THE CLASSIC OF CHANGES.

Kinh dịch 易經 [Ch. Yijing].

Some woodcut diagrams. Woodblock-printed. 3, 76; 71; 93; 71 folding leaves. Four quyển in four vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers with pasted-on handwritten title-slip, leaves appear to be knot-bound inside, red edges. [Vietnam: Nguyễn dynasty?].

Rare Vietnamese edition of the Classic of Changes, incorporating cosmological diagrams and commentaries of the Neo-Confucian philosophers Shao Yong 邵雍 (1012-77), Cheng Yi 程颐 (1033-1107) and Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200). The only other Vietnamese copy of the Classic of Changes in WorldCat is a different edition, held at Leiden University (accession no. 695525306).

“The Yijing was probably introduced into Vietnam at about the same time as it reached Korea and Japan, but it did not become influential until the establishment of the Lê dynasty (1428-1789). During that period Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism became state orthodoxy, and the Changes was studied both as a Confucian classic at the Imperial College and as a divination manual at the Ministry of Rites.”–Richard J. Smith, The I Ching: A Biography (2012), pp. 151-52.

“Yijing scholarship in Vietnam was highly pragmatic. Vietnamese scholars were not interested in metaphysical discussions or textual criticism. To most Vietnamese, the Yijing was a book of high practical value. The Yijing was basically treated as a textbook for the civil service examinations. The Vietnamese government reprinted Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi’s commentaries on the Yijing numerous times to promote Confucian education and morality...

“Traditional Vietnam also applied Yijing-related principles to things and affairs in their daily life. Though not a popular and influential text in the Vietnamese Confucian circle, the Yijing and its yinyang wuxing (two primal forces and five basic agents) doctrine penetrated the ideas and practices of Vietnamese politics, medicine, agriculture, calendrical studies, geography, religion and folklore. The yinyang wuxing doctrine shaped the Vietnamese perception of their society, politics, human relationship and the outside world…The imperial family and the courtiers applied the principle of wuxing in naming. Vietnamese scholars used the Yijing to advocate the ‘six-eight poetry.’ Some Vietnamese officials claimed authority from the divination of the Yijing. Geomancy or fengshui based on the yinyang wuxing doctrine was prevalent in Vietnamese thought and folklore.”–Wai-Ming Ng, “Yijing Scholarship in Late Nguyễn Vietnam,” Review of Vietnamese Studies 3, No. 1 (2003), p. 5.

Our copy of the Classic of Changes appears to be identical to the digitized copy held at the National Library of Vietnam, HVv.1/1-4, which has been described as a Vietnamese reprint of a Yongle-era (1403-25) Chinese edition. It is a succinct presentation of the Classic of Changes with essential prefatory and in-line commentaries by Neo-Confucian scholars, including a series of cosmological diagrams in the first volume. As Richard Smith notes above, Yijing editions such as ours have been published in Vietnam since the Lê dynasty, and the absence of publication information — either of the Chinese edition or the Vietnamese reprint — makes our copy difficult to date. The presence of handwritten marginalia in sinographs, nevertheless, makes clear that our copy has been carefully studied by at least one Vietnamese student of the classic, presumably before the abolishment of the civil examination system in 1919.

Overall very good condition, with light (and mostly marginal) staining and worming. The endpapers are recycled paper with printed and handwritten texts. Edges are painted red, and some are split along the fore-edge, which does not affect reading. Annotated by hand throughout in red ink, with additional (and later) page numbers in Arabic numerals and glosses in the Vietnamese Latin alphabet.

❧ Yuenan Hannan wenxian ziliaoku 越南漢喃文獻資料庫, Academia Sinica.