The Yi Weft Distinguishing What Completes the End: Zheng Xuan of the Han

《易緯辨終備》一卷，案《辨終備》，一作《辨中備》。《後漢書·樊英傳》注“《易》緯凡六”，為《稽覽圖》、《乾鑿度》、《坤靈圖》、《通卦驗》、《是類謀》而終以此篇。馬氏《經籍考》皆稱為鄭康成注，而《辨終備》著錄一卷。今《永樂大典》所載僅寥寥數十言，已非完本。且其文頗近《是類謀》，而《史記正義》所引《辨中備》孔子與子貢言世應之說，與此反不類。或其書先佚而後人雜取他緯以成之者，亦未可定也。然別無可證，姑仍舊題云。

This is the abstract written for this book by the editors of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries. Distinguishing What Completes the End of the Yi Weft, one juan. Note: Distinguishing What Completes the End is also written Distinguishing What Completes the Center. Li Xian’s commentary on the Biography of Fan Ying in the History of the Later Han says “the wefts of the Changes are six in all,” namely the Chart for Examining and Viewing, the Chiseling of Qian’s Measure, the Diagram of Kun’s Numinous Power, the Verification of the Comprehensive Trigrams, the Planning of This Kind, and last of all this piece. Ma Duanlin’s Bibliographic Examination in the Comprehensive Examination of Literature and Documents all title it as annotated by Zheng Kangcheng, and Distinguishing What Completes the End is recorded as one juan. What the Yongle Encyclopedia today contains is only a few dozen sentences, long since not a complete recension. Moreover its wording is very close to the Planning of This Kind; on the contrary, the passage cited in the Correct Meanings of the Records of the Grand Historian from Distinguishing What Completes the Center, in which Confucius and Zigong discuss the generational line and the responding line, is not of the same style as the present recension. Perhaps this book was first lost, and later people pieced it together from other weft texts; this too is hard to decide. But since there is no other evidence, the old title is still used. From this abstract the reader may know: what survives below is only remnant chapters and broken sentences, neither the original book’s appearance, and it may still mix in wording from other chapters.

孔子表《河圖·皇參持》曰：天以斗視日發明，皇以羲招始掛，八卦談。《皇參持》，《河圖》名也。言以北斗之星視聽，而以日月發其明以昭示天地。三皇伏羲始卦，以示後世之人，謂使觀見之矣。

The weft text says: Confucius cited the words of the River Chart, Huang Can Chi, saying that Heaven observes with the Dipper and makes bright with the sun’s wheel; the sovereign begins with Fuxi’s drawing of the hexagrams, and the meaning of the eight trigrams can then be discussed. Zheng Xuan notes: Huang Can Chi is a chapter title in the River Chart line of weft texts. This is to say that Heaven uses the stars of the Northern Dipper to see and hear the human world, and uses sun and moon to send forth light to make Heaven and Earth manifest; among the Three Sovereigns, Fuxi first drew the hexagrams, to display them to later people, so that they might view them and know Heaven’s will. “Biao” means to mark out and to cite. This book, from its opening juan, borrows Confucius’s name to cite the River Chart, in the same manner as the Planning of This Kind, which is also one reason the Four Treasuries abstract says the two books’ wording is close.

煌煌之燿，乾為之岡，合凝之類，坤握其方。煌煌，光輝之貌。燿，日月五星也。皆以乾岡，圖言盡繫於天也。方，道也，合凝為首形之類，坤則握其道，皆繫於地也。雄雌呿吟，六節搖通，萬物孽甲，日營始東。雄雌，天地，呿吟闔閉也，六節，六子也。搖通，言六子動行天地之氣。《繫》曰：閉戶謂之坤，闢戶謂之乾。又曰：天地定位，山澤通氣也。孽，生也。甲東方之行，物所生，故數以始也。

