Xiong Shili’s Qian Kun Yan: A Rectification

Abstract: Xiong Shili’s Qian Kun Yan (《乾坤衍》) puts Confucius’s 50 years old as a dividing line for the two stages of his early and later periods, and believes that the Zhou Yi (《周易》The Book of Change of Zhou Dynasty) was written by Confucius when he was 50. Xiong also holds that the relationship between qian and kun, between nature and soul, between and essence and energy are the ones of spirit and matter. When explaining the trigrams, qian and kun, Xiong believes that qian reveals the life from hidden to emerging, and from emerging to thriving, which means the oppressed mass rise to make revolution, and finally wipe out the ruling class to give freedom to everybody. The trigram of kun was depicted as that the lower people rise to make revolution and abolish the emperor system, while the masses own the power. Such viewpoints are rectified by this thesis, and the author believes that the Zhou Dynasty noble class already uses Zhou Yi to solve problems more than 100 years before Confucius’ birth. There three major mistakes in Qian Kun Yan. Firstly, it is wrong to separate Confucian ideas into absolutely different periods. Secondly, Xiong asserts Confucius as the author of Zhou Yi without reliable historical data. Thirdly, Xiong neglected the true meaning of qian and kun trigrams to explain them for the meaning of revolution, as if Confucian teachings advocate social revolution. These misreading make, at a certain level, chaos to the healthy development of the studies of Confucianism and Yi Jing.