Review: Zhouyi Zhuzi Suoyin - A Concordance to the Zhouyi

The most well-known concordance of the Yijing is the Zhouyi yinde 周易引得 (A Concordance to Yi Ching; Harvard-Yenching Institute Sinological Index Series, Supplement 10), published by the Harvard-Yenching Institute. The Yijing translations by Ritsema & Karcher, Karcher, and Ritsema & Sabbadini also contain concordances but these are not concordances for the original Chinese text of the Yijing. Most Yijing students who study the Chinese text of the Yi do not know that there is another concordance available: 周易逐字索引 - A Concordance to the Zhouyi, published in 1995 by the Commercial Press in Hong Kong. It is a publication from the Chinese Ancient Texts Database, a project initiated by the Institute of Chinese Studies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In June of this year a reprint has been published.

The Zhouyi Zhuzi Suoyin is more than a concordance. It not only gives the Chinese text of the Yijing (including the Shiyi 十翼, the Ten Wings commentaries), but it also gives variant characters, and deletions or additions of characters in the text, that are found in other editions of the Yijing.

The text printed with the concordance is based on the Chongkan Songben ZhouYi zhushu 重刊宋本周易注疏, Song Edition of the Commentaries and Subcommentaries to the ZhouYi re-cut by Ruan Yuan 阮元 in 1816.
(Guide to the use of the Concordance, p. I)

The Ten Wings are arranged in the way most Yi versions do: The Tuan 彖, Xiang 象 and Wenyan 文言 commentaries are added to the hexagram text and the line texts; the Dazhuan 大傳, the Shuogua 說卦, Xugua 序卦 and Zagua 雜卦 are added as separate chapters. The hexagrams are numbered from 1-64, the Dazhuan (in two parts), the Shuogua, Xugua and Zagua are numbered from 65-69.

For the variant characters, deletions or additions of characters the book uses nine other sources (click image to enlarge):

The used sources are not only traditional versions of the Yi but also more or less modern commentaries like Gao Heng's 周易大傳今注 Zhouyi Dazhuan Jin Zhu and 周易古經通說 Zhouyi Gu Jing Tongshuo. Three other sources are for the Mawangdui silk manuscript version of the Yi. This is the only archaeological text that is mentioned; unfortunately other finds like the Chujian Zhouyi or the Fuyang Zhouyi are not referred to. This is understandable considering the year of the first edition, 1995, nevertheless an updated edition with references to these other intruiging texts would have been most welcome.

Variant characters as found in the other sources are given in footnotes (see image on the left; click to enlarge). The characters from the MWD version are marked with an encircled 'M', but for the other variant characters the exact sources are not given. The only way to find out where a variant character comes from is to purchase the nine references they used and skim through their pages. It would have been convenient if they had used numbers, letters or symbols to refer to the source of a variant reading.

The entries in the concordance are arranged according to their pinyin transcription (see image on the right; click to enlarge); a table is provided to find a character using the number of strokes. In the concordance there is no distinction between the Zhouyi 周易 or Benyi 本易 text and the Ten Wings commentary; if you are only interested in the Zhouyi it is hard to filter out the references to the Ten Wings. If you see a reference to a chapter number higher than 64 then you know it refers to a separate added Ten Wings chapter like for instance the Shuogua; otherwise there is no way to see if an entry refers to the Zhouyi or to a Ten Wings chapter which is incorporated in the hexagram text, like the Xiang texts.

In short: the Zhouyi Zhuzi Suoyin has some room for improvement, nevertheless it is a very good concordance and a helpful aid for the study of the Yijing. The printing is crisp-clear, and the added goodies like the variant characters and other commentaries enhance your understanding of the Yijing and its language. The book is not yet available through the webstore of the Commercial Press; orders can be placed by sending a mail to Belinda Tse from the Rights & Overseas Sales Department of Commercial Press.

周易逐字索引 - A Concordance to the Zhouyi
CUHK ICS The Ancient Chinese Texts Concordance Series
Classical works No. 8
D.C. Lau (ed.)
Published 1995, 2006 (reprint) by The Commercial Press (Hong Kong) Ltd.
ISBN 13-978 962 07 4281 1
ISBN 10-962 07 4281 8