A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology: Chinese Studies of Images and

Numbers from Han (202 BCE 220 CE) to Song (960 1279 CE) by Bent Nielsen.
Published by Routledge Curzon, London and New York, 2003.1

Introduction
In this work Dr Nielsen has brought together a huge amount of information from a
traditional thread of the Chinese study of Change that has been largely neglected in
Western literature. Specifically, the Image and Number tradition mentioned in the
title of Nielsen's volume is concerned with what we might, in contemporary language,
call the structural, numerical and formal aspects of the symbols of Change, with little
or no concern for the textual content of the Book of Change. This might seem strange
to a readership where the hexagrams are often viewed simply as indexical symbols to
access the text. However, the hexagram and trigram symbols are themselves a rich
source of meaning and imagery, and the various relationships between these symbols
offer important insights into the cosmological thought of Chinese scholars.
After explaining the textual conventions used in the book, Nielsen begins with a brief
introduction. This provides an overview of the scholarly approach to the study of the
Yijing (), describing the rise of contextual study of the book in China, and the
eventual impact on this approach on Western scholarship. This gives a contemporary
background for the two traditional Chinese modes of study of Change: the Meaning
and Principle school (Yili ), which is rooted in the actual text of the classic;
and the Image and Number school (Xiangshu ), which approaches the study via
the images and properties of the symbols themselves. As already noted, prior to Dr
Nielsens work almost all English language scholarship has been in the Meaning and
Principle mode, and it is one of the most important contributions of the work under
review that it takes steps to address this imbalance.
The bulk of the book (347 pages) makes up the Companion itself. This is an
extensive alphabetically organised encyclopaedia of material connected with the
Image and Number tradition. The entries in the Companion contain a large number of
tables of hexagrams detailing various relationships and, in addition to the textual
entries, there are 12 pages of diagrams, which are cross referenced from many of the
entries. There is also a bibliography of 18 pages, an index of common English
translations of hexagram names covering 6 pages, and finally a 19 page index of
Chinese words. The alphabetical arrangement of the main text, and the inclusion of
the additional indexes makes the book generally very easy to work with.

The Companion
The entries in the companion are of three basic types (although in the introduction
Nielsen himself says there are only two types). The first type of entry contains
descriptions of the hexagrams and trigrams themselves; the second type of entry
describes technical terms detailing particular concepts, structural properties and
1 A shorter version of this review appeared in the Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Volume 36,
Number 3, September 2009, pp487-492.

http://www.yijing.co.uk

1 of 5

Review of Nielsen's Companion to Yi Jing

Dr Andreas Schter

relationships; and the final type of entry is bibliographic, describing the key
contributions of historically significant Chinese scholars of Change. Each entry,
regardless of its type, is listed under its pinyin romanization followed by the
corresponding Chinese characters. Chinese characters, and hexagram and trigram
symbols, are used extensively throughout the text. This also contributes greatly to the
ease of use of the book. Many works on Chinese philosophy published in English
either skimp on the use of Chinese characters, or gather all the Chinese together into a
glossary at the end of the work. By placing the Chinese characters where they are
actually needed, in the main body of text, with the English descriptions of the terms,
Nielsen immediately removes a major source of potential ambiguity and difficulty.
For example, although I do not read Chinese, the inclusion of the characters allows
me to see immediately whether a particular use of the term fu gua refers to hidden
hexagrams () or overturned hexagrams (). In addition, Nielsen frequently
includes short passages in Chinese, which would allow those so inclined, to check the
details of his translations of some of the key concepts.
Hexagram entries are indexed under their pinyin names, followed by the Chinese
characters. I think it is a shame that Nielsen does not give a translation of the name in
the entry. However, there is an alphabetically arranged appendix giving a range of
translations from other authors for each hexagram. The entry then gives the
numerical designations of the hexagram in both the traditional and silk manuscript
sequences. Given the nature of the Companion, it might also have been useful and
interesting to have given the symbol's number in the binary sequence of hexagrams
derived from the Xian Tian Tu (). Nielsen then decomposes the symbol; first
into its constituent trigrams, then into its interlocking (or nuclear) trigrams, and finally
into its containing trigrams. This last, called bao ti () in Chinese, is a variation
on interlocking trigrams that, as far as I am aware, has not been described in English
before. For example, in the hexagram l we have the lower interlocking trigram,
formed from the second, third and fourth lines, as 2. After the second, third and
fourth lines are discounted, the first, fifth and sixth lines remain. Although these lines
are not contiguous, they can be taken to form the containing trigram for the lower
interlocking symbol. In this case, we the trigram so formed is 7. Similarly, the
upper interlocking trigram is 5, and its containing trigram is 1.
Hexagram entries also contain a cross-reference to the lateral linked hexagram (pang
tong gua ), which is its Boolean opposite switching yin for yang and yang
for yin throughout. However, the entries do not contain references to the two other
common forms of opposition, overturned hexagrams (fu gua ) and exchanged
images (liang xiang yi ). Given that both of these concepts are described in
detail in the Companion this is a strange oversight, given the otherwise
comprehensive nature of the volume. Finally, the hexagram entries also include
additional comments relating the symbol to any relevant concepts explored in the
Companion, such as warp and weft hexagrams, waxing and waning hexagrams and so
on.