The weft text says: of the gleaming brilliance, Qian is its guiding cord; of the kinds that condense and take form, Kun holds their way. Zheng Xuan notes: “huanghuang” is the appearance of radiance; “yao” refers to sun, moon, and the five planets; they all take Qian as their cord, and the chart-records attach them all to Heaven. “Fang” is explained as way; of all kinds that condense and have bodily form, Kun holds their way, and they are all attached to Earth. The weft text further says: male and female open and close, the six joints shake and communicate, the ten thousand things sprout and put forth husks, and the sun’s measured circuit begins in the east. Zheng Xuan notes: “male and female” refer to Heaven and Earth; “qu yin” is opening and closing; the “six joints” refer to the six child trigrams born of Qian and Kun—Zhen, Kan, Gen, Xun, Li, and Dui; “shake and communicate” means the six child trigrams stir and move the qi of Heaven and Earth. The Appended Statements say: closing the door is called Kun, opening the door is called Qian; they further say: Heaven and Earth fix their positions, mountain and marsh communicate their qi. “Nie” means to be born; “jia” belongs to the eastern phase, the place from which the ten thousand things are born, and therefore counting begins here. This passage takes Qian and Kun as the warp and the six children as the weft, and is the general outline of the whole chapter’s discourse on the Way of Heaven.

三五環復，七十六載閏反常。三五，千百二十歲歷，歷復其本。七十六載則餘分盡，言天終則後始者耳也。旋出樞，乾機據，參衡出坤，離授提，巽招震卯。乾正旋樞。衡、招皆北星，值乾君之象。旋星出樞之政教。機，正機之發動，故其位據。參，西方之宿。五事五方為言，猶君出政之言也。玉衡之星，言主布天之手法於坤。離授明提，巽招震之職權，君平事之臣。卯東方之宿也。（按：“五事五方”與正文不相應，疑有脫文。）

The weft text says: three and five cycle and return; in seventy-six years an intercalary circuit returns to the constant measure. Zheng Xuan notes: the number of three times five refers to a calendrical origin of one thousand five hundred twenty years, at which the calendrical numbers return to their root; in seventy-six years the remaining fractions are used up, meaning that when the Way of Heaven ends it begins again. The so-called seventy-six years is one “bu” of the ancient quarter-remainder calendar; twenty bu make one thousand five hundred twenty years, exactly the number of one origin. The weft text further says: the turning star issues from the pivot, Qian takes the mechanism star as its base; Shen lodge and Jade Transverse issue from Kun; Li confers brightness and raises up; Xun draws Zhen and occupies Mao. Zheng Xuan notes: Qian occupies exactly the position of the turning pivot. Jade Transverse and Zhaoyao are both stars of the Northern Dipper, occupying the image of Qian as ruler. The turning star issues the government and teaching of the pivot-mechanism; the mechanism star is where the correct mechanism is set in motion, hence its position is said to be at the base. Shen is the western lodge. Here the Five Affairs are matched to the Five Directions in speech, like a ruler issuing government. The star Jade Transverse is said to preside over spreading Heaven’s laws upon Kun. Li confers the bright raising, Xun draws the office of Zhen: both are ministerial seats that assist the ruler in settling affairs. Mao is the eastern lodge. The parenthetical note at the end of the passage is the compiler’s remark: “the Five Affairs and the Five Directions” do not correspond to the main text, and a lacuna is suspected. This passage matches the several stars of the Northern Dipper with the official affiliations of the eight trigrams, the regular method of weft texts in likening the heavenly officers to the court.

緯盈縮，辰仲劾當。緯，五緯。盈縮，行有進退也。星，辰。仲謂卯酉子午。候星辰之常，以四仲之月，視其劾當與不也。必視熒惑，所在時殃。熒惑主理天下，故必候之，以知時禍。循歲德，鎮之光。鎮主章存德，故候星之光，以故德之所在也。

