A unique work on the underlying ontology, cosmology, and moral philosophy of the Yijing.

InThe Primary Way, the distinguished scholar of Chinese philosophy Chung-ying Cheng synthesizes his lifetime of work on theYijing, also known as theI Ching orBook of Changes. Cheng offers a systematic engagement with the classic Chinese text as a philosophy that is still valuable and relevant today. In contemporary philosophical terms, Cheng has developed the ontological hermeneutics of theYijing as well as its philosophical methodology of symbolic reference in a holistic and onto-generative system of trigrams and hexagrams. The book is organized around eight themes that illuminate Cheng's interpretation of theYijing as a philosophy for creative human action and transformation. He demonstrates how the philosophy of change in theYijing embodies early Chinese ontology, cosmology, epistemology, and virtue ethics in the interpretation of divinatory judgments. Cheng's work shows how the philosophy of change contains a vision of humanity as creatively related to heaven and earth, and how it gives positive meaning to any change as part of a ceaseless creativity. With this understanding, it enables humanity to develop its potential as a partner of heaven and earth.

Foreword
Preface

1. Introducing theYijing (易经): Six Stages of Development and Six Topics of theYijing

2.Yijing as Creative Inception of Chinese Philosophy

3. Interpreting a Paradigm of Change in Chinese Philosophy

4. Inquiring into the Primary Model:Yijing and Chinese Ontological Hermeneutics

5. Philosophical Significance ofGuan: FromGuan (观) to Onto-Hermeneutical Unity of Methodology and Ontology

6.Yin-Yang (阴阳) Way of Onto-Cosmic Thinking and Philosophy of theYi (易)

7. On Harmony as Transformation: Paradigms from theYijing

8.Zhouyi (周易) and the Philosophy ofWei (Positions 位)

9.Li (理) andQi (气)in the Yijing: A Reconsideration of Being and Nonbeing in Chinese Philosophy

10. On theYijing as a Symbolic System of Integrated Communication

11. On Zhu Xi's Integration ofYili (义理) andXianshu (象数) in the Study of theYijing

12. On Timeliness (Shizhong 时中) in theAnalects and theYijing: An Inquiry into the Philosophical Relationship between Confucius and theYijing

Chinese Glossary
English Key Terms
Notes
A Bibliography of theYijing in Chinese
A Bibliography of theYijing in Western Languages
Works Cited
Index