Between Emulation and Resemblance: A Fundamental Inquiry into the Microcosm of the Dao of Change
This article deeply analyzes the core proposition of 'Yáo imitating Xiàng' found in the *Xici Zhuan II* of the *Zhou Yi*, distinguishing the dynamic differences between 'imitation' (xiào) and 'analogy' (xiàng), tracing the referent of 'this' (cǐ), and interpreting how Yáo-Xiàng constitutes the epistemological framework for revealing the subtle workings of the Dao within the Pre-Qin context.
II. Interpretations of Wang Bi's Principle and Meaning School
Wang Bi (226–249 CE) was an innovator in Wei-Jin Yi scholarship who reinterpreted this passage from a perspective of Principle and Meaning (Yili).
For Wang Bi, xiào and xiàng should not be understood as one-to-one correspondence with specific material images, but as abstract presentations of structural principles. His concept of "forgetting the Xiang once the meaning is grasped" in Zhou Yi Lüe Li, Ming Xiang (Clarifying Images), while controversial later on, contained a core insight: The Xiang is established to convey meaning; if one clings too tightly to the specific details of the Xiang while forgetting the meaning it intends to convey, one is abandoning the root for the branches.
Wang Bi's interpretation is particularly illuminating for "the sage's sentiment is manifested in the words." He argued that the sage's qíng is not an exhaustive description of all phenomena in Heaven and Earth, but a principled judgment regarding the appropriate ethical position (shí wèi) associated with each hexagram line. The sage focuses on the "time" (shí)—what must be done at what time—rather than the "image" (Xiang)—what thing this hexagram resembles.