Reexamining the Sinosphere: Transmissions and Transformations in ...

Yohon 旅軒) (1554–1637). Chang wrote several influential books on the Changes, including Yŏkhak tosŏl 易學圖說 (An illustrated discussion of Changes studies), which included a number of his original diagrams, and Yŏkkwe ch’ongsŏl 易卦總說 (A general discussion of the hexagrams of the Changes), which, in the fashion of the School of Empirical Research, corrected a number of technical mistakes made by earlier commentators. Chang’s Yŏkhak tosŏl provides an excellent example of the enthusiasm many Chosŏn scholars had for Yijing-related diagrams. It also reveals Chang’s own fascination with the Yellow River Chart and the Luo River Writing, derivative illustrations of which occupy one entire chapter of this nine-chapter work. In addition, Chang devoted attention to the alleged precursors of the Changes, such as the Lianshan 連山 (Linked Mountains) of the Xia and the Guicang 歸藏 (Return to the Hidden) of the Shang, and to works inspired by the Yijing, such as Yang Xiong’s 揚雄 (53 BCE–18 CE) Taixuan jing 太玄經 (Classic of great mystery). His illustrated analysis of the Taixuan jing is particularly detailed and insightful, involving critical comparisons not only with the Changes itself but also with the numerologically oriented work of Chinese scholars such as Jing Fang 京房 (77–37 BCE) and Shao Yong.³⁷

The point to be emphasized once again is that much of the scholarship on the Changes, whether Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese, defies the usual simplistic categories. Although Chang’s writings are suffused with themes identified with the Chinese school of Yijing interpretation known as Meanings and Principles, they also reflect an abiding interest in the approach known as the School of Images and Numbers. And although Chang thoroughly embraced the methodological concerns of the School of Evidential Studies, he also emphasized statecraft and practical affairs.

One of several important developments in eighteenth-century Korea was the rise of “Solid Learning” (Chinese: Shixue 實學; Korean: Sirhak/Silhak), an intellectual trend that began, as discussed earlier, in the late Ming period in the form of Evidential Research.³⁸ Downplaying metaphysics in favor of textual criticism, scholars of Solid Learning