《空山先生易圖通變序》

Preface to Master Kongshan's Comprehending Change Through the Yi Diagrams (Eleven Chapters in Total)

For millennia, our Daoist tradition has exclusively revered the Daode Jing (Classic of the Way and Virtue), a text whose status remains unchallenged through the ages. Yet, over successive dynasties, commentaries have proliferated endlessly, their content obscure and chaotic, leaving readers disoriented amid a tangle of conflicting interpretations. Lei Siqi (style name Qixian) devoted himself to rigorous scholarship, delving deeply into this classic to uncover its fundamental truths and compose his own exegesis. He harmonized the common ground between Confucianism and Laozi while critiquing their differences, systematically clarifying their lineages with unwavering consistency—as if he had received Laozi’s direct transmission. Those who study this work and grasp his teachings will comprehend the profound meaning of "the mystery within mystery" without losing their way. This text has greatly benefited the transmission and development of Daoism. In the bingxu year of the Zhiyuan era (1286), the Celestial Master (Tianshi) successor Zhang Zongyan (sobriquet Jianzhai) composed this preface.

Master Lei Siqi was a noble recluse of Linchuan (modern Fuzhou, Jiangxi). After the fall of the Song dynasty, he retreated alone to the empty mountains, authoring dozens of volumes, including The Meaning of Change Through Yi Diagrams and Divination, The Original Meaning of Laozi, The Essential Meaning of Zhuangzi, and three volumes of Poems Harmonizing with Tao Yuanming. He exchanged his Confucian robes for the yellow Daoist headdress and befriended figures like Zeng Ziliang, former magistrate of Chun’an, and Wu Cheng, then a Hanlin academician. Eminent scholars from across the land admired his character, often writing to seek his counsel, and those who attended his lectures invariably found sudden enlightenment.

The late Hanlin expositor-in-waiting Yuan Jue, a learned gentleman, praised Master Lei’s works for their precise citations and their power to inspire diligence, using the exhaustive study of change to illuminate the Dao (Way). He remarked, "Those who do not know Qixian cannot understand Qixian’s thought." Today, the world’s foremost authority on scholarship is universally acknowledged to be Master Wu Cheng, just as the world’s foremost authority on writing is also Master Wu Cheng. Master Wu once said his discussions on the Laozi with Master Lei were profoundly resonant, and he lauded his poetry for its depth, craftsmanship, vigor, and originality—bearing the style of Du Fu and Han Yu. These assessments are entirely fitting!

The ancients said that Yu Qing could not have written well without experiencing hardship, nor could Sima Qian have composed the Records of the Grand Historian without enduring misfortune. To grasp Master Lei’s aspirations and read his works—how could ordinary people comprehend this? I have studied his writings and imagined his character for nearly fifty years. Now, through his disciple’s grandson, the Fu family, I have obtained twenty volumes of his surviving poetry and prose.

This text is a preface written by Yuan dynasty scholar Wu Quanjie for Master Kongshan's Comprehensive Exposition of the Yi Diagrams, recounting the scholarly lineage of Master Kongshan (Huang Siqi). Here's my modern interpretation:

After Emperor Shizu of Yuan pacified the southern regions, he first summoned the 36th Celestial Master (Tianshi, leader of the Zhengyi Orthodox Unity Daoist school) to court. Soon after, when the Celestial Master returned to Dragon-Tiger Mountain (Longhu Shan) after being commissioned to oversee Daoist affairs, he specifically invited Master Kongshan to serve as instructor of Xuánxué (Mysterious Learning) to nurture later scholars. Though I was young at the time, being determined in my studies, I became his disciple. The master often taught me: "Literature is merely the craft of the Dao—the purpose of study is to illuminate the Dao. Without comprehending the Great Dao, one cannot attain the learning of sages." These words prompted daily self-reflection and redoubled my diligence.

Upon reaching adulthood, I entered court service under my late teacher the Duke Kaifu, regrettably leaving Master Kongshan's instruction incomplete. During his lifetime, the master had composed dozens of volumes of commentaries including The Essential Meaning of Yi Diagram Divination, The Original Meaning of Laozi, and The Purport of Zhuangzi, along with twenty volumes of poetry. In autumn of the Zhishun era's second year (1331), the master's disciple Fu Xingzhen sent his own student Zhou Weihe to the capital with these commentaries for my review, saying: "Though eminent scholars like Huang Zhen, Zeng Ziliang, and Wu Cheng have all written prefaces for the master's works, we still lack your exposition of their essential meaning."

I sighed: "Nearly thirty years have passed since the master's death. While we can no longer meet in person, seeing his writings is itself fortunate. Yet can these commentaries fully convey the master's learning? Future readers should understand through these texts that his scholarship extended far beyond them." Now aged after long service at court, I've long wished to compile the master's writings with a preface, but never fulfilled this wish. With the collection now complete, how could I remain silent? Thus I compose this preface. The master's given name was Siqi, courtesy name Qixian, honored by scholars as "Master Kongshan," a native of Linchuan in Fuzhou.

Regarding the Hetu (River Diagram) and Bagua (Eight Trigrams, ancient cosmological diagrams), the preface explains: The sages observed all phenomena between heaven and earth—examining the human body at close range and all creatures at large—through the Hetu comprehending the virtue (De) of spiritual illumination, analogizing the dispositions of all things, thereby creating the Bagua and composing the Yijing (Book of Changes). Confucius' Ten Wings commentary further clarified the Yi's Dao, making its principles increasingly manifest.

Master Kongshan (the Daoist name of Lei Siqi) states in the preface to his "Comprehensive Changes of the Yi Diagrams": Through my study of the arrangement patterns of the Yi Jing's hexagrams, I discovered that the transformations of the Eight Trigrams (Bagua: Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, Dui) all emerge spontaneously from nature. Yet later scholars, disregarding the original forty-numbered cosmological system, arbitrarily added fifteen numbers to form the so-called "Heaven and Earth's number fifty-five." Such artificial tampering has led to increasing confusion in interpretation, with various erroneous theories circulating to this day.

After years of dedicated research and examination of various schools of thought, I have finally comprehended the original intent of the ancient sages. Thus I composed this "Treatise on Comprehensive Changes," hoping to collaborate with all Yi Jing scholars in exploring the true principles. I also discovered that divination methods have deviated from the Yi Jing's original meaning—these matters will be addressed in subsequent chapters. I believe genuine seekers of the ancient Dao will recognize the truth in my words. This preface was written in the ninth month of the fourth year of the Dade era (1300 CE) by Lei Siqi (courtesy name Qixian), a Daoist priest from Linchuan (modern Fuzhou, Jiangxi).

(Supplementary note: The "forty-numbered cosmological system" refers to the foundational numerical framework in early Yi Jing theory, while the "Heaven and Earth's number fifty-five" represents a later derivative interpretation that the author considers a distortion of the classic.)