The Features Of CaiYuangding's Yi-learning

CaiYuanding(1135- 1198), was a famous Neu-confucianist who was born in Jianyang county, Fujian province. As a Neu-confucianist, he focuses on Hetu(river diagram)and luoshu(luo chart ),and he points out that images of trigrams and numbers referring to odd or even number of Yin-Yang deriving from Hetu(river diagram)and luoshu(luo chart) ,and he also insists that"Heshi-Luojiu"enbodies growing of Five-element in Hetu and overcoming in Luoshu. He considers that the fifth in the Hetu and Luoshu destines the heaven-earth number fifty-five; the divinatory number of fifty; the Hetu(river diagram)and luoshu(luo chart),explains that two modes of Yin and Yang ,four images and eight trigrams deriving from Hetu(river diagram)and luoshu(luo chart). CaiYuanding comprehends Shaoyong's Doubled Method as a total principle of the sixty-four hexagrams from the grand multimate, and treated Shaoyong's idea of"one produces two ,two produces four, four produces eight"as principles of Taiji(Grand Ultimate) ,he meticulously researches on ancient primitive divinatory techniques in Yijing and honestly explains the primordial diagram and Jingshi diagrams of Shaoyong's Yi-learning.This thesis tries to unify Hetu(river diagram)and luoshu(luo chart ) and explanation of Shaoyong's Yi-learning at the principles of grand ultimate based on the former achievement. We find that CaiYuanding's Yi-learning is different from the Number of Yi in the Northern Song Dynasty by analyzing his theory and comparing historical materials and his research on the diagrams of Gua and divination. We also find that his explanation of the primordial diagrams and Jingshi diagrams of Shaoyong's Yi-learning is consistent with Shaoyong's annotation. CaiYuanding's Yi-learning naturally explores image-numberology through unification of both number and principle. CaiYuanding's Yi-learning is based on the theory of Hetu(river diagram)and luoshu(luo chart ) and takes images of the hexagrams and divination as two wings in order to explain the principle of nature.It is valuable that CaiYuanding's Yi-learning breaks the traditional conception of The Rectification of meanings of Zhouyi with philosophical connotations since Tong Dynasty, enriches the Yi-learning thinking, and makes a contribution to set up image-numberology for several centuries from then on.