The weft text says: the five planets have surplus and deficit; one must verify their fitness at the four mid-hour earthly branches. Zheng Xuan notes: “wei” refers to the five planets of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth; “surplus and deficit” means their degrees of travel have advance and retreat; “star” is the earthly branch; “zhong” refers to the four mid-hour branches Mao, You, Zi, and Wu. In observing the constant measures of stars and branches, one examines in the four mid-hour months whether they accord with the positions they ought to have. The weft text says: one must observe Yinghuo; the field-division where it is will have calamity that year. Zheng Xuan notes: Yinghuo governs the regulation of the realm, so one must observe it in order to know the disasters of the time. The weft text says: follow the virtue of the Year Star, observe the light of the Guard Star. Zheng Xuan notes: the Guard Star governs the marking and preserving of virtue, so one must observe this star’s color of light, in order to infer where virtue resides. Yinghuo is Mars and governs arms and mourning; the Year Star is Jupiter and governs blessing and celebration; the Guard Star is Saturn and governs virtue and soil: the three stars separately govern three affairs, the regular practice of Han star-divination.

拒白甄商，金大謀兵。拒白，太白之主殺罰，而金宿，故甄商金聲，言太白大為象之候元武兵大謀之也。雪霜水疾，旱餓喪地，動山崩淪，慧隕，物恡悖淫。崩淪，若步庶崩者也。慧，彗。隕，隕石也。立社稷之類，悖見淫散也。

The weft text says: the star that resists white distinguishes the shang note; when Metal’s qi is great, military plans arise. Zheng Xuan notes: “resisting white” is the Great White star, governing killing, attack, and punishment, belonging to the Metal lodge, and therefore matched to the shang note—among the five notes, shang belongs to Metal. This is to say that when the image of Great White is greatly flourishing, it is the omen of the Dark Warrior using arms and planning a great campaign. The weft text further says: snow, frost, and water calamity become disease; drought and hunger lose the land; mountain bodies shake, collapse, and sink; comets and meteorites appear; things are stingy, rebellious, and overflowing. Zheng Xuan notes: “collapse and sink” is like the collapse of hills and mounds; “hui” is a comet; “yun” is a meteorite. All anomalies that concern the places where the altars of soil and grain stand are the appearance of rebellious images and the circulation of overflowing qi. Great White governs arms, so its omen is first arms and then disaster; after arms arise there are the correspondences of famine and mountain collapse.

負之傍害，水決，江德潰河空移徙赤黃。負之，示聞。傍，水決貌。江德潰，亦謂決亂而出也。空竭之，移徙，地震之類也。踴起，物恠踴躍出見。以日昂沖望之。曰乘陰氣。（按：“示聞”二字疑誤。“踴起”以下，與正文不相應，疑有脫文。）箕風飄石，折拔樹，酷深。酷暴也。飄石折樹，言繫夾也，暴深，害物甚也。

The weft text says: beside the place that is borne, harm arises; the river bursts its banks; the virtue of the Jiang collapses; the channel is emptied and shifts; the water’s color turns red-yellow. Zheng Xuan notes: “bearing it” is to show what has been heard; “bang” is the appearance of water bursting; “the virtue of the Jiang collapses” also means bursting in disorder and flowing across; “empty” is exhaustion; “shift” is the channel changing course, belonging to the class of earthquake anomalies. So-called leaping up is that strange things leap and appear; one should observe them at the time when the sun is in opposition to the Mao lodge, saying they arise riding yin qi. The parenthetical note at the end of the passage is the compiler’s remark: the two characters “show and hear” are suspected of error; from “leaping up” on, it does not correspond to the main text, and a lacuna is suspected. The weft text further says: the Ji star governs wind; the wind is great enough to blow stones, snap and uproot trees, cruel and deep. Zheng Xuan notes: “ku” is violent; being able to blow stones and snap trees means the force of the wind carries things along; “violent and deep” is harming the ten thousand things extremely severely. That the Ji lodge loves wind is an old saying since the Book of Songs; weft texts use it to divine disasters of violent wind.

