I began my study of the Zhou Yi, or Zhou Changes, in 1976 with Aisin-gioro Yuyun 愛新覺羅毓鋆 (1906–2011). Yu Lao insisted that we begin the study with the commentary of Lai Zhide 來知德 (1525–1604), a scholar who claimed in the preface to his own study of the Changes to have spent thirty years studying the text. At the time, thirty years seemed almost unfathomable to me, and I wondered what could have taken Lai so long. Thirty-five years have now passed in my own study of the text, off and on though it has been, and I have now come to a better appreciation of Lai’s efforts. Indeed, it is humbling to realize just how little progress I have made in this field, in spite of being the beneficiary of numerous advantages over the years.
Among those advantages, surely the most important have been my teachers and mentors, beginning with Yu Lao and continuing with the three scholars to whom I dedicate this book: David Keightley, Michael Loewe, and David Nivison, each of whom has contributed in important ways to my understanding of the Changes, but more than that, each of whom has contributed in countless other ways to my growth as a scholar. With all three of them, it is easy to follow Confucius’s admonition to “select what they do well and to follow it.”
Among others who have contributed to my understanding of the Changes, I wish to acknowledge in particular Richard Smith. The Western world’s leading authority on all aspects of the Changes, Professor Smith has produced a long series of books and articles, culminating in his magisterial Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I-Ching, or Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008). He has always been encouraging to me but never more so than when he served as one of the referees Columbia University Press asked to evaluate the present book. Within a matter of days, he produced a detailed and extraordinarily valuable report on the manuscript, not only pointing out its flaws but also suggesting several positive ways in which it might be improved. I hope I have corrected most of the mistakes, and I have certainly tried to incorporate all the suggestions for improvement. I am sure that the book is much better for them.
I am grateful also to Tiziana Lippielo, Attilio Andreini, and Maurizio Scarpari, who hosted me at the Università Ca’ Foscari in Venice during academic year 2007–2008, when I completed much of the basic research and writing for this book. I am grateful too to the National Endowment for the Humanities for support during that year, and to the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the Humanities Visiting Committee at the University of Chicago, and the Creel Center for Chinese Paleography of the University of Chicago for subventions toward the publication of the book.
I am grateful to the Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, to Cao Wei 曹瑋, and to Sun Peiyang 孫沛陽 for permission to reproduce images and figures. Sun Peiyang also assisted in designing the cover.
I am grateful also to Jennifer Crewe and her team at Columbia University Press, Lisa Hamm, Leslie Kriesel, and Kathryn Schell, and especially to Mike Ashby. Mike has edited with great care an extremely complicated manuscript. I am delighted as well that CUP invited my old friend David Goodrich of Birdtrack Press to typeset the book. David’s work, which he has done with his typical consummate skill, included creating numerous archaic characters, as well as various versions of Changes hexagram symbols.
Back home in Chicago, I am particularly grateful to my student Jeffrey Tharsen, who has patiently resolved various computing problems, and to Yuan Zhou, curator of the Regenstein Library’s East Asian Collection, who has provided unfailing support over the years. In retrospect, I am grateful too that after returning to Chicago in 2008, with a nearly complete first draft in hand, other matters conspired to keep me from finishing it straightaway; the University of Chicago, my scholarly home for almost as long as Lai Zhide studied the Changes, has always provided intellectual temptations to explore other topics. And for exploring the changes that we go through in life, which after all inform everything about my understanding of the Changes, I couldn’t have asked for better teachers—or more wonderfully fun companions—than Elena, Giulia, and Maria.