The I Ching: A Biography by Richard J. Smith (review)

RICHARD J. SMITH, The I Ching: A Biography. Lives of Great Religious Books. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. xxii, 278 pp. US$24.95, £16.95 (pbk). ISBN 978-0-691-14509-9 Richard J. Smith’s biography of the I Ching 易經 is the first contribution of Chinese provenance to a new series that is intended to ‘‘recount the complex and fascinating histories of important religious texts from around the world.’’ As such, the Yijing (as Smith, aside from in the title, foremost references the work in Chinese) is, on the one hand, most assuredly a fitting selection for such a series because of its unassailably foundational status within its native cultural context. However, on the other hand, owing to internal features unique to the opus itself, such as its indisputably ‘‘pre-scribal’’ origins, as well as differences from its existing and projected companion volumes in how it has been employed and understood, the Classic of Changes—as Smith conventionally translates Yijing into English—represents a somewhat odd choice. Nevertheless, there can be no question that Smith has admirably executed the dual charges with which he has been tasked—being, first, to render the complexity of the Changes accessible to interested general readers, and, second, to convey a genuine sense of the enduring respect with which the work has continued to be regarded in China as well as far beyond the geographic confines of its birthplace. In just five chapters, Smith furnishes us with a biography of the Yijing that is compact yet thorough. Following a brief preface, in which he identifies the mere handful from among the hundreds of Western-language translations on which he has chiefly relied, and a short introduction, in which he—in equally few pages— succeeds in explaining how the received text both was and is intended to function for its latter-day users, Smith provides an enlightening first chapter on the Yijing’s origins. As is customary, Smith contends that ‘‘nature looms large in the earliest layers of the Changes’’ (p. 36) and that literal scores ‘‘of the line statements and judgments of the Changes describe objects and processes of nature’’ (p. 38). However, Smith exceptionally and refreshingly offers a concise battery of current archaeological evidence to support and reinforce these time-honored if not hackneyed conclusions, as he guides us through the evolution of the text from divination manual (no later than 800 BCE) to rhetorical document (about 600 BCE) to Chinese—but not necessarily ‘‘Confucian’’—classic (in 136 BCE). Archaeology figures prominently yet again in chapter 2, wherein, by focusing on the subsequently appended, poetically alluring Ten Wings commentaries, Smith contrasts the now-accepted Yijing text with the striking variant on silk that was unearthed in Mawangdui, Hunan, in 1973. Smith’s two main conclusions from this synoptic comparison are completely justified: first, without the addition of its Ten Wings, we have little reason to believe the Changes would ever have achieved canonical status; second, even as late as the mid-second century BCE, there was still no clear consensus on whether the Changes constituted a divinatory or a wisdom text. Although it is devoted to historical interpretation overall, Smith’s chapter 3 is divided into two parts, owing to the quite divergent standpoints of inquiry reflected within it. The first part examines the rich commentarial tradition on the Yijing, which spans from the time of its canonization to the present and clearly 84 BOOK REVIEWS exhibits extreme diversity. In its latter portion, chapter 3 addresses the multitudinous social responses over time to the Changes. Whereas his third chapter is bifurcated, Smith’s fourth and fifth chapters form a coherent tandem. Chapter 4 traces the transmission of the Yijing beyond China to the several other East Asian cultures traditionally included in the Sinic zone of influence—namely, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Tibet—and its dissimilar reception by each culture. Chapter 5 explores the linguistic and cultural translation challenges posed by the Changes as the text eventually migrated still further beyond East Asia to exert itself (as sagaciously as it has) on Western consciousness. In his conclusion, Smith endeavors to explain why the Yijing should be ranked with the greatest works of world...