the profound philosophical questions it contains.
Why is the essence of yao "effecting" (xiao)$1 What exactly does "this" (ci) — the object of effecting — refer to$2 Why is the essence of xiang "imaging" (xiang)$3 What distinction exists between "imaging" and "effecting"$4 What epistemological framework is constructed by "moving within" and "appearing without"$5 How should we understand the proposition "achievement and enterprise are seen through change" as the practical logic by which the sage governs the world through the Way of the Yi$6 And finally, "the sentiments of the sage are seen through the judgments" — does the sage's qing mean emotion, actual condition, or moral intent$7 Why must it be manifested precisely through "judgments" (ci)$8
These questions interlock like links in a chain — pull one and all are set in motion. This essay attempts, from the vantage points of pre-Qin and high antiquity, to probe every stratum of this classical text, drawing extensively on original passages from pre-Qin works, integrating the interpretations of past worthies and historical examples, and undertaking a radical inquiry into the deepest sources of the Way of the Yi.