長大卒嬉，暴大楊。暴大，言不以漸。楊楊，大貌也。解裂珥偶，虹霓蔞行，解、陷也，淪也。裂，地圯。珥偶、虹霓皆日傍氣名，妖。沉藏相桐，水害淌滂滂。沉藏，當藏以物。相當為桐，射發立也。滂滂，水貌也。

The weft text says: grown long and suddenly playing without measure, violently flourishing and spreading. Zheng Xuan notes: “violently great” means not proceeding gradually but suddenly becoming great; “yangyang” is the appearance of greatness. The weft text says: the earth sinks and splits; beside the sun there grow ear-clouds, appearing in pairs; rainbows wind and go across. Zheng Xuan notes: “jie” is to sink, to be submerged; “lie” is the ground collapsing; “paired ear-clouds” and “rainbows” are both names of vapors beside the sun, belonging to demonic anomalies. The weft text says: what ought to sink and be stored instead mutually shoots forth; water calamity pours as harm. Zheng Xuan notes: “sink and store” are things that ought to be stored; “xiang” should be “tong,” meaning to shoot forth and stand up; “pangpang” is the appearance of great water. This group are all anomalous images of “what ought to be stored is not stored”: the earth does not rest in its stillness and sinks and splits; qi does not follow its constant and becomes ear-clouds and rainbows; water does not keep its course and flows across.

日之既，陽德消，月之毀，刑將將。日既日蝕明盡，故陽消月之毀，亦謂月蝕常過也。陰將將，大也。陰主刑。陰似脫之。大恠土蒙，群鳥卻，野獸群，遊人孽。來濟者，來成也，其氣不效。君不能修德，杜漸防萌。黃霧滿者，亂氣起也。朝方陽埃，寇將來，十刃之莫四出，虻牛招尸，益土與之開皆離坎之異也。鱗出者，聖人將起，授之符緯。有王者，則聚生五帝之坐。其帝將王，則其坐亡九也。（按：此注皆與正文不相合，疑有脫簡。）

The weft text says: when the sun is fully eclipsed, yang virtue recedes; when the moon is destroyed, punitive qi is great. Zheng Xuan notes: the sun fully eclipsed is a solar eclipse in which light is completely lost, so yang qi recedes; the moon’s destruction also means a lunar eclipse exceeding the constant measure. “Jiangjiang” is the appearance of greatness; yin governs punishment. After the character “yin” here there seems to be a lacuna. The weft text further says: a great prodigy appears, the soil’s color is dim, flocks of birds retreat, wild beasts gather in groups, wandering people give birth to demonic offspring. The surviving commentary below does not correspond to the main text: “coming to cross” means coming to completion, and its qi does not verify; if the ruler cannot cultivate virtue, there is no way to stop the gradual and guard the sprout. Yellow fog filling is chaotic qi arising; in the morning direction yang dust rises, meaning bandit troops are about to arrive; the qi of weapons issues in four directions; gadflies and oxen draw corpse-qi; earth is added and splits with it—all are anomalies governed by the two trigrams Li and Kan. When scaled and shelled creatures appear, a sage is about to arise, and Heaven confers on him the tallies, mandates, charts, and wefts; when a king is about to arise, the seats of the Five Emperors gather and give forth light; when that emperor is about to become king, the number of his seat loses its nine. The parenthetical note at the end of the passage is the compiler’s remark: this commentary does not match the main text, and missing slips are suspected. Eclipses of sun and moon are, in the weft texts, the heaviest changes of yin and yang; a solar eclipse governs the decline of yang virtue, a lunar eclipse governs the flourishing of punishment, and they are therefore cited together as omens of a state’s perishing.

按錄視天比象由。按錄，按《河圖》之錄。又視按，王光之異，比其象以觀其光由起也。神靈悉存，八八通時。在、察也。神靈，三光異及符瑞也，既按三光之異及符瑞，以知起者所由，以六十四卦通其謂以何。（按：正文無“在”字，注言“在、察也。”亦疑有脫文。）

The weft text says: consult the record to look at Heaven, compare the images and seek their source. Zheng Xuan notes: “consult the record” is to examine the recorded mandate contained in the River Chart; then observe the anomalies of kingly qi and light-color, compare their images, in order to observe from where this light arises. The weft text says: the verifications of the spirits are all complete; the sixty-four hexagrams run through the seasons. Zheng Xuan notes: “zai” is explained as to examine. “Spirits” refers to the anomalies of the three lights of sun, moon, and stars, and to auspicious tokens. Having examined the anomalies of the three lights and the tokens, one can know the origin of him who arises, and then run through it with the sixty-four hexagrams to see where exactly it answers. The parenthetical note at the end of the passage is the compiler’s remark: the main text has no character “zai,” yet the commentary says “zai, to examine,” and a lacuna is also suspected. This item joins star-divination and hexagram-qi into one method: first use celestial images to determine whether it is present or not, then use the sixty-four hexagrams to determine its time and position.

