One of the four master monks in the late Ming dynasty, Zhi Xu’s famous book Zen Interpretation of Chou Yi has been taken as a representative work of Buddhist interpretation of Yi Jing. For a long time, Yi Jing studies viewed his interpretation as starting form the Zen sec., belonging to a branch of Spiritual Yi of Ming dynasty. However, form the analysis of ‘Methods of Yi’ and ‘Thought of Yi’, it is found that the perspective form which Zhi Xu interpreted Yi, was not from Zen Sect but Tien Tair Sect; furthermore, it follows particularly the line of Zhi Li Shan teaching of Song dynasty. ud To anlyze form ‘Methods of Yi’, Zhi Xu incorporated cattair siddhanta (Si-xi-tan) of Tien Tair teaching. As to ‘Thought of Yi’, he infused the concepts ‘yi nian san qian’ (3000 worlds in one thought), ‘undisturbed minds’, ‘human nature is both good and evil’, that are unique to Tian Tiar Sect; this in turn changed the entire system of Chou Yi. From this we can see that , be Buddhist interpretation of Yi JIng has its own unique origin and path. The scope of the Zen interpretation of Chou Yi can not be covered by the Confucianism of song and Ming dynasty. As a result, it should not be taken as a branch of the Song-Ming Spiritual Yi thinking.
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