The Research On Hang Xinzhai's Yi-ology

As an acknowledged Yi scholar living in late Qing and early Republican China, Hang Xinzhai has sought to expand the image-numerology into an all-embracing Yi system covering mathematics, scientific technologies, and astrology. With a global perspective, he has opened a new era for Yi research. His achievements have won wide acclaim, too.Highlighting the history of the Yi studies, Hang Xinzhai's works have embodied almost all the views of the previous Yi scholars. Compared with other schools, Hang Xinzhai preferred the Yi studies of the Han Dynasty, disparaging the Yi scholars in Song Dynasty, excluding Shao Yong. Moreover, he criticized the Zhouyi materials researched by the Hanxue scholar in the Qing Dynasty. This also reflects the foundation of Hang's Yi studies on the Xiangshu studies of Han Dynasty and the Hetu-Luoshu studies of Song Dynasty.Hang Xinzhai has developed the image-numerology by thinking image-numerology as a whole.The image-numerology Hang Xinzhai reconstructed has the characteristic of precise-thinking and displayed profoundly. With the aim to display the miraculous Zhouyi Guaxiang, Hang Zinzhai has adopted a wide range of images including the newly rising things, social systems, historical cultures and even bacteria, which also marks the broad-ranging feature of Chinese Yi studies as well as the solid basic skills of Hang in Yi research.Hang Xinzhai cited mathematics as the foundation of all sciences and thus attached much attention to the research on numbers of the Change. He has studied the astronomical calendar at Tongwen Guan, a government school for teaching western languages. Combining mathematics and the ancient numbers of the Change, he has solved many problems involving "Odd number clockwise arrangement and even number anti-clockwise arrangement in Hetu" and "four should link first in even numbers of the Change" in a mathematical way that has been praised by later generations. Based on the ancient Chinese "invents the things according to image" theory, Hang sought a cross-certification between Yi-ology and Chinese-foreign scientific and technologies, which later developed into the controversial "Scientific Yi.' Previous studies on the Hang Xinzhai's Yi-ology are mainly from the perspective of demands at that time and the phenomenon of the "Western Civilization Taking over the East". Trying to break away from the tradition, the author of this paper has his arguments focus on the great contributions of Hang as well as why Hang is irreplaceable. The author thinks the combination of social environment and creation individuality constitutes the very soul of Hang Xinzhai. Hang Xinzhai is irreplaceable since his counterparts were not ambitious enough to evolve image-numerology into a system integrating everything as he did. The system established by Hang Xinzhai was very appealing. The target of the Scope of the World defined by Yi studies hasn't been dissolved due to the proven details of Hang's Yi-ology. Certain methods and ideas put forth by Hang Xinzhai are still proved valuable nowadays. This paper also exposes certain flaws of Hang's Yi studies, including the intention of trigger curiosity and the absence of testimony, etc. According to this paper, most of these flaws are acceptable, because the core of Hang Xinzhai's Yi-ology is image-numerology studies, and Hang Xinzhai's achievements in modern Yi are incomparable.