Reexamining the Sinosphere: Transmissions and Transformations in ...

was his preoccupation with pre-Han historical issues connected with the Changes, such as the role played by various Chinese culture heroes in its creation and the different versions of the work that supposedly existed in the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties—that is, the Lianshan of the Xia, the Guicang of the Shang, and the Zhouyi of the Zhou.⁶⁵ Entranced by what he called “the marvel of the images and numbers of the Yijing,” Lê also devoted a good deal of attention to the science of the work, in particular, the ways in which the Changes explained natural phenomena of all kinds, including diseases.

Four years after Lê Quý Dôn’s death, the short-lived Tây Sơn regime (1788–1802) was established by Emperor Quang Trung 光中 (r. 1788–1792). For many years, scholars have maintained that this period was a “low point” in terms of Confucian influence on Vietnam’s government and social system. One reason given for this is the emperor’s well-publicized project to translate important texts into the chữ nôm script; another is his decision to include a section on nôm poetry in the civil service examinations; and a third is his determination to use nôm as an administrative language at the capital.

In short, some historians have seen the Tây Son promotion of nôm as a deliberate effort to reduce Chinese cultural influence. But as George Dutton points out, many of the major texts translated into nôm were commentaries on the Confucian classics, and most extant Tây Sơn official documents were actually composed in literary Sinitic.⁶⁶ The Nguyễn dynasty began in the early nineteenth century with a particularly staunch defense of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy expressed in and bolstered by a newly invigorated examination system.⁶⁷ Representative Yijing-related works from this period are Phạm Quý Thích’s Chu dịch vấn giải toát yếu 周易問解撮要 (A summary of questions [and answers] about the Zhou Changes) and Nhữ Bá Sĩ’s 汝伯士 (1759–1840) Dịch hệ giải thuyết 易系解說 (An explanation of the system of the Changes). Both men were renowned Confucian scholars and both were unfailingly loyal to Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi. As had been the case in the Tây Sơn era that