小辨終備無遺戒，恡知億，察世郵。世郵，恡變也。帝王奉命永安治。命猶書也。至哉易，三聖謀，專密惡，必執思。三聖：伏羲、文王、孔子。（按：史記張守節正義引《易中備》云：“孔子正月為商瞿。筮曰：瞿當有五丈夫子。子貢曰：何以知之？子曰：卦遇大畜、艮之二世。九二甲寅木為世。九五景子水為應，陽爻五，應有五子。”云云，檢今書無其文，蓋非全本也。）

The weft text says: discriminate in detail and finally be complete; the intent of caution leaves nothing out; carefully know the signs of the billions, and examine the faults of the age. Zheng Xuan notes: “shi you” is a stingy change, that is, the faults and accidents of the human world. The weft text says: if the emperor and king carry out Heaven’s Mandate, they can have lasting peace and government. Zheng Xuan notes: “ming” is like a writing, referring to charts, books, and tally-mandates. The weft text says: how great are the Changes! The Three Sages planned the matter together; with concentration and tightness they guard against the sprouts of evil, and must hold fast and think deeply. Zheng Xuan notes: the Three Sages are Fuxi, King Wen, and Confucius. The parenthetical note at the end of the passage is the compiler’s remark: Zhang Shoujie’s Correct Meanings of the Records of the Grand Historian cites the Yi Zhong Bei, saying that Confucius, in the first month, divined for his disciple Shang Qu, and obtained a statement that Shang Qu would have five sons; Zigong asked how he knew, and Confucius said the hexagram obtained was Da Xu, the second-generation hexagram of the Gen palace, Nine in the Second, Jia-Yin Wood, as the generational line, Nine in the Fifth, Jing-Zi Water, as the responding line; there are five yang lines, therefore there should be five sons. This passage cannot be found in the present recension, showing it is not a complete book. “Jing-Zi” is Bing-Zi; Tang people avoided a taboo and changed “Bing” to “Jing.” The doctrine of generational and responding lines and Matching Stems belongs originally to Jing Fang’s Changes, showing that the Yi Zhong Bei cited is of a different form from the present recension.

自伏羲已來，漢永和元年，凡四十萬九千三百八十九歲。（按：此為後人所加，非《易緯》本文。）

The last item says: from Fuxi down to the first year of Yonghe of Emperor Shun of Han, the total is four hundred nine thousand three hundred eighty-nine years. The parenthetical note is the compiler’s remark: this sentence was added by later people, and is not the original text of the Yi Weft. The first year of Yonghe is a reign title of Emperor Shun of Han, corresponding to 136 CE. Weft texts are fond of pushing great numbers to speak of calendrical origins, often tens of myriads of years, of a class different from the observed calendar on which the earlier “three and five cycle and return, seventy-six years” is based; therefore the collator judges it a later accretion. The whole book stops here, throughout only a few dozen items, the beginning and end often not connected, just as the Four Treasuries abstract says, no longer a complete recension. The method of reading this piece may be summed in three layers: first, distinguish which sentence is the weft book’s main text and which is Zheng Xuan’s note—the main text is mostly four-character rhymed language and obscure, the notes explain character by character; second, restore the hidden language to the celestial images referred to, such as Great White governing arms, Yinghuo governing calamity, the Ji star governing wind; third, understand the correspondence each image governs, which does not go beyond these four kinds: emperors receiving the Mandate, disasters warning, the beginning and end of calendrical numbers, and the verification of hexagram-qi.