The Paradigm Shifts In The Interpretations Of The Yijing In The English-speaking World

This dissertation aims at describing and discussing the interpretations of the Yijing(Book of Changes)in the English-speaking world from the perspective of hermeneutics as well as history.It focuses on the paradigm shifts among those interpretations,choosing the classical,influential and popular translations as the major research objects,and analyzes three dominant interpretive paradigms,namely regarding the Yijing as a pagan classic or a Confucian classic on the basis of religion,as a book of wisdom transcending all time and space on the basis of ethnics and philosophy,and as a historical document respectively of its compiling and commenting age.This thesis will look into the historical background,the distinguishing characteristics and the reaching influence of the above-mentioned three interpretative paradigms,with an eye on the hermeneutical disputes over where the destination of understanding and interpretation is:the author,the reader or the text,meanwhile probing into the application of some key hermeneutical terms,such as prejudice,the fusion of horizons,effective history and the hermeneutical circle,in the process of modernization and globalization.Referring more specificly to the paradigms,Thomas McClatchie considered the Yijing a heathen classic,James Legge a Confucian classic,Richard Wilhelm and Cary F.Baynes a book of wisdom,Richard Alan Kunst and Richard Rutt a historical document of the western Zhou era,and Richard John Lynn treated the commentary of Wangbi as the historical document of the Six Dynasties period,and finally,Richard J.Smith traced the circulation of the Yijing as a global and world classic.These translations are the research targets of this paper,and their formation,feature and influence will be explored.The dissertation consists of 6 chapters.Chapter 1:Introduction,includes the research question,theoretical basis,terms,significance,literature review,research framework,method as well as the expected findings.Chapter 2:The major paradigmatic interpretions of the Yijing in the English-speaking world,first establishes the Wilhelm-Baynes's I Ching as the dividing crest,and introduces the representative English translations of the Yijng from the perspective of Before Wilhelm-Baynes and After Wilhelm/Baynes,pointing out the paradigmatic interpretations and illustrating their influence on the translation of specific hexgrams.Chapter 3:From pagan classic to Confucian classic,discusses Thomas McClatchie's Yih King and James Legge's Yi King,analyzing the historical background of their versions,their views on the Yijing,the features and influences of their translations,highlighting McClatchie's prejudice on the understanding of the Yijing and Legge's strategy of feeling King Wen and the Duke of Zhou 's intention in the context of the western Zhou era.Chapter 4:From Confucian classic to the Book of Wisdom,explores Wilhelm/Baynes'I Ching,firstly investigating the reasons of Wilhelm/Baynes's version as a classic by itself,and suggesting that Lao Naixuan,Richard Wilhelm,Carl Jung,Cary F.Baynes,Hellmut Wilhelm,the counterculture movement in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s,as well as the promotion of the press and media,together they moulded I Ching to a world classic.This chapter also discusses the major features and influences of the I Ching,stressing that the fusion of horizons,namely the horizon of the translator and the horizon of the text,is the condition of new interpretations.Chapter 5:From the Book of Wisdom to the Historical document,researches on Richard A.Kunst's translation of the Yijing,Edward L.Shaughnessy's doctoral dissertion on the composition of the Zhouyi and his translation of the Mawangdui excavated Zhouyi,Richard John Lynn's translation of Wangbi's Commentary of Zhouyi.It starts with an analysis of the exterior and interior reasons of the historical explanation and contextual reconstruction of the Zhouyi,then distinguishes two different kinds of reconstructions:reconstructing Zhouyi as a historical document of the western Zhou era and reconstructing individual commentary as specific historic document of the related era,and finally introducing Richard J.Smith's approach of connecting the transmission of the Yijing with the condition of each country and region,which is conveniently called the global approach and reluctantly counted as a paradigm here.This chapter discusses the attempt of reconstructing the meaning of the text from the text itself and the context of its formation.Chapter 6:Conclusion,talks about the "de-contextualization" and"re-contextualization" of the Yjing oracles and the similar process happening in the understanding and interpreting of the Yijing in the English-speaking world.It discusses the three aims of understanding,namely understanding the original meaning,better understanding and different understanding,and their manifestation in the above-mentioned paradigms,and holds that "different understanding" is the key to the transmission of the the Yijing to other cultures.But it does not mean that a reader can interpret Yijing as she/he wants,the interpreting process is conditioned by the text of the hexagrams,the commentary tradition,later interpretations,as well as the selection of time and readers.