http://www.yijing.co.uk

2 of 5

Review of Nielsen's Companion to Yi Jing

Dr Andreas Schter

The entries for trigrams are necessarily shorter. They include the relevant imagery
from the Shuo Gua () and a list of hexagrams that contain the trigram as either
upper or lower components. However, the entries do not indicate which hexagrams
contain the trigram as an interlocking component. Given that the hexagram entries
make reference to this property, it is a shame that it is not cross-referenced in the
trigram entries themselves. The Companion also contains brief separate entries for
each of the four images (si xiang ) and also treats them together in a more
extensive single entry, which includes an exploration of other possible meanings of
the term.
The technical entries in the Companion cover a huge range of material. Some of these
explain concepts already known in the English-language literature. However, even
when the concept is already familiar, there is usually much to be gained from
Nielsen's exposition. For example, I have already mentioned that the concept hu ti
() described by Wilhelm (1983, p358) as nuclear trigrams is translated as
interlocking trigrams by Nielsen. In addition to the well known analysis of the
sixteen possible hexagrams which can be formed from the interlocking trigrams, he
goes on to consider alternative terms associated with the idea, various possible
historical origins of the term and then concludes with descriptions of the uses to
which the concept has be turned. The extra detail that the idea thus acquires
contributes to an enrichment of the concept that has previously been denied to the
English language community.
There are many entries that describe concepts which, as far as I know, are previously
unexplored in English. It is impossible to explore the range of the material in a short
review such as this. I have already mentioned the concept bao ti (), containing
trigrams, above, and there are many others. Of particular interest is the inclusion of a
small number of well known phrases from the text of the Changes, such as she da
chuan () crossing the great stream. As with other familiar terms, Nielsen
sheds new light on these phrases by tracing the origins of various interpretations to the
relevant scholars, as described below. Further, a number of entries describe particular
texts connected with the Yijing. The Shi Yi (), or Ten Wings, is well known in
the West forming, as it does, the basis of the commentary material in Wilhelm's wide
spread translation (1983, pp256-261). However, Nielsen mentions many others,
including such intriguingly titled works as the Kun Ling Tu () the Spirit
Diagram of Kun. The range of such entries makes it clear just how much literature is
closed to the scholar of Change who does not speak Chinese, and I hope that the
appearance of Nielsen's Companion might encourage translations of some of these
lesser known works into English.
The final type of entry is biographical. Again, there is a tremendous range of material
here. A small number of the scholars discussed by Nielsen are already familiar to me,
such as Wang Bi () whose interpretation is explored in Lynn's CUP edition of the
Changes (1994), or Shao Yong () who is well known in connection with the
binary ordering of the hexagrams, and through Birdwhistell's (1989) extensive
http://www.yijing.co.uk

3 of 5

Review of Nielsen's Companion to Yi Jing

Dr Andreas Schter

exploration of his life and works. That there are so many other scholars who have
contributed to the development of the Image and Number tradition is certainly not a
surprise, and it is fascinating to follow the threads through the bibliographic entries to
see how ideas and influences are transmitted from one generation to another. Once
again, there are new insights to be gained. For example, as already noted, Shao Yong
() (1011-77) is most closely connected with the binary arrangements of trigrams
and hexagrams. However, Nielsen notes that Shao studied with Li Zhicai () (1045) who in turn had studied with Chen Tuan () (-989), who is suggested as the
likely source of these diagrams.

Conclusions
Because this book is really the first work in English to deal extensively with the
literature of the Image and Number tradition, it lacks any obvious points of
comparison. The only likely books that come to mind as possibilities for
consideration are Huang's (2000) work The Numerology of the I Ching and Hacker's
(1993) I Ching Handbook. The latter of these two is a substantial work of over 400
pages but, although it discusses binary orders and nuclear hexagrams in some detail,
the material covered is not specific to Image and Number. To be fair, Hacker's
subtitle for his work is A Practical Guide to Logical and Personal Perspectives and
this gives the reader a clear idea of his aim. Huang's work should, perhaps, have
provided a proper point of comparison with Nielsen's Companion. However, Huang
lacks the comprehensive references to original Chinese sources that Nielsen provides,
and covers only a small fraction of the material. Like Hacker, Huang's work is a very
personal perspective on the subject and, as such, does not provide sufficient coverage
of the Image and Number tradition to serve as a comparison.
I have been working with Nielsen's book for some time now, using it to seek out
traditional antecedents for some of my own discoveries. From the perspective of
analysing the structural properties of the symbols of Change through the tools
provided by modern algebra, Nielsen's work is invaluable. It provides some of the
much needed historical context for contemporary work such as Goldenberg (1975),
and myself (Schter 1998, 1999). It is fascinating to realize that, although they did
not have the vocabulary of modern mathematics, the Chinese masters of Change have
already explored some of the same landscapes that modern algebra reveals.
In working with the Companion, a few minor quibbles come to mind. Some are
outlined above, but also an English index would be very useful. I appreciate that this
would be a tremendously difficult task, given the multiplicity of possible alternatives
for translating the terms. However, a simple index, taking Nielsen's own English
translation of each of the technical terms would help. Also, an easier way of finding
the entries for the trigram and hexagram symbols would be better. Because
everything is arranged alphabetically on the pinyin romanization, it is necessary to
know the name of each symbol in pinyin in order to locate it. This is not a major
problem, but perhaps giving the symbols their own section in the Companion, and
arranging them in a suitable order would have been better. Following on from this, I
http://www.yijing.co.uk

4 of 5

Review of Nielsen's Companion to Yi Jing

Dr Andreas Schter

sometimes wonder if organizing the Companion into separate sections for each of the
three types of entry might have been a better strategy. However, on balance, having
every entry alphabetically organized in a single section does simplify the process of
looking anything up.
Almost all translations of Yi () literature in the West, whether populist or academic,
focus on the Meaning and Principle school of interpretation at the expense of the
Image and Number. Nielsens work is the first serious attempt to explore Image and
Number in English; my criticisms are minor, and the significance of Nielsen's work
for the English speaking community of Yi scholars cannot be underestimated.
Andreas Schter
Edinburgh
November 2007

References
Birdwhistell, Anne D. 1989.
Transition to Neo-Confucianism: Shao Yung on Knowledge and Symbols of
Reality. Published by Stanford University Press, Stanford California.
Goldenberg, Daniel S. 1975.
The Algebra of the I Ching and its Philosophical Implications in Journal of
Chinese Philosophy, Volume 2, Number 2, 1975, pp149179.
Hacker, Edward A. 1993.
The I Ching Handbook: A Practical Guide to Logical and Personal
Perspectives from the Ancient Chinese Book of Change. Brookline,
Massachusetts: Paradigm Publications, 1993.
Huang, Alfred. 2000.
The Numerology of the I Ching: A Sourcebook of Symbols, Structures, and
Traditional Wisdom. Published by Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont.
Lynn, Richard John. 1994.
The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by
Wang Bi. Translated by Richard John Lynn. Published by Columbia
University Press, New York.
Schter, Andreas. 1998.
Boolean Algebra and the Yijing in The Oracle: the Journal of Yijing
Studies, Volume 2, Number 7, Summer 1998, pp1934.
. 1999.
Correctness and Correspondence in The Oracle: the Journal of Yijing
Studies, Volume 2, Number 8, February 1999, pp2735.
. 2002.
Review of Alfred Huang's The Numerology of the I Ching in The Oracle:
the Journal of Yijing Studies, Volume 2, Number 12, January 2002.
Wilhelm, Richard. 1983.
I Ching or Book of Changes. Rendered into English by Cary F Baynes.
Published by Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

http://www.yijing.co.uk

5 of 5